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This study examined the effects of Origanum majorana leaf (OML) on the growth, carcass parameters and blood factors in fattening lambs. Twenty-four Kermani male lambs (initial body weight of 26 ± 0.8 kg and seven-month-old) were assigned to three dietary treatments including one control diet (OML0), and two diets containing 2 and 4 % OML (OML2 and OML4) on the dry matter basis. The diets were fed as total mixed rations for 14 weeks. At the end of the feeding period, jugular blood samples were collected and the lambs slaughtered following an overnight fast, and the carcasses dissected. The DMI was not different between treatments, but the daily weight gain, final weight and empty body weight were higher (P

The present study was designed to compare different sources of Selenium (Se) on growth performance, antioxidant capacity, cellular and humoral immune responses of male broilers subjected to oxidative stress. In a completely randomized design, 320 broilers were assigned to a 2×4 factorial arrangement comprising 4 replicates of 10 birds per each. Broilers were divided in two groups for oxidative stress; a group as control (no oxidative stress) and the other one was peritoneally received tert-butyl hydro peroxide (tert-BHP) as oxidative stress inducer. Birds in each level of oxidative stress were received either supplemented Se diet (CON) or diets supplemented with 0.3 mg/kg nano-Se (NAN), organic Se (ORG), and inorganic Se (INO). Sources of Se, oxidative stress, and their interaction had no effect on the feed intake, daily body gain and feed conversion ratio (P>0.05). Se supplementation increased glutathione (GSH) content and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) activity compared to the control group (P

An experiment was conducted to reevaluate the digestible amino acid (AA) requirements of broilers based on different ideal amino acid ratios for male and female broiler chicks during the starter period (1–14 days). A total of 720 one-day-old feather sexed male and female broiler chicks were equally distributed to 12 dietary treatments with 4 replications per treatment and 15 chicks per replication. AA requirements were estimated based on digestible Lys requirement of 1.22 and 1.20 percent for male and female respectively, and different ideal AA ratios including Illinois Ideal Chick Protein (IICP), CVB, Feedstuff, NRC, ROSS and RPAN (Rhone Poulenc Animal Nutrition). Feed intake, body weight gain (BWG), and humeral immunity responses were measured for each pen at day 14 post hatch and feed:gain was calculated. Results of this study show that broiler chicks fed IICP diet had lower feed intake while broiler chicks fed ROSS and RPAN diets had lower BWG and feed:gain compared to other ideal amino acid profiles. When comparisons were made among chicks fed diets formulated with different ideal amino acid ratios, the most significant ( p p

SUMMARY A nonlinear programming Excel Workbook (Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA) was developed using the Excel Solver (Frontline Systems Inc., Incline Village, NV) to optimize energy density and bird performance. In this study, 6 dietary treatments (2.535, 2.635, 2.735, 2.835, 2.935, and 3.035 Mcal of ME/kg) were fed to Hy-Line W-36 laying hens (n = 192) in phase 2 (from 32 to 44 wk of age). Data were fitted to quadratic equations to express egg mass, feed consumption, and the objective function return over feed cost in terms of energy density. To demonstrate the capabilities of the model, the prices for eggs, corn, and soybean meal were increased and decreased by 25% and the program was solved for the maximum profit and optimized feed mix. By increasing the egg price, the model changed the optimal diet formulation and energy density in such a way as to improve performance and feed consumption, and accepted a higher energy concentration. Therefore, egg producers can realize considerable savings from using the nonlinear programming model described here, as opposed to a linear programming model with fixed minima for energy and other nutrients. These savings result from the ability of the nonlinear programming models to determine the most profitable energy density that should be fed as energy and protein prices change.

Apolipoproteins play a central role in the assembly, secretion, processing, and catabolism of lipoproteins. Apolipoprotein B (APOB) is the primary apolipoprotein of low-density lipoproteins (LDL), and is responsible for carrying cholesterol to tissues. The current study was designed to investigate the associations of apoB gene polymorphism on chicken body growth and fatness traits. Genomic DNAs were extracted from 400 chickens from four different commercial broiler lines. Two polymorphisms of the apoB gene were found with restriction fragment length polymorphisms. The association between these polymorphisms and their haplotypes with chicken growth and fatness traits were analyzed using both single marker and haplotype analysis. Polymorphisms in apoB gene and haplotypes were significantly (P