• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.622-629
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• 2014

The present study was conducted to compare the growth performance, carcass characteristics, and meat quality of the egg-type male growing chicken (EM), white-mini broiler (WB), and commercial broiler (Ross 308, CB). A total of 360 1-d-old chicks were reared together using a completely randomized design with 4 replicates for each group under the identical feeding and rearing conditions. The ADG and gain:feed were the highest in CB, intermediate in WB, and the lowest in EM (p<0.05), and the live and carcass weights of CB and EM were significantly higher than those of WB (p<0.05). The pH of breast meat from WB and CB was significantly higher (p<0.05) than that from EM with a similar body weight. The EM had the lowest moisture (p<0.05) and the highest protein content (p<0.05), whereas the fat and ash contents were not different among groups. The mystiric acid (C14:0), palmitoleic acid (C16:1 ${\omega}7$), and oleic acid (C18:1 ${\omega}9$) levels were significantly higher in breast meat from CB (p<0.05). The monounsaturated fatty acid (MUFA) content showed the highest (p<0.05) levels in CB. In contrast, the polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) contents of breast meat, including linoleic acid (C18:2 ${\omega}6$) and arachidonic acid (C20:4 ${\omega}6$), were higher (p<0.05) in EM and WB than in CB. In conclusion, the EM and WB had less growth performances in comparison with CB, but they each had some unique features (taste, flavor, and physiological characteristics) when raised under the identical rearing and feeding conditions.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.197-202
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• 2005

The effects of feeding Brassica vegetable market wastes on intake, body weight changes and pesticide/insecticide residues in products of goats were evaluated in two experiments. In the first experiment (Exp. 1) 16 goats (Bach Thao, 9 to 10 kg, 3 months old, 9 males and 7 females) were fed four diets with leaves either from cabbage (Brassica oleracea var. capitata), cauliflower (Brassica oleracea var. botrytis) or Chinese cabbage (Brassica campestris subsp. pekinensis) with 30% of Para grass. The control group was fed 100% Para grass. All diets contained soybean waste as a supplement and the experiment lasted for 136 days. In the second experiment (Exp. 2) 24 goats (Bach Thao, 12 to 14 kg, all males) were assigned to three treatments in a completely randomised block design based on initial body weight. The goats were fed cabbage waste supplemented with 200 g or 100 g DM (dry matter) of concentrate. Para grass with 100 g DM concentrate supplementation was used as a control group. The experiment lasted for 90 days and at the end of the study, 12 goats were slaughtered for pesticide/insecticide analysis. Due to low DM content (5.3 and 3.7%, respectively) feed intakes of cabbage and Chinese cabbage groups were lower than those of other groups in the experiment. The highest feed intake and body weight gain was obtained when the goats were fed cauliflower (529 g DM/day and 87.5 g/day, respectively). In Exp. 2 total intake of cabbage and concentrate was similar (484 g and 453 g DM/day) whether the goats were fed 100 or 200 g concentrate/day but lower than that of Para grass and concentrate probably due to the low DM content of the cabbage (5.9%). Crude protein intake (79 g to 86 g/day) and body weight gain (70 g to 88 g/day) was not significantly different between treatments. Adding concentrate consequently resulted in higher DM intake than in Exp. 1 but did not result in any higher growth rate. Three of the pesticide/insecticide residues tested were found in cabbage, Alpha-Cypermethrin, Bassa-Fenobucarb and Dimethoate with levels of 0.175, 0.074 and 0.028 mg/kg fresh cabbage respectively. Weight of livers from goats fed cabbage was about 90 g higher than from goats fed Para grass but no pesticide/herbicide residues were found in meat or liver.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.26 no.8
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• pp.1160-1171
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• 2013

