A bioreaktorok működésének módszer és rendszertana, különös tekintettel az ökonómiai kérdések = Method and taxonomy of bioreactors, with special regards to economic issues

A kutató munkánk során laboratóriumi és üzemi szintű vizsgálatokat végeztünk, egyfelől a szervesanyagok biológiai szerkezetének, kémiai és kolloidikai jellemzőinek a megismerésére, másfelől a fizikai anyagféleség szerinti jellemzésére. Különösen fontos részeredményként értékeljük az említett jellemzők tolerancia értékeinek (intervallumainak) a meghatározását, hiszen ennek alapján állapíthatók meg egyfelől a kívánatos és lehetséges szervesanyag féleségek kombinációi, receptúra változatai, másfelől pedig az adott receptúrákhoz kapcsolható technológiai variánsok és azok üzemeltetési paraméterei. A nyírbátori bireaktorban alkalmazott szervesanyag féleségek (szarvasmarha trágya, baromfitrágya, répaszelet, zöld "biomassza", vágóhídi hulladék, előkezelt állati tetemek stb.) különlegesen jó alkalmazási területét jelentették és jelentik a laboratóriumi vizsgálati eredményeink üzem-fejlesztési célú felhasználására. Kutatási eredményeink felhasználásával és a megfelelő receptúra mérték szerinti alkalmazásával iktatták be az üzemi szervesanyag forgalomba a korábbi szervesanyagok változatlan felhasználásával a biodízel hajtóanyag előállítás során keletkező glicerint. Mindezeknek figyelembe vételével és felhasználásával alapozták meg az üzemi méretű fermentor torony megépítését Nyírbátorban. A beruházás 2008-ban megvalósult, és ez egy új korszakot nyitott Magyarországon a szervesanyag fermentációs vizsgálatok területén. | During our research work, we carried out laboratory and industrial scale examinations to get to know the biological structure, the chemical and colloidal characteristics of organic matters on one hand and to characterise its physical features on the other. The determination of the tolerance values (ranges) of the mentioned characteristics is considered to be an especially important partial result, as this provides a basis, upon which the combinations and formulae of the desirable and possible organic matter varieties, as well as the technological variants and the operational parameters belonging to the formulae can be determined. The organic matter forms applied in the bioreactor in Nyírbátor (cattle manure, poultry-litter, beetroot slice, green "biomass", slaughter-house waste, pretreated animal carcasses, etc.) proved and still prove to be an especially good application area for the utilisation of our results obtained laboratory analysis in industrial development utilisation. The glycerin produced during biodiesel production was put into the industrial organic matter cycle on the basis of our research results by the unchanged utilisation of former organic matters. The industrial-scale tower fermenter in Nyírbátor was built on the basis of considering and utilising all these written above. The investment was realised in 2008, thereby opening a new age in the organic matter fermentation examinations in Hungary

Q fever epidemic in Hungary, April to July 2013

We investigated a Q fever outbreak with human patients showing high fever, respiratory tract symptoms, headache and retrosternal pain in southern Hungary in the spring and summer of 2013. Seventy human cases were confirmed by analysing their serum and blood samples with micro-immunofluorescence test and real-time PCR. The source of infection was a merino sheep flock of 450 ewes, in which 44.6% (25/56) seropositivity was detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Coxiella burnetii DNA was detected by real-time PCR in the milk of four of 20 individuals and in two thirds (41/65) of the manure samples. The multispacer sequence typing examination of C. burnetii DNA revealed sequence type 18 in one human sample and two manure samples from the sheep flock. The multilocus variable-number tandem repeat analysis pattern of the sheep and human strains were also almost identical, 4/5-9-3-3-0-5 (Ms23-Ms24-Ms27- Ms28-Ms33-Ms34). It is hypothesised that dried manure and maternal fluid contaminated with C. burnetii was dispersed by the wind from the sheep farm towards the local inhabitants. The manure was eliminated in June and the farm was disinfected in July. The outbreak ended at the end of July 2013

