Monobutyl phthalate (MBP) is the main metabolite of dibutyl phthalate (DBP) in vivo. MBP has a stable structure, can continuously accumulate in living organisms, and has the potentially to harm animal and human reproductive function. In the ovarian follicle microenvironment, MBP may lead to defects in follicular development and steroid production, abnormal meiotic maturation, impaired ovarian function and other reproductive deficits. In this study, SMART-seq was used to investigate the effects of MBP exposure on the in vitro maturation (IVM) and development of porcine oocytes. The results showed that differentially expressed genes after MBP exposure were enriched in the biological processes cytoskeleton, cell apoptosis, endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and mitochondria. Glycine (Gly) improved the developmental potential of porcine oocytes by regulating mitochondrial and ER function. The effect of Gly in protecting oocytes against MBP-induced damage was studied. The results showed that the addition of Gly significantly decreased the rate of MBP-induced spindle abnormalities, decreased the frequency of MBP-induced mitochondria-associated ER membrane (MAM) interactions, and downregulated the protein and gene expression of the linkage molecules Mitofusin 1 (MFN1) and Mitofusin 2 (MFN2) in the MAM. Additionally, treatment with Gly restored the distribution of the 1,4,5-triphosphate receptor 1 (IP₃R1) and voltage-dependent anion channel 1 (VDAC1), further decreasing the intracellular free calcium concentration ([Ca²⁺]ᵢ) levels and mitochondrial Ca²⁺ ([Ca²⁺]ₘ) , increasing the ER Ca²⁺ ([Ca²⁺]ER) levels, and thus significantly increasing the ER levels and mitochondrial membrane potential (ΔΨ m). Gly also decreased the levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and increased the levels of Glutathione (GSH), oocyte apoptosis-related indicators (Caspase-3 activity and Annexin V) and oocyte apoptosis-related genes (BAX, Caspase 3 and AIFM1). Our results suggest that Gly can ameliorate microtubule cytoskeleton abnormalities and improve oocyte maturation by reducing the defective mitochondrial–ER interactions caused by MBP exposure in vitro.

Antibiotics usage in animal production is considered a primary driver of the occurrence, supply and spread of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in the environment. Pig farms and fish ponds are important breeding systems in food animal production. In this study, we compared and analyzed broad ARGs profiles, mobile genetic elements (MGEs) and bacterial communities in a representative pig farm and neighboring fish ponds around Poyang Lake, the largest freshwater lake in China. The factors influencing the distribution of ARGs were also explored. The results showed widespread detection of ARGs (from 57 to 110) among 283 targeted ARGs in the collected water samples. The differences in the number and relative abundance of ARGs observed from the pig farm and neighboring fish ponds revealed that ARG contamination was more serious on the pig farm than in the fish ponds and that the water treatment plant on the pig farm was not very effective. Based on the variance partition analysis (VPA), MGEs, bacterial communities and water quality indicators (WIs) codrive the relative abundance of ARGs. Based on network analysis, we found that total phosphorus and Tp614 were the most important WIs and MGEs affecting ARG abundance, respectively. Our findings provide fundamental data on farms in lakeside districts and provide insights into establishing standards for the discharge of aquaculture wastewater.

Methane (CH₄) production from anaerobic digestion of solid and liquid agro-industrial wastes is an attractive strategy to meet the growing need for renewable energy sources and promote environmentally appropriate disposal of organic wastes. This work aimed at determining the CH₄ production potential of six agro-industrial wastewaters (AWW), evaluating the most promising for methanization purposes. It also aims to provide kinetic parameters and stoichiometric coefficients of CH₄ production and define which kinetic models are most suitable for simulating the CH₄ production of the evaluated substrates. The AWW studied were swine wastewater (SW), slaughterhouse wastewater (SHW), dairy wastewater (DW), brewery wastewater (BW), fruit processing wastewater (FPW), and residual glycerol (RG) of biodiesel production. RG was the substrate that showed the highest methanization potential. Exponential kinetic models can be efficiently applied for describing CH₄ production of more soluble substrates. On the other hand, logistic models were more suitable to predict the CH₄ production of more complex substrates.

