Ministry of Agriculture

About: Ministry of Agriculture is a government organization based out in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Biology & Chemistry. The organization has 1153 authors who have published 1189 publications receiving 14442 citations.

Zebrafish as an alternative animal model in human and animal vaccination research

Abstract: Much of medical research relies on animal models to deepen knowledge of the causes of animal and human diseases, as well as to enable the development of innovative therapies. Despite rodents being the most widely used research model worldwide, in recent decades, the use of the zebrafish (Danio rerio) model has exponentially been adopted among the scientific community. This is because such a small tropical freshwater teleost fish has crucial genetic, anatomical and physiological homology with mammals. Therefore, zebrafish constitutes an excellent experimental model for behavioral, genetic and toxicological studies which unravels the mechanism of various human diseases. Furthermore, it serves well to test new therapeutic agents, such as the safety of new vaccines. The aim of this review was to provide a systematic literature review on the most recent studies carried out on the topic. It presents numerous advantages of this type of animal model in tests of efficacy and safety of both animal and human vaccines, thus highlighting gains in time and cost reduction of research and analyzes.

Spatio‐temporal shifts of the dynamic Cape fur seal population in southern Africa, based on aerial censuses (1972–2009)

Abstract: A time series of aerial censuses of Cape fur seal colonies, spanning four decades (1972–2009) and three countries (South Africa, Namibia, and Angola), was analyzed to assess spatio-temporal changes in population numbers. A weighted quantile regression approach was used to estimate trends in pup counts that were used as proxies for numbers of older animals at breeding colonies. There was a 74% increase in the number of breeding colonies over the study period, from 23 in 1973 to 40 in 2009. There was also a significant northward shift in the distribution of the breeding population. This was largely attributable to events in the northern part of the population's range coinciding with Namibia, where seal numbers declined at most colonies in the south of Namibia while several new breeding colonies developed in the northern part of Namibia and one in southern Angola. Despite range expansion and the development of new colonies, the overall size of the population in 2009 was similar to that of the early 1990s, according to the pup count models. Potential mechanisms for the observed changes, and their management implications, are discussed.

Cooccurrence of mycotoxins in maize and poultry feeds from Brazil by liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry.

Abstract: The objective of this study was to quantitatively evaluate mycotoxins in samples of maize and poultry feed produced in Brazil. A multimycotoxin method based on HPLC-MS/MS was applied to investigate the occurrence of toxical fungal metabolites in 119 samples collected from poultry feed factory integrated poultry farms: maize grain (74), poultry feed (36), and feed factory residue (9). Twenty of 101 fungal metabolites investigated were detected and quantified in the samples: aflatoxins B1, B2, G1, and G2, fumonisins B1, B2, and B3, hydrolyzed fumonisin B1, zearalenone, agroclavine, chanoclavine, deoxynivalenol, and nivalenol, and enniatin A, A1, B, B1, beauvericin, kojic acid, and moniliformin. Most samples were contaminated with more than one mycotoxin. All samples were contaminated with fumonisins, with medians values of 1,840 μg/kg, 239 μg/kg, and 23,676 μg/kg for maize, feed, and factory residue samples, respectively. Surprisingly, beauvericin was detected in more than 90% of samples. The median contaminations of aflatoxin and trichothecenes were low, near LOD values. The factory residue presented highest contamination levels for all mycotoxins. This is the first study dealing with agroclavine, chanoclavine, enniatin A, A1, B, B1, beauvericin, and kojic acid contamination of maize and poultry feeds from Brazil.

Simultaneous determination of chloramphenicol and florfenicol in liquid milk, milk powder and bovine muscle by LC-MS/MS.

Abstract: A validated method based on European and Brazilian legislation is reported. It is applicable to the simultaneous determination of chloramphenicol (CAP) and florfenicol (FF) by LC-MS/MS in liquid milk, milk powder and bovine muscle. The chromatographic analysis is completed in 6 min and the extraction procedure is very simple, involving only one step liquid-extraction with ethyl acetate. Where it proved necessary to include clean-up, an efficient and rapid step using C18-dispersive solid was added. Initially, a complete validation was performed with liquid milk matrix; later the scope was extended to the other matrices through extending the inter-day precision (within laboratory reproducibility) RSD values. An internal standard (d(5)-CAP) was employed for quantitative purposes. The method was shown to have good accuracy and precision for determining CAP residues at the level of 0.3-0.6 g kg(-1) and FF residues at the level of 5-15 µg kg(-1).

Influência do nitrogênio e do fósforo na produção do capim-braquiária

Abstract: Este experimento foi conduzido para avaliar a producao de MS, a relacao folha:colmo, o teor de PB e a eficiencia de resposta ao nitrogenio da folha e do colmo do capim-braquiaria adubado com diferentes doses de nitrogenio e de fosforo durante o verao. Utilizou-se o delineamento experimental inteiramente casualizado, com tres repeticoes, em esquema fatorial 4 × 3, composto de quatro doses de nitrogenio (N) (0, 100, 200 e 300 kg/ha/ano), utilizando-se o sulfato de amonio, e tres doses de P2O5 (0, 50 e 100 kg/ha/ano), utilizando-se o superfosfato simples. A quantidade de K aplicada foi de 40 kg/ha/ano. Os cortes (a 20 cm do solo) foram realizados em intervalos de 28 dias, totalizando tres cortes durante o experimento. Apos cada corte, foi realizada adubacao, conforme os tratamentos. A adubacao nitrogenada afetou a producao de MS, que apresentou valores maximos de 5.345,6 e 4.857,7 kg/ha para folha e colmo, respectivamente. A relacao folha:colmo foi maior (1,31) na dose de N de 200 kg/ha, independentemente da dose de fosforo. A adubacao nitrogenada teve efeito quadratico sobre o teor de PB das folhas e efeito linear sobre o teor de PB no colmo. A adubacao com fosforo, no entanto, nao teve efeito sobre essas variaveis. A eficiencia de utilizacao do N teve efeito quadratico quando utilizadas doses crescentes de N. O ponto de maxima foi obtido com 245,3 kg de N, dose que proporcionou 18,84 kg de MS/kg de N.