• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• 제6권3호
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• pp.361-365
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• 1993

An experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of feeding fresh cassava roots on the performance and carcass quality of pigs raised from $15{\pm}1kg$ to 85 kg live weight. Fresh unpeeled cassava roots were chopped into chips and offered separately along with a protein concentrate made up of copra cake and meat and bone meal, and a local mineral-vitamin premix. Commercial pig grower and finisher diets served as control. A total of 24 pigs were used in an incomplete randomized split-plot design experiment. Pigs fed fresh cassava-based diet grew as fast, 0.78 vs 0.77 kg/day, and were as efficient, 3.74 vs 3.77 in converting feed into body weight gain as those fed the commercial control diet. Similarly, there were no differences in carcass quality measured in terms of dressing percentage, 77 vs 77; backfat thickness, 2.76 vs 2.78 cm; loin eye muscle area, 29.2 vs $29.1cm^2$ and in the relative proportions of the different carcass cuts between the two dietary treatments. The use of fresh cassava along with the protein and the local mineral-vitamin premix however, resulted in lowered total feed cost and cost per unit of live weight gain. It is concluded that fresh cassava roots can be fed along with copra cake, meat and bone meal protein concentrate and a local mineral-vitamin premix to fattening pigs with no adverse affects on performance and carcass quality.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• 제12권4호
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• pp.633-641
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• 1999

Reaction by neighbours to odours is increasingly affecting operations of existing animal farming operations and may adversely constrain the further development of the animal production industry in some parts of Australia. It is critical that the scale of such odour impact on the rural-urban interface be estimated to provide useful information both for environmental protection and animal farming operations. Furthermore, the information can be used to modify odour reduction strategies as economic conditions change. The Centre for Water and Waste Technology at The University of New South Wales has developed a comprehensive set of odour control techniques in the course of its research and development effort over the past eight years. Techniques have been developed for odour sampling at point, area and volume sources, monitoring environmental parameters such as ventilation rate, shed temperature, shed humidity, litter water content and ambient meteorological condition, olfactometry and odour dispersion modelling. The work has paved the way for the establishment of odour reduction strategies based on best environmental management practice and advanced odour abatement technologies.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• 제14권7호
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• pp.1014-1018
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• 2001

Pigs respond to extreme temperature (very cold or hot) by physiological and nutritional adjustments. Yet little is known about the effects of different environmental temperature (thermoneutral in the highland area, and hot temperature in the coastal area) where pigs are maintained on the performance of the pigs. Ten pigs each (10 pairs of littermates) were assigned to two treatments (2 locations): highland area (control=CA) or coastal area (hot/heat stress=HS). Experimental design was Paired 't' test. HS pigs had higher average daily water intake (p<0.05) compared to CA pigs (6,05 vs 3.89 kg/d), CA pigs had higher feed intake compared to HS pigs (2.9 vs 1.95 kg/d, p<0,05). CA pigs had higher daily gain compared to HS pigs (0.72 vs 0.58 kg/d, p<0.05). Feed conversion was not significantly different between CA pigs and HS pigs. The digestibility of dry matter, N, Na, K, Mg, CI, Ca and P was not significantly affected by the treatments. High environmental temperature in the coastal area (heat stress) increased water intake, decreased voluntary feed intake and daily gain of the pigs. The results demonstrate that different environmental temperature in the coastal area (heat stress) and highland area (control) had no pronounced effect on digestibility of nutrients.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• 제25권7호
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• pp.935-944
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• 2012

Amur grayling, Thymallus grubii, is an important economic cold freshwater fish originally found in the Amur basin. Currently, suffering from loss of habitat and shrinking population size, T. grubii is restricted to the mountain river branches of the Amur basin. In order to assess the genetic diversity, population genetic structure and infer the evolutionary history within the species, we analysised the whole mitochondrial DNA control region (CR) of 95 individuals from 10 rivers in China, as well as 12 individuals from Ingoda/Onon and Bureya River throughout its distribution area. A total of 64 variable sites were observed and 45 haplotypes were identified excluding sites with gaps/missing data. Phylogenetic analysis was able to confidently predict two subclade topologies well supported by maximum-parsimony and Bayesian methods. However, basal branching patterns cannot be unambiguously estimated. Haplotypes from the mitochondrial clades displayed local homogeneity, implying a strong population structure within T. grubii. Analysis of molecular variance detected significant differences among the different geographical rivers, suggesting that T. grubii in each river should be managed and conserved separately.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• 제13권5호
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• pp.698-701
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• 2000

