Coral fossil: A potential adsorbent of natural source for cadmium removal in broilers

Cadmium (Cd) is a pollutant that poses a health risk for humans and animals. Coral fossil (CF) acts as an adsorbent, yet limited knowledge is available on impacts of CF on Cd toxicities. The work was performed to figure out the effects of CF on hematobiochemical details and specific organs in Cd exposed broilers. The experiment was carried out with 45 broilers and were divided into three groups (15 in each). Group A was served as control. The birds in group B received Cd (75 mg /kg b. w.) orally. Whereas group C was orally supplemented with Cd (75 mg /kg b. w.) and CF (1 gm/kg b. w.). The trial was lasted for 30 days. For hematobiochemical analysis, blood samples were drawn, and sera were separated. Liver, kidney and muscle were collected to assess accumulation concentration. Brain, liver and kidney samples were also collected for histopathological study. The results showed that hematological parameters (TEC, Hb, PCV, MCV, MCH, MCHC and DLC) were altered by Cd but restored with CF supplementation. Liver (AST, ALT and ALP) and kidney (total protein and creatinine) biomarkers were increased significantly in Cd treated broilers while decreased significantly after CF supplementation. CF reduced accumulation concentration of Cd in liver, kidney and muscle. Cd intoxicated broilers showed degenerative changes in brain, hyperplastic bile duct and proliferation of renal tubular epithelium with focal degeneration and necrosis; and these were improved after CF supplementation. Therefore, it can be concluded that CF is a potential adsorbent against Cd toxicities.     

Interaction between live vaccines for coccidiosis and phytogenic compounds in the diet of broilers

This study aimed to determine whether live vaccines alone or associated with phytogenic compounds supplied via feed could improve performance, intestinal health, serum biochemistry, and coccidiostatic action in broilers up to 42 days of age, challenged with Eimeria spp., compared with a traditional anticoccidial program. We used 800 birds divided into five treatments of eight repetitions each (n = 20): NC – Negative control (absence of additives in the feed and without coccidian challenge); PC – Positive control (absence of additives and with coccidian challenge at 21 days); AAP – Anticoccidial additives program, including salinomycin and nicarbazine, with coccidian challenge at 21 days of life; VAC – Vaccination on day 1 of life (Hipracox HIPRA®) against coccidiosis and subsequent coccidian challenge at 21 days; VAC + BPC - Vaccination (day 1 of life), the addition of 200 ppm of blend phytogenic compound (BPC) based on carvacrol and cinnamaldehyde to the diet, with coccidian challenge at 21 days of life. The birds in the AAP group more significant weight gain and greater body weight at 21 days than the NC and 42 days of age than the NC and VAC + BPC groups. The excretion of Eimeria oocysts in the excreta of birds was higher in PC than in NC, and in the litter, PC had higher counts than NC, AAP, and VAC + BPC. A higher mean score of intestinal lesions for Eimeria acervulina was observed in VAC and VAC + BPC birds, while for Eimeria maxima, the highest score was found in PC. Higher serum levels of total protein due to the increase in globulins were observed in birds of AAP and VAC than NC. Our findings suggest that vaccination for coccidiosis shortly after the birth of chicks allows performance similar to the conventional coccidiosis control program via diet.     

Anaerobic fluidized bed reactor with sepiolite as support for anaerobic treatment of vinasse

Summary An anaerobic fluidized bed reactor, using sepiolite as support, for the treatment of distillery wastewater was started-up using a stepped loading regime with addition of methanol. Six different steady states at hydraulic retention times between 0.5 and 2.48 days were studied achieving a COD removal efficiency of 70.5 to 88.6%.     

Brewery yeast as a biosorbent for uranium

N. B. OMAR, M. L. MERROUN, M. T. GONZÁLEZ-MUÑOZ AND J. M. ARIAS. 1996. Yeast cells are capable of carrying out biosorption with various heavy metals. The biomass deriving from Saccharomyces cerevisiae coming from brewing industries is a by-product that is possible to be used in the purification of water contaminated with these ions. In this paper we show that yeast biomass from one of the city's breweries can adsorb uranium efficiently, up to 2.4mmol of this metal per gram of dry biomass. It can also be seen that the temperature (between 10° and 37°C) has no effect on the biosorption, while pH does have an influence, 4.5 being the best value. When the concentrations of uranium range between 0.1 and 0.5 mol 1^-1 the yeast dry biomass is capable of adsorbing between 84% and 98% of this metal in solution.     