A feeding trial was conducted in tilapia to determine the growth performance, nutrient digestibility, digestive enzymes, and postprandial blood metabolites in response to different dietary amylose-amylopectin ratios. Five isonitrogenous and isolipidic diets containing an equal starch level with different amylose-amylopectin ratios of 0.11 (diet 1), 0.24 (diet 2), 0.47 (diet 3), 0.76 (diet 4) and 0.98 (diet 5) were formulated using high-amylose corn starch (as the amylose source) and waxy rice (as the amylopectin source). Each diet was hand-fed to six tanks of 15 fish each, three times a day over a 6-wk period. After the growth trial, a postprandial blood metabolic test was carried out. Fish fed diet 2 exhibited the highest percent weight gain and feed efficiency and protein efficiency ratio, whereas fish fed with diet 5 showed the lowest growth and feed utilization among treatments. The digestibility for starch in fish fed diet 1 and 2 was higher than those in fish fed with other diets (p<0.05). The highest activities for protease, lipase and amylase were found in fish fed the diet 2, diet 1, and diet 1 respectively among dietary treatments, while the lowest values for these indexes were observed in fish fed the diet 3, diet 5 and diet 4, respectively. The liver glycogen concentrations in fish fed diets 4 and 5 were found higher than in fish fed other diets (p<0.05). The feeding rate, hepatosomatic index, condition factor, and plasma parmeters (glucose, triglyceride, total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol) did not differ across treatments. In terms of postprandial blood responses, peak blood glucose and triglycerides were lower after 3 or 6 h in the fish fed with diets 3-5 than in the fish fed diet 1, but delayed peak blood total amino acid time was observed in fish fed with the diets 1 or 2. The lowest peak values for each of the three blood metabolites were observed in fish fed diet 5. The results indicate that high-dietary amylose-amylopectin ratio could compromise growth, but help in reducing the blood glucose stress on fish caused by postprandial starch load.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.319-329
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• 1996

During the monsoon in Bangladesh, the possibility of preserving wet ($700g\;H_2O$) straw by urea (50 g/kg straw DM) with or without polythene cover has been studied. The quality of preserved straw (PS) in terms of colour, smell and fungal infestation were recorded. Nutritive value of the PS was compared to that of a dry straw (DS) in two separate feeding trials on growing bulls (about 290 kg) without (Expt. 1) or with (Expt. 2) concentrate supplements. Over 96% of the wet straw was excellently preserved for over 5 months when covered with polythene in horizontal heaps (of appx. 4 tons). Whereas only 33% of the straw was well preserved in the uncovered (dome shaped) heaps (of approximately 9.5 tons). Each ton of wet straw costed Tk. 1413 and its preservation cost incurred Tk. 345. Urea preservation increased the crude protein content (95 vs. 50 g/kg), dry matter (DM) degradability at all (8, 16, 24, 48, 72 and 96) hours of incubation and at 48 hours, DM degradability (%) were 45 and 25 respetively for the PS and the DS. When fed alone, DM intake (75 vs. $106g/kg\;W^{0.75}/d$), total microbial N yield (27 vs. 54 g/d) and growth rate (-379 vs. 283 g/d) were higher (p < 0.01) in the PS than the DS. Supplementation of concentrate reduced the straw DM intake both in the DS ($51g/kg\;W^{0.75}/d$) and the PS ($958g/kg\;W^{0.75}/d$), but the substitution rate (SR%) was higher in the PS (42) than the DS (27). Higher substitution rate was probably responsible for the reduction in the differences between the DS and PS in their nutrient digestibilities, total microbial N yield (62 vs. 64 g/d) and growth rate(669 vs 339 g/d) when supplemented with concentrate. On 28th day of Expt. 2, feeding PS from one of the polythene covered heaps resulted nervous disorder due to unknown reason(s). Further studies on the effect of size and shape of heap on the preservation quality need to be determined.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.46-54
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• 2014