Fipronil, a phenyl-pyrazole insecticide, has a wide range of uses, from agriculture to veterinary medicine. Due to its large-scale applications, the risk of environmental and occupational exposure and bioaccumulation raises concerns. Moreover, relatively little is known about the intracellular mechanisms of fipronil in trophoblasts and the endometrium involved in implantation. Here, we demonstrated that fipronil reduced the viability of porcine trophectoderm and luminal epithelial cells. Fipronil induced cell cycle arrest at the sub-G1 phase and apoptotic cell death through DNA fragmentation and inhibition of DNA replication. These reactions were accompanied by homeostatic changes, including mitochondrial depolarization and cytosolic calcium depletion. In addition, we found that exposure to fipronil compromised the migration and implantation ability of pTr and pLE cells. Moreover, alterations in PI3K-AKT and MAPK-ERK1/2 signal transduction were observed in fipronil-treated pTr and pLE cells. Finally, the antiproliferative and apoptotic effects of fipronil were also demonstrated in 3D cell culture conditions. In summary, our results suggest that fipronil impairs implantation potentials in fetal trophectoderm and maternal endometrial cells during early pregnancy.

Microplastic (MP) contamination in soil has attracted much attention, and increasing evidence suggests that MPs can accumulate in agricultural soils through fertilization by compost. In addition, the most common raw materials for composting are livestock and poultry manure wastes. Because the presence of MPs may threaten the safe utilization of fertilizers composted by livestock and poultry wastes during crop planting, it is necessary to understand the contamination risk of MPs present in livestock and poultry manure. In this study, the distribution of MPs in 19 livestock and poultry farms with 3 different species was investigated by using FTIR microscopy. A total of 115 items manure MPs and 18 items feed MPs were identified as PP and PE types dominated by colorful fragments and fibers. Furthermore, after comparing the compositions of plastic products used in the feeding process, we proposed two transport pathways for MP pollution in manure and one potential transport pathway in feeds. Our result proved that the application of swine and poultry manure directly could be a new route of MPs in agricultural soil, furthermore, the presence of MPs could threaten the safety of resource utilization in agricultural soil by using swine and poultry manure for manure potentially. Not, only that, our study also provided a reference for the remediation of MP-contaminated soil.

The aims of this study were to determine type and application rate of composted animal manure to optimize sweet potato yield relative to N₂O emissions from upland soils. To this end, the study was conducted on upland soils amended with different types and rates of composted animal manure and located at two geographically different regions of South Korea. Field trials were established at Miryang and Yesan in South Korea during the sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) growing season over 2 years: 2017 (Year 1) and 2018 (Year 2). Three composted animal manures (chicken, cow, and pig) were applied at the rates of 0, 10, and 20 Mg ha⁻¹ to upland soils in both locations. In both Years and locations, manure type did not affected significantly cumulative N₂O emissions from soil during the sweet potato growing season or the belowground biomass of sweet potato. However, application rate of animal manures affected significantly the cumulative N₂O emission, nitrogen (N) in soil, and belowground biomass of sweet potato. An increase in cumulative N₂O emission with application rates of animal manures was related to total N and inorganic N concentration in soil. The belowground biomass yield of sweet potato but also the cumulative N₂O emission increased with increasing application rate of composted animal manures up to 7.6 and 16.0 Mg ha⁻¹ in Miryang and Yesan, respectively. To reduce N₂O emission from arable soil while increasing crop yield, composted animal manures should be applied at less than application rate that produce the maximum belowground biomass of sweet potato.

