“The guidelines provide detailed protocols that include pictorials and frequently asked questionsfor an easier understanding of those collecting samples for COVID testing in wildlife”, said Dr. Vinay K Nandicoori, Director, CSIR-CCMB.

LaCONES started testing animal samples for possible SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus infection in August 2020. The scientists found the first positive samples from Asiatic lions in Nehru Zoological Park, Hyderabad in April 2021. During these days, LaCONES team has tried testing for coronavirus using different kinds of nasal, oropharyngeal, rectal and fecal samples from the animals. LaCONES regularly tests wildlife samples using DNA-based molecular biology tools to solve wildlife cases. These tests are very similar to the ones being used for coronavirus testing.

“We hope that our recommendations help the zoo staff in collecting and packing the samples appropriately before they send them out to animal testing centres, will smoothen the process for the zoos as well as testing centres. Given how difficult it is to get samples from animals, it is all the more important that we make most of the samples we get”, said Dr. Karthikeyan Vasudevan, Scientist-in-charge, LaCONES, CSIR-CCMB.

Keywords: LaCONES, CSIR-CCMB, CSIR, COVID-19,Zoo Animals, Captive Animals, Laboratory for the Conservation of Endangered Species, Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology,Coronavirus Infection, Central Zoo Authority, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change

Oxytetracyclineis known for its broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity and is one of the extensively used antibiotics in veterinary practices. Its excessive consumption can cause antimicrobial resistance.

The new tool can help in several other ways also since consumption of milk having residual antibiotics can cause serious health complications like development of hepatotoxicity, teratogenicity, reduced growth and metabolism too. At present, the kits used for antibiotic detection are imported and have limited availability with costs of more than Rs 100/- per test.

The new technique developed by NIAB scientists promises to help address the problem. It has been found to reduce the cost without compromising on the quality of detection.  The kit has the sensitivity to detect up to 5 ng/ml of oxytetracycline in cow, buffalo, and goat milk within 10 minutes. The permissible limit as per the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare’s Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) is 100 ng/ml.

The researchers said these tests can be performed at the doorstep of farmers, at the level of dairy organizations or milk collection centres or by the consumers themselves. The cost of the test will be between Rs 25-50/test. “We are in the process of finding a suitable partner for technology transfer”, they said.

The study was conducted by KomalBirader, Pankaj Kumar, T. Yathirajarao, Jeannie Alice Barla, Shashidhar Reddy, and Pankaj Suman.

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Keywords: Research, Department of Biotechnology, Hyderabad, DBT, NIAB, antibiotic, milk, broad-spectrum, antimicrobial, veterinary, health, hepatotoxicity, teratogenicity, metabolism, import, cost, test, technique, scientists, sensitivity, detection, cow, buffalo, goat, FSSAI, farmers, dairy.

In a major attempt which would pave the ways for boosting India’s seafood trade, the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (ICAR-CMFRI), the Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) and the Fishery Survey of India (FSI)have jointly launched a research cruise for assessment marine mammal population of the EEZ. The research initiativeassumes significance in the wake of emerging seafood trade-related challenges faced by the fishermen targeting high-value resources and the export market players of India. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), USA, had issued import strictures of strict adherence to norms laid out in Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) of their country, stating that seafood exporting countries should not allow intentional killing of marine mammals in commercial fisheries. For exporting fish and fish products, the US has given a five-year exemption period starting January 1, 2017 to nations for developing regulatory programs by assessing marine mammal stocks, estimating by-catch, calculating by-catch limits, and reducing total by-catch.

A joint initiative of the three major central agencies functioning under different ministries, the cruise is aimed at closely observing and monitoring of marine mammal stocks and scientific interaction, especially collecting oceanographic parameters.

“This research will emerge as a game-changer in conservation of marine mammals and reduction in the interaction of ecologically threatened species by ensuring uninterrupted export of the seafood and enhancing the livelihood of the fisheries. The mission is expected to lead to the genesis of a pioneering research project conceived and implemented by CMFRI with the financial assistance of the MPEDA and infrastructure support of the FSI ”, said CMFRI Director Dr A Gopalakrishnan. “This is a project of national importance with global impact, which once successfully completed would place our research status on marine mammals in the select comity of nations”, he said.

Dr. R. Jeyabaskaran Principal Investigator of the project and Senior Scientist of CMFRI said: “The project focuses on assessing the status of stock health of marine mammals and all species of sea turtles in Indian waters. Marine mammals and sea turtles play key roles in maintaining marine ecosystems”.

The mission was flagged off by MPEDA Chairman Shri. K S Srinivas IAS in the presence of Dr A Gopalakrishnan, FSI Director General Dr L Ramalingam, and Dr R Jeyabaskaran.

The vessel is fitted with a 4 stroke Volvo Penta make 500 BHP engine, OAL (m): 24 & GRT: 268.8. The main deck of the vessel contains cabin for scientists and crew, weather station, galley, mess room and toilet.

