Iranian Journal of Animal Science Research
Year:2014 | Volume:6 | Issue:2|Papers Count:10

To evaluate the effects of supplementation of Tomato pomace (TP), canola, soybean and tallow oils on performance, carcass characteristics, and bone parameters of heat stressed broilers. 792 d-old Arian broiler were divided to 36 pens. Each dietary treatment had 4 replicate with 22 birds each. These factorial experiment (3*3) involved 3 kinds of canola, soybean and tallow oils and 3 levels of 0, 3, and 5 percentage tomato pomace was done in a completely randomized design. The daily heat stress schedule was done from 29-42 days for 5 h (32- 34°c). Two blood samples from each replicate were gathered at 28 and 42 d. The kind of oils and levels of TP did not affect body weight, feed intake, FCR, production index, energy efficiency ratio, protein efficiency ratio and immune response. The canola oil reduced the relative weight of liver and abdominal fat pre heat stressed birds. The relative weight of spleen, and burs and bone parameters involved diaphysis diameter and external bone layer thickness were improved when heat stressed birds fed canola oil or TP diets. The canola and TP diets decreased abdominal fat in heat stressed birds. Therefore experimental diets did not affect performance and immune system. The inclusion of canola oil and TP diets improved spleen, burs, bone parameters and abdominal fat.

This experiment was conducted to determine the AME, AMEn, TME and TMEn of Alfalfa meal for male ostrich at 90 d of age. Experiment was done as a completely randomized design with 5 treatments of 4 replicate and 4 chicks each. Different levels of Alfalfa meal (0, 15, 30 and 40%) were replaced to the basal diet. AME and AMEn were determined via chromic oxid marker and total collection methods. The AME and AMEn of alfalfa meal was 225±274, 2522±110, 2044±268 and 2366107 kcal/kg at 40 % of replacement that calculated via chromic oxide marker and total collection excreta respectively. Measurement of TME and TMEn of Alfalfa meal in this experiment calculated by the different levels of feedstuff and were 3165 and 2877 kcal/kg respectively. The result of this experiment showed that using the ME data which calculated via adult leghorn cockerel to formulating the starter diet of ostrich is not suitable and determination of ME via ostrich to using it in the formulation of their diets is necessary.

This experiment was conducted to evaluate of different levels of water nitrate on performance and blood parameter of broiler chicks. 240 day old Ross 308 chickens were assigned in 5 treatments, 4 replicates and 12 chicks per replicate in a completely randomized design. Control treatments (CT) had 10 mg water nitrate concentration in drinking water and in another treatments 40, 70, 100 mg/ Lit nitrate was used. A group used from minimum nitrate (MN) water (nitrate, 1.8 mg/ Lit) respectively. Results showed that different levels of water nitrate did not affect on feed intake (FI), but in distance 1-42 days group used from MN water compared to the control group FI significantly reduced. Treatments in 1-21 days had no effect on FI. Body weight gain (42 days) in CT comparative another groups significantly increased, but different levels of nitrate had no effect on body weight gain in 21 days. Taking 100 mg of nitrate caused a significant increase feed conversion ratio (FCR) in 1-42 days. Minimum FCR was showed that in CT. The results about lymphoid organs showed that maximum weight of spleen and bourse observed in group receiving 70 mg/Lit nitrate. Group drinking MN water had minimum weight of spleen and bourse, but the thymus weight in another groups higher than the CT. Different levels of nitrate had no effect on blood HDL, but on the another blood parameter had significant effect (P<0.05). Nitrate levels increased sodium, potassium and calcium in the blood. In addition, glucose and LDL and the LDL / HDL levels of blood also increased. The control group showed the highest levels of blood serum protein .The overall results showed that increasing water nitrate levels and MN are reduced broiler performance and nitrate levels increased the glucose and LDL in broiler chicks.

