• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.32 no.10
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• pp.1565-1572
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• 2019

Objective: This study was aimed to investigate the effects of brewer's yeast hydrolysate (YH) on growth performance, nutrients digestibility, blood profiles and meat quality of growing pigs. Methods: A total of 200 growing pigs ($[Landrace{\times}Yorkshire]{\times}Duroc$) (initial body weight, $25.31{\pm}1.29kg$) were allotted to 5 treatments as follow: CON, basic diet; and YH treatment, CON+0.05%, 0.1%, 0.5%, and 1.0% of YH, respectively. Results: On wk 11, 16 and overall phase, pigs fed YH diet showed a linear improvement in average daily body gain and gain/feed (p<0.05). The pigs that received YH linearly increased the digestibility of dry matter, nitrogen, and energy on wk 11 and 16. The concentration of serum urea nitrogen was linearly increased in YH treatments on wk 16. However, the carcass weight, back fat and lean muscle percentage of pigs receiving YH had no significant change. Besides, no difference was observed in creatinine and total protein in the blood among treatments. Conclusion: The pigs fed a graded YH diet had improved growth performance and nutrient digestibility, meanwhile, the YH increased the serum urea nitrogen in the growing pigs.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.417-426
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• 2019

This study was conducted to evaluate seasonal effects on production performance of lactation sows reared in two different environments in South Korea. A total of 76 sows ($Landrace{\times}Yorkshire$) from the Dankook University experimental farm and 120 sows ($Landrace{\times}Yorkshire$) from a commercial farm were collected. In the current study, reduced (p < 0.01) feed intake and energy intake during lactation were observed in warm season compared with cool season in both farms. Sows in cool season had higher backfat thickness at weaning but lower back fat loss (p < 0.01) than those in warm season. The weaning to estrus interval was lower (p < 0.01) in cool season than in warm season. Piglets weaned in warm season had lower (p < 0.01) body weight (BW), body weight gain (BWG), and average daily gain (ADG) at weaning than did those weaned in cool season on the Dankook University farm, whereas the reduction effect was only observed during 0 - 21 d on the commercial farm (p < 0.01). Moreover, piglets weaned in cool season had higher BW, BWG, and ADG (p < 0.05) on both farms. In conclusion, our results indicate that warm season had very negative effects on feed intake and production performance of lactating sows and piglets.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2021

A total of twenty-four multiparous sows (Landrace × Yorkshire) and their litters were used in this 21-day experimental trial. Based on their body weight, sows were randomly allocated into one of three treatments with eight replicates. The dietary betaine supplementation contained three levels: (i) CON (Basal diet + 0% Bet), (ii) Bet 0.05% (CON + 0.05% Betaine), and (iii) Bet 0.15% (CON + 0.15% Betaine). The supplementation of betaine had no effect (p > 0.05) on body weight and feed intake of lactating sow. Moreover, no significant response was observed on backfat thickness, body condition score, and weaning of the estrus interval with the dietary supplementation of betaine. In addition, the litter weaning weight, litter weight gain, average litter daily gain, and survivability rate at birth showed no significant difference with the dietary betaine supplementation of the sow diet. Fecal scores of the lactating sows and suckling piglets were not affected (p > 0.05) with the dietary betaine supplementation compared with the control diet during the experimental periods. The findings of this study showed that betaine supplementation does not boost growth performance, feed intake, body conditions, and fecal score in lactating sows and suckling piglets fed a corn-soybean meal-based diet.

• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.23-31
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• 2008

An experiment was conducted in twelve 0.02-ha rain-fed earthen ponds for 18 weeks to evaluate the effects of including pangasiid catfish (Pangasius hypophthalmus) in polycultures of major Indian carps, catla (Catla catla), rohu (Labeo rohita), and mrigal (Cirrhinus cirrhosus), on yield and economic gain. Treatment 1 ($T_1$) consisted of 5,000 catla+2,500 rohu+2,500 mrigal per ha, treatment 2 ($T_2$) consisted of 5,000 catla+2,500 rohu+2,500 mrigal+2,500 pangasiid catfish per ha, treatment 3 ($T_3$) consisted of 5,000 catla+2,500 rohu+2,500 mrigal+5,000 pangasiid catfish per ha, and treatment 4 ($T_4$) consisted of 5,000 catla+2,500 rohu+2,500 mrigal+7,500 pangasiid catfish per ha. The growth performance of fishes was evaluated by calculating specific growth rate, daily weight gain, and percent weight gain. Inclusion of pangasiid catfish in the carp polyculture resulted in significant increases in the growth and yield of catla and rohu. Catla and rohu grew most in $T_4$, with 7,500/ha of pangasiid catfish. The presence of pangasiid catfish did not influence the growth of mrigal. The growth of pangasiid catfish varied with stocking density, and they grew best at 5,000/ha ($T_3$). The carp and the combined fish yields were significantly higher in the carp polycultures with pangasiid catfish than with carps alone. The total carp and the combined fish yields were highest in $T_4$, in which the density of pangasiid catfish was greatest. However, the total carp and the combined fish yields in $T_3$ and $T_4$ were not significantly different. Profit differed significantly among treatments. Economic gain was highest in $T_3$, with 5,000/ha of pangasiid catfish, and lowest in $T_1$. The inclusion of pangasiid catfish in major carp polycultures results in higher fish yields and greater economic gain.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.16 no.10
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• pp.1540-1544
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• 2003

