What is nanotechnology science?
Nanotechnology is an interdisciplinary field that has been entered in different range of applied sciences such as chemists, physicists, biologists, medical doctors and engineers. Targeted research and development, for understand, manipulate and measure at the materials with atomic, molecular and super molecules dimensions is called nanotechnology. Nanotechnology has been provisionally defined as relating to materials, systems and processes which operate at a scale of 100 nanometers (nm) or less. A nanometer is one billionth of a meter. Overall nano refers to a size scale between 1 nanometer (nm) and 100 nm. For comparison, the wavelength of visible light is between 400 nm and 700 nm. A leukocyte has the size of 10000 nm, a bacteria 1000-10000 nm, virus 75-100 nm, protein 5-50 nm, deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) ~2 nm (width), and an atom ~0.1 nm In this scale, physical, biological and chemical characteristics of materials have fundamentally different from each other and often unexpected actions are seen from them. Nanotechnology considers the topics with viruses and other pathogens scale. So has high potential for identify and eliminate pathogens. (Predicala, 2009; Prasanna, 2007). Recently nano molecules obtained by nanotechnology; there is possibility manipulation on nano scale level, regulate and catalyzed on chemical reactions by these structures. Nano materials are composed of components with very small size, and these components have impacts on the properties of materials at the macro level. Nan particles can serve as ‘magic bullets’, containing herbicides, chemicals, or genes, which target particular plant parts to release their content. Nan capsules can enable effective penetration of herbicides through cuticles and tissues, allowing slow and constant release of the active substances (Perea-de-Lugue and Rubiales, 2009). This convergence of technology with biology at the nano level is called nano biotechnology. Nan biotechnology is a highly interdisciplinary field of research and is based on the cooperative work of chemists, physicists, biologists, medical doctors and engineers (Prasanna, 2007). Nano polymers and nano shells are the most important nano compounds that have many applications in different sciences. Nano polymers are three-dimensional molecules that are achieved through nano synthesis, and nano shell is a nano particle with dielectric core and very thin coating of gold.
Applications of nanotechnology in Animal Science
Nanotechnology will have a potential and ability on future approaches in veterinary and treatment of domesticated animals. Nanotechnology has the ability to provide appropriate solutions for providing food items, veterinary care and prescription medicines and vaccines for domesticated animals. Use of nano capsules for cap and protect of some particular enzymes and proteins would be effective in the livestock and poultry food rations in order to increase yield and effectiveness in the specific context. Taking certain medications such as antibiotics, vaccines, and probiotics, would be more effective in the treating infections, nutritional and metabolic disorders, when use in the nano level. Medicine use is in the nano level has multilateral properties to remove biological barriers for increase efficiency of medicine. Appropriate timing for the release of drug, self-regulatory capabilities and capacity planned are the main advantages use of nanotechnology in the drug treatment. Silver nano particles have been considered as a strong antiseptic (antibacterial and antimicrobial), and it’s widely used for disinfection in the livestock and poultry places. In the cancer treatment, nano particles are connected to the membrane receptors cancer cells, and cancer cells are destroyed with increasing their temperature to 55 °C by infrared waves generated by the nano particles. Also iron nano particles destroy cancer cells by creating magnetic radiation. Breeding suitable time and cross management in livestock, requires to cost and long time in dairy cattle farms. Use of nano-tubes inside the skin of the livestock shows peak real-time of estrus and estrogen hormone, and the exact and actual time insemination (Chakravarthi and Balaji, 2010; Patil, et al., 2009; Scott, 2005).
Applications of nanotechnology in pests and plant diseases management
Today use of chemicals such as pesticides, fungicides and herbicides is the fastest and cheapest way to control pests and diseases. Also biological control methods are very expensive currently. Uncontrolled use of pesticides has caused many problems such as: adverse effects on human health, adverse effects on pollinating insects and domestic animals, and entering this material into the soil and water and its direct and indirect effect on ecosystems. Intelligent use of chemicals on the nano scale can be a suitable solution for this problem. These materials are used into the part of plant that was attacked by disease or pest. Also these carriers in nano scale has self-regulation, this means that the medication on the required amount only be delivered into plant tissue. Nanotechnology helps to agricultural sciences and reduce environmental pollution by production pesticides and chemical fertilizers by using the nano particles and nano capsules with the ability to control or delayed delivery, absorption and more effective and environmentally friendly; and production of nano-crystals to increase the efficiency of pesticides for application of pesticides with lower dose. Nano particles for delivery of active ingredients or drug molecules will be at its helm in near future for therapy of all pathological sufferings of plants. There are myriad of nano materials including polymeric nano particles, iron oxide nano particles and gold nano particles which can be easily synthesized and exploited as pesticide or drug delivery piggybacks. The pharmacokinetic parameters of these nano particles may be altered according to size, shape, and surface functionalization. They can also be used to alter the kinetic profiles of drug release, leading to more sustained release of drugs with a reduced requirement for frequent dosing (Sharon et al., 2010). Diseases are one of the major factors limiting crop productivity. The problem with the disease management lies with the detection of the exact stage of prevention. Most of the times pesticides are applied as a precautionary manner leading to the residual toxicity and environmental hazards and on the other hand application of pesticides after the appearance of disease leads to some amount of crop losses. Among the different diseases, the viral diseases are the most difficult to control, as one has to stop the spread of the disease by the vectors. But, once it starts showing its symptoms, pesticide application would not be of much use. Therefore, detection of exact stage such as stage of viral DNA replication or the production of initial viral protein is the key to the success of control of diseases particularly viral diseases. Nano-based viral diagnostics, including multiplexed diagnostic kit development, have taken momentum in order to detect the exact strain of virus and stage of application of some therapeutic to stop the disease. Detection and utilization of biomarkers that accurately indicate disease stages is also a new area of research. Measuring differential protein production in both healthy and diseased states leads to the identification of the development of several proteins during the infection cycle. These nano-based diagnostic kits not only increase the speed of detection but also increase the power of the detection (Prasanna, 2007). In the future, nano scale devices with novel properties could be used to make agricultural systems “smart”. For example, devices could be used to identify plant health issues before these become visible to the farmer. Such devices may be capable of responding to different situations by taking appropriate remedial action. If not, they will alert the farmer to the problem. In this way, smart devices will act as both a preventive and an early warning system. Such devices could be used to deliver chemicals in a controlled and targeted manner in the same way as nano medicine has implications for drug delivery in humans. Nano medicine developments are now beginning to allow us to treat different diseases such as cancer in animals with high precision, and targeted delivery (to specific tissues and organs) has become highly successful (Joseph and Morrison, 2006).