pH-Uncontrolled lactic acid fermentation with activated carbon as an adsorbent

In this paper, we presented a novel process involving activated carbon (AC) as an adsorbent for lactic acid fermentation, separation and oligomerization. It was found that pH has a significant effect on the adsorption of lactic acid on AC. The use of AC for in situ removal of lactic acid successfully decreased the inhibitory effect of lactic acid, resulting in significant increases in both productivity and yield. Acetone was used to desorb lactic acid and it was confirmed that the acetone treatment did not decrease the optical purity of the lactic acid, i.e., the optical purity was as high as 99.5% after desorption. Due to the presence of little materials influencing lactic acid oligomerization, oligomers with an optical purity of above 96% and a weight-average molecular weight (M(w)) of 2400 were obtained in the oligomerization process.     

High-performance liquid chromatography using spherical aggregates of hydroxyapatite micro-crystals as adsorbent

High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) using spherical aggregates of hydroxyapatite (HA) microcrystals as adsorbent has been developed; preliminary performance tests were carried out by using several types of protein. In comparison with previously developed plate-like HA packed columns for HPLC, spherical HA packed columns show considerably high chromatographic resolutions in spite of extremely reduced column lengths of 0.5-3 cm. The pressure generated by the latter columns is much higher than that generated by the former, however.     

Effects of corn distillers dried grains with solubles and xylanase on growth performance and digestibility of diet components in broilers

The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of corn distillers dried grains with solubles (cDDGS) and xylanase in corn-based diets on growth performance and digestibility of diet components in broiler chickens. The experiment was a 3×4 factorial design with diets containing 3 levels of cDDGS (0, 100 and 200 g/kg) and 4 levels of xylanase (0, 1200, 2400 and 3600 U/kg). The diets were fed to 720 Cobb 500 chicks for 42 days. Excreta was collected at 18–21 days to measure coefficients of total tract apparent digestibility (CTTAD) and ileal digesta was collected at 42 days to measure coefficients of ileal apparent digestibility (CIAD). Dietary cDDGS caused poor (P<0.05) feed conversion ratio (FCR) of broilers from 1 to 21 and 22 to 42 days, but increased (P<0.05) feed intake (FI) at 1–21 days. Inclusion of xylanase increased (P<0.05) FI by 4–5% at 1–21 days, and did not affect (P≥0.05) FCR in either period. In the two growing periods, cDDGS decreased (P<0.05) the CTTAD of dry matter (DM), and the CIAD of DM and hemicelluloses, whereas xylanase increased (P<0.05) the digestibility of DM and hemicellulose by 5% and 20%, respectively. There were significant interactions (P<0.05) between cDDGS and xylanase for BWG and energy digestibility. In comparison with the 100 g/kg cDDGS diet, the inclusion of 200 g/kg cDDGS led to poorer (P<0.05) FCR at 22–42 days, and lower (P<0.05) CTTAD of DM at 18–21 days. There were no differences (P≥0.05) in most growth parameters between the doses of xylanase at 1200, 2400 and 3600 U/kg. Xylanase at 2400 U/kg increased (P<0.05) CTTAD of DM compared with the lower dose, but 3600 U/kg xylanase showed no further improvement (P≥0.05) on digestibility measurements. The results suggest that supplementing xylanase to diets containing cDDGS can improve growth performance and digestibility of diet components in broilers.     

Efficiency of D-tryptophan as Niacin in rats

L-tryptophan is a very important precursor of niacin in mammals. Food preparation in which proteins are exposed to an alkali and/or high temperature for a long period generate appreciable amounts of D-amino acids from racemization. The efficiency of D-tryptophan as niacin was thus investigated by using weanling rats. The availability of D-tryptophan was almost the same as that in L-tryptophan as the precursor of niacin and was 1/6 as active as niacin.     

