Publications
NIBIOs employees contribute to several hundred scientific articles and research reports every year. You can browse or search in our collection which contains references and links to these publications as well as other research and dissemination activities. The collection is continously updated with new and historical material.
2025
Authors
Linn Fenna Groeneveld Oksana Bekkevold Trond Bergskås Martin Linkogel Cord Luellmann Marit AlmvikAbstract
Regulatory bodies aim to protect consumers from harmful substances. The use of certain antibiotics is prohibited in food-producing animals in the EU due to their potential detrimental effects on humans. Among these are nitrofuran antibiotics, which degrade rapidly so that their metabolites are used as markers in screening for their illegal use. The use of one metabolite, semicarbazide (SEM), as a marker for detecting the antibiotic nitrofurazone, has been criticized due to the many pathways it can be formed by and its natural occurrence in some food items. A recent change in the reference point of action (RPA) for SEM, as stated in Commission Regulation (EU) 2019/1871, due to a reassessment of sensitivity of the analyses, poses a problem for the export of heather honey in Norway. Norwegian heather honey seems to exceed the lowered RPA in numerous cases. Here we show that Norwegian heather honey samples, but not polyfloral ‘summer’ honey samples from the same hives, contain SEM. The simplest explanation for the demonstrated pattern is a natural source of SEM in heather honey, not the use of a banned antibiotic. Based on our results, we propose that an exception to the EU regulation should be added, exempting heather honey derived from Calluna vulgaris unless other nitrofurans or their metabolites are found together with SEM.
Authors
Christophe Moni Eva Farkas Claire Coutris Hanna Marika Silvennoinen Anders Aas Marit Almvik Liang Wang Kathinka Lang Xingang Liu Marianne StenrødAbstract
Biochar and pesticides are likely to be increasingly used in combination in agricultural soils, yet their combined effects on climate change mitigation remain unexplored. This study presents an 8-month incubation experiment with different soil types (silt loam and sandy loam), biochars (corncob and corn stem), and pesticides (with and without a pesticide mixture), during which CO2 production from soil organic matter (SOM) and biochar mineralisation was monitored using isotopic methods. A comprehensive modelling approach, describing all mineralisation results over the entire incubation with a reduced set of parameters, was employed to isolate the effects of biochar, pesticides, and their interactions across soil types and carbon pools, and captured the dynamic effect of biochar on SOM mineralisation. Over 99.5% of biochars remained inert after 8 months, confirming the role of biochar as a carbon sequestration technology. Biochar addition showed higher SOM stabilisation potential in soil with high clay content compared to soil with low clay content. This suggests that biochar amendment should be considered carefully in clay-depleted soils, as it could result in a loss of native SOM. Corn stem biochar, characterised by high surface area and low C/N ratio, demonstrated higher SOM stabilisation potential than corncob biochar with low surface area and high C/N ratio. Pesticide application reduced SOM mineralisation by 10% regardless of soil and biochar types. Finally, the interaction between corncob biochar and pesticides further reduced SOM mineralisation by 5%, while no interactive effect was observed with corn stem biochar. These findings highlight the importance of considering biochar-pesticide interactions when evaluating the impact of biochar amendments on native SOM stability.
2024
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Authors
Sidhi Soman Agnethe Christiansen Roman Florinski Girija Bharat Eirik Hovland Steindal Luca Nizzetto Paromita ChakrabortyAbstract
Currently used pesticides (CUPs) were introduced to have lower persistence and bioaccumulation, and lesser bioavailability towards non-target species. Nevertheless, CUPs still represent a concern for both human health and the environment. India is an important agricultural country experiencing a conversion from the use of obsolete organochlorine pesticides to a newer generation of phytosanitary products. As for other developing countries, very little is known about the transfer of CUPs to the human diet in India, where systematic monitoring is not in place. In this study, we analyzed ninety four CUPs and detected thirty CUPs in several food products belonging to five types: cereals and pulses, vegetables, fruits, animal-based foods, and water. Samples were taken from markets in Delhi (aggregating food produced all over India) and in the periurban area of Dehradun (northern India) (representing food produced locally and through more traditional practices). Overall, chlorpyrifos and chlorpropham were the most detected CUPs with a detection frequency of 33% and 25%, respectively. Except for vegetables and fruits, the levels of CUPs in all other food types were significantly higher in samples from Delhi (p < 0.05). Exposure dosage of CUPs through different food matrices was calculated, and chlorpropham detected in potatoes had the maximum exposure dosage to humans (2.46 × 10−6 mg/kg/day). Risk analysis based on the hazard quotient technique indicated that chlorpyrifos in rice (2.76 × 10−2) can be a concern.
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