Phytoplankton is an indicator of primary marine productivity and an important component of the seafood web on which regional fisheries depend. This phytoplankton biomass significantly alters the food web and ocean’s ability to absorb atmospheric carbon. Scientists at the National Center for Coastal Research (NCCR) have explored how changes in primary producers of phytoplankton are affecting the secondary producers of phytoplankton biomass in the complex coastal ecosystem of the Northern Hemisphere between the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal in the eastern part of the country. According to NCCR scientists, the baseline observations noted through the present study will help to understand the trend and type of food web operating along the Indian coastline and accordingly the role of food preference of zooplankton on fishery yield could be understood.

In addition to the monsoonal runoff and regional processes, the phytoplankton biomass along the Indian coast may be influenced by anthropogenic inputs through river discharge. Nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorous and silicate play a key role in phytoplankton abundance, growth and metabolism. However, higher concentrations of nitrate were found in the East coast of India (ECI) than in the West coast of India (WCI). Despite higher nutrients are found along the ECI due to discharge of major rivers,  threefold higher phytoplankton biomass has been observed along the WCI than the ECI due to high suspended solid concentrations (SSC), brought by rivers to the ECI that inhibits light penetration into water column leading to low phytoplankton biomass. On the other hand, rivers also bring terrestrial organic matter along with SSC to the coastal region that may be supporting zooplankton carbon needs in the ECI.

The authors of the present study said that phytoplankton biomass growth is minimum along the ECI due to higher load of SSC and removal of nitrate is also minimum. However, zooplankton population was supported more by phytoplankton biomass along the WCI whereas terrestrial organic matter brought by river in the ECI. Researchers believe that due to the ongoing climate change, world fisheries are economically suffering a lot. As per recent records on fisheries, the southwest coast provides 31% of the fishery yields and 26% are from the southeast coast. The modification of river discharge (mainly reduction) may reduce terrestrial organic matter inputs to the coastal regions that may lead to a significant decline in zooplankton biomass and therefore fisheries population. An estimate suggests that global warming could cut the value of world fishery catches from 41 billion dollars a year to about 17 billion dollars a year by 2050 with East Asia and the Pacific suffering the greatest losses.

Led by Manuri D. B., the research team comprised of Chandrasekaran M., Perumal M., and Mallavarapu R.M of NCCR, NIOT Campus, Chennai, Ministry of Earth Sciences. The study is published in Environmental Science and Pollution Research.

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Keywords: Phytoplankton, Biomass, Marine food, Coastal India, MoES

Will boost mariculture

The breeding technology, developed by the Karwar Research Centre of CMFRI, is expected to open up enormous scope for the country’s mariculture ventures in near future through species diversification, said Dr AGopalakrishnan, Director of CMFRI. “With the development of hatchery technology for picnic seabream, Indian mariculture is poised for a new surge with exponential increase in marine finfish production”, he said.

“The next task of the institute is to standardise the farming protocol of the fish as no record of breeding and aquaculture of this fish is available in in the country”, he said. Considering the characteristics of the fish, mariculture of picnic seabream is expected to be highly prospective in terms of attracting commercial benefits and meeting growing seafood demand in the near future, he added.

Targets 4 to 5 million metric tonnes fish production from mariculture

Dr Gopalakrishnan further said: “India targets 4 to 5 million metric tonnes of fish production in the next 10 years from mariculture. Species diversification for maricultureis primarily aimed at achieving this target by enhancing the marine cage farming system across the coastal states of the country, he said.

CMFRI ready to transfer technology

This is the seventh marine food fish of which breeding technology was developed by the CMFRI. It took around three years for the CMFRI scientists to develop the seed production technology for this fish. Earlier, the institute had succeeded in brood stock development of fishes like cobia, silver pompano, Indian pompano, orange-spotted grouper, pink ear emperor and John’s snapper. CMFRI would transfer these technologies to those interested in commercial production of the seeds, said Director Dr Gopalakrishnan.

Dr. K.K. Vijayan, Director, ICAR-CIBA, Chennai emphasized that the effort will undoubtedly provide a cost-effective alternative to the fish meal, contributing to the sustainability and competitiveness in the aquafeed sector, in the longer run.

Shri C. Bhanu Prashanth, Leader of the Start-Up initiative outlined the plans for cost-effective production and scaling-up the BSF meal production using the “kitchen waste” from larger cities like Chennai.

The Protein is the costliest nutrient in aquafeed. With the rapid expansion of aquaculture, there is a growing demand for high quality protein in the aquafeed. In the present Start-Up, the remarkable nutrient-recycling capacity of the Black Soldier Fly has been used to convert the organic waste to high quality protein in a short production time. For over a hundred million years, the fly species have been breaking down the waste material whilst providing food for fish, birds and animals higher up the food chain.

In the metro cities like Chennai, a massive volume of organic waste is generated everyday which is expensive to dispose off and leads to harmful methane emissions. The Start-Up plan to collect all the kitchen waste rich in nutrients from the multi-storied residential apartments, available for free of cost and subject to them for biological processing by Black Soldier Flies (Hermetia illucens). This will yield high quality protein and lipid rich meal, while the residual material rich in inorganic nutrients available as a by- product can be used as an organic fertilizer for agricultural and horticultural purposes.