• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.64 no.2
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• pp.312-329
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• 2022

Feed cost is the main factor affecting the economic benefits of pig industry. Improving the feed efficiency (FE) can reduce the feed cost and improve the economic benefits of pig breeding enterprises. Liver is a complex metabolic organ which affects the distribution of nutrients and regulates the efficiency of energy conversion from nutrients to muscle or fat, thereby affecting feed efficiency. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs that can regulate feed efficiency through the modulation of gene expression at the post-transcriptional level. In this study, we analyzed miRNA profiling of liver tissues in High-FE and Low-FE pigs for the purpose of identifying key miRNAs related to feed efficiency. A total 212~221 annotated porcine miRNAs and 136~281 novel miRNAs were identified in the pig liver. Among them, 188 annotated miRNAs were co-expressed in High-FE and Low-FE pigs. The 14 miRNAs were significantly differentially expressed (DE) in the livers of high-FE pigs and low-FE pigs, of which 5 were downregulated and 9 were upregulated. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes analysis of liver DE miRNAs in high-FE pigs and low-FE pigs indicated that the target genes of DE miRNAs were significantly enriched in insulin signaling pathway, Gonadotropin-releasing hormone signaling pathway, and mammalian target of rapamycin signaling pathway. To verify the reliability of sequencing results, 5 DE miRNAs were randomly selected for quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). The qRT-PCR results of miRNAs were confirmed to be consistent with sequencing data. DE miRNA data indicated that liver-specific miRNAs synergistically acted with mRNAs to improve feed efficiency. The liver miRNAs expression analysis revealed the metabolic pathways by which the liver miRNAs regulate pig feed efficiency.

• Animal Bioscience
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• v.37 no.4_spc
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• pp.730-741
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• 2024

Pig production is one of the viable enterprises of the livestock sub-sector of agriculture. It contributes significantly to the economy and animal protein supply to enhance food security in Africa and globally. This article explored the present status of pig production in Africa, the challenges, prospects and potentials. The pig population of Africa represents 4.6% of the global pig population. They are widely distributed across Africa except in Northern Africa where pig production is not popular due to religio-cultural reasons. They are mostly reared in rural parts of Africa by smallholder farmers, informing why majority of the pig population in most parts of Africa are indigenous breeds and their crosses. Pig plays important roles in the sustenance of livelihood in the rural communities and have cultural and social significance. The pig production system in Africa is predominantly traditional, but rapidly growing and transforming into the modern system. The annual pork production in Africa has grown from less than a million tonnes in year 2000 to over 2 million tonnes in 2021. Incidence of disease outbreak, especially African swine fever is one of the main constraints affecting pig production in Africa. Others are lack of skills and technical know-how, high ambient temperature, limited access to high-quality breeds, high cost of feed ingredients and veterinary inputs, unfriendly government policies, religious and cultural bias, inadequate processing facilities as well as under-developed value-chain. The projected human population of 2.5 billion in Africa by 2050, increasing urbanization and decreasing farming population are pointers to the need for increased food production. The production systems of pigs in Africa requires developmental research, improvements in housing, feed production and manufacturing, animal health, processing, capacity building and pig friendly policies for improved productivity and facilitation of export.

• Journal of the Korean Society of International Agriculture
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.552-559
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• 2011

China is a one of the largest agricultural countries in the world. China consumes around 12.5 billion kilograms of seeds each year. Suchhuge demand for seeds has made the Chinese seed market more and more attractive for investment. Through analysis on the present situation and existing problems of the seed industry in China and based on the current Chinese seed industry development, some future prospects for investments are indicated. This investigation was carried out to propose the appropriate strategies on the development of the Korea seed industry as it considers its entry into the China seed market as a new growth engine in the agricultural sector. The basic law regulating the Chinese seed industry is the PRC Seed Law that generally refers to the protection of germplasm resources, verification of varieties, seed quality issues, the import and export of seeds, seed administrative management, and various rights and obligations. The regulations were aimed at the protection of the rights concerning new varieties of plants. China has two main industry associations, the National Seed Association and the China Seed Industry IP Union, that are non-profit associations consisting of entities and people engaging in the seed scientific research, production, operation and management. The China National Seed Group Co., Ltd. ("Sino Seeds") is the market leader in China regarding the seed industry. The chinese government, however, encourages investment from multinational companies as well as importation of modern crop planting management technologies and equipment. It supports the entry of investors with proven experiences in breeding and germplasm resources expansion and R&D. There has never been a better time for multinational companies with proven seed industry experience to look at building relationships with the Chinese government and enterprises.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.27 no.8
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• pp.1519-1528
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• 2017

