Strengthening the Egg Value-Chain in Bhutan under the Philosophy of Gross National Happiness

Being a small landlocked country located in Eastern Himalaya ranges, makes it difficult for Bhutan to secure and sustain its national food security. Thus, Bhutan highly depends on the import of food from neighboring countries. This paper aims to improve the food security in Bhutan by giving a specific focus on the egg value-chain which starts from the import of parent stocks until the consumption within the country. Methods to identify potential constraints within the value-chain and provision of possible solutions used in this paper are a combination of literature reviews, qualitative studies (interview), and personal experience/communication of the author, who had been working with the Department of Livestock in Bhutan. The results of the study indicate that animal welfare, basic farm management, and consumer education are the top three areas that all stakeholders, especially government agents, should work with interdisciplinary in order to strengthen the overall value-chain. Challenges and room for improvement in animal welfare can be found from the beginning of the value-chain, the transporting of layer Day Old Chicks (DOCs). Lack of knowledge and skills for basic farm management which includes farm data recording, egg grading, and egg labeling, are issues found in the middle of the value-chain. Lastly, in the very end of the value-chain, more education should be given to consumers regarding the health benefits and nutritional value of eggs as to alleviate the problem of low egg consumption per capita relative to other developed nations. Possible solutions provided in this paper on animal welfare standard are suggested by the international projects and organizations namely, European Animal Welfare Platform and Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. For basic farm management, the government should be the one who encourages and provides skills using effective communication tools as well as law enforcement in order to improve the egg quality. At the same time, consumers should be stimulated to demand higher quality as this will be a driving force for future improvement and create higher liquidity in the market

The effect of the solution environment on the solubility of short chain peptides

Solubility is one of the important parameters in designing a suitable dosage form for peptide drugs. The effects of solution environment on the solubility of short chain peptides are not clearly understood. The objective of this research is to develop a mathematical equation for solubility and activity coefficient prediction of a series of model peptides by using a combination of computational chemistry and a series of solubility determinations.^ Molecular mechanic calculations were used to calculate minimized force field energy of glycine peptides with two to six amino acid residues. The results from the molecular surface area, the dipole moment and the radius of gyration calculations indicate that the minimized energy conformation of the peptides is folded.^ The solubility and activity coefficient determinations reveal that when different salts are used to adjust the ionic strength, the solubility and activity coefficient of glycine peptides change. The results indicate that sodium chloride and potassium chloride have a similar effect on the activity coefficient of diglycine and tetraglycine. However they have a different effect on triglycine, pentaglycine and hexaglycine. In addition, instead of using the net charge of zero as the charge of the zwitterionic species of the peptide in the solution for the ionic strength and activity coefficient calculations, the charge assignment of two gives the best fit between the experimental data and the theoretical calculation for non-ideal solutions.^ The commonly used equations to calculate activity coefficients of electrolytes, such as the Debye-Huckel limiting equation, the extended Debye-Huckel equation, and the Davies, Bromley or Kirkwood equations, fail to predict the activity coefficient of glycine peptides. A new mathematical model was successfully developed using the molecular characteristics from the computational chemistry calculations and the principles of modern electrochemistry. The results of this investigation provide a basis for further research for the development of activity coefficient predictions of other peptides.* ftn*Originally published in DAI Vol. 58, No. 2. Reprinted here with corrected author name.