| 1. |
- Beech, Jason P., et al.
(författare)
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The separation and identification of parasite eggs from horse feces
- 2019
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Ingår i: 23rd International Conference on Miniaturized Systems for Chemistry and Life Sciences, MicroTAS 2019. - 9781733419000 ; , s. 602-603
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Freely grazing horses are at risk of infection by parasites such as Parascaris equorum (roundworm), Strongylus spp. (large bloodworms), Cyathostomes (small bloodworms), and Anoplochephala perfoliata (tapeworms). Mixed infections are common and diagnosis is based on demonstrations of eggs in feces followed by identification of larvae after fecal culture. Drug resistance is a growing problem, not least because treatments tend to be cheaper than diagnosis and “just in case” treatments common. There is a need for improved methods that are easy to use, rapid and cheap. Furthermore, a successful approach may find use with other livestock such as ruminants and pigs.
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| 2. |
- Mafla-Endara, Paola M, et al.
(författare)
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Exposure to polystyrene nanoplastics reduces bacterial and fungal biomass in microfabricated soil models
- 2023
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Ingår i: Science of the Total Environment. - 1879-1026. ; 904
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Nanoplastics have been proven to induce toxicity in diverse organisms, yet their effect on soil microbes like bacteria and fungi remains largely unexplored. In this paper, we used micro-engineered soil models to investigate the effect of polystyrene (PS) nanospheres on Pseudomonas putida and Coprinopsis cinerea. Specifically, we explored the effects of increasing concentrations of 60 nm carboxylated bovine serum albumin (BSA) coated nanospheres (0, 0.5, 2, and 10 mg/L) on these bacterial and fungal model organisms respectively, over time. We found that both microorganisms could disperse through the PS solution, but long-distance dispersal was reduced by high concentrations. Microbial biomass decreased in all treatments, in which bacteria showed a linear dose response with the strongest effect at 10 mg/L concentration, and fungi showed a non-linear response with the strongest effect at 2 mg/L concentration. At the highest nanoplastics concentration, the first colonizing fungal hyphae adsorbed most of the PS nanospheres present in their vicinity, in a process that we termed the 'vacuum cleaner effect'. As a result, the toxicity effect of the original treatment on subsequently growing fungal hyphae was reduced to a growth level indistinguishable from the control. We did not find evidence that nanoplastics are able to penetrate bacterial nor fungal cell walls. Overall, our findings provide evidence that nanoplastics can cause a direct negative effect on soil microbes and highlight the need for further studies that can explain how the microbial stress response might affect soil functions.
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