• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
• /
• v.29 no.2
• /
• pp.35-42
• /
• 2002

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of the addition of activated charcoal (AC) and oak charcoal on in vitro ruminal fermentation characteristics, nutrient disappearance, and ruminal gas production. AC and oak charcoal were added at the levels of 0.50, and 1.00 % to experimental diet (roughage/concentrate ratio ; 2/8). Ruminal pH and ammonia-N tended to increase by adding AC(P<0.05). But oak charcoal did not affect the ruminal pH and ammonia-N. Although not significant, ruminal total VFA and molar percentage of butyric acid tended to decrease in AC diets. but molar percentage of acetate and propionate were not affected by adding AC. Ruminal degradation of dry matter, crude protein, NDF, and ADF in AC diets tended to increase than in non-AC diet, however, no tendency in ruminal degradation of hemicellulose was observed. Ruminal gas production tended to increase in the AC and oak charcoal diets(P<0.05). Although there appeared some beneficial effects in adding AC to ruminant diets in this study, more works should be done with AC before we can make clear conclusion on the use of AC in the ruminant diets.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• v.15 no.4
• /
• pp.549-554
• /
• 2002

An experiment was conducted to examine the performance and carcass characteristics of Hanwoo (Korean native beef cattle) heifers and the fatty acid composition of muscle tissues of the heifers when the animals fed diets containing four levels of dried wormwood (Artemisia sp.). For the experiment the animals were given a basal diet consisting of rice straw and concentrate mixed at 3:7 ratio (on DM basis). The treatments were designed as a completely randomized design with two feeding periods. Heifers were allotted in one of four dietary treatments, which were designed to progressively substitute dried wormwood for 0, 3, 5 and 10% of the rice straw in the basal diet. There was no difference in body weight gain throughout the entire period between the treatment groups. Feed conversion rate was improved (p<0.05) only by the 3% dried wormwood inclusion treatment compared with the basal treatment. Carcass weight, carcass yield and backfat thickness of all treatment groups were not altered by wormwood inclusion. The 5% dried wormwood inclusion significantly increased (p<0.05) the size of loin-eye area over the other treatments. The higher levels (5 and 10%) of dried wormwood inclusion resulted in the higher (p<0.05) water holding capacity (WHC) in loin than the lower levels (0 and 3%) of wormwood inclusion. The redness ($a^*$) and yellowness ($b^*$) values of meat color were significantly lower (p<0.05) in the top round muscle of heifers fed the diet containing 3% dried wormwood. There was a profound effect of the progressively increased intake of dried wormwood led to the linear increase of unsaturated fatty acid content and the linear decrease of saturated fatty acid content in the muscle tissues of Hanwoo heifers. It is concluded that the feeding diets containing dried wormwood substituted for equal weights of rice straw at 5% levels would be anticipated to provide better quality roughage for beef heifer production and economical benefits for beef cattle producers.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• v.15 no.4
• /
• pp.543-548
• /
• 2002

Fresh elephant grass was replaced by urea treated rice straw (UTRS) to evaluate the effects on milk production of crossed lactating cows. A total of 16 crossbred F1 cows (Holstein Friesian ${\times}$ Vietnamese Local Yellow), with a body weight of about 400 kg and lactation number from three to five, were used in the experiment. The experimental cows were blocked according to the milk yield of the previous eight weeks and divided into 4 homogenous groups. The experiment was conducted with a Latin Square design with 4 treatments and 4 periods. Each period was 4 weeks, with 2 weeks of feed adaptation and 2 weeks for data collection. The ratio of concentrate to roughage in the ration was 50:50. All cows were given constant amounts of elephant grass dry matter (DM), with ratios of 100% grass without UTRS (control treatment 100G), and 75% grass (75G), 50% grass (50G) and 25% grass (25G) with ad libitum UTRS. Daily total DM intake on 100G, 75G, 50G and 25G was 12.04, 12.31, 12.32 and 11.85 kg, and the daily ME intake was 121.6, 121.5, 119.4 and 114.3 MJ, respectively. The daily CP intake was similar for all treatments (1.85-1.91 kg). There was a difference (p<0.05) in daily milk yield between the 25G and the 100G and 75G (11.7 vs. 12.6 and 12.5 kg, respectively). Milk protein concentration was similar for all treatments, while a tendency to increased milk fat concentration following the increase of UTRS ratio was observed. The cows gained 4-5 kg body weight per month and showed first oestrus 3-4 months after calving. The overall feed conversion for milk production was not affected by ratio of UTRS in the ration. It is concluded that replacement of green grass by UTRS with a ratio of 50:50 for crossbred lactating cows is as good as feeding 100% green grass in terms of milk yield, body weight gain and feed conversion. UTRS can preferably replace green grass in daily rations for crossbred dairy cows in winter to cope with the shortage of green grass, with the ratio 1:1.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• v.15 no.10
• /
• pp.1422-1427
• /
• 2002

