Search Results (3,518)

Microplastics (MPs) pollution caused by agricultural film residues, organic fertilizer application, sewage irrigation, and atmospheric deposition has gradually become an unignorable interference factor to the sustainable development of the rhizosphere soil and crop in farmland. However, their specific impacts on the rhizosphere and crops remain unclear. Therefore, this review focuses on the current knowledge on the response mechanisms of rhizosphere soil and crops to MP contamination. The density of MPs is generally lower than that of soil mineral particles. Their substantial accumulation in soil can significantly reduce both the bulk density (by increasing total porosity) and the particle density (by diluting the heavy solid phase with light plastic components). The introduction of MPs disrupts the normal metabolism of soil bacterial communities; a disruption directly reflected in functional genes associated with carbon cycling. MPs can interfere with the activity of key metabolic enzymes involved in fungal nutrient cycling, thereby disrupting normal energy allocation and material metabolism. Viruses can regulate the turnover and metabolism of microbial communities through lytic and lysogenic cycles, consequently influencing the carbon fate of MPs. The toxicity and underlying mechanisms of MPs on soil fauna primarily manifest in aspects such as feeding behavior, growth and development, oxidative stress, intestinal toxicity, and reproductive toxicity. The direct effects of MPs on plants include physical barriers and mechanical damage, induction of oxidative stress, interference with nutrient uptake, disruption of photosynthesis and carbon metabolism, and disruption of plant hormone networks. This review identifies critical knowledge gaps, particularly regarding crop quality, field-based soil faunal studies, virus-microbe interactions, and degradation products, and proposes future research directions to better understand the risks MPs pose to agricultural sustainability and food safety. Full article

Clays are increasingly incorporated as feed additives for ruminants, partly inspired by animals’ natural geophagic behaviour. However, their effects on rumen function and productivity remain inconsistent in the literature. This meta-analysis synthesised 39 controlled studies (73 treatment means) to quantitatively evaluate the effects of clay supplementation on fermentation, digestibility, metabolic health, and productivity. Clay supplementation improved rumen fermentation efficiency, as indicated by reductions in methane emissions (−20.45%; p < 0.001) and ammonia-N (−11.51%; p = 0.033), along with an increase in propionate production (+4.35%; p = 0.046). These findings are consistent with proposed mechanisms not directly evaluated in this meta-analysis. Total volatile fatty acid concentration (+3.25%; p = 0.20) and rumen pH (+0.25%; p = 0.75) were not significantly altered by clay supplementation. Digestibility responses were moderately improved, particularly for neutral detergent fibre (+7.32%; p = 0.011) and organic matter (+3.06%; p < 0.001). These improvements may reflect enhanced microbial colonisation and substrate utilisation. Blood urea nitrogen decreased (−5.64%; p = 0.002) with minimal systemic effects, consistent with a primarily rumen-localised mode of action. These responses were associated with increases in weight gain (+7.96%; p = 0.002) and milk fat yield (+9.19%; p = 0.030). Meta-regression identified inclusion level and clay type as significant sources of variability (p < 0.05 for multiple outcomes). The findings indicate that clay supplementation supports methane abatement while improving rumen fermentation, digestibility, health, and productivity in ruminants. Full article

Sustainable poultry nutrition is increasingly challenged by feed variability, environmental constraints, resource competition, and the growing demand for precision feeding strategies. Conventional feed evaluation systems based on proximate analysis, static nutrient tables, and empirical formulation are often insufficient to predict the biological and functional value of modern sustainable feed resources. This critical integrative review examines emerging approaches for evaluating and optimizing sustainable feeds in poultry nutrition through the integration of advanced analytical technologies, biological validation systems, omics sciences, and artificial intelligence (AI). This review was developed as a structured narrative review following a Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA)-inspired workflow and organized around an integrated AI–omics–feed evaluation framework. Recent advances in spectroscopy-based analytical techniques, in vitro digestibility systems, microbiomics, metabolomics, nutrigenomics, machine learning, and predictive modeling are discussed in relation to feed characterization, nutrient utilization, host–microbiota interactions, and precision nutrition, with emphasis on the transition from static compositional assessment toward dynamic, system-oriented feed evaluation. Explainability, biological validation, and generalizability of AI-based models across heterogeneous production systems are highlighted as key challenges for practical implementation, alongside emerging frontiers in AI-driven nutritional decision-support. Integrating analytical, biological, molecular, and computational approaches may support adaptive precision nutrition systems capable of improving nutrient efficiency, reducing environmental emissions, and optimizing sustainable poultry production. Full article

