This study evaluated the effects of Bacillus subtilis, Saccharomyces boulardii, oregano, and calcium montmorillonite on the physical growth, intestinal histomorphology, and blood metabolites in Salmonella-challenged birds during the finisher phase. In this study, a total of 600 chicks (Ross 308) were randomly distributed into the following dietary treatments: basal diet with no treatment; infected with Salmonella; T1, infected + avilamycin; T2, infected + Bacillus subtilis; T3, Saccharomyces boulardii; T4, infected + oregano; T5, infected + calcium montmorillonite. Our results indicated that feed consumption, body weight gain, total body weight, and feed conversion ratio increased significantly (P < 0.01) in T1 and T2. Villus width increased significantly (P < 0.01) in T1 while the total area was significantly (P < 0.01) higher in T1 and T2 among the treatment groups. Blood protein was significantly (P < 0.01) high in T3 and T4; however, the glucose concentration was significantly (P < 0.01) high in T2, T3, and T4. The treatments increased significantly (P< 0.01) in the treatment groups compared to the negative control. Aspirate aminotransferase (AST) was significantly (P < 0.05) low in T3 compared to the positive control. In conclusion, the results indicated that supplementation of Bacillus subtilis and calcium montmorillonite improved the production performance compared to other feed additives in broiler chicks infected with Salmonella during the finisher phase.

One of the innovations introduced toward tackling the heightening of environmental impact is green technology. In the agricultural industry, the implementation of green fertilizer technology (GFT) for the modern development of environmentally friendly technology is a necessity. Within the Malaysian agriculture sector, the GFT application is needed to increase production levels among all crops. One of the essential commodities of all crops has always been paddy, given its status as the staple food among the country’s population. Paddy production with the adoption of GFT potentially opens the path toward sustainable development in the industry as well as it also provides the food safety aspect. Moreover, this helps farmers to improve their productivity on paddy production in Malaysia. This paper attempts to evaluate the contributing socio-psychological factors, innovation attributes of environmental factors, and channels of communication to decision-making among farmers in Malaysia on GFT. Furthermore, this research also aims to assess the moderating role of cost between the farmer’s behavioral intention and the adoption of GFT. The sampling process followed the stratified sampling technique—overall, 600 survey questionnaires were dispersed and 437 effective responses were received. The structural analysis results obtained have revealed significant positive effect for perceived awareness, attitude, group norm, perceived behavioral control, environmental concern, agro-environmental regulations, relative advantage, compatibility, trialability, and observability, and on farmer’s behavioral intention, a significant effect for paddy farmer’s behavioral intention in order to adopt of GFT. Further, the interaction effects of cost on the link between farmer’s behavioral intention and adoption of GFT are statistically significant. Though, the finding could not back an outcome for the subjective norm, complexity, and mass media on farmer’s behavioral intention. Finally, critical outcomes obtained in this research contribute to deepening the thoughtfulness of paddy farmers’ adoption of GFT. This study concludes with policy recommendations and future directions of the research.

Chlorinated aromatic organic compounds are extremely toxic to the environment and cause cancer to the human body. Pentachlorophenol (PCP) is a hydrophobic and ionic organic compound that is employed as a production material in various industries. Although the Taiwanese government has banned the use of PCP for years, large PCP-contaminated areas remain in Southern Taiwan. Chemical oxidation, which has been proposed as a viable method for restoring PCP-contaminated areas, involves the use of micronanosize birnessite (δ-MnO₂), which is a type of manganese oxide and a natural mineral in soil environments. The goal of this study was to simulate the decontamination of the underlying soil of the PCP-contaminated areas, which is situated in anaerobic and lightless environment. Through the use of a self-developed gas release and absorption reaction flask, the oxidative mineral decarboxylation and dechlorination effects of δ-MnO₂ on PCP in aerobic and anaerobic (with oxygen removed through the use of nitrogen) environments without light were investigated. Results indicated that adding δ-MnO₂ facilitated the oxidative decarboxylation and dechlorination of PCP and the release of Cl⁻ in an aerobic, lightless environment without microbial activity. In the anaerobic environment, the oxidative decarboxylation effect of δ-MnO₂ on PCP decreased significantly, and the dechlorination effect was the primary reaction. Accordingly, adding δ-MnO₂ inorganically destroys aromatic benzene and releases CO₂ and Cl⁻. The molar ratio between CO₂ and Cl⁻ was calculated to assess the mechanisms of the distinct reaction systems. The parameters and data acquired from the experiment, which involved simulating the conditions of the contaminated areas, can be used in planning the on-site management of the PCP contamination; in particular, these parameters and data provide a reference for eliminating PCP from underlying soil—including groundwater-saturated layers.