This study chiefly aimed to ascertain the effect of age at weaning on caecal content characteristics, post-weaning performance and health of rabbits. A secondary aim was to study the effect of dietary restriction on performance and health of rabbits. After delivery, 30 litters of 8 pups each, were housed in separate cages. Fifteen litters were weaned 24 days from birth (group W 24) while the other 15 were weaned at 28 days (group W28). After weaning, 53 rabbits of group W24 and 56 of group W28 were fed ad libitum (group LIB), while 53 rabbits of group W24 and 57 of group W28 were restricted (group RES). All the rabbits were kept in individual cages. Fourteen other rabbits of groups W24 (7 fed ad libitum and 7 restricted) and 7 of group W28 were sacrificed to obtain data regarding caecum weight and caecal content. Age at weaning affected neither the state of health nor the final live weight. In comparison with those of group W28, the rabbits weaned at 24 days had a lower daily gain until 35 days of age but gain was higher subsequently. From the 28th day, however, the feed intake and the feed conversion ratio of the group W24 rabbits were always better than those of W28. The restricted diet until 42 days resulted in a lower weight both at 42 days (1,078 vs. 1,164 g) and at 70 days (2,192 vs. 2,294 g). Indeed, from the 42nd day, despite receiving feed ad libitum the rabbits of the restricted group continued to ingest less feed (120.8 vs. 127.2 g) than those of the ad libitum group, and had a slightly lower daily gain (39.8 vs. 40.3 g). The measurements carried out on the caecum highlighted significant differences among the groups in caecal content (33.1 vs. 31.7 vs. 25.3 g respectively for groups W24LIB, W28 and W24RES), for total volatile fatty acids (53.2 vs. 50.6 vs. 44.5 mmol/l respectively for groups W24LIB, W28and W24RES) for ammonia (7.0 vs. 7.2vs 8.8 mmol/l respectively for groups W24LIB, W28 and W24RES), for propionate (5.7 vs. 6.3 vs. 8.1% respectively for groups W24LIB, W28 and W24RES) and for propionate/butyrate (0.33 vs. 0.36 vs. 0.49 respectively for groups W24LIB, W28 and W24RES).

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.24 no.12
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• pp.1711-1717
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• 2011

The objective of this experiment was to evaluate the effect of dietary supplementation of glutathione (GSH) on health, solid feed consumption, nutrient intake, body weight gain (BWG), feed efficiency, blood metabolites and the occurrence of diarrhea in Holstein neonatal calves. The calves were fed plain milk as a control (CON) or milk with GSH supplementation. Sixteen calves were separated from their mothers immediately after birth, moved into individual cages and fed colostrum for the first three days. For GSH supplementation, three grams of GSH powder were mixed in 1.8 L of heat-treated milk and placed in a plastic bottle with a rubber nipple. The calves were fed GSH-supplemented milk only once out of four daily feedings. For the first 25 d, calves were fed 1.8 L of milk four times per day. Milk feeding frequency was reduced to three times per day from days 26 to 30, followed by twice a day from days 31 to 44, and once a day from days 45 to 49, after which they were weaned at day 50. Body weight gain (BWG), feed consumption, and growth performance were monitored until day 70. The dietary supplementation of GSH had no effect on daily feed intake and growth performance in growing calves. Hematological results revealed red blood cell distribution width (RDW) was lower, and mean corpuscular volume (MCV) was significantly higher in calves fed GSH. Serum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) concentrations were lower in calves fed GSH. Rectal temperature at day 70 was higher in calves that did not receive GSH, while mean frequency of diarrhea and enteritis was less in calves fed GSH. It is concluded from the present study that BW gain, total dry matter intake (DMI), feed efficiency, and breathing rate did not differ between groups. However, there were some positive blood parameters and the mean frequency of diarrhea and enteritis was less in calves fed GSH compared to CON which did not receive GSH. With the results obtained, supplementation of GSH is highly recommended.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.696-704
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• 2018

