Zaheer Ahmed Nizamani

Extent of extraneous water and detection of various adulterants in market milk at Mirpurkhas, Pakistan

In Pakistan, milk adulteration is a growing issue of significant importance. This problem persists at every level; from production point to consumption. Adulteration poses ill effects on the public health. This study was designed to screen the various adulterants in the market milk sold in the vicinity of Mirpurkhas district of Sindh, Pakistan during the year 2013. A total of 100 milk samples were collected. Twenty milk samples (n= 20) from each of milk producers (MP), milk collectors (MC), middlemen (MM), processors (P) and dairy shops (DS) were examined for various adulterants. Among these adulterants water (73%) was found in majority of milk samples, followed by detergent (32%), cane sugar (22%), caustic soda (20%), rice flour (17%), sodium chloride and skimmed milk powder (15%), hydrogen peroxide (13%), starch (12%), formalin (11%), urea and vegetable oil (10%), boric acid (8%), ammonium sulfate (6%), glucose (5%), sorbitol (4%) and arrowroot (1%), respectively. Freezing point of 65% milk samples of MP, 75% of MC, 75% of MM, 80% of P and 85%% of DS appeared towards 0 o C rather than that of control milk, and assumed to be adulterated with extraneous water. The averaged extent of water in milk sold by P remarkably higher than that of other milk marketing channels, but statistically non-significant (P>0.05) with all milk intermediaries; MP, MC, MM and DS. The risk of adulteration at DS was found to be significantly higher (P 0.05) with P and MM.

Potential of adenovirus and baculovirus vectors for the delivery of shRNA against morbilliviruses

Morbilliviruses are important pathogens of humans, ruminants, carnivores and marine mammals. Although good vaccines inducing long-term immunity are available, recurrent outbreaks of measles, canine distemper and peste des petits ruminants (PPR) are observed. In control strategies, antivirals thus could be useful to confine virus spread and application of interfering RNAs is a promising approach, provided they can be delivered efficiently into the host cells. We have constructed recombinant adenovirus and baculovirus vectors expressing short hairpin RNAs (shRNAs) against the PPR virus (PPRV) and compared them in vitro. It was found that both recombinant viruses inhibited PPRV replication with the baculovirus vector, which inhibited generation of infectious progeny by more than 2 log10 and the nucleoprotein expression of PPRV by 73%, being the more efficient. The results show that baculoviral shRNA-expressing vectors have the potential for therapeutic use against morbillivirus infections.

Screening of adulterants and extent of added water in market milk at central zone of Sindh, Pakistan

An experiment was designed to screen the various adulterants in the market milk sold in central zone (vicinity of Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas and Shaheed Benazirabad districts) of Sindh province at the end of year 2013. A total of 300 milk samples were collected each of 100 from vicinity of Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas and Shaheed Benazirabad. Twenty milk samples (n=20) from each of milk producer (MP), milk collector (MC), middlemen (MM), processor (P) and dairy shop (DS) were examined for different adulterants (water, urea, starch, arrowroot, rice flour, sorbitol, glucose, cane sugar, ammonium sulfate, caustic soda, sodium chloride, skimmed milk powder, vegetable oil, formalin, hydrogen peroxide, boric acid, salicylic acid, detergent and hypochlorite). Among these adulterants extraneous water was found in majority of milk samples. Freezing point of 39% milk samples of MP, 47% of MC, 50% of MM, 46% of P and 56% of DS appeared towards 0 C rather than that of control milk, and assumed to be adulterated with added water. Among all 300 milk samples water (79.3%) was common adulterant found in majority of milk samples followed by detergent (30.3%), cane sugar (22%), starch (18.3%), rice flour (17.7%), skimmed milk powder (15.3%), caustic soda sodium chloride and formalin (14%), hydrogen peroxide (12%), urea and vegetable oil (10.7%), ammonium sulfate and boric acid (8.3%), glucose (6.3%), arrowroot (3.3%), sorbitol (2.7%) hypochlorite (1.7%) and salicylic acid (1.3%), respectively. The extent of extraneous water found to be comparatively higher (P 0.05) with each other, but found to be significantly (P<0.05) higher than that of P and MP. . The proportion of milk adulteration was found comparatively higher (P<0.05) at Hyderabad (4.00±0.460%), followed by Mirpurkhas (2.87±0.357%) and Shaheed Benazirabad (2.27±0.354%) districts of Sindh, Pakistan.