Cadmium (Cd) is a heavy and toxic metal and easily absorbed by animals and plants; subsequently, it is an environmental risk factor with several toxic effects in humans and animals. The main pathway of human or animal exposure to Cd is through its ingestion by water or food and by particles or fume inhalation during industrial processes. With continuous exposure to small levels of cadmium, it is being deposited in different tissues day after day, causing toxic effects on the liver, kidney, and testes. Long-term exposure to this toxic metal resulted in inflammatory infiltration, necrosis of hepatocytes, degenerative changes in testis tissues, reduction in spermatocytes, degeneration in renal tubules, and hypertrophy of renal epithelium. Therefore, we need an effective treatment to overcome cadmium poisoning. Thus, in the current review, we try to provide compiled reports and summarize information about the toxicological effects of Cd in human, animals, and poultry. This review also provides updated information about the protective actions of herbs and herbal extracts and their role as an effective strategy in reducing or preventing serious health problems and tissue damage in response to Cd toxicity.

In degradation of total petroleum hydrocarbon, 35 isolates belonging to 11 genera were sanitized and 3 isolates as well as their consortium were initiated to be able to raise in association with petroleum hydrocarbon as sole source of carbon under in vitro circumstances. The isolated strains were grounded on internal transcribed spacer (ITS) rDNA sequence analysis. The fungal strains with the utmost potentiality to reduce petroleum hydrocarbon without emerging antagonistic activities were Aspergillus niger, Penicillium ochrochloron, and Trichodema viride. For fungal growth on petroleum hydrocarbon, P. ochrocholon gained weight of 44%, A. niger 49%, and T. viride 39% within the first 30–40 days. As compared to the controls, these fungi accumulated significantly higher biomass, produced extracellular enzymes, and degraded total petroleum hydrocarbon and A. niger strongly degraded total petroleum hydrocarbon with a degradation of about 71.19%. These observations with GC-MS data confirm that these isolates displayed rapid total petroleum hydrocarbon biodegradation within a period of 60 days and the half-life showed that A. niger was the shortest with t1/2 = 21.280 day⁻¹ corresponding to the highest percent degradation of 71.19% and first-order kinetic fitted into the present study. By multivariate analysis, five main factors were identified by factor analysis (FA). The first factor (F1) of the fungi species accounts for 20.0% which signifies that fungi species controls the degradation of petroleum variability and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) as a dendrogram with five observations and three variables shows two predominant clusters order cluster 1 > 2.

The purpose of this study was the identification of the major factor for sustainable development in textile industries and preferred textile wastewater management practices for environmental protection. Moreover, a structural framework for sustainable textile wastewater management concept in the textile industry was developed, and further, the proposed model was examined based on the effect of economic performance, environmental impact, and operational performance in textile sectors. Therefore, to achieve the above issues, major factors were identified through exhaustive literature, and then a test was conducted for the reliability of the proposed constructs for validation. However, there was no specific study on the sustainability of textile wastewater management principle by using exploratory structural equation modeling (SEM). Finally, the proposed structural model was validated by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling with the help of the SPSS software package.

The removal of greenhouse gas (GHG) emission from bitumen used in the construction of flexible pavement by iron-polyphenol complex nanoparticles (Fe-PNPₛ) has been examined in the study. Laboratory studies indicated the removal of carbon dioxide (CO₂) with Fe-PNPₛ is a function of the amount of additive (Fe-PNPₛ). From the experimental data, it was found that the reduction of CO₂ increases with increasing amount of additive up to a dosage of 4% (by weight of bitumen) without severely changing the basic engineering properties of the bitumen. The reduction of GHG is due to the conversion of the CO₂ to a mixture of hydrocarbon in the presence of Fe-PNPₛ. The characterization of the additive by SEM, FTIR, UV, and XRD indicated the formation of the Fe-PNPₛ. The analysis of the basic engineering properties of bitumen such as penetration value, softening point of the bitumen, flash point, fire point, and ductility in the presence of additive as well as without the additive were studied and reflected a noticeable effect in the reduction of the CO₂. The reduction of GHG by Fe-PNPₛ minimizes the environmental impact and saving energy by increasing the yield of hydrocarbons.