In the context of the global shift toward sustainable energy systems and circular economy strategies, anaerobic digestion is a well-established biotechnology for the valorisation of organic residues, the production of biogas as a renewable energy carrier, and the generation of nutrient-rich digestate. This study aimed to evaluate the stability and methane yield of a two-stage co-digestion process using a substrate mixture developed based on the actual feedstock composition of a full-scale agricultural biogas plant. The daily feed mixture consisted of maize silage (8.2%), sugar beet pulp (4.9%), cellulose pulp (6.6%), distillery stillage (38.6%), corn syrup (6.4%), cattle slurry (22.5%) and sterilised animal by-products (12.8%). Digestate was recirculated separately as part of the reactor operation. Laboratory-scale experiments were conducted in a two-stage anaerobic digestion system operated at 42 °C and 50 °C. The physicochemical properties of the substrates and digestate were determined, biogas quantity and composition were monitored, and the microbial community structure was assessed using 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing. The process remained stable throughout the experimental period, with pH values ranging from 8.23 to 8.53, alkalinity between 2600 and 2940 mg CaCO₃/dm³, and a VFAs/alkalinity ratio of 0.17–0.93. Despite ammonium nitrogen concentrations reaching 4346 mg N-NH₄⁺/L, no clear concurrent reduction in gas or methane production was observed. Methane accounted for approximately 70–80% of the biogas produced. The overall specific methane yield reached 346.4 NL CH₄ kg⁻¹ VS added. 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing revealed a diverse microbial community containing taxa previously associated with hydrolysis, fermentation and syntrophic interactions, including Proteiniphilum and Syntrophaceticus. The results demonstrate stable process performance and methane production in this site-specific laboratory-scale case study based on the feedstock composition and process configuration of a full-scale agricultural biogas plant. Full article

Germanium is a critical rare-dispersed metal with irreplaceable applications in infrared optics, fiber-optic communications, and semiconductor industries, making its efficient recovery from secondary resources of great strategic importance. This study investigates the selective recovery of germanium from complex zinc smelting leachates using a novel hydroxamic acid extractant, BGYW, in synergistic combination with P204. The feed solution contained approximately 360 mg/L Ge, 10,790 mg/L Fe²⁺, and 98,530 mg/L Zn, representing a highly complex matrix. Continuous counter-current extraction was performed in a 30-stage miniature mixer-settler. Under optimized conditions of 10% BGYW + 5% P204 in white oil, an O/A ratio of 1:1, and 8 mol/L NH₄F as strippant, the single-stage germanium extraction efficiency reached 99.4%. Over 16 consecutive cycles, the extraction system maintained stable performance with average germanium extraction above 99%. A 3-stage scrubbing section using 50 g/L H₂SO₄ effectively removed co-extracted Zn, Cu, and Al impurities. Iron co-extraction, a major challenge, was successfully mitigated through a 2–3 stage iron scrubbing step using a chloride-containing scrubbing solution, which reduced the iron concentration in the strip liquor from approximately 600 mg/L to below 4 mg/L, and decreased the Fe/Ge mass ratio from 0.197 to below 0.01. The overall germanium recovery across the entire 30-stage continuous process reached 98.82%, and the dissolution loss of BGYW in the aqueous phase was reduced by over 85% compared to the conventional YW100 extractant. Third-phase formation caused by residual organic flocculants from the leaching step was eliminated through enhanced pre-treatment, while ferric fluoride precipitation in the stripping section was resolved by incorporating the iron scrubbing stage. This study demonstrates that the BGYW-P204 extraction system with the integrated iron scrubbing step offers an efficient, stable, and industrially viable approach for germanium recovery from zinc smelting leachates, providing a practical solution to the long-standing challenge of germanium–iron separation and contributing to the sustainable supply of this critical metal. Full article

