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Not AvailableBack yard poultry, a common livelihood for poor farmers in Andaman & Nicobar Islands is facing recession due to prohibitive feed cost. This paper has examined the prospects of supplementing commercial feed with raw Azolla (Azolla pinnata), a nutrient-rich water fern, originally imported from mainland India, but adapted well to the local ecosystem, on the production performance of Nicobari fowl. There has been no such study earlier. Forty-week old, 72 chicks were divided into two groups of 36 birds for the study. The control group was given commercial feed (basal diet) at the rate of 120 g per chick per day, while the experimental group was given raw Azolla, at the rate of 200 g per chick per day in separate feeder, in addition to 120 g of basal diet, from 45-60 weeks. The growth, feed conversion efficiency, hen housed egg production, immunocompetence, and economic impact of supplementation were assessed. The final body weight of the birds (1560.0±26.8 g), and gain in body weight/ day (2.77±1.78 g) were higher, and the feed conversion ratio (36.10 ± 1.19 g) was better in Azolla supplemented group than the birds in control group, during the experimental period (P0.05). The mean hen housed egg production/ week between 45-60 weeks in Azolla fed group (64.76±1.57) was not different (P0.05) from the control (65.25±1.51), so also weekly egg production in different weeks, e.g. 45-48, 49- 52, 53-56, and 57-60 weeks. There was no difference (P0.05) between the two groups with respect to immunocompetence, measured in terms of HI titre, MER titre, Foot Index, and total serum protein concentration. There was 30.73% reduction (P0.01) in feed consumption in Azolla supplemented group that culminated in 0.76 savings on feed cost per egg per day over the control. The study tends to conclude that Azolla is a good feed additive for sustainable egg production in Nicobari fowl with no reconciliation in immunocompetence, but profitable due to savings on feed cost. The role of Azolla as a feed additive for economising poultry production was not reported earlier.Not Availabl

Colorimetric Sensor Array Based on Gold Nanoparticles and Amino Acids for Identification of Toxic Metal Ions in Water

A facile colorimetric sensor array for detection of multiple toxic heavy metal ions (Hg2+, Cd2+, Fe3+, Pb2+, Al3+, Cu2+, and Cr3+) in water is demonstrated using 11-mercaptoundecanoic acid (MUA)-capped gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) and five amino acids (lysine, cysteine, histidine, tyrosine, and arginine). The presence of amino acids (which have functional groups that can form complexes with metal ions and MUA) regulates the aggregation of MUA-capped particles; it can either enhance or diminish the particle aggregation. The combinatorial colorimetric response of all channels of the sensor array (i.e., color change in each of AuNP and amino acid couples) enables naked-eye discrimination of all of the metal ions tested in this study with excellent selectivity