Foodborne contamination and salmonellosis caused by Salmonella Enteritidis (S. Enteritidis) are a significant threat to human health and poultry enterprises. Outer membrane vesicles (OMVs), which are naturally secreted by gram-negative bacteria, could be a good vaccine option because they have many biologically active substances, including lipopolysaccharides (LPS), outer membrane proteins (OMPs), and phospholipids, as well as periplasmic components. In the present study, we purified OMVs derived from S. Enteritidis and analyzed their characteristics through silver staining and sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. In total, 108 proteins were identified in S. Enteritidis OMVs through liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry analysis, and OMPs, periplasmic proteins, and extracellular proteins (49.9% of total proteins) were found to be enriched in the OMVs compared with bacterial cells. Furthermore, native OMVs used in immunizations by either the intranasal route or the intraperitoneal route could elicit significant humoral and mucosal immune responses and provide strong protective efficiency against a lethal dose (~100-fold $LD_{50}$) of the wild-type S. Enteritidis infection. These results indicated that S. Enteritidis OMVs might be an ideal vaccine strategy for preventing S. Enteritidis diseases.

• Journal of Agricultural Extension & Community Development
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.91-119
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• 2014

This study explored feasibility of social cooperatives as a strategy of struggle to social exclusion in the social services area based on the relationships between people. Is social cooperatives on the Fundamental Act on Cooperatives a new type of social welfare service providers comparing the social welfare foundations and social enterprises? Would be expected as social inclusion processes effects arising from the properties of cooperative in social welfare sector? If social welfare institutions function as an intermediate medium between government and users, social cooperatives can be performed function in the community in a variety of cooperative relationships with Multiple stakeholders, e.g. various service providers, care-givers, social workers, and users, etc., conflicting the interests. In this perspective, looked the possibility of social cooperatives as community welfare practice model.

• Journal of Agricultural Extension & Community Development
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.215-241
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• 2014

As brand has increasingly influenced on marketing activities, local government, agricultural enterprises, and individual farmhouses autonomously develop and promote their own brands in the field of agrifood. Among developed brands, however, it could be possible for products with having no competitiveness and continuous control to lapse in the marketing. This study aimed to try develop to brand equity model in order for agri-food brands to evaluate and complement in the agricultural company. For doing this, ERRC were administered to interview the brands experts to discuss rice. The results of the analyses indicated that the areas with attribute weight of assets may consider bonding with customers for enhancing the value in the brand equity.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.217-220
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• 2002

Mulberry being a foliage crop is grown extensively for feeding of silkworms and are also used for cattle feeding. These loaves are highly nutritious, which contain various mineral elements and bio-molecules such as carbohydrates, proteins, lipids and other essential amino acids, etc. In the present study, deproteinized mulberry leaf juice was used for preparation of the medium for cultivation of various types of microbes. Results revealed that deproteinized mulberry leaf juice medium is best for isolation of fungi, bacteria and actinomycetes and this medium can be substituted with synthetic media, which are haying the costly ingredients for isolation and identification of bacteria, fungi and actinomycetes. Further, this deproteinized mulberry juice medium can also be used in mass multiplication of useful/beneficial microbes to enhance soil microflora to improve soil fertility and to avoid root diseases. Perspective enterprises can take up the mass multiplication/large-scale production of useful microbes such as Trichoderma, Rhizobium, Pseudomonas and Bacillus to use in mulberry and in other agricultural crops using deproteinized mulberry leaf juice.

