3D PRINTED AQUARIUM.

Haruka Misawa, a Japanese artist, designer and the founder of Misawa Design Institute, has used modern 3D printing technology to craft some truly stunning minimalist aquariums and water features. Her series of installations is called Waterscape, and she has mixed real water plants and fish to create a beautiful and calming collection of aquariums that is understated and yet completely memorable. It is said that just looking at an aquarium can help reduce stress levels and lower blood pressure, and will produce a calming effect. Just looking at some of the pictures of Misawa’s Waterscape designs will make you feel like the stresses that you deal with on a daily basis are just melting away. When she was designing her Waterscapes, Misawa created a series of 3D printed objects that were inspired by the shapes and objects that would be found in nature. Things like coral, water plants and stone formations inspired the minimalist, sculptural versions that she used in each aquarium. The objects were 3D printed and placed inside of simple, stark square-shaped tanks that provided the living fish with unique and varied structures to swim around and inside of. Misawa created several structures that would trap air inside of them, so plants could be growing underwater among the fish and other aqua life. Read more @3dprint.com

BILL GATES , CHICKENS AND ECONOMIC GROWTH.

Dr. Batamaka Somé, an anthropologist from Burkina Faso who has worked with Gates foundation, has spent much of his career studying the economic impact of raising chickens in his home country. He explains the importance of chicken to the economy of Burkina Faso in the video. Bill Gates asks" If you were living on $2 a day, what would you do to improve your life? That’s a real question for the nearly 1 billion people living in extreme poverty today. There’s no single right answer, of course, and poverty looks different in different places. But through my work with the foundation, I’ve met many people in poor countries who raise chickens, and I have learned a lot about the ins and outs of owning these birds. (As a city boy from Seattle, I had a lot to learn!) It’s pretty clear to me that just about anyone who’s living in extreme poverty is better off if they have chickens. In fact, if I were in their shoes, that’s what I would do—I would raise chickens. Here’s why: 1) They are easy and inexpensive to take care of. Many breeds can eat whatever they find on the ground (although it’s better if you can feed them, because they’ll grow faster). Hens need some kind of shelter where they can nest, and as your flock grows, you might want some wood and wire to make a coop. Finally, chickens need a few vaccines. The one that prevents the deadly Newcastle disease costs less than 20 cents. 2) They’re a good investment. Suppose a new farmer starts with five hens. One of her neighbors owns a rooster to fertilize the hens’ eggs. After three months, she can have a flock of 40 chicks. Eventually, with a sale price of $5 per chicken—which is typical in West Africa—she can earn more than $1,000 a year, versus the extreme-poverty line of about $700 a year. 3)They help keep children healthy. Malnutrition kills more than 3.1 million children a year. Although eating more eggs—which are rich in protein and other nutrients—can help fight malnutrition, many farmers with small flocks find that it’s more economical to let the eggs hatch, sell the chicks, and use the money to buy nutritious food. But if a farmer’s flock is big enough to give her extra eggs, or if she ends up with a few broken ones, she may decide to cook them for her family. 4)They empower women. Because chickens are small and typically stay close to home, many cultures regard them as a woman’s animal, in contrast to larger livestock like goats or cows. Women who sell chickens are likely to reinvest the profits in their families. The Gates foundation is betting on chicken; alongside partners throughout sub-Saharan Africa, we are working to create sustainable market systems for poultry. It’s especially important for these systems to make sure farmers can buy birds that have been properly vaccinated and are well suited to the local growing conditions. Our goal: to eventually help 30 percent of the rural families in sub-Saharan Africa raise improved breeds of vaccinated chickens, up from just 5 percent now. Bill Gates said "When I was growing up, chickens weren’t something you studied, they were something you made silly jokes about". It has been eye-opening for me to learn what a difference they can make in the fight against poverty. It sounds funny, but I mean it when I say that I am excited about chickens.

Olam, InVivo to jointly develop animal feed solutions in Nigeria.