Struvite (MgNH₄PO₃·6H₂O) crystallization is one of important methods of phosphorus recovery from wastewater. As to livestock wastewater, the high-strength occurrence of antibiotics and antibiotic resistance genes might induce struvite recovery to spread antibiotic resistance to the environment. However, limited information has been reported on the simultaneous transport of antibiotics and ARGs in struvite recovery. In the present study, tetracyclines (TCs) and tetracyclines antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) were selected as the targeted pollutants, and their discrepant residues in struvite recovery from swine wastewater were investigated. TCs and ARGs were obviously detected, with their contents of 4.88–79.5 mg/kg and 6.99 × 10⁷–2.14 × 10¹¹ copies/g, notably higher than those of TCs 0.550–1.94 mg/kg and ARGs 3.98 × 10⁴–5.66 × 10⁷ copies/g obtained from synthetic wastewater. The correlational relationship revealed that predominant factors affecting TCs and ARGs transports were different. Results from network analyses indicated that among the total edges, the negative correlations between TCs and ARGs predominately occupied 18.0%. The redundancy analysis revealed that mineral components in the recovered products, including struvite, K-struvite and amorphous calcium phosphate, coupling with organic contents, displayed insignificant roles on TCs residues, where heavy metals exerted positive and remarkable functions to boost TCs migration. Unexpectedly, mineral components and heavy metals did not displayed significant promotion on ARGs transport as a whole.

The human pathogenic bacteria (HPB) in animal feces may disseminate to agricultural soils with their land application as organic fertilizer. However, the knowledge about the impacts of different sources and rates of animal manures on the temporal changes of soil HPB remains limited, which hamper our ability to estimate the potential risks of their land application. Here, we constructed an HPB database including 565 bacterial strains. By blasting the 16 S rRNA gene sequences against the database we explored the occurrence and fate of HPB in soil microcosms treated with two rates of swine, poultry or cattle manures. A total of 30 HPB were detected in all of manure and soil samples. Poultry manure at the high level obviously improved the abundance of soil HPB. The application of swine manure could introduce concomitant HPB into the soils. Of which, Pseudomonas syringae pv. syringae B728a and Escherichia coli APEC O78 may deserve more attention because of their survival for a few days in manured soils and being possible hosts of diverse antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) as revealed by co-occurrence pattern. Bayesian source tracking analysis showed that the HPB derived from swine manure had a higher contribution to soil pathogenic communities than those from poultry or cattle manures in early days of incubation. Mantel test together with variation partitioning analysis suggested that bacterial community and soil physicochemical properties were the dominant factors determining the profile of HPB and contributed 64.7% of the total variations. Overall, our results provided experimental evidence that application of animal manures could facilitate the potential dissemination of HPB in soil environment, which should arouse sufficient attention in agriculture practice and management to avoid the threat to human health.

The use of the phenicol antibiotic florfenicol in livestock can select for the optrA gene, which also confers resistance to the critically important oxazolidinone antibiotic linezolid. However, the occurrence and dissemination of florfenicol and linezolid cross-resistance genes in anaerobic treatment systems for livestock waste are unknown. Herein, the phenotypes and genotypes (optrA, fexA, fexB, and cfr) of florfenicol and linezolid cross-resistance were investigated in 339 enterococci strains isolated from lab- and full-scale mesophilic anaerobic digestion systems treating swine waste. It was found that optrA, fexA, and fexB were frequently detected in isolated enterococci in both systems by PCR screening, whereas cfr was not detected. The most abundant gene was optrA, which was detected in 73.5% (n = 50) and 38.9% (n = 23) of enterococci isolates in the full-scale influent and effluent, respectively. Most strains carried more than two resistance genes, and the average percentage of co-occurrence of optrA/fexA was 16.6%. Based on minimum inhibitory concentrations of the enterococci strain phenotypes, 85.7%, 77.5%, and 77.5% of strains in influent were resistant to chloramphenicol, florfenicol, and linezolid, respectively, while 56.3%, 65.2%, and 13% in the effluent isolates were found, respectively, which was consistent with the genotype results. The phenotypes and genotypes of florfenicol and linezolid resistance were relative stable in the enterococci isolated from the influent and effluent in lab-scale anaerobic digestion system. The findings signify the enterococci isolates harboring the optrA gene remained in effluents of both full- and lab-scale swine waste anaerobic digestion system; hence, effective management strategies should be implemented to prevent the discharge of antibiotic resistance from the livestock waste treatment systems.