• Asian Journal of Business Environment
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.5-11
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• 2014

Purpose - The paper aims to study strategic enterprise resource initiative formation processes. It analyzes the process of managing the strategic resource initiative and discusses its implementation mechanism. A research model for enterprises' strategic development is proposed, which suggests a geometric interpretation for estimating a company's long-term development. Research design, data, and methodology - The analysis employs theoretical studies of modern researchers. The main models used to determine the optimal alternative business strategy are graphic interpretation and mathematical modeling. Results - The hypotheses testing demonstrates the definition of a company's strategic resource initiative and explains the-mechanism or design of its formation. The study presents a geometric prism-refraction model of practice using a strategic resource initiative. Conclusions - An enterprise's strategy could return to its initial state in case of its unexpected deviation as a result of passing through the nodal points. The proposed model allows us to evaluate business performance, its surrounding environment, and the resource management strategy, to determine the necessary scope of strategy changes necessary to bring it back to the original state.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.31 no.7
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• pp.968-975
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• 2018

Thailand is a country of native beef cattle resource farming. It has undergone rapid social and economic change in the past decade. Agricultural growth has been maintained by increasing the production of rice and cassava. Changing economic status also provides opportunities for beef cattle producers to meet increasing consumer demand for beef. Finishing beef cattle numbers in Thailand were about 1.0 M head in 2015. Beef produced in Thailand has exclusively been for domestic consumption. Only 1% of Thailand's beef cattle are for the premium market which is based on marbling score, 40% are sold into modern markets that consider muscling of cattle, and the remainder enter traditional markets. Cross-bred cattle for the premium market are raised within intensive systems. Most producers of premium beef are members of beef cooperatives, or have invested in their enterprises at high levels. Culled cow (native or cross-bred cattle) are mainly for small holder farm production. Malaysia, Indonesia, and other members of the Asian Economic Community (AEC) are set to become the largest beef market, which has been confirmed by 2015 through 2020 forecasts for consumption of beef that must increasingly be halal. These circumstances are likely to be challenging for beef producers in Thailand to gain a share of this market. Integration across all sectors involved in beef production in Thailand will be required.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.601-605
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• 1993

This study was purposed to investigate the efficiency of protein utilization of rapeseed meal (RSM) and formaldehyde-treated RSM (TRSM) by sheep, and their influence on performance of growing heifers. Experiment 1 was conducted according to a double $3{\times}3$ Latin square design involving sex yearling Hu Sheep and three experimental diets. All diets contained 600 g ammoniated rice straw and 200 g concentrate mixture. Three dietary treatments were: (1) 100 g RSM + 40 g soybean meal (URUS), (2) 100 g TRSM + 40 g soybean meal (TRUS) and (3) 100 g TRSM + 40 g treated soybean meal (TRTS). Apparent nitrogen digestibility was significantly higher for diet TRUS than that for URUS or TRTS (p<0.05), but with no significant difference between URUS and TRTS (p>0.05). Proportion of nitrogen retention (NR) to the digestible nitrogen intake for diet TRUS and TRTS was 25.57 (p<0.05) and 23.44% (p<0.05) higher than that for URUS respectively. As a result, proportion of NR to nitrogen intake for diet TRUS and TRTS was 34.74 (p<0.05) and 23.78% (p<0.05) higher than that for URUS respectively. Experiment 2 was conducted with 59 Holstein heifers. They were 12-20 months of age at the start of the trial. The experiment was a $2{\times}2$ factorial trial in which the heifers were given the ammoniated rice straw ad libitum and 1.5 kg hay, and supplemented with either RSM or TRSM at a daily allowance of 1.2 or 1.8 kg per day. The live weight gains for heifers receiving 1.2 and 1.8 kg/d of RSM or TRSM were 0.491 and 0.556 or 0.564 and 0.665 kg/d, respectively. The results suggest that formaldehyde treatment can effectively improve the efficiency of protein utilization of rapessed meal and cattle's performance.