The control of sea lice in Atlantic salmon by selective breeding

Sea lice threaten the welfare of farmed Atlantic salmon and the sustainability of fish farming across the world. Chemical treatments are the major method of control but drug resistance means that alternatives are urgently needed. Selective breeding can be a cheap and effective alternative. Here, we combine experimental trials and diagnostics to provide a practical protocol for quantifying resistance to sea lice. We then combined quantitative genetics with epidemiological modelling to make the first prediction of the response to selection, quantified in terms of reduced need for chemical treatments. We infected over 1400 young fish with Lepeophtheirus salmonis, the most important species in the Northern Hemisphere. Mechanisms of resistance were expressed early in infection. Consequently, the number of lice per fish and the ranking of families were very similar at 7 and 17 days post infection, providing a stable window for assessing susceptibility to infection. The heritability of lice numbers within this time window was moderately high at 0.3, confirming that selective breeding is viable. We combined an epidemiological model of sea lice infection and control on a salmon farm with genetic variation in susceptibility among individuals. We simulated 10 generations of selective breeding and examined the frequency of treatments needed to control infection. Our model predicted that substantially fewer chemical treatments are needed to control lice outbreaks in selected populations and chemical treatment could be unnecessary after 10 generations of selection. Selective breeding for sea lice resistance should reduce the impact of sea lice on fish health and thus substantially improve the sustainability of Atlantic salmon production.     

国有基层水管单位困境及其出路

针对贺州地区基层水管单位存在的农业水价低、水费征收难和经济困难等现状,对基层水管单位的出路进行了一些探索,提出了一些解决对策。     

Assessment of the energy and exergy utilization efficiencies in the Turkish agricultural sector

This study deals with evaluating the energy and exergy utilization efficiencies in the Turkish agricultural sector over a 12‐year period from 1990 to 2001. In the energy and exergy analyses, two main energy sources, namely fuels and electricity, are taken into consideration, while the sectoral energy and exergy efficiencies are compared for this period. These main energy sources include diesel for tractors and other vehicles, and electricity for pumps. Overall energy utilization efficiencies are obtained to vary between 29.1 and 41.1%, while overall exergy utilization efficiencies are found to range from 27.9 to 37.4% in the analysed years, respectively. It may be concluded that the present technique proposed here may be used as a useful tool in analysing and evaluating the energy and exergy utilization efficiencies, identifying energy efficiency and/or energy conservation opportunities and dictating the energy strategies of countries. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

房地产项目开发建设中住宅整体质量问题探析

商品住宅的质量关系着国家的未来和房地产业的兴旺,本文试图对住宅产品的质量现状、问题及成因进行分析,在此基础上提出进一步提高品住宅整体质量的看法:     

对浙江农业优势状况的总体分析

先对浙江农业总体优势状况进行了分析,再对浙江农业内部各大部门优劣势进行分析,得出林业、渔业具有相对比较优势的结论.     

采用B/S架构设计与实现超市配送系统

系统采用B/S架构。整个系统由六大模块构成,分别是人员基本信息管理模块、商品信息管理模块、连锁店管理模块、商品入库管理模块、商品配送管理模块、退出系统模块。整个系统能够独立运行,使用方便,能够及时地分析企业进销存情况,提高工作效率,能给企业带来更大的利益。     

Water-saving strategies for irrigation agriculture in Saudi Arabia

Agriculture policy changes in Saudi Arabia are investigated by water footprint (WF) assessment. WF is calculated with the model SPARE:WATER for 3758 irrigated sites. The WF of agriculture areas (WF_area, km³ yr^?1) has decreased (–17%) since the year 2000 to 13.84 km³ yr^?1 (2011), which is mainly caused by the reduction of cropland by –33%. Nevertheless, water consumption per field has increased about 16%, which can be attributed to the cultivation of fodder crops (+12%). A scenario analysis revealed that a shifting cropping pattern towards less fodder crops reduces WF_area by –15%, and implementing improved irrigation technology leads to a combined reduction of up to 32%     

Alternative technologies for biotechnological fuel ethanol manufacturing

The challenges of implementing biorefineries on a global scale include socioeconomic, financial, and technological constraints. In particular, the development of biorefineries is tightly linked to the continued availability of fermentation raw materials. These constraints can be relaxed by the use of diverse raw materials, while advances that confer higher flexibility would enable biotechnological plant managers to swiftly react to volatile markets. In conventional processes, Saccharomyces cerevisiae grows on a relatively limited range of substrates, and produces only a single product—ethanol. Given the observed maturity of the S. cerevisiae fermentation technology, alternatives to baker's yeast may be needed to tip the economic balance in favour of biotechnological ethanol. These alternative fermentation technologies may allow a greater diversity of substrates to be used to produce an individually tailored mix of ethanol and other chemicals. Copyright © 2007 Society of Chemical Industry