Valorizing peach pruning residues into alternative feed is a potentially sustainable strategy. In this study, we evaluated the effects of extrusion puffing (EX) and white-rot fungi (Phanerochaete chrysosporium, Irpex lacteus, and Phlebia acerina) on the lignocellulose composition of peach branches. We selected I. lacteus as the best-performing fungus for subsequent investigations of its effects on enzyme activities, in vitro rumen fermentation, and metabolomic analyses. Compared with the control, EX alone reduced the concentrations of cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin by 27.3%, 22.4%, and 9.0%, respectively. The EX combined with I. lacteus (EI) treatment showed high selectivity for lignin degradation relative to cellulose degradation and increased β-glucosidase activity in the middle stage (days 14 and 21) compared with I. lacteus treatment (p < 0.05). Through metabolomic analysis, we identified organic acids and their derivatives (mainly carboxylic acids) as the most abundant superclass. On day 28, betaine and L-leucine were enriched in the fermented samples, and their abundances appeared to be descriptively associated with the enzyme activity patterns observed at this time point. In conclusion, the EI treatment represents a potential approach for altering the composition of peach branches; however, its practical benefits must be weighed against the energy input required and the complexity of the process. In this work, we provide a theoretical foundation for feed-oriented valorization of orchard pruning residues. Further studies are needed to assess economic feasibility and scale-up performance. Full article

Digital transformation in agricultural production requires automated approaches for monitoring, risk assessment, and decision support under uncertainty. This study proposes an automated risk assessment and control framework for feed production in digital agroengineering systems. The framework is designed for the quantitative evaluation of producer and consumer risks arising during the control of key feed-quality parameters, using the case of feed production for cattle in the OHMK agricultural holding. The proposed approach integrates probabilistic modeling, simulation-based risk estimation, fuzzy logic, expert evaluation, and a multi-agent representation of agroengineering processes. A three-dimensional risk model is developed to represent producer risk, consumer risk, and actuarial risk as interconnected components of a digital control environment. In addition, a fuzzy model is introduced to assess the robustness and digital maturity of management functions, including organization, planning, motivation, and control. Computer experiments based on statistical data for crude protein content in silage demonstrate that control risks depend nonlinearly on measurement uncertainty, parameter variability, and normative thresholds. In the analyzed single-indicator case study, the arithmetic mean of crude protein content in silage was 7.5% of dry matter, the standard deviation was 0.5, and the Weibull approximation parameters were α = 1.0, β = 2.5, and γ = 6.0. Under the most sensitive normative threshold scenario, producer risk increased to approximately 25%, while consumer risk showed a lower but nonlinear increase with measurement uncertainty. The results show that producer risk may reach significant levels when measurement uncertainty becomes comparable with the variability of the controlled parameter. The proposed framework can serve as a computational basis for future automated monitoring, risk-aware control, and decision-support systems in Industry 4.0-oriented agricultural production. Full article

Durum wheat straw is an abundant by-product in Mediterranean cereal systems, but its low protein and high fiber content limit its use as ruminant feed. Integrating forage legumes as living mulches in durum wheat may enhance its feeding value through the addition of nutrient-rich legume biomass. A two-year field trial evaluated three forage legumes (Vicia sativa L., Trifolium michelianum Savi, Trifolium subterraneum L.) grown as living mulch with organic durum wheat (Triticum turgidum subsp. durum (Desf.) Husn.) under two NPK fertilization rates (target 60 and 120 kg N ha⁻¹), with or without rhizobial inoculation. Chemical composition and forage quality indices were determined for sole-wheat straw (SB) and legume biomass (LB) and subsequently used to estimate the nutritional characteristics of wheat straw–legume biomass mixtures (TSB). Biomass production was significantly affected by legume species in the first growing season and by legume species and rhizobial inoculation in the second, with Vicia sativa consistently showing the best performances. Correlation analysis showed that increasing LB contribution was significantly associated with all forage quality indices of the resulting TSB. These results indicate that rhizobially inoculated forage legume living mulch may improve the potential use of wheat straw as an on-farm feed resource in Mediterranean organic farming. Full article