Leaching of depleted uranium in soil as determined by column experiments

The basic features of the leachability of depleted uranium (DU) projectiles in soil was investigated by using 12 projectiles (145–294 g DU) and 16 columns installed in an air-conditioned laboratory. Two soils widely distributed in Europe, a sandy-loamy cambisol and a silty-loamy luvisol, were filled into the columns (3.3 kg dry soil each). The effluents of all columns were collected weekly during the observation period of 1 year. In 648 samples, ²³⁵U and ²³⁸U were determined by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. The leaching rates of ²³⁸U from natural uranium were in general about 0.01 μg week^-1 or smaller, while those of ²³⁸U from the DU munitions varied considerably and reached values of up to 100 μg week^-1, for the different columns. In total, about 0.3 μg natural uranium corresponding to 20 ppm of its inventory in the soil was leached during the observation period. From the projectiles, an average of about 50 μg DU were leached corresponding to 18 ppm of the corroded DU mass (about 1.6% of the mean initial DU mass of the projectiles). Assuming that corrosion and leaching continue as observed, the mobilisation of ²³⁸U from DU munitions will last, on an average, for thousands of years in the soils investigated, while the munitions themselves will have been corroded after a much shorter time. It is proposed to use, for the investigated soil types, the mean leaching rates of the six columns with projectiles for transport calculations of ²³⁸U to the groundwater and, thus, for a better risk assessment of the water-dependent uptake pathways of DU.     

Chitin-coated Celite as an affinity adsorbent for high-performance liquid chromatography of lysozyme

Preparation of chitin-coated Celite as an affinity adsorbent for high-performance liquid chromatography of lysozymes and its application to separation of N-bromosuccinimide-oxidized lysozymes are described. By pH gradient elution, two diastereomers of oxindolealanine-62-lysozyme, delta 1-acetoxytryptophan-62-lysozyme (intermediate product in the reaction in acetate buffer), and native lysozyme were all separated within 40 min.     

Electrolyte changes in the blood plasma of broilers as influenced by cooling during summer

High temperature significantly (P < 0.01) decreased the Na⁺ and K⁺ concentrations in the blood plasma of both the sexes of broilers during 4 to 8 weeks of age. Relatively constant levels of these electrolytes were observed during this phase of growth and the sex of the bird had no significant effect on their levels.Greater broiler weights and higher levels of plasma electrolyte were achieved by the use of cooling systems (which were more effective in the hot dry part of the summer than in the hot humid part).     

Preparation and characterization of DNA hydrogel bead as selective adsorbent of dioxins

Salmon milt DNA hydrogel beads were synthesized by an inverse suspension polymerization of acrylamide in the continuous phase of cyclohexane. These DNA hydrogel beads in water medium are stable, more than 82% (w/w) of the DNA can be retained in the hydrogel after a sufficient soaking in water. Comparing with normal adsorbents such as activated carbon and alumina, this DNA matrix showed a selective adsorptivity for the dioxin derivatives with planar structure such as dibenzo-p-dioxin (DD), dibenzofuran (DF) and biphenyl (BP). Rinsing with hexane can regenerate the DNA beads after adsorption by the dioxin derivatives, even the adsorption-regeneration process repeated four times, no significant decrease in the dioxin removal capacity was observed.     

High-performance liquid chromatography using novel square tile-shaped hydroxyapatite crystals as adsorbent

High-performance liquid chromatography using, as adsorbent, novel square tile-shaped hydroxyapatite crystals (with thicknesses of about 2 microns and diameters of 3-7 microns) has been developed. The chromatographic efficiencies of the novel hydroxyapatite packed columns are almost equal to those of the previously developed spherical hydroxyapatite packed columns; high chromatographic resolutions can be obtained by using extremely reduced column lengths of 0.5-3 cm. Since both the square and the spherical hydroxyapatite have roughly the same particle size of some micrometers, the chromatographic efficiency can be deduced to be determined mainly by the particle size rather than the particle shape.     

Butyl-Toyopearl 650 as a new hydrophobic adsorbent for water-soluble enzyme proteins

Butyl-Toyopearl 650, a butyl derivative of Toyopearl HW-65, was synthesized for use in hydrophobic chromatography. Water-soluble enzyme proteins were adsorbed on butyl-Toyopearl 650 in the presence of ammonium sulfate and eluted easily in the absence of the salt. Cytochrome c, myoglobin, and chymotrypsinogen A were successfully separated on a butyl-Toyopearl 650 column in order of their individual hydrophobicity by decreasing the concentration of ammonium sulfate contained in the buffer eluant. Based on these results, the use of butyl-Toyopearl 650 is demonstrated for the hydrophobic separation of water-soluble enzyme proteins.