Scientific Inquiry and Review

An Overview of Microbial Fermented Feed and its Impact on the Poultry Industry

Uzma Rafi — 2024-01-03

The poultry sector typically accounts for approximately 26% of the total meat production in several countries. However, the poultry sector is grappling nowadays with a rising problem of substandard meat production, owing to the usage of low-quality feed for the chicks. Previous studies have indicated to improve the quality of chick feed, however, researchers are still trying to improve the quality of feed by refining its shelf life and nutritional contents. Fermentation of various agricultural products, other than traditional feed, such as rice husk, palm kernel cake, wheat bran, potato pulp, banana peel, corn seed meal is carried out by using bacterial and fungal cultures to increase the production and quality of chicken feed. Although all these additives have the potential to be used as a replacement for traditional feed, nonetheless the main issue lies in the increased cellulose and fiber content. These constraints are being removed by using bacterial and fungal strains, especially those that are reported to have cellulose digestion and various enzymatic activities. Each strain has its own optimized fermenting conditions, such as solid-state fermentation or submerged fermentation, in which it yields its maximum output, before fermenting any feed with a specific microbe. These optimized conditions and techniques must be monitored in order to get the desired upshot. Therefore, this review article focuses on different substrates fermented by a variety of microbial strains along with their effectiveness and their future prospects. Furthermore, this study aims to suggest an alternative resource, which can be used to meet the poultry needs of the increasing population.

Efficacy of Exopolysaccharide (EPS) Producing Chromium Resistant Bacteria in the Removal of Chromium from Wastewater

Sumaira Mazhar — 2024-01-15

The contamination of heavy metals has caused major health risks, which has particularly led to toxicological manifestations, causing ailments and diseases like irritation of the skin and lungs that can cause nausea and vomiting. Heavy metals; therefore, impart hazardous effects on overall human health due to their potential to accumulate in the living tissues through the food chain mechanism. Conventional remediation strategies have become a challenge to resolve the rising issues of heavy metals. Among different heavy metals, chromium gained much attention due to its prevalence in different oxidation states; however, Cr (III) (less toxic) and Cr (VI) (toxic), are the most prevalent ones. Hexavalent chromium can be converted by some bacteria to the less insoluble and less toxic Cr (III). The current study was conducted to isolate chromium-resistant microbes from the tannery and dye industries, and their potential was evaluated for the reduction of their toxic form. A total number of 13 isolated chromium-resistant bacteria were screened for the production of EPS and out of 13 isolates, 6 were found positive. The effect of temperature (25oC, 30oC, 35oC, 40oC, and 45oC), pH (5, 6, 7, 8, and 9) and time period (24 hours, 48 hours, and 72 hours) on the exopolysaccharides production was examined. It was found that optimum temperature was 35oC, pH was 8, and the time period was 72 hours, respectively, both for the growth and chromium reduction potential. These conditions seemed to be optimum given that the bacteria (alkaliphiles) were isolated from a slightly alkaline environment, which have the ability to grow in a slightly alkaline environment and temperature ranging from 34oC to 36oC. The average chromium reduction potential of EPS-producing bacteria was 91%, and the average growth of these bacteria was 1.0192, respectively. Significant positive correlation was observed between the number of EPS and chromium reduction of EPS-producing chromium-resistant bacterial isolate.

Novel/Old Generalized Multiplicative Zagreb Indices of Some Special Graphs

Usman Ali — 2024-03-15

Topological descriptor is a fixed real number directly attached with the molecular graph to predict the physical and chemical properties of the chemical compound. Gutman and Trinajsti elaborated the first Zagreb index (ZI) which was based on degree in 1972. Ali and Trinajsti defined a connection number (CN) based topological descriptor in 2018. They found that the CN-based Zagreb indices have a greater chemical capability for thirteen physicochemical properties of octane isomers.For the generalized ZI and the generalized first Zagreb connection index (ZCI) of a graph is and , where and are the degree and CN of the vertex in . In this paper, the generalized first, second, third, and fourth multiplicative ZCIs are defined. Some exact solutions are also developed for the generalized multiplicative ZI and the above-mentioned generalized multiplicative versions of some special graphs, which are flower, sunflower, wheel, helm, and gear. The results and are the generalized forms of the results and where, respectively.

d(m)^{\beta}+d(m)^{\alpha}d(l)^{\beta}]$ and $C_{\alpha,\beta}(Q)=\sum_{lm\in E(Q)}[\tau(l)^{\alpha}\tau(m)^{\beta}+\tau(m)^{\alpha}\tau(l)^{\beta}]$, where $d_{Q}(m)$ and $\tau_{Q}(m)$ are the degree and CN of the vertex $m$ in $Q$. In this paper, we define generalized multiplicative ZCIs such as generalized first multiplicative ZCI, generalized second multiplicative ZCI, generalized third multiplicative ZCI and generalized fourth multiplicative ZCI. We also compute some exact formulae for the generalized multiplicative ZI and above-mentioned generalized multiplicative versions of some special graphs which are wheel, gear, helm, flower and sunflower. The obtained results $(MC_{\alpha,\beta}^{2},
MC_{\alpha,\beta}^{3}$ and $MC_{\alpha,\beta}^{4})$ are the generalized extensions of the results $(MZC_{1}^{*}, MZC_{2}^{*}$ and $MZC_{3}^{*})$ of Javaid et al. [Novel connection based ZIs of several wheel-related graphs, $2(2020), 31-58]$ who worked only for $\alpha, \beta=1,$ respectively.

Generators to Construct an Efficient Generalized Class of Minimal Circular Neighbor Designs

Sajid Hussain — 2024-03-15

A design that is robust to neighbor effects is one that can protect against the neighbor effects. In situations where minimal circular balanced neighbor designs (MCBNDs) cannot be constructed, minimal circular weakly balanced neighbor designs-I (MCWBNDs-I) are preferred, which is an efficient generalized class. MCWBNDs-I are neighbor designs in which v/2 pairs of distinct treatments appear twice as neighbors, while the remaining pairs appear once. New generators are developed in this study to obtain MCWBNDs-I in blocks of three different sizes.