Fifteen crossbred cattle bulls of about 22-24 months age (mean body weight ranged from 291.0 to 298.1 kg) were randomly divided into 3 groups of 5 animals following randomized block design. Animals in group 1 were fed concentrate mixture containing wheat bran 97%, mineral mixture 2% and salt 1% plus ad libitum chopped green sugarcane tops (SCT) as a roughage source. Animals in group 2 were fed concentrate mixture containing lentil chuni 97%, mineral mixture 2% and salt 1% while group 3 concentrate contained wheat bran 48.5%, lentil chuni 48.5%, mineral mixture 2% and salt 1% plus ad libitum chopped green SCT to meet their maintenance requirements. During metabolism trial period, the mean total intake and digestibility of DM in groups 1, 2 and 3 was $8.09{\pm}0.41$, $8.41{\pm}0.49$ and $7.86{\pm}0.16kg/d$ and 60.24, 63.24 and 65.05%, respectively. The intake of CP (p<0.05) and EE (p<0.01) was significantly higher in group 2 and group 1, respectively as compared to remaining 2 groups, which were comparable. Digestibility of CP and EE was significantly (p<0.01) higher in group 3 and that of CP was comparable with group 2. The intake and digestibility of total carbohydrates, NDF, ADF, Hemi-cellulose and cellulose were similar among 3 groups. The mean body weight changes in group 1, 2 and 3 were 173.4, 253.4 and 203.4 g/d, respectively, which was significantly (p<0.05) higher in group 2. The total nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) intakes were significantly higher in group 2 and group 1, respectively. The total volatile fatty acids, ammonia-N, trichloro-acetic acid precipitable nitrogen (TCA ppt.-N; p<0.05), total-N concentrations and pH were significantly (p<0.01) higher in group 3, however, pH and TCA ppt.-N was comparable with group 2 and 1, respectively. From the results, it may be deduced that the feeding of chopped green SCT supplemented with a concentrate mixture having both wheat bran (48.5%) and lentil chuni (48.5%) has shown a better performance with respect to intake and digestibility of nutrients and growth as well.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• v.20 no.9
• /
• pp.1417-1423
• /
• 2007