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of eucalyptus (E. Camaldulensis) crude oils (EuO) supplementation on voluntary feed intake and rumen fermentation characteristics in swamp buffaloes. Four rumen fistulated swamp buffaloes, body weight (BW) of $420{\pm}15.0$ kg, were randomly assigned according to a $2{\times}2$ factorial arrangement in a $4{\times}4$ Latin square design. The dietary treatments were untreated rice straw (RS) without EuO (T1) and with EuO (T2) supplementation, and 3% urea-treated rice straw (UTRS) without EuO (T3) and with EuO (T4) supplementation. The EuO was supplemented at 2 mL/h/d in respective treatment. Experimental animals were kept in individual pens and concentrate mixture was offered at 3 g/kg BW while roughage was fed ad libitum. Total dry matter and roughage intake, and apparent digestibilites of organic matter and neutral detergent fiber were improved (p<0.01) by UTRS. There was no effect of EuO supplementation on feed intake and nutrient digestibility. Ruminal pH and temperature were not (p>0.05) affected by either roughage sources or EuO supplementation. However, buffaloes fed UTRS had higher ruminal ammonia nitrogen and blood urea nitrogen as compared with RS. Total volatile fatty acid and butyrate proportion were similar among treatments, whereas acetate was decreased and propionate molar proportion was increased by EuO supplementation. Feeding UTRS resulted in lower acetate and higher propionate concentration compared to RS. Moreover, supplementation of EuO reduced methane production especially in UTRS treatment. Protozoa populations were reduced by EuO supplementation while fungi zoospores remained the same. Total, amylolytic and cellulolytic bacterial populations were increased (p<0.01) by UTRS; However, EuO supplementation did not affect viable bacteria. Nitrogen intake and in feces were found higher in buffaloes fed UTRS. A positive nitrogen balance (absorption and retention) was in buffaloes fed UTRS. Supplementation of EuO did not affect nitrogen utilization. Both allantoin excretion and absorption and microbial nitrogen supply were increased by UTRS whereas efficiency of microbial protein synthesis was similar in all treatments. Findings of present study suggested that EuO could be used as a feed additive to modify the rumen fermentation in reducing methane production both in RS and UTRS. Feeding UTRS could improve feed intake and efficiency of rumen fermentation in swamp buffaloes. However, more research is warranted to determine the effect of EuO supplementation in production animals.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.62-68
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• 2014

This feeding trial was carried out to evaluate the effects of different dietary cadmium levels on growth and tissue cadmium content in juvenile parrotfish, Oplegnathus fasciatus, using cadmium chloride ($CdCl_2$) as the cadmium source. Fifteen fish averaging $5.5{\pm}0.06$ g (mean${\pm}$SD) were randomly distributed into each of twenty one rectangular fiber tanks of 30 L capacity. Each tank was then randomly assigned to one of three replicates of seven diets containing 0.30 ($C_0$), 21.0 ($C_{21}$), 40.7 ($C_{41}$), 83.5 ($C_{83}$), 162 ($C_{162}$), 1,387 ($C_{1,387}$) and 2,743 ($C_{2,743}$) mg cadmium/kg diet. At the end of sixteen weeks of feeding trial, weight gain (WG), specific growth rate (SGR) and feed efficiency (FE) of fish fed $C_{21}$ were significantly higher than those of fish fed $C_{83}$, $C_{162}$, $C_{1,387}$ and $C_{2,743}$ (p<0.05). Weight gain, SGR and FE of fish fed $C_0$, $C_{21}$ and $C_{41}$ were significantly higher than those of fish fed $C_{162}$, $C_{1,387}$ and $C_{2,743}$. Protein efficiency ratio of fish fed $C_0$, $C_{21}$ and $C_{41}$ were significantly higher than those of fish fed $C_{1,387}$ and $C_{2,743}$. Average survival of fish fed $C_0$, $C_{21}$, $C_{41}$ and $C_{162}$ were significantly higher than that of fish fed $C_{2,743}$. Tissue cadmium concentrations increased with cadmium content of diets. Cadmium accumulated the most in liver, followed by gill and then muscle. Muscle, gill and liver cadmium concentrations of fish fed $C_0$, $C_{21}$, $C_{41}$ and $C_{83}$ were significantly lower than those of fish fed $C_{162}$, $C_{1,387}$ and $C_{2,743}$. Based on the ANOVA results of growth performance and tissue cadmium concentrations the safe dietary cadmium level could be lower than 40.7 mg Cd/kg diet while the toxic level could be higher than 162 mg Cd/kg diet.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.720-732
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• 2001

