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Yeasts are unicellular eukaryotic microorganisms extensively employed in various applications, notably as an alternative source of protein in feeds, owing to their nutritional benefits. Despite their potential, marine and mangrove yeast species used in the aquaculture industry have received little attention in the Philippines. Pichia kudriavzevii (A2B R1 ISO 3), sourced from bark samples, was selected and mass-produced due to its high protein content and amino acid profile. The dried biomass of P. kudriavzevii was incorporated into the diets of Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) juveniles at varying inclusion levels (0, 1, 2, and 4 g/kg diet) and its effect on their growth performance, body composition, and liver and intestinal morphology was assessed after 40 days of feeding. The groups that received P. kudriavzevii at a concentration of 2 g/kg diet exhibited higher final body weight, percent weight gain, and specific growth rate in comparison to the other treatment groups. Whole body proximate composition did not vary among the dietary groups. Intestinal and liver histopathology also indicated no abnormalities. These findings suggest the potential of ascomycetous P. kudriavzevii as a beneficial feed additive in Nile tilapia diets, warranting further investigation into its long-term effects and broader applications in fish culture., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Applied Microbiology International.)

Increased demand for the supply of donkey hides for use in the Traditional Chinese Medicine e'jiao, is leading to a re-appraisal of donkeys' contributions to livelihoods across the world. This research aimed to understand the utilitarian value donkeys provide to poor small holder farmers, especially women, in their efforts to make a living in two rural communities in northern Ghana. Uniquely, children and donkey butchers were interviewed for the first time about their donkeys. A qualitative thematic analysis was undertaken of data disaggregated by sex, age and donkey-ownership. The majority of protocols were repeated during a second visit, ensuring comparative data between one wet, and one dry season. Donkeys are more important in people's lives than had previously been recognised and are highly valued by their owners for their help in reducing drudgery and the multi-functional services they offer. Hiring out donkeys to generate income is a secondary role for people who own donkeys, especially women. However, for financial and cultural reasons the way donkeys are kept results in the loss of a certain percentage of the animals to the donkey meat market, as well as the global hides trade. Increasing demand for donkey meat, coupled with increasing demand for donkeys for farming, is leading to donkey price inflation and theft of donkeys. This is putting pressure on the donkey population of neighbouring Burkina Faso and pricing resource-poor non-donkey owners out of the market. E'jiao has put the spotlight on the value of dead donkeys for the first time, especially to governments and middlemen. This study shows that the value of live donkeys to poor farming households is substantial. It attempts to understand and document this value thoroughly, should the majority of donkeys in West Africa be rounded up and slaughtered for the value of their meat and skin instead., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2023 Maggs et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Mangroves create an ecological environment for a diverse assemblage of organisms, including marine and mangrove oomycetes. Halophytophthora spp., in particular, are isolated from fallen senescent mangrove leaves. Studies reported on Philippines oomycetes are mostly on their distribution and taxonomy, while fatty acid studies have not yet been fully explored. Recently, oomycetes were reported as efficient producers of various fatty acids; therefore, bioprospecting efforts are aimed at obtaining more industrially important fatty acid compounds for aquaculture, biodiesel production, and human consumption. In this study, 21 isolated oomycetes, identified as Halophytophthora spp., and two type species of Phytopythium, were grown in a broth medium containing peptone, yeast extract, glucose, and 50% seawater and incubated at room temperature for 3 weeks for fatty acid production and identification. Results revealed the presence of various fatty acids, mainly palmitic acid (C16:0), linoleic acid (C18:2n6c), oleic acid (C18:1n9c), cis-11,14,17-eicosatrienoic acid (ETA, C20:3n3), and stearic acid (C18:0), from Halophytophthora and Phytopythium isolates ranging from 2% to 30% total fatty acids. An omega-6 fatty acid, Ƴ-linolenic acid (GLA, C18:3n6), was found in Phytopythium isolates with considerably higher concentrations compared to Halophytophthoras. Further, omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid, cis-11,14,17-eicosatrienoic acid (ETA, C20:3n3), was detected on most oomycete isolates., (© The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Applied Microbiology International.)