The present study was conducted to investigate the supplementation effects of $C_{18:2}$ rich-soybean oil or $C_{18:3}$ rich-perilla oil (7% of total diet, DM basis) for 12 weeks on plasma metabolites, fatty acid profile, in vitro lipogenesis, and activities of LPL and FAS in adipose tissue of sheep. The treatments were basal diet (Control), $C_{18:2}$ rich-soybean oil supplemented diet (SO-D) and $C_{18:3}$ rich-perilla oil supplemented diet (PO-D). All the sheep were fed the diets consisting of roughage to concentrate in the ratio of 40:60 (DM basis). Oil supplemented diets (SO-D and PO-D) slightly increased contents of triglyceride (TG) and total cholesterol (TC), proportions of both cis-9 trans-11 and trans-10 cis-12 CLA and TVA, but lowered (p<0.01) those of $C_{18:0}$ compared to the control diet. No differences were observed in the contents of TG and TC and proportions of fatty acids in plasma between supplemented oils. Oil supplemented diets slightly increased the proportions of cis-9 trans-11 and trans-10 cis-12 types of CLA in subcutaneous adipose tissue of sheep compared to the control diet. The rate of lipogenesis with acetate was higher (p<0.01) for intermuscular- and subcutaneous adipose tissues than that for intramuscular adipose tissue, while that with glucose did not differ among fat locations in sheep fed SO-D. No differences were observed in the rate of lipogenesis between substrates in all fat locations. The rates of lipogenesis with glucose increased only in the intermuscular- (p<0.01) and subcutaneous adipose tissue (p<0.005) compared to those with acetate. The rates of lipogenesis with acetate were the highest in the intermuscular and intramuscular adipose tissue of the sheep fed PO-D. Oil supplemented diets slightly increased the rate of lipogenesis with glucose for all fat locations. Supplementation of oils to the diet numerically increased the fatty acid synthase activity but did not affect the lipoprotein lipase activity in subcutaneous adipose tissue.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• v.15 no.9
• /
• pp.1267-1272
• /
• 2002

The present research was undertaken to monitor the effects of restricted and ad. libitum feeding during last trimester of pregnancy on the performance of crossbred dairy cows and their calves. For this purpose two groups of crossbred cows having eight animals in each group were put into two plane of nutrition during their last three months of pregnancy. Dietary energy level in one group was calculated as per Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, (MAFF, UK) and the cows on other group received ad. libitum feeding (concentrate level similar to MAFF, recommendation+ad. libitum roughage). After calving, the cows of both groups were given same diet (ad. libitum) to study the effect of feeding during pregnancy on subsequent lactation performance of the cows. It was observed that during pre-calving period cows on ad. libitum feeding gained significantly (p<0.05) more body weight than that of cows on restricted feeding ($38.50{\pm}6.04$ vs $21.37{\pm}8.04kg/cow$). There was no significant differences between the birth weight of calves of restricted ($21.31{\pm}2.18kg$) and ad. libitum ($20.31{\pm}3.27kg$) groups. Dietary energy intake of ad. libitum group ($50.22{\pm}4.24$ MJ ME/d/cow) was significantly higher (p<0.01) than that of restricted group ($39.76{\pm}1.03$ MJ ME/d/cow). During lactation period cows that were on restricted feeding produced little more milk (3.06 lit/cow/day), than that of the cows on ad. libitum feeding (2.84 lit/cow/day). Although growth rate of the calves of restricted group upto one month ($0.23{\pm}0.09kg/calf/d$) was significantly (p<0.01) higher than that of ad. libitum group ($0.17{\pm}0.08kg/calf/d$) but after four months the growth rate of the calves of two groups become nearly similar ($0.35{\pm}0.02$ vs $0.37{\pm}0.03kg/calf/d$) and difference between them was non-significant. During lactation period cows of restricted group gained little weight but cows of ad. libitum group lost significantly (p<0.05) more weight. Per day metabolizable energy intake in both group during lactation period was nearly similar (67.54 vs 69.58 MJ ME). It is concluded that ad. libitum feeding during last trimester of pregnancy is neither economic for getting maximum milk yield nor for calf growth rate and MAFF, recommended level of dietary energy during that period could be applied on our pregnant crossbred dairy cows.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• v.16 no.9
• /
• pp.1309-1314
• /
• 2003