The sustainability of livestock production currently faces a challenge due to the need to meet a growing demand for animal protein while simultaneously addressing the urgent need to reduce its environmental footprint. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of Musa spp. waste fodder on ruminal fermentation and mitigation of gas, CH₄ and CO₂ production in vitro. Waste forage (leaves) was collected immediately after harvesting the fruit of Musa acuminata, Musa balbisiana, and Musa paradisiaca (six production farms were selected for each Musa spp.; 20 kg of fresh forage was collected from each farm). A completely randomized design was used, with three treatments (M. acuminata, M. balbisiana, and M. paradisiaca) and six repetitions (production farms). The digestibility of dry matter (DM) and organic matter (OM) was higher (p = 0.0001) in the waste forage of M. balbisiana (399.3 and 438.6 g/kg, respectively) compared to the other forages evaluated. In the volatile fatty acids, no differences were observed (p > 0.05). Gas production was lower (p < 0.0001) in M. acuminata and M. balbisiana. However, CH₄ production was lower (p < 0.0001) only in M. acuminata. Regarding CO₂ production, it was lower (p < 0.0001) in M. acuminata and M. balbisiana. In conclusion, Musa spp. fodder can be used for ruminant feed due to its high protein content, which in tropical and subtropical regions can be higher than that of many grasses. However, its recommendation and strategic utility for the mitigation of greenhouse gases must be distinguished according to the mitigation objective, since M. balbisiana optimizes the reduction in total gas and CO₂, while M. acuminata does so with CH₄, seeking to maximize the sustainability of livestock production systems, promoting the development of cleaner and more resilient agriculture. Full article

Background: The World Health Organization recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life, with continued breastfeeding alongside complementary feeding up to two years or beyond. However, many mothers are unable to meet their breastfeeding expectations, resulting in a significant emotional impact shaped by social, cultural, and occupational factors. Objective: The aim of this study was to explore mothers’ perceptions and experiences of desired but unattained breastfeeding, with particular attention to its cultural–religious dimension. Methods: A qualitative descriptive study within an interpretivist paradigm was conducted between September 2024 and February 2025. Thirty women (15 Christian and 15 Muslim) receiving care from a primary care midwife in a Spanish city in North Africa participated. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analysed using inductive thematic analysis following Braun and Clarke’s approach. Results: Four main themes were identified: (1) emotional experiences and feelings, (2) reasons for breastfeeding discontinuation, (3) contextual and structural barriers, and (4) the influence of the social environment and support networks. Although both groups shared emotions such as guilt, frustration, and sadness, some differences were observed in how breastfeeding discontinuation was interpreted and experienced within this sample. Several Muslim participants expressed distress in relation to maternal identity and perceived maternal inadequacy, whereas several Christian participants more frequently emphasised contextual factors such as perceived lack of support or social pressure. Conclusions: The experience of desired but unattained breastfeeding is complex and may be shaped by cultural–religious context alongside individual, social, and structural factors. Integrating a transcultural approach into healthcare provision may improve emotional support and help reduce the burden of guilt and distress associated with breastfeeding discontinuation. Full article