To prevent surface and underground water pollution, wastewater treatment is essential. Four bench-scale activated sludge units (10 L operational volumes) were operated at 5, 10 and $20^{\circ}C$ for evaluation of treatment efficiencies with typical wastewater from swine housing. The units were set for a 24-hour cycle. As compared to the conventional process, high removal efficiencies for organic substances, nitrogen and phosphorus in swine wastewater were obtained simultaneously with an intermittent aeration process (lAP). The NOx-N produced during an aeration period was immediately reduced to nitrogen gas (e.g. $N_2$ or $N_2O$) in the subsequent non-aeration periods, and nitrification in aeration periods occurred smoothly. Under these conditions, phosphorus removal occurred with the release of phosphorus during the non-aeration periods followed by the excess uptake of phosphorus in the activated sludge during aeration periods. It was confirmed that the lAP had a better ability to remove pollutants under both low temperatures and high nitrogen loading conditions than the ordinary method did. In addition to that, the total emission of $N_2O$ from lAP was reduced to approximately 1/50 of the conventional process for the same loading. By adopting an adequate aeration programme for individual swine wastewater treatment, this system will provide a promising means for nitrogen and phosphorus control without pH control or addition of methanol.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• 제13권7호
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• pp.901-905
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• 2000

An experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of caffeine, cAMP and cattle seminal plasma on preservation of semen at ultra low temperature ($-196{^{\circ}C}$). Each semen sample was divided into four parts equal in volume and sperm concentration; three were treated with caffeine, or cAMP, or cattle seminal plasma (CSP) and the fourth was kept as control. Sperm motility, abnormal spermatozoa, live-dead count and acrosomal damage were studied at different stages of freeze preservation viz.; just after dilution, at $5{^{\circ}C}$, at glycerolisation, before freezing, just after freezing, 24 hours of storage, and one week of storage. Sperm motility (58.39, 61.33, 52.00 and 50.39 per cent), non-eosinophilic spermatozoa (72.55, 69.98, 63.31 and 67.64 per cent), abnormal spermatozoa (5.71, 4.98, 8.04 and 5.66 per cent) and acrosomal damage (13.28, 13.33, 14.80 and 14.65 per cent) were observed in cAMP, caffeine, cattle seminal plasma and control, respectively, at every stage of freeze preservation. From this study it could be concluded that freezability of buffalo semen can be improved through the addition of caffeine followed by cAMP and cattle seminal plasma.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• 제14권11호
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• pp.1605-1609
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• 2001

A total of 252, 50 week-old Isa-brown laying hens were randomly allotted to 7 groups of 3 replicates. Mustard meal (MM) which is a by-product from mustard processing plant, was dried under the sun or in a gas heated pan. It contained on DM basis 30-32% CP, 19-22% EE and 12-13% CF. The meal from either drying method was incorporated into the diets at 0, 10, 20 and 30% which was equivalent to the substitution levels for soybean meal at 0, 31, 63 and 94%, respectively. All birds were individually kept in battery cages where feed and water were freely accessed throughout 84 days experimental period. It was found that egg production, feed intake, body weight gain and egg weight significantly decreased with the increased MM level. The inclusion of 20% MM did not show a significant difference in egg production and quality from the control, but produced 6-8% lower egg production. Feed intake was linearly decreased with the MM levels, except the 10% sun dried MM group. Fat deposition of the birds fed MM diets significantly decreased, while kidney weight increased when compared with the control group. However, the weight of thyroid glands and spleen trended to be heavier in the MM groups, but this was not significantly different among dietary treatments. It was concluded, MM from both drying methods could be incorporated in laying hen diets at the level of 10% without any adverse effect.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• 제20권8호
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• pp.1266-1271
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• 2007

