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。     

苏北地区灌溉农业水质监测分析

为掌握农业灌溉过程中水环境的变化情况,对苏北地区地表水、地下水水质进行了连续五年监测。结果表明:地表灌溉水、地下灌溉水水质综合污染指数均小于1,但有升高的趋势;灌溉退水中部分污染物浓度较灌溉水上升,个别单项指标超标,但不构成综合污染。提出解决制约农业可持续发展重要因素———灌溉农业用水问题的几点建议。     

灌区农业终端水价核算方法初探

新疆维吾尔自治区在推行以供水到户为切入点的灌区改革中,实行了从引水渠首至农渠出口“一价到户”的终端水价改革,有效地遏止了末级供水过程中搭车收费的问题。然而,斗渠以下供水末级渠系维护费缺乏统一的核算标准,影响了终端水价改革的推进。结合自治区末级渠系供水管理制度,确定末级渠系维护费的核算方法,可以对终端水价进行合理核算。     

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.     

主要作物水经济价值的地区特征

在阐述水经济价值概念的基础上,利用残值法计算农业水经济价值,并结合小麦生产讨论了方法的适用性并进行敏感性分析。经过对2000~2005年全国十大分区的分析计算,给出了4种主要作物的水经济价值的地区特征,并提出了基于水经济价值的农业地区发展建议。     

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.     

近45年元江干热河谷灌溉需水的变化趋势分析

基于元江、巍山及禄丰3个站1955~2000年的逐月气象数据及作物种植、农业耕作等资料,采用Mann-Kendall法和R/S分析法,研究了元江干热河谷近45年来的干湿变化及农业灌溉需水量转折变化趋势。结果表明:元江河谷的气温下降、降水量增多、湿度增大,导致ET0显著降低,干湿指数、水稻及农业综合灌溉需水定额都呈下降的趋势。元江河谷的气象因子转折变化集中在20世纪70年代初和80年代末,而农业综合灌溉需水定额的转折变化期则在90年代初与气象因子的第二个转折期基本相同。     

基于多尺度残差视觉信息融合的牧场牛只数量估计方法

由于牧场牛只分布不均以及尺度变化大,传统的目标计数算法在畜牧领域计数精度不高,且用于研究的牛只数据集较少。针对这些问题创建了一个用于牛只密度估计的数据集,并提出了一种基于多尺度残差视觉信息融合的牧场牛只数量估计方法。该方法利用多个并列且空洞率不同的空洞卷积提取牛只目标的多尺度特征,并将残差结构与小空洞率卷积相结合,设计出更适合牛只活体计数的深度神经网络,从而缓解了由空洞卷积带来的“网格效应”的影响,同时能更好地适应牛只的多尺度变化。在牛只密度数据集中,该方法取得了最低的平均绝对误差（MAE）和均方根误差（RMSE）。此外,在密集人群数据集中,该方法的MAE和RMSE也属于最优或次优结果。实验结果表明,该方法不仅适用于牛只场景的数量估计,在人群密度估计中也有较高的准确性和鲁棒性。     

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%