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CSIR-National Metallurgical Laboratory (CSIR-NML), India dealing with coal characterization, has recently made sincere efforts to develop a process to recover REMs from Indian coal bottom ash (CBA) using hydrometallurgical route. The developed process consists of REMs leaching from CBA followed by solvent extraction and selective precipitation. After the selection of suitable leachant, bench scale studies were performed to optimize various process parameters viz. concentration of leachant, mixing time, temperature and pulp density. Maximum dissolution of REMs were achieved using 4 mol/L HCl at 90 °C for 2 h and pulp density 50 g/L. Unused acid present in the leach liquor was further extracted and subsequently processed for selective precipitation of REMs at pH 1.67. A novel process flow-sheet is proposed for the effective recovery of highly pure REMs salt. Developed process at laboratory scale has potential to be commercialized after scale-up and feasibility studies. • Coal bottom ash (CBA) can be a potential alternative for REMs recovery. • Novel process flow-sheet for REMs recovery from CBA is proposed. • Leaching-Solvent Extraction (SX)-Precipitation process is reported. • Waste minimization by recycling of CBA of thermal sectors. • Marketable value added products as salts of REMs are obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A pathogenic strain of Aeromonas veronii , named as A8-AHP, was isolated from the kidney tissue of diseased Labeo rohita. Intraperitoneal injection of A. veronii A8-AHP into L. rohita fingerlings resulted in development of clinical signs similar to the natural infection. During disk diffusion assay, A. veronii A8-AHP showed resistance against ampicillin and imipenem. The complete de novo assembled genome of A. veronii A8-AHP consisted of a 4,744,657 bp circular chromosome and three circular plasmids of 10,228, 7706, and 5625 bp. The bacterial genome showed nucleotide sequence identities of 90.5–96.6% with other A. veronii genomes in NCBI database. Genes encoding for several virulence factors viz. polar and lateral flagella, pili, fimbriae, type II secretion system (T2SS), type III secretion system (T3SS), aerolysin, hemolysin, proteases and lipases etc. were detected. Besides, genetic factors related to antibiotic inactivation, target site alteration and efflux pump were also present. A total of 73 metabolic pathways were also detected. The arsenate reductase encoding gene in A. veronii A8-AHP could also of biotechnological significance for bioremediation purposes. Present study reports the first complete genome sequence of fish pathogenic A. veronii from India. • A pathogenic strain of Aeromonas veronii was isolated from the kidney tissue of diseased Labeo rohita. • The complete genome of A. veronii consisted of a 4,744,657 bp circular chromosome and three plasmids. • Genes encoding for several virulence factors, type II and type III secretion system were present in A. veronii genome. • Genetic factors related to antibiotic inactivation, target site alteration and antibiotic efflux pump were detected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Taenia solium (T. solium) cysticercosis remains a neglected zoonotic disease in India. The current study was planned to estimate the prevalence of T. solium porcine cysticercosis in the Punjab state of India, to compare this prevalence with the disease prevalence in pigs reared outside Punjab and to assess the distribution of the parasite in pig carcasses., Methods: Two slaughter shops were selected in each of the 22 districts of Punjab. Pigs slaughtered on the day/s of inspection were post-mortem inspected to identify the presence of T. solium cysts. Estimated true prevalence was estimated by taking into account the diagnostic sensitivity (38%) and specificity (100%) of post-mortem inspection using the Rogan-Gladen estimator. Positive carcasses were purchased and brought to the laboratory to assess the tissue distribution of T. solium cysts and to conduct PCR targeting large subunit rRNA gene, internal transcribed spacer 1 gene, ITS1 gene and Cytochrome oxidase I gene. The selected PCR products were submitted for sequencing and phylogenetic analyses were performed., Findings: We contacted 71 shop owners to achieve a sample of 44 shops for the study. We inspected 642 pigs reared in Punjab and 450 imported from other states at these slaughter shops. In addition, we sampled 40 pigs from an abattoir located in the state capital. Of the 642 pigs reared in Punjab, 9 had T. solium cysts with an apparent prevalence of 1·40% (95% CI: 0·74%, 2·64%) and the estimated true prevalence of 3.69% (95% CI: 1·95%, 6·95%). Pigs imported from outside the state had a significantly higher prevalence (odds ratio: 2·58; 95% CI: 1·12, 5·98; p-value: 0·026) as 15 of the 450 imported pigs were positive (apparent prevalence: 3.33%; 95% CI: 2.03%, 5.43%; estimated true prevalence: 8.77%; 95% CI: 5.34%, 14.28%). None of samples was positive from the pigs sampled at the abattoir in the state capital. The PCR confirmed T. solium cysts from all the 24 positive samples. We counted a median of 897 (range 526-1964) cysts per infected pig from the 19 infected pig carcasses inspected. The phylogenetic tree based on the alignment of partial cytochrome oxidase 1 sequences indicated all positive samples to be clustered with the T. solium Asian genotype. The analysis did not indicate the presence of T. asiatica in the slaughter pigs., Conclusions: Despite the underestimation of the prevalence due to missing mildly-infected carcasses, low participation and lack of representative sampling, the presence of heavily infected carcasses containing viable cysts, particularly those imported from outside the state, indicates that T. solium cysticercosis is an important food safety concern for pork consumers in Punjab, India. Measures should be taken to reduce the disease prevalence in pigs to reduce the disease burden in the public., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.