Mycotoxin contamination remains a persistent threat to food and feed safety owing to the chemical stability of many mycotoxins, frequent co-occurrence, and matrix-dependent risks. Enzymatic detoxification enables structure-targeted transformation of toxicity-determining motifs, such as epoxide rings, reactive double bonds, amide linkages, and lactone structures. However, free mycotoxin-degrading enzymes are often constrained by poor operational stability, difficult recovery, and limited adaptability to complex matrices. Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) provide programmable microenvironments for enzyme immobilization through tunable pore structures, interfacial chemistry, and confinement effects. This review links toxic structural motifs with enzymatic transformation targets, discusses MOF–enzyme interface engineering and representative host–enzyme compatibility, and evaluates application modes including single-enzyme systems, multi-enzyme co-immobilization or cascade systems, adsorption–degradation coupling, and detection–degradation integration. Key bottlenecks involving enzyme leakage, mass-transfer limitation, real-matrix stability, scalable preparation, and biosafety are critically discussed. Rather than treating MOFs as passive enzyme carriers, this review proposes an application-oriented framework that integrates toxin structure, enzyme function, MOF interface regulation, matrix compatibility, and safety validation to guide the development of MOF-immobilized degrading enzymes for practical mycotoxin detoxification. Full article

Insect protein farming offers sustainable advantages in land efficiency, emission reductions, and bioconversion, yet optimizing the nutrient composition remains a major challenge for cost-effective production. This study investigates the co-regulatory mechanism between alkali-soluble protein (SpA) and the gut microbiota in black soldier fly larvae (Hermetia illucens) and their effect on protein conversion efficiency. Feeding trials with varying alfalfa/SpA ratios identified a wheat middlings/alfalfa meal blend at a (5:0 ratio) as optimal for promoting larval protein accumulation. SDS-PAGE and 16S rRNA analyses revealed a strong positive correlation between SpA and larval crude protein (R² = 0.82). The network analysis and Pearson correlation heatmap further confirmed positive correlations among SpA, larval protein, Enterococcus, and Ignatzschineria (p < 0.05), suggesting that high SpA in the substrate was associated with the enrichment of these taxa, which synergistically enhanced proteolysis through alkaline protease secretion (R² = 0.85) and chitinase-mediated gut remodeling. Multi-linear regression modeling verified SpA as a superior predictor of the crude protein content compared with total nitrogen (TN), improving the model’s coefficient of determination (R²) from 0.40 to 0.82. These findings highlight SpA’s higher bioavailability and its direct role in metabolic utilization. By integrating the feed composition, microbiome function, and host metabolism, this study established a regulatory network driving larval protein biosynthesis. The targeted modulation of dietary SpA content may offer a promising approach to enhance beneficial microbial communities and improve protein conversion efficiency in BSFL-rearing systems. These findings provide a theoretical basis for optimizing feed formulations to support sustainable insect protein production from organic waste. Full article

Irisin is a myokine derived from fibronectin type III domain-containing protein 5 (FNDC5) and is involved in energy metabolism, muscle development, and oxidative regulation. Although irisin has been extensively studied in mammals, its potential application in poultry production remains unclear. Enhancing growth performance and physiological resilience is critical for male white-feathered broiler chickens under intensive production systems. This study investigated the effects of dietary irisin supplementation on growth performance and physiological responses in male white-feathered broiler chickens. A total of 180 broilers were randomly allocated to three treatments, with six replicate pens of ten birds per treatment: basal diet and basal diet supplemented with 5 and 10 mg/kg irisin for 42 days. At 42 days, one bird from each replicate pen was sampled for carcass, meat-quality, serum, immune, and microbiota analyses. Dietary irisin supplementation significantly increased final body weight and average daily gain compared with the control group. Feed conversion ratio decreased from 1.51 in the control group to 1.46 in the 5 and 10 mg/kg groups. Carcass evaluation showed higher slaughter yield and breast muscle yield in irisin-supplemented birds, and cooking loss was significantly reduced in both breast and thigh muscles. Serum superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity was elevated in irisin-treated groups. In addition, immunoglobulin Y (IgY) and immunoglobulin M (IgM) concentrations were significantly increased. No significant treatment effects were observed for total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC), catalase (CAT), malondialdehyde (MDA), inflammatory cytokines (IL-6, TNF-α), or immune organ indices (thymus, spleen and bursa of Fabricius). Gut microbiota analysis showed numerical differences in the relative abundance of several major bacterial taxa among treatments. In conclusion, dietary irisin supplementation was associated with improved growth performance and selected carcass, meat-quality, antioxidant, immunoglobulin, and cecal microbiota outcomes in male white-feathered broiler chickens, supporting further investigation of its potential as a functional feed additive in poultry nutrition. Full article