Growth performance, nutrient digestibility and changes in caecal fermentation pattern was studied on four groups of 8 grower rabbits (soviet chinchilla) each, fed on diets containing 17 to 18% CP and $10.4-11.00MJ\;DE\;kg^{-1}$ feed. The complete diets contained mulberry leaves along with other feed ingredients at 0 (LH), 15 (ML15), 30 (ML30) and 45% (ML45) levels. In LH diet ground lucerne hay was added at 15% of the diet as roughage source. The diets were uniform in other nutritional parameters except the higher amount of hemicellulose (18.7 and 16.5%) in LH and ML15 diets. The performance of grower rabbits was better (p<0.05) on LH and ML15 diets in terms of twelve weeks weight (kg), total gain (g), average daily gain (ADG) and feed efficiency (%). Different levels of mulberry leaves in the diet did not influence the dry matter intake. Digestibility of nutrients for DM, OM, CP, NDF and energy was uniform in all the diets but the digestibility of CF, ADF and cellulose was higher (p<0.01) on ML15, ML30 and ML 45 diets. The hemicellulose digestibility was significantly higher (p<0.01) on LH (44.52%) and ML15 (48.00%) compared to ML30 (33.54%) and ML 45 (39.17%) diets. The nitrogen retention (% of intake) was higher (p<0.05) in LH and ML15 diets than ML30 and ML45 diets. The caecum weight as percent of intestine weight consistently increased (p<0.05) with increasing content of mulberry leaves in diets. Total nitrogen and $NH_3$-N was higher on LH and ML15 diets. It is concluded that incorporation of mulberry leaves can replace Lucerne hay in complete rabbit feed (15% in diet). Even at higher level i.e. 30 and 45% of the diet mulberry leaves based complete feed gave promising results.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• v.19 no.7
• /
• pp.997-1003
• /
• 2006

An experiment with twenty crossbred goat kids (male) of 2-3 months old, weighing about 12 kg was conducted to study the effect of feeding formaldehyde treated rape seed oil cake based diet supplemented with molasses on growth rate and histopathological changes of different organs. Goats were randomly divided into four groups of 5 animals each and were individually fed for a period of 120 days. The animals in group I (URC) and II (URCM) were fed concentrate mixture (CM-I) containing untreated rape seed oil cake (30%) while, the animals in group III (TRC) and IV (TRCM) were offered concentrate mixture (CM-II) containing formaldehyde treated rape seed oil cake. Further, molasses as energy source was additionally supplemented with the concentrate mixture at the rate of 8% of concentrate mixture on dry matter basis to animals in group II and IV. All the animals were maintained on roughage (Berseem hay:wheat straw = 2:1) and concentrate in 50:50 ratio. Average daily gain (g/d) of animals in group IV was significantly (p<0.05) higher than that in group I., but at par with group II and III. Feed conversion efficiency was also significantly (p<0.05) higher in group IV (10.14) than group I and II but at par with group III. The growth rate however increased by 50.2% in group IV showing more consistency in maintaining highest growth rate due to better balance of nutrients. At the end of four months of feeding trial, two animals from each group were sacrificed for histopathological study of different organs. Significant histopathological changes in liver, heart, lungs tissue of animals fed untreated rape seed oil cake diet were recorded which were totally absent in the organ of animals fed formaldehyde treated cake. The liver tissue of goats receiving control diet (containing untreated rape seed oil cake) were found to be associated with engorged central vein and blood vessels. Hepatocytes were swollen, pale and degenerated with cellular infiltration and fibrosis of portal areas. The muscles of heart were found to have intermyofibral edema. Emphysema accompanied by dilated and ruptured alveoli was also recorded in lung tissue. However, histopathological examination of various tissues of goats fed formaldehyde treated cake diet did not exhibit any degenerative changes. Additional supplementation of molasses with or without treated cake diet, apparently did not have any significant effect on ameliorating the above degenerative changes.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• v.26 no.6
• /
• pp.812-819
• /
• 2013

