Advanced Grants Update 2022

We implemented the new Advanced Grant scheme in 2021 in collaboration with Philippines-based SEARCA (Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture) with a Call for Research on Accelerating Transformation through Agricultural Innovation in Southeast Asia, a theme identified in response to the COVID pandemic. Summaries of the project descriptions of the ten Advanced Grant awardees appear in the 2021 Annual Report. In October 2022, IFS staff Nathalie Persson visited SEARCA to update our counterparts about grantees’ research situation, including challenges or delays that a few of them encountered due to the COVID situation or administrative issues. As a consequence, we agreed to extend our follow-up programme for one year until 2024. In December 2022, we followed up further on the progress of the ten grantees, as described below.

DR OANH NGUYEN CONG, VIETNAM

Potential for using some indigenous medicinal plants as feed additives relating to animal health, growth performance and meat quality of pigs in Northern Vietnam

A survey was conducted with 120 households who raised pigs and used medicinal plants in three provinces of Northern Vietnam. The results showed that 34 medicinal plants were mainly used for disease prevention and treatment. Data on chemical compositions, bio-active compounds of IP, and its antibacterial capacity show higher total polyphenol and flavonoid content found in green tea, Manilkara zapota leaves, and Mangifera leaves. A study on the effect of dietary supplementation of some medicinal plants on the growth performance and other parameters in piglets showed positive experimental results. We are also analysing the data from a study on the effect of dietary supplementation of some medicinal plants on growth performance and other parameters in finishing pigs. The COVID-19 pandemic partly affected the implementation schedule of the project. Also, strict rules of payment procedures in our institution contributed to the slower processing of expenses.

DR MILDRED GUIRINDOLA, PHILIPPINES

Food environment and socio-ecological attributes as drivers of food security before and during enhanced and general COVID-19 quarantines in Cavite, Philippines

The study analysed the effect of COVID-19 quarantine restrictions on household food environment and food security. A combination of a crosssectional survey and Key Informant Interviews (KII) were employed in Cavite, Philippines, with 1,050 households, 597 food retailers and Local Government Unit (LGU) representatives. The data collection was conducted from August to December 2021, data encoding from October to February 2022, and data analysis from March to June 2022. The study results were disseminated through a dissemination forum with the concerned LGU stakeholders in December 2022. The study’s preliminary findings show a significant association between the changes in the selected variables in the food environment dimensions before the pandemic and during enhanced and general quarantine restrictions. Similarly, the food retail outlets’ day-to-day food retail operations and sales were also negatively affected by the implementation of quarantine restrictions, particularly during the enhanced quarantine. Using the questionnaire, the study classified the households as consistently or newly food insecure or combined consistently or newly food insecure based on their responses to their food security situation in 2019 before and in 2021 during the pandemic. The newly food insecure households were food secure before the pandemic but became food insecure during the pandemic. Consistently food insecure households, on the other hand, represent the chronic food insecure regardless of the pandemic. Findings also showed that households less likely to be newly-food insecure were able to buy food in formal food environments such as a grocery or supermarket, have higher food expenditure, own a refrigerator, and live in areas classified as high-income LGUs. Households who ate processed foods during the enhanced quarantine have twice the odds of being newly food insecure. Households with higher odds of being consistently or newly food insecure have household heads who work as service and sales workers and work away from home. In addition, households with five or more members, beneficiaries of safety net programmes, who obtained food in a community pantry, and who cited eating more processed foods often during the enhanced quarantine, were more likely to be consistently or newly food insecure. The study was able to assess how the COVID-19 pandemic works within the realm of the household food environment and food security. The results can add information and policy recommendations for building foodresilient households and communities in the event of future food shocks.

DR TRAN NGUYEN DUY KHOA, VIETNAM

Application of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) in larviculture of mud crab (Scylla paramamosain)

The project proceeded with three experiments of mud crab larviculture with different light spectra, intensity and photoperiods. The results showed that light spectra significantly influence mud crab larvae’ growth, metamorphosis and survival. The red light was observed with low metamorphosis and survival of crab larvae, followed by yellow light and natural light. The metamorphosis, larval size, and survival were significantly higher under white, green, and blue light. Moreover, mud crab larvae exposed to 200W white LED light was recorded with the highest survival rate, followed by 150W white LED, but were not statistically different between these two treatments. The survival rate of larvae exposed to blue LED light was significantly lower than with white LED light treatments. Besides, crab larvae exposed to 24L of white LED were recorded with the lowest metamorphosis index and survival rate, followed by 18D:6L and 12D:12L. These were significantly improved in the 6D:18L treatment, which was significantly higher than the 24L and 18D:6L treatments. The project has completed all the larviculture experiments, which accounted for 40% of the research plan. The sample analysis is in progress with the digestive enzyme evaluation. Gene expression analysis is expected to finish in August 2023.