Pigmeat is the most consumed red meat globally and consumption is expected to continue to increase. The sector is faced by the risk of epidemic and endemic disease impacts and other adverse influences. The aim of this study was to develop a dynamic simulation model of pig growing and finishing that can be used to model the financial and economic impacts of a variety of scenarios both related to disease effects and other influences on production. The model consists of a physical performance module and financial performance module. The core of the physical performance module comprises three stocks to model the flow of pigs from purchase to slaughter. Mortality rates, daily live weight gain and feed conversion ratios influence the dynamics of the physical performance. Since contracts between farmers and slaughterhouses often include large price penalties for over- and underweight pigs, carcase weight distribution is an important determinant of revenues. The physical performance module, therefore, simulates slaughter weight variations. The financial performance module calculates revenue, costs and gross margins. The revenue calculations take into account price penalties for over- and underweight pigs. To demonstrate the capabilities of the model, we apply the model to assess the economic consequences of production impacts associated with respiratory disease. We use estimated production impacts associated with respiratory disease from a study of all-in-all out growing and finishing systems based on pig production data and information from slaughterhouse monitoring in the UK. Our model suggests a reduction in the gross margin of nearly 40 % as a consequence of the estimated production impacts associated with a 10% increase in respiratory disease prevalence. Due to the lack of reliable information on slaughter weight variation, we also simulate the model using different assumptions about the slaughter weight distribution. An increase in the standard deviation of carcase weights from 8 kg to 12 kg, holding average weights constant, more than halves gross margins under our scenarios. We suggest that for all-in-all-out systems, carcase weight variation is likely to be a substantial factor in reducing income in the presence of respiratory disease and the economic impact of respiratory disease may be underestimated if the effects of disease on variation in carcase weights are not included in any analysis., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Rationale, Aims and Objectives: The primary purpose of this study was to test both classic and novel FM pain and non-pain symptoms to determine their practical efficacy in aiding clinicians to distinguish FM pain from other chronic pain disorders., Methods: 158 pain patients from two primary care clinics were evaluated with history, physical exam, chart review, and a questionnaire containing 26 exploratory symptoms (10 from the Symptom Impact Questionnaire (SIQR) and 16 from the FM literature)). The symptoms were rated on a 0-10 VAS for severity by those patients reporting pain over the past week. Somers' D and mean severity differences between FM and chronic pain patients without FM were used to rank the discriminatory and diagnostic contributions of symptoms., Results: Fifty patients (14.2%) carried a chart diagnosis of FM, 108 (30.7%) had pain but not FM, and 192 (54.5%) who had neither pain nor FM. Comparing means between the two pain groups, the 5 best differentiating symptoms (all, P < .0001) were: a persistent deep aching over most of my body, poor balance (7.4 vs 3.1), environmental sensitivity (6.8 vs 3.0), tenderness to touch (6.8 vs 3.6) and pain after exercise (8.1 vs 4.1). Notably, VAS pain though significantly higher for FM was least discriminatory (6.5 vs 5.1, P < .001). The five best symptoms generated a ROC = 0.85 and Somers' D = 0.69, an accuracy of 81%, and an odd's ratio of 14.4., Conclusions: Our results herein suggest that clinicians may be well-served to consider symptoms in addition to those contained in current diagnostic criteria when recognizing FM in their chronic pain patients., (© 2021 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)

A novel extremely halophilic archaeon, strain RHB-C T , was isolated from a saturated brine pond of a solar saltern in Bolinao, Pangasinan, Philippines. Colonies were orange-red-pigmented, smooth, convex and round on a solid modified growth medium containing 25 % (w/v) of total salts. Cells of strain RHB-C T on the solid modified growth medium were ovoid-shaped (0.89-2.66 µm long), while the cells in a liquid modified growth medium were rod-shaped (1.53-5.65 µm long and 0.45-1.03 µm wide). The strain was Gram-stain-negative, motile and strictly aerobic. Strain RHB-C T grew with NaCl concentrations ranging from 10 to 30 % (w/v; optimum, 20-25 %), at pH 6.5-8.5 (optimum, pH 7.0-7.5) and at 20-55 °C (optimum, 40-45 °C). Furthermore, the strain grew even in the absence of Mg 2+ ; however, when supplemented with Mg 2+ , growth was observed optimally at 0.2-0.4 M Mg 2+ . The 16S rRNA gene phylogeny inferred that the strain is a member of the genus Halorubrum and was related to Halorubrum xinjiangense CGMCC 1.3527 T (99.0 %), Halorubrum sodomense DSM 3755 T (98.8 %), Halorubrum coriense Ch2 T (98.8 %), Halorubrum trapanicum NRC 34021 T (98.4 %) and Halorubrum distributum JCM 9100 T (98.1 %). The rpoB ' gene sequences also showed that strain RHB-C T is related to Hrr. xinjiangense JCM 12388 T (97.1 %), Hrr. distributum JCM 9100 T (97.1 %), Hrr. coriense JCM 9275 T (96.5 %), Hrr. californiense JCM 14715 T (96.5 %), Hrr. trapanicum JCM 10477 T (96.3%), Hrr. sodomense JCM 8880 T (96.2%) and Hrr. tebenquichense DSM 14210 T (95.6 %). The DNA G+C content of strain RHB-C T was 68.7 mol% (genome). Digital DNA-DNA hybridization (dDDH) and average nucleotide identity (ANI) values between strain RHB-C T and the closely related species of Halorubrum were below 40 and 90 %, respectively, which are far below the thresholds to delineate a new species. The polar lipids of strain RHB-C T were phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol phosphate methyl ester, phosphatidylglycerol sulphate and sulfated mannosyl glycosyl diether. Based on dDDH and ANI values, and the significant morphological and physiological differences from known taxa, it is hereby suggested that strain RHB-C T represents a novel species of the genus Halorubrum , for which the name Halorubrum salinarum sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is RHB-C T (=KCTC 4274 T =CMS 2103 T ).

Donkeys provide important resources and benefits for millions of people worldwide. However, global donkey populations are under increasing pressure from the growing demand for a traditional Chinese medicine, e'jiao, made from donkey-skin. The objective of this reflexive, qualitative thematic analysis was to examine the role of donkeys with 262 participants in northern Ghana and how donkeys contribute to livelihood outcomes, especially their use by women and children. Data were collected from four surveys, 12 in-depth interviews and 84 daily time budgets with the same participants, plus 16 focus groups, during one wet and one dry season across 2018-19. Uniquely, boys and girls between the ages of 10-16-years old were interviewed. Donkeys are highly valued by their owners as they play a valuable role in providing a pathway out of ultra-poverty. Donkeys' contributions to livelihoods are significant and more complex than previously understood and documented in the literature. Donkey ownership confers up to six different income benefits in comparison to non-donkey owners. Female owners of donkeys reported that donkeys can contribute between 30-60% of their income. Children of both sexes can play an important role in the efficient deployment of one of these income generating activities.