Global agri-business Olam International Ltd. and leading French feedstock company InVivo Animal Nutrition & Health have signed a consulting agreement to jointly develop expertise in animal feed in Nigeria. The two-year consulting services partnership agreement signed in December will involve technical assistance and sharing of expertise to jointly develop solutions and products in the animal feed space. The knowledge transfer between the two companies will help develop solutions, formulate animal feed, characterize raw materials and implement R&D trials and protocols to enter the animal feed industry in Nigeria. This agreement will see, both companies tap into each other’s proven expertise – Olam for its Africa experience and InVivo NSA for its animal feed proficiency. InVivo NSA will support Olam in the design, equipment selection and installation of its feed mills across Nigeria. Its nutrition and formulation experts will work closely with Olam’s team to build a strong understanding of the local market and develop cost-effective formulations using local and imported raw materials. InVivo NSA will also train Olam’s staff on providing veterinary field support to poultry and fish farmers in order to help deliver consistent product performance. In addition, Olam will gain access to InVivo NSA’s R&D and product development facilities as well as their feed manufacturing units in other developing markets across Asia and Latin America. Olam’s Global Head of Grains, K C Suresh, said: “This partnership follows our announcement in November to enter the animal feed and related businesses in Nigeria. This knowledge-transfer agreement will accelerate our penetration into this space, allowing Olam and InVivo NSA to rapidly scale up commercial activities. In doing so, we look forward to improving productivity and returns for the local fish and poultry producers, which supports Nigeria’s economy.” InVivo NSA’s CEO, H. de Roquefeuil, adds: “Developing key partnerships with major players and accelerating our footprint in Africa is at the core of InVivo Group’s 2025 strategy. We look forward to leveraging off Olam’s Africa experience to bring our differentiated expertise to the region.” The global feed industry is a growing part of the agri-commodity complex with attractive returns and a strong growth outlook, particularly in emerging markets such as Nigeria. Olam has a 25-year history in Nigeria across multiple commodities. Its recent decision to expand into the animal feed industry was based on a comprehensive study of the sector and its existing expertise in the agri-commodity complex in the region. Nigeria was chosen as the first point of entry due to its strong growth outlook and demographics where the commercial feed market is expected to grow at over 10 percent CAGR over the next 5 years. read more at wattagnet.com

Olam invests $150M in Nigerian poultry, feed sectors.

Olam International to invest in animal feed manufacturing, poultry breeding and hatchery in the states of Kaduna and Kwara in Nigeria. Olam International (also known as Olam Group) plans to invest NGN30 billion (US$150 million) in two state-of-the-art feed mills, poultry breeding farms and a hatchery to produce day-old chicks in Nigeria. A groundbreaking ceremony in Kaduna state last week was attended by Olam Group Nigeria and the governor of Kaduna State, H.E. Malam Nasir el-Rufai, and Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Chief Audu Ogbeh, who was representing the president of Nigeria, H.E. Muhammadu Buhari. “This is the latest investment by Olam in Nigeria’s domestic food and agricultural production sector after our recent investments in wheat milling assets and the ongoing development of our 10,000-hectare rice farm and mill in Nasarawa state,” said Olam’s CEO for Africa, Venkataramani Srivathsan. “This new venture into animal feed is a win-win for Olam and Nigeria. Domestically produced meat is being hampered by a lack of good quality feed, support for farmers and availability of young stock, but consumption is set to increase. By investing in poultry and fish feed, we can utilize the wheat bran from our wheat milling operations, as well as maximize our sourcing networks to buy corn and soy from local farmers. Our investment in the hatchery will help boost poultry production and, in the long run, help reduce the country’s reliance on imports. This development underlines the continued confidence we share in Nigeria’s ambition for self-sufficiency.” Approximately two-thirds of the total investment is committed to building and operating the facilities in Kaduna state, with the balance to be invested in an integrated poultry and fish feed mill in Kwara state. Total annual feed capacity is expected to be more than 600,000 metric tons. The Kaduna mill will supply mainly Nigeria’s northern markets, while the southwestern region will be the main focus of the Kwara plant. Sourcing corn and soybeans locally, it is hoped the feed mills will encourage domestic production of these crops, and food security will be improved with Olam’s planned construction of in-house storage of 100,000 metric tons. The poultry breeding farm in Kaduna is expected to produce more than 1 million hatching eggs each week to the hatchery. Olam International,based in Singapore ,is a leading agri-business operating across the value chain in 70 countries, supplying a range of products across 16 platforms to more than 16,000 customers worldwide. They have a direct sourcing and processing presence in most major producing countries, Olam has built a global leadership position in many of its businesses. source Wattagnet.com