Forty two Malpura lambs (21 d old) were divided into three groups of 14 each consisting of 8 females and 6 males. Lambs were allowed to suckle their respective dams twice daily up to weaning (13 wks) and offered free choice concentrate and roughage in a cafeteria system. The lambs in control group were fed conventional concentrate mixture, in RBO group concentrate mixture fortified with 4% industrial grade rice bran oil and in Ca-soap rice bran oil (as in RBO group) was supplemented in the form of calcium soap. The concentrate intake decreased($p{\leq}0.05$) in RBO group as a result total dry matter, crude protein and metabolizable energy intake decreased compared to control whereas Ca-soap prepared from the same rice bran oil stimulated the concentrate intake leading to higher total dry matter, crude protein and energy intakes. The digestibility of dry matter ($p{\leq}0.05$), organic matter ($p{\leq}0.05$) and crude protein ($p{\leq}0.05$) was higher in RBO group followed by Ca-soap and control whereas no effect was observed for ether extract digestibility. Higher cholesterol ($p{\leq}0.05$) content was recorded in serum of oil supplemented groups (RBO and Ca-soap) while no effect was recorded for other blood parameters. Rice bran oil as such adversely affected and reduced the body weight gain ($p{\leq}0.001$) of lambs in comparison to control whereas the Ca-soap of rice bran oil improved body weight gain and feed conversion efficiency in lambs. Fat supplementation decreased total volatile fatty acids ($p{\leq}0.05$) and individual volatile fatty acid concentration which increased at 4 h post feeding. Fat supplementation also reduced ($p{\leq}0.05$) total protozoa count. Ca-soap of rice bran oil improved pre slaughter weight ($p{\leq}0.05$) and hot carcass weight ($p{\leq}0.05$). It is concluded from the study that rice bran oil in the form of calcium soap at 40 g/kg of concentrate improved growth, feed conversion efficiency and carcass quality as compared to rice bran oil as such and control groups.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• v.17 no.5
• /
• pp.670-677
• /
• 2004

Sixteen multiparous Holstein-Friesian crossbred cows in mid-lactation were blocked according to days in milk (DIM) and previous lactation and randomly assigned according to a Randomized Complete Block (RCB) design with four replications to receive four dietary treatments. The dietary treatments consisted of T1: No cassava hay (CH) or stylo 184 hay (SH) supplementation, supplementation of concentrate to milk yield at 1:2 (control), T2: Supplementation of 1 kg of CH/hd/d, supplementation of concentrate to milk yield at 1:2, T3: Supplementation of 1 kg of CH+SH/hd/d, supplementation of concentrate to milk yield at 1:2, T4: Supplementation of 2 kg of CH+SH/hd/d, supplementation of concentrate to milk yield at 1:3. All animals received Ruzi grass from a cut-and-carry system as roughage source. The feeding trial lasted for 9 weeks. The results revealed that DMI of concentrate of supplemented treatments were significantly lower (p<0.05) than those in the control, but there was no significant difference between T2 and T3. There was no significant difference in forage DM intake between the control and supplemented treatments. CP and NDF digestibility of supplemented treatments were significantly (p<0.05) greater than the control and there were no significant differences among supplemented treatments. Milk yield and 3.5% FCM (14.3, 14.5, 14.7 and 14.8; 13.9, 14.3, 14.3 and 14.6 kg/hd/d, respectively) were not significantly different among treatments. Milk protein percentage of supplemented treatments was significantly (p<0.05) higher than the control, but there were no significant differences among supplemented treatments. There was no significant difference in milk fat percentage between the control and supplemented treatments. However, milk fat percentage tended to be higher for supplemented animals as compared to the control group. There were also no significant differences in lactose, solids-not-fat and total solids percentages among treatments. Cows in supplemented treatments gave incomes over supplement cost (IOSC) of 2.72, 2.74 and 2.93 US$/hd/d, respectively which were greater than for cows on control treatment. Furthermore, IOSC were greatest for cows in T4 as compared to other treatments. Based on this study it was concluded that, feeding cassava hay solely or in combination with stylo 184 hay as a supplemental protein source could be a potential valuable strategy in small-holder dairy farming systems in the tropics. This strategic supplementation significantly reduced concentrate use, which resulted in improved milk yields and milk quality for the supplemented cows. Moreover, it resulted in higher economical returns through increased productivity and lower ratios of concentrate to milk yield, from 1:2 to 1:3.