The current study aimed to determine the effects of different levels of Zingiber officinale as a herbal feed additive on growth performance, carcass characteristic, serum biochemistry, total bacterial count (TBC), gut morphology, and immunological parameters of broilers. A total of 1500, day-old broiler chicks (Hubbard) were equally accredited to five treatment groups, each with six replicates (50 birds/replicate). Five experimental diets were prepared using basal diet i.e. with antibiotics positive control (PC), 3 g/kg ginger (group A), 6 g/kg ginger (group B), 9 g/kg ginger (group C) and without antibiotics negative control (NC). Group A and C showed significantly (p<0.05) higher feed intake (FI) as compared to other groups. Group C showed significantly (p<0.05) lower Total bacterial count (TBC) followed by group B as compared to NC. Carcass characteristics showed non-significant effects among different treatments. Mean villi length and width were significantly (p <0.05) higher in all ginger supplemented groups as compared to the control groups. Blood serum parameters including cholesterol, triglycerides, and low-density lipoproteins (LDL) were significantly (p<0.05) lower in groups B and C in comparison with the control groups. Whereas high-density lipoproteins (HDL) was significantly higher in group B as compared to the others. In conclusion, ginger supplementation @0.6% in the basal diet significantly improved growth performance and gut morphometry of broilers. It also showed a positive impact on cholesterol, triglycerides and gut microbes. Therefore, ginger could be a better substitute for antibiotic growth promoters.

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Infertility is a globally recognized issue caused by different reproductive disorders. To date, various therapeutic approaches to restore fertility have been attempted including etiology-specific medication, hormonal therapies, surgical excisions, and assisted reproductive technologies. Although these approaches produce results, however, fertility restoration is not achieved in all cases. Advances in using stem cell (SC) therapy hold a great promise for treating infertile patients due to their abilities to self-renew, differentiate, and produce different paracrine factors to regenerate the damaged or injured cells and replenish the affected germ cells. Furthermore, SCs secrete extracellular vesicles (EVs) containing biologically active molecules including nucleic acids, lipids, and proteins. EVs are involved in various physiological and pathological processes and show promising non-cellular therapeutic uses to combat infertility. Several studies have indicated that SCs and/or their derived EVs transplantation plays a crucial role in the regeneration of different segments of the reproductive system, oocyte production, and initiation of sperm production. However, available evidence triggers the need to testify the efficacy of SC transplantation or EVs injection in resolving the infertility issues of the human population. In this review, we highlight the recent literature covering the issues of infertility in females and males, with a special focus on the possible treatments by stem cells or their derived EVs.

Burning of crop residues in semi-arid region with hot climate and less than 1 % soil organic matter not only pose severe threat to global climate but also become the reason of ever decreasing organic matter status. Keeping in view the objective to monitor the impacts of crop resides, burning and incorporation into the soil on crop yield, nutrients uptake and soil physico-chemical properties, this long-term study was planned and conducted at Soil Chemistry Section, Ayub Agricultural Research Institute, Faisalabad. Four treatments (sub plots) viz; 0 fertilizer, 50% of recommended fertilizer, 75% of recommended fertilizer and 100% of recommended fertilizer were applied under split plot design repeated thrice with 3 major plots (methods of residues management) i. traditional practice by complete removing (C) whole crop biomass from field, ii. burnt (B) practice by burning the crop biomass in field after threshing and iii. Residue's (R) incorporation practice by rotavating the crop biomass into the soil. The selected field was sufficient in exchangeable K and available P but was deficient in organic matter contents. The results showed that in first year the wheat yield was maximum in T 4 (5.04 t ha -1 ) in complete removal plot followed by residues incorporated (4.43 t ha -1 ) and burnt plots (3.72 t ha -1 ) respectively. It was observed that yield in residues incorporated plots was declined in next year after that, an increasing trend was witnessed. Burning of residues caused decrease in yield up to 11 % as compared to complete removal and up to 17% than residues incorporation. Organic matter status of soil before start of experiment was 0.69 %. Mean organic matter contents in residues incorporated plots was increased up to 27% than complete removal and up to 32% than burnt plots. Nitrogen and phosphorus uptake were maximum in residues incorporated plots followed by complete removal and burnt plots, however potassium uptake was maximum in complete removal followed by residues incorporated and burnt plots. ECe of burnt plots was increased by 100 dS m -1 than complete removal and 200 dS m -1 than residues incorporated plots. Other physicochemical properties were not affected significantly.

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