The present study was conducted to evaluate the effect of citric acid and phytase supplementation on performance, blood lipid, immune system and some carcass characteristics of broiler chickens. For this purpose 240, one-day old male broiler chicks was divided in a 2´2 factorial experiment based on completely randomized design with 4 treatments, 5 replicates and 12 chicks in each and reared throughout 42 day production. The experimental basal diets included citric acid (0 and 1%) and phytase enzyme (0 and 500 U phytase/kg of feed). Statistical analysis of results indicated that citric acid decreased the feed consumption in the growth phase and whole experimental period, while phytase didn't has any reduction effect. The body weight gain and feed conversion ratio were' not affected by treatments. Citric acid reduced the cholesterol and LDL levels in blood serum alone or together with phytase and increased the HDL and VLDL levels, while didn't have any effect on triglyceride level in blood serum. Citric acid reduced abdominal fat unlike phytase enzyme which raised that. Phytase alone or together with Citric acid increased the relative weight of bursa off abricius. Relative weights of thymus, spleen, HI titer of NDV, breast, thighs, wings and carcass percentage of broilers showed no significant difference between various treatments. In conclusion, citric acid and phytase enzyme supplementation decreased the harmful lipids in blood and improved some carcass characteristics and immune system function, therefore, the results showing that citric acid probably has a synergetic effect on phytase efficiency in broiler chickens.

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of fennel essence on performance, egg quality and ovarian morphology of commercial laying hens. In this experiment, one hundred and forty 30-wk-old Hy-Line (W36) layers were randomly assigned into 4 treatments including control (without fennel essence), 200, 400, and 600 ppm fennel essence with 5 replicates and 8 birds each. Performance parameters including egg weight and egg production were recorded daily and feed intake, feed conversion ratio and egg quality were measured weekly. At the end of experiment, 2 birds of each replicate were randomly selected and slaughtered for morphological assessments of ovaries. Addition of fennel essence has no significant effect on egg production. Levels of 200 and 400 ppm of fennel essence showed a significant increase in egg weight (P<0.05) and had no significant effect on feed intake and FCR, but it caused significant increase in yolk color and had significant effect on the properties of egg shell (P<0.05). Also, there was no significant effect on the relative weight of the ovary, oviduct and stroma but 200 ppm of fennel essence had significant effect on weight of large yellow follicles (P<0.05). The results showed that the addition of fennel essence improved egg weight, egg shell and had significant effect on the large yellow follicles.

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effect of purslane on immune responses and cecal microflora composition of broiler chickens. One hundred forty four day old broiler chicks (Ross 308) were allocated randomly in 3 groups and 4 replicates to receive diets supplemented with 0 (control), I and 2% of dried purslane. At 21 and 35 days of age 1 mL of sheep red blood cell (SRBC) injected to 2 broilers of each replicate and blood samples were taken 7 days after each injection. Eight chicks per treatment at the age of 42 d were killed and the number of coli forms, E-Coli and Lactobacillus bacteria populations in ceca were enumerated on appropriate bacteriological media. There were no significant different in primary and secondary antibody titer against SRBC and no different between the treatments for proportional weight of bursa, thymus and spleen. The results of experiment indicated that use of purslane significantly increased Lactobacillus and decreased E-Coli bacteria population. Use of purslane had no effect on coliforms bacteria population. It is concluded that purslane inclusion had a positive significant effect on cecal microflora composition.

Samples of Salvia leriifolia were collected from Khorasan mountains in different growing stages. Chemical composition, rumen degradability characteristics of dry matter (OM), crude protein (CP) and neutral detergent fiber (NOF) of Salvia leriifolia whole plant (stem and leaves) in different flowering stages and plant leaves in comparison with alfalfa hay and triticale straw were measured using 4 permanently fistulated steers. CP contents for the whole plant Salvia leriifolia in early flowering, mid flowering and full bloom stage and Salvia leriifolia leaves were 9.57,16.10, 9.57 and 15.81 percent respectively and for alfalfa hay and triticale straw were 13.99 and 3.85 percent respectively. Rumen degradability measurements of treatments indicated that most parts of these nutrients were degraded during the first 24 hrs of incubation, degradation continued up to 48 hrs with the much lower rates. OM degradability of Salvia leriifolia whole plant harvested at early, mid and end of the flowering stages after 96 hrs incubation were near to those of alfalfa hay and higher than triticale straw. More than 70% of CP and 50% NOF of whole plant Salvia leriifolia were in the form of rumen degradable. Gas production technique also showed that most of the gas production is in the first 48 hour and gas amount for different stages of flowering and plant leaves were between alfalfa and triticale straw. It is concluded that Salvia leriifolia can be regarded as a forage closed to alfalfa hay for ruminants.