This study examined effects of calcium supplemented milk on bone loss in ovariectomized rats. Twenty four Sprague-Dawley female rats, 7 weeks-old, were divided into 4 groups, ovariectomized and fed diets containing: 1) control, no Ca supplemented milk, 2) ovx 1, Ca carbonate supplemented milk, 3) ovx 2, ionized Ca supplemented milk, and 4) ovx 3, nano Ca supplemented milk. All rats were fed 1 ml of milk containing 20 mg supplemented Ca. After 18 wk feeding, body weight gain and food efficiency ratio were significantly different between ovx 1 and ovx 3. Serum concentration of calcium and phosphorus were not different among groups. However, there was a significant difference in calcium content of dry femoral weight in ovx 3 compared with the control and ovx 2. In addition, femoral bone mineral density ($g/cm^2$) was significantly greater in ovx 3 than in other groups (p<0.05). The ovx 3 group showed the highest stiffness (N/mm), maximum energy (N) in femur and trabecular bone area (%). The present study indicated that nano Ca supplementation in milk may be an effective way to enhance bone calcium metabolism for ovariectomized rats.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• 제29권7호
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• pp.965-970
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• 2016

This study was conducted to determine the effects of freezing and supplementation of molasses (M), lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and LAB+enzyme mixture on chemical and nutritional composition of sunflower silage (SF). Sunflower crops were harvested (at about $29.2%{\pm}1.2%$ dry matter) and half of fresh sunflower was ensiled alone and half was frozen (F) at $-20^{\circ}C$ for 7 days. Silage additives were admixed into frozen SF material. All samples were ensiled in glass jars with six replicates for 90 days. The treatments were as follows: i) positive control (non-frozen and no additives, NF), ii) negative control (frozen, no additives, F), iii) F+5% molasses (FM), iv) F+LAB (1.5 g/tons, Lactobacillus plantarum and Enterococcus faecium, FLAB); v) F+LAB+enzyme (2 g/tons Lactobacillus plantarum and Enterococcus faecium and cellulase and amylase enzymes, FLEN). Freezing silage increased dry matter, crude ash, neutral detergent fiber, and acid detergent lignin. The organic matter, total digestible nutrient, non-fiber carbohydrate, metabolizable energy and in vitro dry matter digestibility were negatively influenced by freezing treatments (p<0.05). In conclusion, freezing sunflower plants prior to ensiling may negatively affect silage quality, while molasses supplementation improved some quality traits of frozen silage. Lactic acid bacteria and LAB+enzyme inoculations did not effectively compensate the negative impacts of freezing on sunflower silage.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• 제32권5호
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• pp.701-710
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• 2019

Objective: This study investigated the effect of different acute heat stress (HS) levels on chicken meat quality and ultra-structure. Methods: Chickens were randomly divided into 7 groups to receive different HS treatments: i) $36^{\circ}C$ for 1 h, ii) $36^{\circ}C$ for 2 h, iii) $38^{\circ}C$ for 1 h, iv) $38^{\circ}C$ for 2 h, v) $40^{\circ}C$ for 1 h, vi) $40^{\circ}C$ for 2 h, and vii) un-stressed control group ($25^{\circ}C$). Blood cortisol level, breasts initial temperature, color, pH, water holding capacity (WHC), protein solubility and ultra-structure were analyzed. Results: HS temperatures had significant effects on breast meat temperature, lightness ($L^*$), redness ($a^*$), cooking loss and protein solubility (p<0.05). The HS at $36^{\circ}C$ increased $L^*{_{24h}}$ value (p<0.01) and increased the cooking loss (p<0.05), but decreased $a^*{_{24h}}$ value (p<0.05). However, as the temperature increased to $38^{\circ}C$ and $40^{\circ}C$, all the values of $L^*{_{24h}}$, cooking loss and protein denaturation level decreased, and the differences disappeared compared to control group (p>0.05). Only the ultimate $pH_{24h}$ at $40^{\circ}C$ decreased compared to the control group (p<0.01). The pH in $36^{\circ}C$ group declined greater than other heat-stressed group in the first hour postmortem, which contributed breast muscle protein degeneration combining with high body temperature, and these variations reflected on poor meat quality parameters. The muscle fiber integrity level in group $40^{\circ}C$ was much better than those in $36^{\circ}C$ with the denatured position mainly focused on the interval of muscle fibers which probably contributes WHC and light reflection. Conclusion: HS at higher temperature (above $38^{\circ}C$) before slaughter did not always lead to more pale and lower WHC breast meat. Breast meat quality parameters had a regression trend as HS temperature raised from $36^{\circ}C$. The interval of muscle fibers at 24 h postmortem and greater pH decline rate with high body temperature in early postmortem period could be a reasonable explanation for the variation of meat quality parameters.