Objective: This study was conducted to evaluate various levels of milk by-product in weaning pig diet on growth performance, blood profiles, carcass characteristics and economic performance for weaning to finishing pigs. Methods: A total of 160 weaning pigs ([Yorkshire${\times}$Landrace]${\times}$Duroc), average $7.01{\pm}1.32kg$ body weight (BW), were allotted to four treatments by BW and sex in 10 replications with 4 pigs per pen in a randomized complete block design. Pigs were fed each treatment diet with various levels of milk by-product (Phase 1: 0%, 10%, 20%, and 30%, Phase 2: 0%, 5%, 10%, and 15%, respectively). During weaning period (0 to 5 week), weaning pigs were fed experimental diets and all pigs were fed the same commercial feed during growing-finishing period (6 to 14 week). Results: In the growth trial, BW, average daily gain (ADG), and average daily feed intake (ADFI) in the nursery period (5 weeks) increased as the milk by-product level in the diet increased (linear, p<0.05). Linear increases of pig BW with increasing the milk product levels were observed until late growing period (linear, p = 0.01). However, there were no significant differences in BW at the finishing periods, ADG, ADFI, and gain:feed ratio during the entire growing-finishing periods. The blood urea nitrogen concentration had no significant difference among dietary treatments. High inclusion level of milk by-product in weaner diet decreased crude protein (quadratic, p = 0.05) and crude ash (Linear, p = 0.05) of Longissimus muscle. In addition, cooking loss and water holding capacity increased with increasing milk product levels in the weaner diets (linear, p<0.01; p = 0.05). High milk by-product treatment had higher feed cost per weight gain compared to non-milk by-products treatment (linear, p = 0.01). Conclusion: Supplementation of 10% to 5% milk by-products in weaning pig diet had results equivalent to the 30% to 15% milk treatment and 0% milk by-product supplementation in the diet had no negative influence on growth performance of finishing pigs.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.888-898
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• 2018

Objective: The study was conducted to investigate the effects of replacing soybean meal (SBM) with different levels of detoxified Jatropha curcas kernel meal (DJM) in growing pig diets on growth performance, nutrients digestibility and meat edibility. Methods: A total of 144 pigs with initial body weight of $20.47{\pm}1.44kg$, were randomly allocated to 6 dietary treatments with 6 replications per treatment and 4 pigs per replication for a period of 79 days. Six diets (DJM0, DJM15, DJM30, DJM45, DJM60, and DJM75) were formulated using DJM to replace 0%, 15%, 30%, 45%, 60%, and 75% of SBM. From d 37 to 42, feces and urine were total collected from six barrows in each treatment. At day 79, thirty-six pigs were slaughtered for sampling. The feed intake and weight gain were recorded, while the intestinal morphology, digestive enzyme activities, nutrient digestibility and the content of residual phorbol esters in muscles were determined. Results: The results showed that increasing the replacement of SBM with DJM decreased the parameters including body weight, average daily gain, average daily feed intake, gain-to-feed ratio, weight and villus heights of duodenum, villus height and villus height/crypt depth of jejunum, digestive enzymes (protease, amylase, lipase, and trypsin) activities, and nutrients digestibility (nitrogen deposition, digestibility of nitrogen, energy digestibility, and total nitrogen utilization) (linear, p<0.05; quadratic, p<0.05) and there was no significant difference among DJM0, DJM15, and DJM30 in all measured indices. The highest diarrhea morbidity was observed in DJM75 (p<0.05). Phorbol esters were not detected in pig muscle tissues. Conclusion: The DJM was a good protein source for pigs, and could be used to replace SBM up to 30% (diet phorbol esters concentration at 5.5 mg/kg) in growing pig diets with no detrimental impacts on growth performance, nutrient utilization, and meat edibility.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.28 no.12
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• pp.1742-1750
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• 2015

