Interactive SARS-CoV-2 dashboard for real-time geospatial visualisation of sewage and clinical surveillance data from Dhaka, Bangladesh: a tool for public health situational awareness.

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, many dashboards were created to visualise clinical case incidence. Other dashboards have displayed SARS-CoV-2 sewage data, largely from countries with formal sewage networks. However, very few dashboards from low-income and lower-middle-income countries integrated both clinical and sewage data sets. We created a dashboard to track in real-time both COVID-19 clinical cases and the level of SARS-CoV-2 virus in sewage in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The development of this dashboard was a collaborative iterative process with Bangladesh public health stakeholders to include specific features to address their needs. The final dashboard product provides spatiotemporal visualisations of COVID-19 cases and SARS-CoV-2 viral load at 51 sewage collection sites in 21 wards in Dhaka since 24 March 2020. Our dashboard was updated weekly for the Bangladesh COVID-19 national task force to provide supplemental data for public health stakeholders making public policy decisions on mitigation efforts. Here, we highlight the importance of working closely with public health stakeholders to create a COVID-19 dashboard for public health impact. In the future, the dashboard can be expanded to track trends of other infectious diseases as sewage surveillance is increased for other pathogens.

Real-time sewage surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 in Dhaka, Bangladesh versus clinical COVID-19 surveillance: a longitudinal environmental surveillance study (December, 2019-December, 2021).

BACKGROUND: Clinical surveillance for COVID-19 has typically been challenging in low-income and middle-income settings. From December, 2019, to December, 2021, we implemented environmental surveillance in a converging informal sewage network in Dhaka, Bangladesh, to investigate SARS-CoV-2 transmission across different income levels of the city compared with clinical surveillance. METHODS: All sewage lines were mapped, and sites were selected with estimated catchment populations of more than 1000 individuals. We analysed 2073 sewage samples, collected weekly from 37 sites, and 648 days of case data from eight wards with varying socioeconomic statuses. We assessed the correlations between the viral load in sewage samples and clinical cases. FINDINGS: SARS-CoV-2 was consistently detected across all wards (low, middle, and high income) despite large differences in reported clinical cases and periods of no cases. The majority of COVID-19 cases (26 256 [55·1%] of 47 683) were reported from Ward 19, a high-income area with high levels of clinical testing (123 times the number of tests per 100 000 individuals compared with Ward 9 [middle-income] in November, 2020, and 70 times the number of tests per 100 000 individuals compared with Ward 5 [low-income] in November, 2021), despite containing only 19·4% of the study population (142 413 of 734 755 individuals). Conversely, a similar quantity of SARS-CoV-2 was detected in sewage across different income levels (median difference in high-income vs low-income areas: 0·23 log10 viral copies + 1). The correlation between the mean sewage viral load (log10 viral copies + 1) and the log10 clinical cases increased with time (r = 0·90 in July-December, 2021 and r=0·59 in July-December, 2020). Before major waves of infection, viral load quantity in sewage samples increased 1-2 weeks before the clinical cases. INTERPRETATION: This study demonstrates the utility and importance of environmental surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 in a lower-middle-income country. We show that environmental surveillance provides an early warning of increases in transmission and reveals evidence of persistent circulation in poorer areas where access to clinical testing is limited. FUNDING: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Effect of non-starch polysaccharide enzyme supplementation with gradually reduced energy diet on growth performance, nutrient digestibility, lean meat percentage and backfat thickness of growing pigs.

This study was conducted with the objective of evaluating a way to reduce feed costs with better meat characteristics for growing pigs by supplementing non-starch polysaccharide enzyme (NSPE) in energy reduced diets. A total of 200 growing pigs [(Landrace × Yorkshire) × Duroc] weighing 22.94 ± 0.22 kg were divided into five dietary treatments, each with eight replication pens (three barrows and two gilts). The pigs were allotted in a completely randomised block design according to body weight and sex. The dietary treatments were: CON (control), basal diet (NE 2500 kcal); NSPE1, basal diet + 0.04% NSPE; NSPE2, (basal diet-20 kcal) + 0.04% NSPE; NSPE3, (basal diet-30 kcal) + 0.04% NSPE; NSPE4, (basal diet-50 kcal) + 0.04% NSPE. We have assessed growth performance, lean meat percentage (LMP) and backfat thickness at initial, Week 4 and 8. Apparent nutrient digestibility was assessed in Weeks 4 and 8. There was no significant difference (p > 0.05) among the groups on growth performance. In Week 8, gradual reduction of energy caused a linear reduction (p = 0.028) of backfat thickness and a linear increase (p < 0.05) of LMP. In addition, at Week 8, supplementation of NSPE enzyme showed improved digestibility of nitrogen (p < 0.05) and energy (p < 0.05) in the NSPE1 group than in the CON group. In short, gradual reduction of dietary energy supplemented with NSPE showed consistent growth performance through higher nutrient digestibility with positive changes in backfat thickness and LMP of growing pigs.