Large language models are increasingly embedded in e-commerce assistants that recommend links to shopping destinations. When the candidate set contains adversarially crafted phishing URLs, a fluent model can recommend a malicious link with the same confidence it recommends a legitimate one, turning a helpful assistant into a delivery channel for fraud. Rather than treating phishing defense as per-link URL classification, this work frames the problem as recommendation-level exposure minimization: the output set itself must be secured, and a recommendation is counted as useful and safe only when it surfaces a benign destination and exposes no phishing URL. We first organize phishing URL constructions into four families spanning brand padding, typosquatting, homograph substitution, and subdomain impersonation, and use them to build candidate pools that mix benign links with plausible distractors. Evaluating four widely used open models under prompt-only defenses reveals a persistent gap: the strongest prompt baseline reaches only a 47.4 percent four-model average useful-safe rate, and weaker models fall below 20 percent even after careful prompting. We then present SAFER, a Security-Adaptive Filtering framework for Exposure-Minimized URL Recommendation. SAFER separates contextual selection from safety admission by coupling a deterministic lexical and structural pre-filter, an evidence-augmented single reasoning pass, and a deny-by-default post-verification stage with a deterministic fallback. The same deterministic URL evidence is injected before generation to condition the model’s reasoning and reused after generation to constrain which model-selected URLs may reach the user. SAFER issues exactly one model call per query, matching the prompt baselines, so its gains come from structure rather than additional inference. Across the four models SAFER raises the average useful-safe rate to 87.0 percent, a 39.6-point improvement over the best prompt baseline, and the deny-by-default stage yields a positive net gain for every model, largest where the model is weakest. Shrinking the deterministic layer’s brand coverage in a held-out analysis degrades the pipeline gracefully rather than collapsing it, indicating that within the range we tested its robustness does not rest solely on memorizing a fixed brand list. Additional robustness experiments confirm that SAFER transfers to real phishing URLs from the OpenPhish feed, generalizes to unseen attack families, maintains zero exposure on hard benign negatives, outperforms supervised URL classifiers as an admission gate, and maintains exposure minimization under realistic pool structures within the evaluated threat model. Full article

Ruminal acidosis, particularly subacute ruminal acidosis, remains a major metabolic disorder that compromises animal health, production efficiency, and the sustainability of intensive ruminant systems. Although traditionally defined by reduced ruminal pH, it is increasingly recognized as a multidimensional disorder involving microbial ecological destabilization, disrupted metabolic cross-feeding, impaired epithelial barrier function, and dysregulated host inflammatory responses. This review synthesizes current knowledge of the microbial and metabolic mechanisms underlying acute and subacute ruminal acidosis and highlights processes that extend beyond pH depression alone. High-concentrate feeding shifts the balance among amylolytic and lactate-producing microorganisms, lactate-utilizing populations, and fibrolytic guilds, thereby promoting organic acid accumulation, reducing functional redundancy, and weakening microbial resilience. Concurrent increases in volatile fatty acids, lactate, lipopolysaccharide, histamine, and other microbially derived bioactive compounds increase epithelial acid load, disrupt tight-junction integrity, and facilitate inflammatory signaling. The principal novelty of this review is the integration of microbial functional guilds, metabolic cross-feeding, ecological resilience, epithelial barrier dysfunction, and host inflammation into a unified microbiota–metabolism–barrier–inflammation framework linking dietary perturbation with microbial dysfunction and host pathology. We further critically evaluate nutritional regulation, buffering agents, probiotics, yeast-derived products, postbiotics, and plant bioactive compounds according to their capacity to restore microbial function rather than merely correct ruminal pH. Additionally, this review may support multidimensional risk assessment, guide targeted intervention, and facilitate the integration of continuous ruminal monitoring with precision nutrition for earlier prediction and individualized prevention of ruminal acidosis. Full article