Poultry feed consists of feed ingredients like soybean meal and corn, which contain high levels of
phytate that is poorly utilised especially by the monogastric animals that lack of phytase. Hence,
phytase has been extensively applied as a feed supplement in poultry production due to the
efficiency of this enzyme in improving phosphorous (P) availability, thus reducing P excretion to
the environment as well as reducing the feed cost by reducing inorganic P supplementation.
Mitsuokella jalaludinii, an obligate anaerobe, Gram-negative rumen bacterium, produces high
phytase activity. Birds supplemented with bacterial preparation of M. jalaludinii showed
comparable performance to that of commercial phytase. However, the anaerobic nature of this
bacterium renders difficulty in the use of live cells as feed supplement in commercial poultry
production. Therefore, this study was conducted to determine a suitable method to preserve
phytase activity of M. jalaludinii regardless of cells viability. Mitsuokella jalaludinii was grown
in MF medium under anaerobic condition and the cells were subjected to various treatments to
preserve the enzyme, including bead beating, compressed air, moist heat, dry heat and freezedrying
under aerobic condition. The results showed that the total number of viable cells were
significantly (p
Background: Diving related illness has become a public health concern, as there isan increasing number of diversworldwide. However, the incidence of Decompression Illness (DCI), a medical disorder as a result of sudden reduction of ambient pressure, remainsgenerallylow. This paper describes the patternsof decompression illness treated in a military hospital-based recompression chamber facility in Peninsular Malaysiafrom year 2000 until 2010.Objective:The objective ofthis study is to determine the patternsof decompression illnesspatientstreated withHyperbaric Oxygen Therapy(HBOT)in a military hospital-based recompression chamber facility inPeninsular Malaysia.
Methodology:A retrospective descriptive study was carried out to utilizesecondary data from Hospital Angkatan Tentera Lumut, Perakfrom 1stJanuary 2000 to 31stDecember 2010. A total of 96 caseswere included in thisstudy.
Results:Most of the patients were male (94.8%), recreational divers (43.0%), non-smokers (56.3%),with no previous medical illness(85.4%), who had dived with compressed air (78.0%), had lessthan 5years divingexperience (56.3%), were non-instructors(75.0%),and had body mass index between 18.5 to 24.9kg/m2(59.4%). Interestingly,25% of the patients developing DCI dived to less than 10 meters depth, 35.4% of them went for a single dive and 71.9% performed safety stops.The majority of the patients had symptoms startingwithin 12 hours after surfacing (85.4%),mainly within the first 3 hours and many had neurological manifestation (61.5%).Only 16.7% of the patients treated withHBOThad therapycommenced within 6 hours from the onset of symptomsand 93.8% from this group had complete recovery. Overall,76.0% of patients had fullrecovery after HBOT.
Conclusion:Diving activities must be closely monitored. Medical surveillance as well as legislations related to diving activities in Malaysia areessential to improve SCUBA discipline and to reduce mortality and morbidity ofDCI in the future.