Weathering and degradation of polylactic acid masks in a simulated environment in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and their effects on the growth of winter grazing ryegrass.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to explosive growth in the production and consumption of disposable medical masks, which has caused new global environmental problems due to the improper disposal of these masks and lack of effective mask recycling methods. To reduce the environmental load caused by the inability of synthetic plastics to degrade, polylactic acid (PLA) masks, as a biodegradable environmentally friendly plastic, may become a solution. This study simulated the actual degradation process of new PLA masks in different environments by soaking them in various solutions for 4 weeks and explored the influence of the treated PLA fabric fibers on the growth of winter ryegrass. The results show that the weathering degradation of PLA fibers in water mainly occurs through the hydrolysis of ester bonds, and weathering leads to cheese-like and gully-like erosion on the surface of the PLA fiber fabric layer and finally to fiber fracture and the release of microplastics (MPs). The average number of MPs released within 4 weeks is 149.5 items/piece, the particle size is 20-500 µm (44%), and 63.57% of the MPs are transparent fibers. The outer, middle, and inner layers of weathered PLA masks tend to be hydrophilic and have lower mechanical strength. PLA fibers after different treatment methods affect the growth of winter ryegrass. PLA masks are undoubtedly a greener choice than ordinary commercial masks, but in order to confirm this, the entire degradation process, the final products, and the impact on the environment need to be further studied. In the future, masks may be developed to be made from more environmentally friendly biodegradable materials that can have good protecting effects and also solve the problem of end-of-life recycling. A SYNOPSIS: Simulation of the actual degradation process of PLA masks and exploration of the influence of mask degradation on the growth of winter ryegrass.

Use of Integrative Interactomics for Improvement of Farm Animal Health and Welfare: An Example with Fescue Toxicosis.

Rapid scientific advances are increasing our understanding of the way complex biological interactions integrate to maintain homeostatic balance and how seemingly small, localized perturbations can lead to systemic effects. The 'omics movement, alongside increased throughput resulting from statistical and computational advances, has transformed our understanding of disease mechanisms and the multi-dimensional interaction between environmental stressors and host physiology through data integration into multi-dimensional analyses, i.e., integrative interactomics. This review focuses on the use of high-throughput technologies in farm animal research, including health- and toxicology-related papers. Although limited, we highlight recent animal agriculture-centered reports from the integrative multi-'omics movement. We provide an example with fescue toxicosis, an economically costly disease affecting grazing livestock, and describe how integrative interactomics can be applied to a disease with a complex pathophysiology in the pursuit of novel treatment and management approaches. We outline how 'omics techniques have been used thus far to understand fescue toxicosis pathophysiology, lay out a framework for the fescue toxicosis integrome, identify some challenges we foresee, and offer possible means for addressing these challenges. Finally, we briefly discuss how the example with fescue toxicosis could be used for other agriculturally important animal health and welfare problems.