Exogenous protease supplementation to the diet enhances growth performance, improves nitrogen utilization, and reduces stress in finishing pigs.

We have conducted this experiment to evaluate a new exogenous protease in finishing pigs' growth performance, nutrient digestibility, gas emission, blood profiles, and meat quality. A total of 200 pigs of 52.15 ± 2.31 kg average body weight (BW) were divided into four dietary treatments named as: CON, basal diet; TRT1, basal diet + 0.05% protease; TRT2, basal diet + 0.1% protease; TRT3, basal diet + 1.5% protease. Each treatment consisted of 10 pens, where five pigs were allotted to each pen according to their body weight and sex. The dietary treatments were allotted to the pens in a randomized block design. During this 10-week-long experiment, BW, average daily gain (ADG), average daily feed intake (ADFI), and gain to feed ratio (G:F) were calculated for Week 0-5, Week 6-10, and the overall period. During Week 6-10, ADG was higher in TRT2 and TRT3 than in the CON and TRT1 groups. At the same time, a linear increase was observed in ADG and G:F of the pigs. In addition, the final BW of pigs' was linearly increased by protease supplementation. On Week 10, there was a linear trend of increase (p = 0.0575) in crude protein digestibility and a trend of linear reduction (p = 0.0651) in NH3 gas emission. In blood profile, cortisol presented a linear decrease in both Week 5 (p = 0.251) and Week 10 (p = 0.0585). In addition, increasing doses of protease showed a trend of linear increase (p = 0.0592) in creatinine, whereas linear reduction was observed in the concentration of epinephrine (p = 0.0636) and norepinephrine (p = 0.0167) during Week 10. In conclusion, protease supplementation helped in improving daily gain in finishing pigs through protein digestibility with associated reduction of ammonia emission and blood stress hormones.

Effect of Detoxified Nano Sulfur Supplementation on the Growth, Nutrient Digestibility, Meat Quality, Excreta Microbes, Gas Emissions, and Blood Profiles of Broilers.

A 35-day experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of the supplementation of mineral detoxified sulfur dispersion ((DSD); Patent No.: 10-1997773) on the growth performance, meat quality, excreta microbiota, gas emissions, nutrient digestibility, and blood profiles of broilers. In total, 720 one-day-old ROSS 308 broilers, with an initial body weight of 41.9±0.8 g, were divided into two (2) treatment groups with 20 replicate pens/groups composed of 18 birds per pen. Treatments consisted of 1) CON (the control), normal drinking water and 2) TRT (the treatment group), CON+0.001% DSD (1000:1 dilution ratio). Average daily feed intake (ADFI) and feed conversion ratio (FCR) increased in the TRT group (P<0.05) between days 1 to 7 and days 7 to 21 of the experimental period. Similarly, body weight gain (BWG) showed a significant increase (P<0.05) in the DSD-supplemented group throughout in the length of the experiment. With regard to meat quality, redness (a*) was higher, while drip loss was lower, on the 7th day in the DSD group. Furthermore, DSD supplementation increased (P<0.05) Lactobacillus excreta but decreased E. coli concentrations in the TRT group compared to the CON group. Notably, nutrient digestibility, excreta gas emission, and blood profiles did not show any significant differences (P>0.05). DSD supplementation, administered through drinking water, has a positive impact on the growth performance, meat quality, and excreta microbiota of broiler chickens.

Effect of Yeast Culture (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) Supplementation on Growth Performance, Excreta Microbes, Noxious Gas, Nutrient Utilization, and Meat Quality of Broiler Chicken.

The study was conducted to test the effects of using yeast culture (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) as feed additive on the growth performance, noxious gas emission, utilization of nutrients, excreta microbial count, and meat quality of broilers. In total, 360 one-day-old Ross 308 broilers with average body weight (BW) of 42.90±1.43 g were randomly selected and allotted to two groups; they were fed either a basal diet (control) or a basal diet supplemented with 1% yeast culture (YC). Each treatment group had 10 replication pens and each replication contained 18 birds. The experiment was divided into 3 phases (1 to 7, 8 to 21, and 22 to 35 days) for growth performance observation. In the 1st phase (1 to 7 days), only the body weight gain (BWG) significantly increased (P<0.05) in birds with the YC diet compared to the control diet. Significant effects on BWG (P<0.05) and feed conversion ratio (FCR) (P<0.05) were seen in birds receiving the YC-supplemented diet in the 3rd phase (22 to 35 days) as compared to the control diet. In addition, during the overall period (1-35 d), BWG was significantly higher (P<0.05) and FCR was reduced (P<0.05). Throughout this experiment, the meat quality, nutrient utilization, noxious gas emission, and bacterial count in the excreta did not vary significantly between the groups. This study proved that a higher dose of YC (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) supplementation could maintain the consistent positive effect on broiler growth but eliminated the speculated outcomes on digestibility, bacterial count, or excreta gas emission.