The present study investigated the acute toxic effects of a metal-loaded Bauxsol reagent (MLBR), containing more than 6,450 mg kg(-1) of bound metal, on the earthworm Eisenia fetida. Bauxsol is manufactured by Virotec Global Solutions of Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. The E. fetida were exposed to 0, 10, 20, 40, 60, and 80% treatments of MLBR plus cow manure for 28 d. Good motility and no m...

Triclosan (TCS) is a broad-spectrum bactericide that is used for a variety of antimicrobial functions. TCS is frequently detected in the terrestrial environment due to application of sewage sludge to agricultural land. In the present study, 48-h paper contact and 28-day spiked soil tests were conducted to examine the toxic effects of TCS on the antioxidative and genetic indices of earthworms (E...

A laboratory microcosm experiment was conducted to determine whether the earthworm Eisenia fetida could survive in a saline soil from a field site in North China, and an experiment using response surface methodology was conducted at that field site to quantify the effects of E. fetida and green waste compost (GWC) on the salt content of the soil. The microcosm results showed that E. fetida surv...

In soils, organic matter decomposition and stabilization largely occur as a result of microbial activity, although when present, earthworms are important drivers of the processes through their interactions with microflora which begin during organic matter digestion by earthworms. Here, we studied the effects of gut transit on the number of bacteria and the microbial activity in pig slurry, usin...

This study investigated the copulatory behaviour of the lumbricid earthworm Eisenia fetida (Savigny, 1826) in a natural population, and the uniparental reproduction of E. fetida and E. andrei Bouché 1972, two closely-related species. Sperm transfer occurred in 61 % of the matings observed, of which 88.2 % showed bi-directional sperm transfer, 9.8 % unidirectional sperm transfer and one earthwor...

Resin coupled with m-aminophenylbornic acid was used to isolate a glycosylated component from homogenate of earthworm (Eisenia fetida). The fraction showed a single band on SDS-PAGE with a molecular weight of 34, 193 Da determined by mass spectroscopy. The N-terminal region is AQVCCPDI, different from those of earthworm fibrinolytic enzymes reported previously (Nakajima et al. 1993). This glyco...

In the present work bagasse (B) i.e waste of the sugar industry, was fed to Eisenia fetida with cattle dung (CD) support as feed material at various ratios (waste: CD) of 0:100 (B0), 25:75 (B25), 50:50 (B50), 75:25 (B75) and 100:0 (B100) on dry weight basis. Co-composting with cattle dung helped to improve their acceptability for E. fetida and also improved physico-chemical characteristics. Bes...

Department of Environmental Biotechnology, School of Environmental Sciences, Bharathidasan University, Trichy620 024 Mail id: [email protected] ABSTRACT: The increasing waste generation rate, high collection cost and dwindling financial resources are the major problems faced by most of the developing countries for efficient solid waste management. In some cities, the organic wastes (Market...