• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.16 no.11
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• pp.1650-1655
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• 2003

Crossbred gilts (n=54) of about $26.38{\pm}0.85kg$ body weight and 25 weeks of age were randomly divided into 18 groups of 3 animals each. Three dietary treatments viz., $T_1$, $T_2$ and $T_3$ were formulated. The treatment $T_1$ containing maize grain (35%) and wheat bran (47%) along with soybean meal and fish meals served as control diet. Rice bran (RB) was selected as a single source of fat (13.02%) and fibre (17.12%), which was gradually increased in diets $T_2$ (41%) and $T_3$ (82%) replacing maize grain and wheat bran of $T_1$ at 50% and 100% in the diets $T_2$ and $T_3$, respectively. The fat and fibre levels of the diets were thus 3.46 and 5.24, 9.31and 9.69 and 11.61and 13.26% in $T_1$, $T_2$ and $T_3$, respectively. All the diets, however, contained almost similar concentration of CP (18.35${\pm}0.29%$). Each dietary treatment was offered to six replicated groups of 3 piglets in following completely randomized design and feeding was continued for 112 days during the growing phase. Growth, feed utilization, reproductive performance, nutrient utilization and different blood biochemical parameters were studied. Growth rate, feed intake and feed conversion were lower (p<0.01) in $T_3$ in comparison to $T_1$ or $T_2$. Digestibility of all the nutrients except EE was reduced significantly (p<0.01) in $T_3$. Serum glucose level decreased (p<0.01), whereas the urea and cholesterol concentration in the blood increased (p<0.01) in $T_3$. The duration of estrus of pigs fed diet containing 82% RB ($T_3$) was highly variable within the group, but all the groups showed statistically similar duration of estrous. Feed cost per unit gain was found to be comparable between control ($T_1$) and $T_2$ group. The results indicated that RB can be included up to 41% in swine diets replacing 50% of maize and wheat bran. Higher concentrations of ether extract and fibre beyond 9.31 and 9.69% in diet had detrimental effect on growth, nutrient utilization and reproductive performance.

• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.192-200
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• 1998

This study was carried out to evaluate the effect of feeding higher protein feeds with lesser amount, but feeding the constant total protein input for all treatments, on water quality and nitrite toxicity in channel catfish ponds. There was no significant difference in survival rate among treatments $(P>0.05)$. Specific growth rate (SGR) for Treatment 1$(28\%\;protein\;and\;100\%\;of\;satiation)$ was significantly higher $(P>0.05)$ than for Treatment 3$(36\%\;protein\;and\;87.5\%\;of\;satiation)$, but not significantly higher than for Treatment 2 $(32\%\;protein\;and\;77.8\%\;of\;satiation)$ at constant digestible energy (DE), 3.08kcal/g (treatments 1, 2 and 3). At constant DE/P (treatments 4, 2 and 5), no significant difference in SGR was observed among treatments. Feed conversion ratio (FCR) slightly improved or improved as dietary protein level increased from $28\%$ to $32\%$ and feed allowance decreased by $12.5\%$, but did not improve as dietary protein level increased from $32\%$ to $36\%$ and feed allowance decreased by $22.2\%$, at constant DE and constant DE/P. There was no significant difference in water quality variables, such as total ammonia nitrogen (TAN), nitrite, chlorophyll a, soluble phosphorous concentrations among treatments, but significant difference in water quality variables over time as amount of feed fed increased $(P<0.0001)$. There was a trend toward increase in TAN and nitrite over time. A strong linear regression was observed between mean total ammonia nitrogen and nitrite for all treatments Y (Nitrite) =$0.04\times (TAN)+0.01$, $R_2=0.89$. Methemoglobin percent in the blood of catifish was not significantly different among treatments. And its mean value was $7.5\%$, which was relatively low, so that it was not serious problem in catfish production pond under these experiment conditions. There was the stronger linear regression between the percentage of Methemoglobin and the molar ratio of nitrite to chloride rather than nitrite alone: $Y\;(Methemoglobin\;\%)\;=\;58.45\;\times\;(NO^{2-}/Cl^-)\;+\;0.41,\;R^2=0.60$. These results indicate that deterioration of water quality has no strong impact on poor weight gain for $36\%$ dietary protein in this study.