As a novel approach for disease control and prevention, nutritional modulation of the intestinal health has been proved. However, It is still unknown whether branched-chain amino acid (BCAA) is needed to maintain intestinal immune-related function. The objective of this study was to determine whether BCAA supplementation in protein restricted diet affects growth performance, intestinal barrier function and modulates post-weaning gut disorders. One hundred and eight weaned piglets ($7.96{\pm}0.26kg$) were randomly fed one of the three diets including a control diet (21% crude protein [CP], CON), a protein restricted diet (17% CP, PR) and a BCAA diet (BCAA supplementation in the PR diet) for 14 d. The growth performance, plasma amino acid concentrations, small intestinal morphology and intestinal immunoglobulins were tested. First, average daily gain (ADG) (p<0.05) and average daily feed intake (ADFI) (p<0.05) of weaned pigs in PR group were lower, while gain:feed ratio was lower than the CON group (p<0.05). Compared with PR group, BCAA group improved ADG (p<0.05), ADFI (p<0.05) and feed:gain ratio (p<0.05) of piglets. The growth performance data between CON and BCAA groups was not different (p>0.05). The PR and BCAA treatments had a higher (p<0.05) plasma concentration of methionine and threonine than the CON treatment. The level of some essential and functional amino acids (such as arginine, phenylalanine, histidine, glutamine etc.) in plasma of the PR group was lower (p<0.05) than that of the CON group. Compared with CON group, BCAA supplementation significantly increased BCAA concentrations (p<0.01) and decreased urea concentration (p<0.01) in pig plasma indicating that the efficiency of dietary nitrogen utilization was increased. Compared with CON group, the small intestine of piglets fed PR diet showed villous atrophy, increasing of intra-epithelial lymphocytes (IELs) number (p<0.05) and declining of the immunoglobulin concentration, including jejunal immunoglobulin A (IgA) (p = 0.04), secreted IgA (sIgA) (p = 0.03) and immunoglobulin M (p = 0.08), and ileal IgA (p = 0.01) and immunoglobulin G (p = 0.08). The BCAA supplementation increased villous height in the duodenum (p<0.01), reversed the trend of an increasing IELs number. Notably, BCAA supplementation increased levels of jejunal and ileal immunoglobulin mentioned above. In conclusion, BCAA supplementation to protein restricted diet improved intestinal immune defense function by protecting villous morphology and by increasing levels of intestinal immunoglobulins in weaned piglets. Our finding has the important implication that BCAA may be used to reduce the negative effects of a protein restricted diet on growth performance and intestinal immunity in weaned piglets.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.24 no.9
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• pp.1233-1242
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• 2011

The in vivo digestibility of mulberry leaves (Morus alba) and the effects of the partial replacement of cotton seed with fresh mulberry leaf in rations on the performance of growing Vietnamese cattle was investigated. For the in vivo digestibility trial, twenty castrated rams of Phanrang breed (a local prolific breed) with an initial weight of 23-25 kg, were first assigned to four groups according to weight and then randomly assigned to one of four dietary treatments to determine digestibility of nutrients in mulberry leaves (M. alba), natural Bermuda grass (Cynodon dactylon), elephant grass (Pennisetum purpureum) and buffalo grass (Panicum maximum cv. TD 58). All forages were cut and chopped daily before being offered (at 120% maintenance) to the sheep. In the feeding trial, 20 Laisind (Vietnam yellow cows${\times}$Red Sindhy bulls) crossbred bulls averaged 18 month old and 184 kg were used to investigate the effect of partial replacement of cottonseed in the diet by mulberry leaves on live weight gain and feed conversion rate. The experiment was a randomized complete block design with four levels of fresh mulberry leaves which varied from 0 to 15% of total dietary dry mater and five animals per treatment over an 84 day period. The in vivo digestion trial showed the superior quality of mulberry leaves compared with the grasses. Chemical analysis indicated that mulberry leaves had the highest CP and the lowest NDF contents (22.3 and 31.1% DM, respectively) among the four forages tested. Digestibility of DM and OM of the mulberry leaf (66.4 and 71.8%, respectively) was also the highest but that of CP (58.2%) and NDF (58.4%) was the lowest of the four forages evaluated (p<0.05). Consequently, the ME value and therefore net energy (NE) and unit feed for lactation (UFL) values of the mulberry leaves, which was estimated from chemical composition and digestibility values, were the highest among the forages investigated in the present study. Results of the feeding trial showed no treatment effect on average daily gain (ADG) of the cattle. The values were 554, 583, 565 and 568 g/d for animals in the diets of 0, 5, 10, and 15% mulberry leaves inclusion, respectively. Total DM intake of the animal was not affected by the treatment when expressed as kg/animal/d. However, when adjusted for metabolic weight of the animal the DM intake was reduced (p<0.05) as whole cottonseed was replaced by mulberry leaves in the ration. When the level of mulberry leaves in the ration increased from 5 to 15% of dietary DM at the expense of whole cottonseed, CP and ME intakes of the cattle were significantly decreased (p<0.05) and the feed to gain ratio reduced by 8 to 14% as compared with the control diet (p<0.05). Mulberry leaf is a good feed ingredient for ruminants because of its high level of crude protein and high digestibility of nutrients and energy. Mulberry leaves can be efficiently used as a source of protein supplement to replace cottonseed, a more expensive animal feeds ingredient, in the diet for Vietnamese cattle.