Precision agriculture in Hungary: assessment of perceptions and accounting records of FADN arable farms

Technological progress can provide several solutions to the most significant challenges faced by agriculture. Precision agriculture (PA) technologies have been recognised as one of the rare win-win solutions for environmental and socio-economic goals. Although they have been available for decades, their diffusion progresses at a slow rate. Therefore, in recent years, precision farming has been receiving more attention from agricultural economists. Perceptions of Hungarian FADN arable farms about precision farming were collected through a survey in order to compare with cost-benefit analyses. The survey not only revealed the details of the application of different technologies but also their impacts perceived compared to a baseline situation. For the main crops, the results confirmed that precision farming leads to increasing yields and has profitability benefits compared to conventional farming. According to the respondents, the high investment cost is the main barrier to diffusion, while subsidies and more appropriate information could foster it. Therefore, a specific subsidy package implemented both in the ‘greening’ component and in the Rural Development Programme of the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy would be a stimulating factor for the wider spread of PA

Complete Genome Sequences of Mycoplasma anatis, M. anseris, and M. cloacale Type Strains

Mycoplasma anatis, M. anseris, and M. cloacale are pathogens of waterfowl. Airsacculitis, nervous disease, and reproductive disorders are the main symptoms in the affected flocks. Here, we report the complete genome sequences of the M. anatis (NCTC 10156), M. anseris (ATCC 49234), and M. cloacale (NCTC 10199) type strains

Antibiotic susceptibility profiles of Mycoplasma sp. 1220 strains isolated from geese in Hungary

Background: Mycoplasma sp. 1220 can induce inflammation primarily in the genital and respiratory tracts of waterfowl, leading to serious economic losses. Adequate housing and appropriate antibiotic treatment are promoted in the control of the disease. The aim of the present study was to determine the in vitro susceptibility to thirteen different antibiotics and an antibiotic combination of thirty-eight M . sp. 1220 strains isolated from geese and a duck in several parts of Hungary, Central Europe between 2011 and 2015. Results: High MIC 50 values were observed in the cases of tilmicosin (>64 μ g/ml), oxytetracycline (64 μ g/ml), norfloxacin (>10 μ g/ml) and difloxacin (10 μ g/ml). The examined strains yielded the same MIC 50 values with spectinomycin, tylosin and florfenicol (8 μ g/ml), while enrofloxacin (MIC 50 5 μ g/ml), doxycycline (MIC 50 5 μ g/ml), lincomycin (MIC 50 4 μ g/ml) and lincomycin-spectinomycin (1:2) combination (MIC 50 4 μ g/ml) inhibited the growth of the bacteria with lower concentrations. Tylvalosin (MIC 50 0.5 μ g/ml) and two pleuromutilins (tiamulin MIC 50 0. 625 μ g/ml; valnemulin MIC 50 ≤ 0.039 μ g/ml) were found to be the most effective drugs against M . sp. 1220. However, strains with elevated MIC values were detected for all applied antibiotics. Conclusions: Valnemulin, tiamulin and tylvalosin were found to be the most effective antibiotics in the study. Increasing resistance was observed in the cases of several antibiotics. The results highlight the importance of testing Mycoplasma species for antibiotic susceptibility before therapy

A precíziós szántóföldi növénytermesztés összehasonlító vizsgálata = Comparative study of precision arable crop production