Benefits of a welfare friendly hatchery

See how North American chicks perform with feed and water in the hatchery. Sponsored by HatchTech BV.

Hong Kong culls thousands of birds over avian flu scare

Hong Kong culled 4,500 birds on 7/6/16 after the deadly H7N9 bird flu virus was discovered in a chicken at a local market. Health officials in white hazmat suits and masks dumped the chickens into green plastic bins at a wholesale poultry market in central Hong Kong.The bins were then pumped with carbon dioxide to kill the birds. Hong Kong is particularly alert to the spread of viruses after an outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome swept through the city in 2003, killing 299 people and infecting around 1,800. Bird flu scares in the past two years have seen mass culls of up 20,000 birds in Hong Kong. A spokeswoman for the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department said the latest cull included chickens and pigeons. Trade of live poultry has also been suspended after authorities said Saturday the avian flu virus was found in a fecal sample collected from a chicken at a market in the Tuen Mun, a neighborhood in the west of Hong Kong. The city's health minister Ko Wing-man said the city was staying "stringent" against infectious diseases when he announced the cull late Monday. H7N9 is a particular worry for authorities as it does not kill infected chickens or cause them to develop symptoms, which allows it to spread undetected until contact is made with humans. The majority of human cases of H7N9 infection have been associated with direct or indirect contact with infected live or dead poultry, according to the World Health Organization. Human infections from the H7N9 strain were first reported in China in 2013. The virus can cause serious respiratory illness and has led to deaths. culled from pri.org

University of Illinois Veterinarians Use 3D Printing to Help With Eagle’s Surgery.

3D printing technology is helping veterinarians prep for surgical procedures on one of the most prized bird species in the world. Recently, students from the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine had come across a wild eagle with its left humerus out of alignment, due to improper healing after it was shattered by a gunshot wound months earlier. In order to help the bird take flight again, an intensive surgery was required. To do this, the veterinarian students turned to those in the College of Engineering, who assisted by creating two 3D printed life-sized models of the eagle’s humerus, one that was healthy and another that replicated the actual injured bone. Before the the 3D printed models were used by Dr. R. Avery Bennett, an acclaimed avian surgeon, to help perform the procedure, a massive dataset was procured from the spiral CT scan taken by veterinary radiologist Dr. Stephen Joslyn. Consulting from Australia, Dr. Joslyn added a so-called ‘threshold’ into the data, which enabled the computer to separate ‘bone’ and ‘not-bone’ from the subtle and delicate CT scan information. Since the injured bone was fragmented, and thus unable to be printed in a single piece, medical illustrator Janet Sinn-Hanlon utilized software to manually thicken and link the bone areas together. After communications went back-and-forth between experts across the world, which were facilitated by Wildlife Medical Clinic intern and University of Illinois student Dr. Nichole Rosenhagen, it seemed that the life-sized models were set to be 3D printed in the university’s Rapid Prototyping Lab. But, the day before the surgery was planned, it turned out that the 3D printing queue was full. Thanks to Ralf Möller, the lab supervisor and director of technical services in the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering, the models were 3D printed overnight in about six hours, and were good to go by the time the lab opened up the next morning. Möller enlisted the help of undergraduate student and lab technician Nick Ragano, who visited the lab overnight to ensure that 3D models would be prepared for use, and also pressure washed the starch-based support material used to print the plastic models. That morning, the 3D printed bones were collected by Dr. Rosenhagen, and the injured eagle received successful orthopedic surgery in a matter of three hours culled from 3dprint.com