Vibrio cholerae is a leading waterborne pathogen worldwide. Continuous monitoring of V. cholerae contamination in aquatic products and identification of risk factors are crucial for assuring food safety. In this study, we determined the virulence, antimicrobial susceptibility, heavy metal tolerance, and genetic diversity of 400 V. cholerae isolates recovered from commonly consumed freshwater fish (Aristichthys nobilis, Carassius auratus, Ctenopharyngodon idellus, and Parabramis pekinensis) collected in July and August of 2017 in Shanghai, China. V. cholerae has not been previously detected in the half of these fish species. The results revealed an extremely low occurrence of pathogenic V. cholerae carrying the major virulence genes ctxAB (0.0%), tcpA (0.0%), ace (0.0%), and zot (0.0%). However, high incidence of virulence-associated genes was observed, including the RTX toxin gene cluster (rtxA-D) (83.0–97.0%), hlyA (87.8%), hapA (95.0%), and tlh (76.0%). Meanwhile, high percentages of resistance to antimicrobial agents streptomycin (65.3%), ampicillin (44.5%), and rifampicin (24.0%) were observed. Approximately 30.5% of the isolates displayed multidrug resistant (MDR) phenotypes with 42 resistance profiles, which were significantly different among the four fish species (MARI, P = 0.001). Additionally, tolerance of isolates to heavy metals Hg²⁺ (49.3%), Zn²⁺ (30.3%), and Pb²⁺ (12.0%) was observed. The enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus-polymerase chain reaction (ERIC-PCR)-based fingerprinting of the 400 V. cholerae isolates revealed 328 ERIC-genotypes, which demonstrated a large degree of genomic variation among the isolates. Overall, the results of this study support the need for food safety risk assessment of aquatic products.

The aim of this work is to evaluate the application of a steel waste, basic oxygen furnace sludge (BOFS), rich in iron, to treat water contaminated with elevated arsenic and sulfate concentrations. In the first step, three doses (10, 60, and 80 g L⁻¹) of BOFS were tested to investigate the removal of As(III) and As(V) (67 mg L⁻¹) and sulfate (3700 mg L⁻¹) separately from an aqueous solution. In the second step, the efficacies of BOFS (10 g L⁻¹) and commercial ZVI (5 g L⁻¹) were compared to simultaneously remove arsenic and sulfate. The pH of the feed solution was adjusted to 2.5 and monitored during the experiment. The use of BOFS achieved arsenic removal up to 92% and sulfate removal of nearly 40% after 72 h of contact time. Use of BOFS also increased the solution pH to 12. Similar removal levels were achieved with both BOFS and ZVI. These results confirm the potential application of BOFS to remove high arsenic and sulfate concentrations from acidic solutions. The data obtained here should be used as a basis for further studies on the remediation of acid mine drainage with high concentrations of arsenic and sulfate using an abundant and low-cost steel waste.

The study was conducted on Długie Lake in Olsztyn, which for 20 years since the mid-1950s served as a domestic and storm wastewater receiver, which led to its complete degradation. The discontinuation of wastewater inflow in 1976 caused a change in the trophic state from saprotrophic to hypertrophic. Evident improvement of water quality was possible only after the implementation of proper restoration techniques. Długie Lake was subjected to artificial aeration with thermal destratification (1987–2000). After all opportunities to improve water quality in the lake by artificial aeration (low phosphorus sorption capacity of sediment) had been exhausted, it was decided that a phosphorus inactivation method using the coagulant PAX 18 be used (2001–2003). Before restoration, the nutrient concentration in the near-bottom water layer of Długie Lake was very high at 22.9 mg TN L⁻¹ and 3.50 mg TP L⁻¹. The average amount of chlorophyll a was ca. 200 μg L⁻¹, and the Secchi disc visibility did not exceed 1 m. In 2017, 14 years after termination of the lake restoration process, the total phosphorus concentration at the bottom was 0.21 mg P L⁻¹ on average, and the total nitrogen was 1.5 mg N L⁻¹. The mean transparency of the water oscillated around approximately 5 m, and the amount of chlorophyll a was 1.86 μg L⁻¹. Studies have shown that the most important step in reclamation is to prevent pollutants from entering the lake to the maximum extent possible and to use a combination of several reclamation methods as a matter of good practice. Stable environmental conditions have developed in the lake, and the values of chlorophyll a and the Secchi disk visibility indicate that the lake has reached a mesotrophic state.