Genetic variability was studied on Mazandaran and Isfahan native chicken populations based on twenty microsatellite markers (MCWOOI4, MCW0081, MCWOI83, MCW0067, MCWOI04, MCWOI23, MCW0330, MCWOI65, MCW0069, MCW0020, MCW0222, LEI0094, MCW0295, MCW0034, MCW0216, ADL0268, ADLO 112, ADL0278 and LEIO 166). Blood samples of 90 and 150 individuals were randomly collected from Mazandaran and Isfahan native chicken populations, respectively. Genomic DNA was isolated using optimized and modified salting-out procedure. The number of alleles varied from I to 6. One locus (MCW0216) in Mazandaran population and three loci (MCW0216, MCW67 and MCW222) in Isfahan population were monomorphic. The other loci were shown appropriate polymorph isms. All microsatellite loci were in Hardy- Weinberg equilibrium except for MCW222 and MCWI65 loci in Mazandaran population (p<0.005). The observed heterozygosity ranged from 0.7437 (LEI0094) to 0.2472 (MCWI65) in Isfahan and Mazandaran populations, respectively. The least effective allele value belongs to locus MCW216, in both of the populations, and the highest belongs to LEI009410cus in Isfahan chickens. The large stand the lowest PIC values were observed in MCWO 104 locus in Isfahan and in MCW 165 locus in Mazandaran populations, respectively. Loci with two alleles were showed the least amount of Shannon index in both populations. Loci with more alleles had more Shannon index. Generally, polymorphisms in the studied experimental populations were relatively low.

Ferula asafoetida contains coumarins and sesquiterpens compounds that have been traditionally used to treat diseases such as nervous disorders, asthma, gastrointestinal disease and epilepsy. Sulfur-containing compounds of asafoetida act as antioxidants. This study aimed to investigate the effect of four levels of water-alcoholic extract of asafoetida on reproductive performance of male wistar rats. Thirty two rats were randomly divided into four groups of eight rats. Treatments include control (0) and IP injection of 75, 150 and 300 mg/kg body weight of asafoetida extract for 14 days. At the end of experiment, blood samples were taken from heart apex to assess the testosterone hormone. Right testis was removed to study the spermatogenesis activity. The analysis of results indicated that no significant differences between weight of testicles of the experiments rats. The thicknesses of seminiferous layers decreased by increasing the extract doses. Leydig and sertoli cells numbers declined following injection of 150 and 300 mg/kg extract receiving groups. The blood testosterone decreased significantly with injection of asafoetida extract in comparison with control group. The results indicated that injecting of 300 mg/kg of asafoetida extract could damage the testis tissue and reduction of spermatogenesis.

Three hundred ninety seven Holstein dairy cows were used to determine their locomotion score and lameness prevalence in relationship with age and body condition score (BCS) of the animal. Locomotion score was determined using 7 gait properties of animal. The results showed that more than 56% of cows in the herd had no locomotion problems. More than 40% of the cows were in the group of suspected to subclinical lameness and about 3.5% of the cows showed obvious clinical signs of lameness. Moreover, age advancement and parity increased the probability of lameness incidence. Primiparous and second parity of the cows showed the lowest incidence of clinical and subclinical lameness. However, frequency of prevalence of clinical and subclinical lameness increased significantly in older cows (over 2 lactations) (P<0.01). Primiparous and second parities of cows showed incidence of lameness significantly in comparison with the control group (P<0.01). Locomotion score was led to a significant (P<0.01) different between the groups in terms of production. The cows with low BCS had the highest clinical and subclinical lameness, although body condition score had no effect on the locomotion score in this experiment.