Skeletal muscle is of major economic importance since it is finally converted to meat for consumers. The increase in meat production with low costs of production may be achieved by optimizing muscle growth, whereas a high meat quality requires, among other factors, the optimization of intramuscular glycogen and fat stores. Thus, research in energy metabolism aims at controling muscle metabolism, but also liver and adipose tissue metabolism in order to optimize energy partitioning in favour of muscles. Liver is characterized by high anabolic and catabolic rates. Metabolic enzymes are regulated by nutrients through short-term regulation of their activities and long-term regulation of expression of their genes. Consequences of liver metabolic regulation on energy supply to muscles may affect protein deposition (and hence growth) as well as intramuscular energy stores. Adipose tissues are important body reserves of triglycerides, which result from the balance between lipogenesis and lipolysis. Both processes depend on the feeding level and on the nature of nutrients, which indirectly affect energy delivery to muscles. In muscles, the regulation of rate-limiting nutrient transporters, of metabolic enzyme activities and of ATP production, as well as the interactions between nutrients affect free energy availability for muscle growth and modify muscle metabolic characteristics which determine meat quality. The growth of tissues and organs, the number and the characteristics of muscle fibers depend, for a great part, on early events during the fetal life. They include variations in quantitative and qualitative nutrient supply to the fetus, and hence in maternal nutrition. During the postnatal life, muscle growth and characteristics are affected by the age and the genetic type of the animals, the feeding level and the diet composition. The latter determines the nature of available nutrients and the rate of nutrient delivery to tissues, thereby regulating metabolism. Physical activity at pasture also favours the orientation of muscle metabolism, towards the oxidative type. Consequently, breeding systems may be of a great importance during the postnatal life. Research is now directed towards the determination of individual tissue and organ energy requirements, a better knowledge of nutrient partitioning between and within organs and tissues. The discovery of new molecules (e. g. leptin), of new molecular mechanisms and of more powerful techniques (DNA chips) will help to achieve these objectives. The integration of the different levels of knowledge will finally allow scientists to formulate new types of diets adapted to sustain a production of high quality meat with lower costs of production.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.549-553
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• 2006

In this study, the effects of granite-grit offered free-choice on voluntary intakes of grit and subsequently on some morphologic traits of the digestive tract and performance of broilers were investigated. A total of 240 7d-old male broiler chicks (Ross 308) were allotted randomly to 10 floor pens supplied with wood shavings. The experiment lasted for 42 days. There were 2 dietary treatments, each consisting of 5 replicates. Each replicate consisted of 24 birds kept in an experimental unit with a floor size of $2{\times}2m$. Dietary treatments consisted of control (C) in which broilers were fed standard broiler rations, and acid insoluble granite-grit choice (AIGG) in which broilers were fed standard broiler rations and grit in separate troughs. Mean amounts consumed varied quite widely from week to week, but on average broilers ate 3.41 g per d per bird during the experimental period. Birds had a higher voluntary intake of granite-grit at an early age (7 to 21 d of age) than later (22 to 42 d of age). The voluntary intake of granite-grit of AIGG broilers increased (p<0.05) from 2.7 g/day at 7-14 d to 4.4 g at 15-21 d of age, and then it decreased to 3.4, 3.2 and 3.4 g/day between 22-28, 29-35 and 36-42 d of age, respectively. This level of grit intake increased (p<0.05) weights of empty gizzard (0.97 vs. 1.30 g), edible inner organs (3.51 vs. 3.69 g), and length of gut (8.86 vs. 9.01 cm) as a proportion of body weight and the content of insoluble ash (8.4 vs. 42.2 g/kg) in the faeces compared to the control group. Feeding free-choice grit had little or no effect on final live weights (2,542 vs. 2,543 g), daily gains (69 vs. 69 g), carcass weights (1,924 vs. 1,911), dressing percentages (75.6% vs. 75.1%) and feed efficiencies (1.69 vs. 1.66). Birds given grit did not gain more weight than those not given grit but they tended to have (p<0.07) lower feed intake (116.7 vs. 114.5 g), and consequently lower protein and energy intake. In conclusion, the granite-grit consumed voluntarily by broilers increased gut length and empty gizzard weight without affecting growth performance of broilers. Thus, it can be assumed that the voluntary consumption of granite-grit was too low to affect performance.

• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.249-255
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• 2015

An 8 week feeding trial was conducted to evaluate whether methionine and cysteine would effectively spare taurine supplementation on growth performance in juvenile rock bream Oplegnathus fasciatus. Triplicate groups of 25 fish averaging $2.74{\pm}0.04g$ ($mean{\pm}SD$) were fed one of the experimental diets. Five experimental diets including a fish meal based control diet were prepared by adding sulfur amino acid at fixed level of 1.0% and taurine at graded levels of 0%, 0.25%, 0.5% and 1.0% ($S+Tau_0$, $S+Tau_{0.25}$, $S+Tau_{0.5}$ and $S+Tau_{1.0}$, respectively). After the feeding trial, growth performance of fish fed the $S+Tau_{0.25}$, $S+Tau_{0.5}$ and $S+Tau_{1.0}$ diets were significantly higher (P < 0.05) than those of fish fed the Control diet. ANOVA test suggested that when sulfur amino acid were supplemented to the diets, the optimum taurine supplementation level could be 0.25% in the diet, and broken line analysis of weight gain indicated a level of 0.33%, for positive effects on growth and feed utilization. Fish whole-body protein content and taurine concentration steadily increased with the increase of dietary level in the presence of sulfur amino acid in the diets. On the other hand, whole-body lipid content significantly decreased with the incremental levels of dietary taurine. In conclusion, the results of the present study clearly indicated that dietary supplementation of methionine and cysteine at a level of 1% could spare 0.25 to 0.33% of taurine in juvenile O. fasciatus diets.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.28 no.12
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• pp.1736-1741
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• 2015

The objective of this study was to determine the effect of forage: concentrate ratio (F:C) on growth performance, ruminal fermentation and blood metabolites of housing-feeding yaks. Thirty-two Maiwa male yaks (initial body weight = $207.99{\pm}3.31kg$) were randomly assigned to four dietary treatments (8 yaks per treatment). Experimental diets were: A, B, C, D which contained 70:30, 60:40, 50:50 and 40:60 F:C ratios, respectively. Dry matter intake and average daily gain in yaks fed the C and D diets were greater (p<0.05) than yaks fed the A and B diets. No differences were found in ruminal $NH_3-N$, total volatile fatty acids, acetate, butyrate, valerate, and isovalerate concentrations. The propionate concentration was increased (p<0.05) in the C and D groups compared with the A and B diets. In contrast, the acetate to propionate ratio was decreased and was lowest (p<0.05) in the C group relative to the A and B diets, but was similar with the D group. For blood metabolites, no differences were found in serum concentrations of urea-N, albumin, triglyceride, cholesterol, low density lipoprotein, alanine aminotransferase, and aspartate aminotransferase (p>0.05) among treatments. Treatment C had a higher concentration of total protein and high density lipoprotein (p<0.05) than A and B groups. In addition, there was a trend that the globulin concentration of A group was lower than other treatments (p = 0.079). Results from this study suggest that increasing the level of concentrate from 30% to 50% exerted a positive effect on growth performance, rumen fermentation and blood metabolites in yaks.