Nutritional Studies on Partial and Total Replacement of Fishmeal by Jojoba Meal (Simmondsia chinensis) in Nile Tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) Fingerlings Diets

Chemical composition, in vitro digestibility, and storability of selected agro-industrial by-products: Alternative ruminant feed ingredients in Israel

The global demand for animal-based products is rising in the face of dwindling feed resources, and yet a huge pool of agro-industrial by-products (AIBPs) are generated, underutilized, and improperly deposited to landfills leading to environmental pollution. Ruminants have a special microbiome that can bioprocess and convert human inedible fibrous material into meat and milk, which appears as a great opportunity to simultaneously reduce pollution while promoting food security. In this study, we collected 15 domestically produced AIBPs from various regions of Israel during both winter and summer seasons to examine their potential as ruminant feed alternatives. We evaluated their storability, nutritional composition, and in vitro digestibility and performed a hierarchical cluster analysis to categorize them based on their distinctive nutritional characteristics. Among the 15 AIBPs, 8 have rich essential nutrients, and minerals, and have excellent in vitro digestibility, but they have less than 6 days of storability and develop off-odours. Out of 15 AIBPs; 8 have low dry matter (DM) content, ranging from 4.7% to 30.45% while the remaining 7 AIBPs have high DM, ranging from 50.6% to 98.6%. The high crude protein (CP) category included 6 AIBPs with CP ranging from 19.7% in beer pulp to 32.1% in jojoba cake. Starch content was high in 3 AIBPs ranging from 33.7% in timorim mix to 65.2% in Irish potato culls. Considerable crude fat content was reported in 4 AIBPs, the highest being yoghurt waste with 42.8%. In terms of neutral detergent fiber (NDF), 5 AIBPs had low NDF content ranging from 0% to 14.1%; 5 AIBPs had moderate concentration ranging from 34.3% to 50.7%, and 5 AIBPs had high levels between 66.6% and 82.8%. Interestingly, 10/15 AIBPs had medium to high in vitro dry matter digestibility (IVDMD). This study, therefore, suggests that recycling AIPBs for livestock nutrition has enormous potential that is still underutilized and offers excellent ways to gain socioeconomic and environmental benefits by expanding animal feed resources and reducing feed-food competition, and landfill burden. However, additional studies are necessary to focus on affordable storage technology to prolong the storability of AIBPs and feeding trials to determine the productive performance of livestock fed an AIBPs-based diet.

A review on plant importance, biotechnological aspects, and cultivation challenges of jojoba plant

Jojoba is considered a promising oil crop and is cultivated for diverse purposes in many countries. The jojoba seed produces unique high-quality oil with a wide range of applications such as medical and industrial-related products. The plant also has potential value in combatting desertification and land degradation in dry and semi-dry areas. Although the plant is known for its high-temperature and high-salinity tolerance growth ability, issues such as its male-biased ratio, relatively late flowering and seed production time hamper the cultivation of this plant. The development of efficient biotechnological platforms for better cultivation and an improved production cycle is a necessity for farmers cultivating the plant. In the last 20 years, many efforts have been made for in vitro cultivation of jojoba by applying different molecular biology techniques. However, there is a lot of work to be done in order to reach satisfactory results that help to overcome cultivation problems. This review presents a historical overview, the medical and industrial importance of the jojoba plant, agronomy aspects and nutrient requirements for the plant's cultivation, and the role of recent biotechnology and molecular biology findings in jojoba research.

Role of medicinal plants on growth performance and immune status in fish

Disease outbreaks increase proportionally with increases in intensive aquaculture. Natural products including medicinal plants have been known from thousands of years for treating some human diseases. It is well known that many active compounds are responsible for potential bio-activities. For that reason, there has been considerable interest in the use of medicinal plants in aquaculture with a view to providing safe and eco-friendly compounds for replacing antibiotics and chemical compounds as well as to enhance immune status and control fish diseases. This article describes a wide range of medicinal plants such as herbs, seeds, and spices with different forms such as crude, extracts, mixed and active compounds, used as immunostimulants and resulting in a marked enhancement in the immune system of fish to prevent and control microbial diseases. Moreover, different activity was recorded from plant parts like seeds, roots, flowers and leaves. The mode of action of medicinal plants was stimulation of the cellular and humoral immune response which was monitored through elevation in immune parameters. Various levels of immune stimulation have been shown by medicinal plants at different concentrations through injection or immersion or oral administration. However, it is critically important to determine the optimal dose to enhance the immune system of fish and avoid the risk of immunosuppression. Some medicinal plants have been used to replace the protein in fishmeal as a cheap source of protein and proved to be efficient in this respect. Medicinal plants can act as a growth promoter and immunomodulator at the same time. Further investigations should be carried out to examine the influence of those plants on fish health (including physiological and histological parameters) as a preliminary step for use in large scale in aquaculture. The current review describes the role of medicinal plants and their derivatives on innate and adaptive immune status as well as growth performance in fish.