DR BUI THI LAM, VIETNAM

Moving toward a healthier diet: Consumer intention to eat more vegetables and less meat in Vietnam

We have prepared two draft papers which will be submitted to high-quality journals. We are also designing a healthy food consumption booklet which will be applied with city households in Vietnam. This handbook on sustainable food consumption will be published on social media channels in April 2023, tagging IFS and SEARCA social media accounts. We will also deliver the hard copy of this handbook to our colleagues, students and 500 households from whom we collected primary data. In 2022, COVID-19 infection in the family affected investigation and data collection directly due to health reasons and the Vietnamese government’s social distancing policy. Therefore, we used online tools such as Zoom, MS Teams and Zalo to collect primary data from food consumers. We used IFS-SEARCA funding to hire food and nutrition experts. They are designing a healthy eating menu which will be widely published to social media users and food consumers. We have also been in touch with Prof Thomas Brunner, an expert in Consumer Behavior, Applied Psychology and Quantitative Social Science Methods, who gave valuable comments on the questionnaire.

DR THANH DIEN LE, VIETNAM

Isolation and characterization of bacteriophages for biocontrol of multidrugresistant Campylobacter jejuni in broilers

We ordered the chemicals, reagents and expendable supplies as listed in the proposal via a domestic company in Vietnam. However, due to the shortage of input materials, CCDA selective medium and Cefoperazone and Amphotericin B selective supplements had to wait 15 weeks for production and shipping from an international supplier. During this period, we already ordered and received other materials. In addition, we conducted two internal hands-on workshops for bacterial and bacteriophage isolation from environmental samples. We received the delayed supplies in December 2022 and intended to conduct the experiment. I needed to collaborate with another laboratory using a CO2 incubator because my new institution does not have one. However, the sensor of this incubator was broken during the experiment of bacterial propagation. To solve this problem, my institution supported the acquisition of a CO2 incubator and now I can access this equipment along with the new Biosafety Cabinet Class II. We planned for sample collection in Tien Giang Province in February 2023. Unfortunately, the avian influenza outbreaks in Vietnam and Cambodia were verified then. My institution’s Research Council recommended postponing sample collection until March 2023.

DR THIEN NGUYEN, VIETNAM

Experimental and computational NMR in detection, structure elucidation, and kinetic analysis of lipid oxidation products in fried foods in Vietnam

Cytotoxic and genotoxic lipid oxidation products (LOPs), such as peroxides, aldehydes, ketones, and alcohols, generated in culinary frying oils during high- temperature frying practices, may pass into fried foods, causing high risks of non-communicable diseases, including cardiovascular diseases and prostate cancer, for regular consumers. Therefore, the method developments for detecting and identifying LOPs in fried foods interest producers and customers. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) has been an invaluable tool for food compositional analysis, structure elucidation, and formation mechanism due to its ability to provide important structural information without sample purification. In addition, the advancements of computational NMR have tremendously supported the difficult assignments of complex structures. The support of computational NMR would be helpful for solving difficult assignments and unstable peroxides. By unravelling the composition, the structures, and formation mechanism of LOPs in fried food, the proposed research will provide solid evidence about the presence of LOPs in fried foods, raise awareness of LOPs, and contribute to the establishment of a fair market.

MR HUU TIEN NGUYEN, VIETNAM Study on damaging potential and diversity of plant-parasitic nematodes associated with vegetables in Vietnam and development of biological control strategies using endophytic bacteria

We faced initial challenges in receiving funding for the project. It took almost one year to finish the necessary administrative procedures to obtain financing from IFS. However, we are pleased to report that we overcame this obstacle and received the funds required to continue our research. We conducted field trips to collect soil and root samples from 18 vegetable species in four sampling areas: Lao Cai, Hai Duong, Nam Dinh, and Lam Dong. Collecting these samples is a crucial part of our research, and we completed this task. The project has also extracted nematodes from all the soil and root samples collected during the field trips. This step was vital in identifying and characterizing the nematode species in the collected samples. The project has also performed morphological and molecular characterizations to identify the different nematode species. I prepared permanent slides for significant species and determined 16 species using morphology and morphometrics, some of which could be new reports or new species and will be confirmed using molecular tools. In the following parts of the project, the plan will focus on preparing a manuscript for publication based on the results we have obtained. Additionally, we will continue to work on identifying and characterizing other nematode species that were not identified using morphology and morphometrics, using molecular tools.

