Fast & Furious 9 begins filming in the UK
Vin Diesel and Michelle Rodriguez confirm the start of filming of “Fast & Furious 9” in an Instagram video. The two stars have just completed their first day of filming. But they are not the only returnees. Nathalie Emmanuel, Tyrese Gibson, Jordana Brewster and Ludacris are also there.
Vitamin D deficiency is one of the most common health problems worldwide. This can lead to brittle bones and an increased risk of respiratory diseases. Chicken eggs are a natural source of vitamin D and a way to at least partially correct this deficiency. A team of nutrition and agricultural scientists from the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) have found a new way to increase the vitamin D content of eggs by exposing chickens to UV light. As the team writes in the journal “Poultry Science”, the method can be used immediately in chicken coops.
Vitamin D takes on many important functions in the human body. In the summer months, people can meet around 90 percent of their daily vitamin D requirements themselves. It is formed naturally in the skin through exposure to sunlight. The rest can ideally be absorbed through foods such as fatty fish or chicken eggs.
The researchers therefore looked for a way to increase the vitamin D content in eggs. In previous studies, the researchers demonstrated the basic success of their approach when they illuminated the chickens' legs with UV light. “However, the experiments were always carried out under ideal experimental conditions. There was only one chicken per lamp. In chicken farms there is a much higher stocking density than here, in other words: many more animals,” says nutritionist Dr. Julia Kühn from MLU. The new study was intended to test the practical application of the method and was therefore carried out on two chicken farms.
The researchers not only continuously analyzed the vitamin D content of the newly laid eggs throughout the experimental period, but also examined the effects of the additional lighting on the animals. “Humans can’t see UV light, but chickens can. Light regimes are therefore a critical aspect in chicken keeping, as light influences behavior and laying activity,” explains Professor Eberhard von Borell, an expert in animal husbandry at MLU. His working group analyzed thisAnimal behaviorbased on video recordings. The researchers also examined the chickens' feathers for injuries from other members to assess their activity and aggression potential.
After just three weeks of UV irradiation for six hours per day, the vitamin D content of the eggs increased three to four times. This value did not increase further in the following weeks. The additional UV light apparently didn't cause any problems for the chickens either. They neither avoided the area around the lamps nor showed any other behavior.
The researchers conclude that their method also works under practical conditions and that this could represent an important step towards supplying the population with vitamin D.
