Adrian Turek Rahoveanu

Effects of Some Herbal Plant Supplements on Growth Performance and the Immune Response in Nile Tilapia (Oreochromis Niloticus)

Abstract Using of natural plants as immunostimulant in fish is more useful than antibacterial drugs that cause adversely side effects for fish, environment and consumers. Therefore, the present study was to investigate the effects of dietary turmeric (Curcuma longa), rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) and thyme (Thymus vulgaris) as feed additives on growth performance, proximate composition and some immuno-hematological parameters on Nile tilapia. Four nitrogenous (31.43-31.56 % crude protein) and isocaloric (17.90-18.04 kJ/g) diets were formulated to contain 0% (control), 1% of turmeric, rosemary or thyme, respectively. The results reveled that, supplementation with medicinal herbs significantly increased (P<0.05) weight gain, specific growth rates and protein efficiency ratio (PER) compared to those in the control group. Moreover, the medicinal herb additives had insignificant effect on carcass composition and some biochemical composition. Hematocrit and leukocrit levels in the fish fed with turmeric, rosemary and thyme added diet were found to be significantly (P <0.05) higher than the control group. However, leukocyte level among the experimental groups was not significantly differed (P >0.05). In neutrophils of experimental fish groups, there were higher numbers of NBT (+) cells fixed on lamellas than those of the control group. So, based on the current findings together with the low cost and the immunostimulative effect of turmeric, rosemary and thyme it can be recommended to be used in fish feed to minimize the mortalities caused by some pathogens.

Approaches Regarding the Competition in Romanian Sugar Market

This paper proposes an economic instrument designed to assess the competitive nature of the sugar industry in Romania. In the first part of the paper is presented the theoretical background underlying index (HHI) and its calculation methodology. Then comes the results of a first application of this index for a total of 10 plants in the sugar industry, the robustness of these results is discussed. We believe HHI is a proactive tool that may prove useful competition authority, in its pursuit of continuous monitoring of various industries in the economy and in the internal decision-making on resource allocation institution (Peacock, and Prisecaru, 2013).The starting point of our research is to free competition in the European market with competitors much stronger than Romanian plants, plants that produce at a price lower than the domestic ones. In our study we will see if it is a concentration of production in factories around the strongest in Romania, concentration accompanied by the collapse of those who could not resist the market.The market concentration, competition policy, we will follow using the HHI index, for evaluation of impact analysis on existing trade, the number and size of competitors, protecting existing sales structures, avoiding disruptions in the competitive environment, etc.

IDENTIFYING THE NICHES OF MARKETS FOR SELLING ROMANIAN TRADITIONAL AGRO-FOOD PRODUCTS

This paper is trying to identify the niches of markets for selling Romanian traditional products on European market. In pursuing this, a piece of quantitative market research was developed on 500 persons from urban and rural areas. The results of the research show that the profile of the consumer of traditional food products is: women, coming from urban area, having an income between 1000 and 2000 lei, usually students or having jobs that require higher education: engineers, professors, doctors, economists etc. At the opposite side, people coming from rural area, men, aged over 56 years old, with income under 1000 lei, and jobs as administrator, farmer, owner of companies, independent professional, unemployed do not consume traditional products at all. The conclusions can be used by the producers of agro-food products, in general, and by the producers of traditional products, in particular, in their efforts of increasing their sells and profits.