DR MAGDALENA LENNY SITUMORANG, INDONESIA

Application of closed hybrid Zero Water Discharge–Recirculating Aquaculture System technology along with synbiotic functional feed as alternative to antibiotics for disease biocontrol strategy in whiteleg shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) culture: An approach to reduce antimicrobial resistance towards sustainable shrimp industry through the One Health lens

The general objective of the ongoing research is to evaluate the application of the closed hybrid Zero Water Discharge–Recirculating Aquaculture System (ZWD-RAS) system and synbiotic-supplemented feed in shrimp farming, with the emphasis on reducing antibiotics usage for disease biocontrol. The hybrid ZWD-RAS system was installed and used for shrimp grow-out culture, with and without synbiotic feed. An open semi-batch system was used as a control group, with and without the use of synbiotic feed. Following 80 days of culture, significant differences in shrimp survival, growth and total productivity between groups were observed, with the highest performance obtained by the shrimp group cultured in the hybrid ZWDRAS system and fed with synbiotic feed. Based on a Two-way ANOVA, it is suggested that the hybrid ZWDRAS system significantly supported shrimp survival and feed utilization efficiency. In contrast, the synbiotic feed worked synergistically with the hybrid system in improving shrimp growth and final productivity. After the grow-out period, a bacterial challenge test was performed using AHPNDcausing Vibrio parahaemolyticus isolate. After incubation, a significantly higher survival was obtained in the shrimp group from the hybrid ZWD-RAS system and fed with synbiotic feed, compared with the control group cultured from an open system fed with commercial feed or even feed containing antibiotic (enrofloxacin) during the challenge test. A Two-way ANOVA indicated that the hybrid ZWD-RAS system significantly improved shrimp survival post Vibrio challenge, without interaction effect with synbiotic feed. As a final step of the study, shrimp samples have been collected for further metagenomic analysis to provide knowledge of the roles of the hybrid ZWD-RAS system and synbiotic technology in improving shrimp growth and survival in healthy and diseased conditions. Sample preparation is being performed and analysis results are expected by August 2023. It is hoped that the developed hybrid ZWD-RAS system and synbiotic technology can be optimally implemented as sustainable solutions to reduce antibiotic usage and increase system resilience in the shrimp industry.

DR NGUYEN THI TAM THU, VIETNAM

Production and characterization of polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) by halophilic microorganisms isolated from Truong Sa island in Vietnam

The project aims to isolate and screen halophilic bacteria that produce PHA from Truong Sa Sea in Vietnam and evaluate obtained PHA properties. As planned in the project timeline, we collected soil, sand and water samples from Truong Sa and isolated halophilic microorganisms capable of forming PHA. We also assessed the quality and quantity of developed PHA from the halophilic bacteria strains. So far, four soil samples, two water samples, and three livestock waste samples from Truong Sa Sea have been collected. We also found 15 halophilic microorganisms that can biosynthesize PHA, including 12 strains of bacteria, from which three yeast strains were isolated and selected. FTIR spectra of some PHA samples produced by the bacteria were analysed. PHA has been extracted from these halophilic bacteria. PHA content ranges from 11.76 to 40.44% compared with DCW (dry cell weight). In the project’s next phase, we plan to identify the genus of some strains that can produce high PHA content and evaluate some factors that affect the PHA production ability of these strains.

DR QUOC AN TRIEU, VIETNAM

Recovery of phosphate from eutrophic water bodies by nano-biocomposite adsorbents: Application as smart fertilizers

Based on the objectives introduced in the project proposal, synthesis and characterization of nano-ZrO2 incorporated biosorbents and the investigation into the adsorption characteristics of as-designed nanocomposite biosorbents have been carried out. Spent coffee grounds (SCG) as food waste have been impregnated with hydrated nano-ZrO2 and characterised using methods such as FTIR, BET, TGA, SEM-EDS, and XRD. Compared to pristine SCG and commercial nano-ZrO2, the modified nano-biocomposite adsorbent has shown more efficient adsorption performance. The research plan has been implemented effectively thanks to equipment funded by the IFS-SEARCA Advanced Grant such as pH meter and vacuum filtration system. The project will continue to complete the database of the adsorption characteristics of nano-ZrO2 embedded SCG and conduct experiments on the preliminary application of P-loaded modified SCG as an innovative fertilizer.