A precíziós technológia alkalmazása a magyarországi szántóföldi növénytermesztésben jelenleg még kevésbé elterjedt, azonban a technológiát alkalmazó termelők számának növekedése az utóbbi két-három évben felgyorsult. A precíziós szántóföldi növénytermesztés összehasonlító vizsgálata” című tanulmányban a magyarországi tesztüzemi hálózat szántóföldi növénytermesztő üzemeinek bevonásával kérdőíves felmérés és mélyinterjúk keretében megvizsgáltuk a precíziós, valamint talajkímélő gazdálkodás magyarországi elterjedtségét, illetve felmértük az alkalmazott technológia színvonalát. A felmérés eredményei és a tesztüzemi rendszerben rendelkezésre álló adatok felhasználásával összehasonlító vizsgálatokat végeztünk a precíziós gazdálkodás előnyeinek/hátrányainak kimutatására a hozamváltozás, inputanyag-felhasználás, termelési érték, önköltség és jövedelem vonatkozásában öt növénykultúra esetében. Az eredmények a hozamok, a termelési érték valamint az ágazati eredmény növekedését, illetve az önköltség csökkenését támasztották alá. A várakozásokkal ellentétben vizsgálataink az inputköltségek tekintetében is növekedést jeleztek, amely azzal magyarázható hogy Magyarországon az inputfelhasználás szintje jellemzően alacsony, így modern művelési módra való áttéréssel a kívánatos hozamok elérése érdekében az inputfelhasználás intenzitását növelni szükséges. A rendelkezésünkre álló adatok birtokában ágazati szinten becsléseket végeztünk a precíziós tevékenységre való áttérés makroszintű hatásaira. Majd a becslés zárásaként azt is megvizsgáltuk, hogy hogyan alakulna a beruházási költség a technológiát váltó üzemeknél. = The use of precision technology among arable crop farms is still less widespread in Hungary but increase of the number of producers using the technology has been accelerated in the last two-three years. In the study entitled „Comparative study of precision arable crop production” the incidence of precision and no tillage farming in Hungary and the level of used technology was examined among arable crop farms of the Hungarian Farm Accountancy Data Network system by a questionnaire survey and in-depth interviews. Using the results of the survey and the data available in the FADN system, comparative assessment was completed to explore the benefits / disadvantages of precision farming regarding attainable yield, input use, output, unit cost and income for the five most dominant arable crops in Hungary. The results confirmed that application of precision technology leads increasing yields, output, per hectare profit and unit costs. In contrast to expectations, our investigations showed also increase in input costs, which can be explained by the low initial level of input use, quite common among arable farms in Hungary. The change towards to modern technology means that intensity of input use needs to be increase in order to achieve optimaleconomic performance, that is attainable with higher yields. With the available data, we carried out sector-level estimates of the macroeconomic effects, assuming farms with similar structural characteristics introduce precision farming. Finally, the cost-benefit of investment needed for the introduction of precision technology was assessed

Detection of Mycoplasma anatis, M. anseris, M. cloacale and Mycoplasma sp. 1220 in waterfowl using species-specific PCR assays

Mycoplasma anatis, M. anseris, M. cloacale and M. sp. 1220 colonise geese and ducks, and could be associated with infections of avian respiratory and nervous systems, cause mild to severe inflammation of cloaca and genital tracts, and embryo lethality. Co-occurrence of these Mycoplasma species in waterfowl is frequently detected and the identification of these mycoplasmas to the species level at a regular microbiology laboratory is difficult due to their similar morphological, cultural and biochemical properties. Moreover, species differentiation is only possible based on the sequence analysis of the product of a genusspecific PCR assay. Therefore, the aim of the current study was to develop an effective and robust method for the identification of these species in avian clinical specimens. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays using species-specific primers, which target housekeeping genes in order to identify these species, were designed in the present study. The developed PCR assays can precisely identify these four mycoplasmas to the species level directly from DNA samples extracted from clinical specimens, and no cross-amplification was observed among these species and with other well-known avian mycoplasmas. The average sensitivity of the assays was 101−102 genomic equivalents per reaction. These conventional PCR assays can be run simultaneously at the same PCR cycling program, and the species can be differentiated directly (without sequence analysis) by gel electrophoresis due to the specific sizes of the amplicons. In conclusion, the presented species-specific assays were found to be suitable for routine use at regular veterinary diagnostic laboratories and promote the rapid, simple and cost-effective differentiation of these waterfowl Mycoplasma species