• Title/Summary/Keyword: Animal unit

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Monitoring of white striping and wooden breast cases and impacts on quality of breast meat collected from commercial broilers (Gallus gallus)

  • Malila, Yuwares;U-chupaj, Juthawut;Srimarut, Yanee;Chaiwiwattrakul, Premsak;Uengwetwanit, Tanaporn;Arayamethakorn, Sopacha;Punyapornwithaya, Veerasak;Sansamur, Chalutwan;Kirschke, Catherine P.;Huang, Liping;Tepaamorndech, Surapun;Petracci, Massimiliano;Rungrassamee, Wanilada;Visessanguan, Wonnop
    • Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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    • v.31 no.11
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    • pp.1807-1817
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    • 2018
  • Objective: This study aimed at investigating white striping (WS) and wooden breast (WB) cases in breast meat collected from commercial broilers. Methods: A total of 183 breast samples were collected from male Ross 308 broilers slaughtered at the age of 6 weeks (n = 100) and 7 weeks (n = 83). The breasts were subjected to meat defect inspection, meat quality determination and histology evaluation. Results: Of 183, 4 breasts from 6-week-old broilers were classified as non-defective while the others exhibited the WS lesion. Among the 6-week-old birds, the defective samples from the medium size birds (carcass weight ${\leq}2.5kg$) showed mild to moderate WS degree with no altered meat quality. Some of the breasts from the 6-week-old birds with carcass weight above 2.5 kg exhibited WB in accompanied with the WS condition. Besides of a reduction of protein content, increases in collagen matter and pH values in the defective samples (p<0.05), no other impaired quality indices were detected within this group. All 7-week-old broilers yielded carcasses weighing above 2.5 kg and showed abnormal characteristics with progressive severity. The breasts affected with severe WS and WB showed the greatest cook loss, hardness, springiness and chewiness (p<0.05). Development of WB induced significantly increased drip loss in the samples (p<0.05). Histology indicated necrotic events in the defective myofibers. Based on logistic regression, increasing percent breast weight by one unit enhanced the chance of WS and WB development with advanced severity by 50.9% and 61.0%, respectively. Delayed slaughter age from 6 to 7 weeks increased the likelihood of obtaining increased WS severity by 56.3%. Conclusion: Cases of WS and WB defects in Southeast Asia have been revealed. Despite few cases of the severe WS and WB, such abnormal conditions significantly impaired technological properties and nutritional quality of broiler breasts.

Garlic (Allium sativum) Supplementation: Influence on Egg Production, Quality, and Yolk Cholesterol Level in Layer Hens

  • Mahmoud, Kamel Z.;Gharaibeh, Saad M.;Zakaria, Hana A.;Qatramiz, Amer M.
    • Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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    • v.23 no.11
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    • pp.1503-1509
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    • 2010
  • Forty-eight 40-wk-old Hi-sex laying hens were individually caged in an environmentally controlled house to evaluate the effect of garlic (Allium Sativum) juice administration on egg production, egg quality, and yolk cholesterol. Garlic juice was prepared by blending pealed garlic cloves with distilled water (1:1, w/w). Hens were randomly divided into four equal groups; one served as a control and the other three groups were individually gavaged, 3.75 ml, 7.5 ml, or 15 ml garlic juice, three times a week, which respectively represented 0.25, 0.50 and 1% of body weight. Egg production was recorded on a daily basis; egg weight, albumen height, albumen and yolk pH, Haugh unit, and bacterial count of E. coli-challenged eggs were recorded at day of oviposition (day-1) and after 5 and 10 days of storage at room temperature. Yolk cholesterol content was analyzed for five successive weeks. Garlic juice increased (p<0.05) egg weight and mass with no change in egg production intensity. Garlic juice administration recorded higher (p<0.05) albumen height and improvement in Haugh unit. Also, eggs from garlic-treated hens recorded lower (p<0.05) albumen and yolk pH when compared to eggs collected from control hens. Garlic reduced (p<0.05) the $log_{10}$ of bacterial count in egg contents linearly when challenged with E. coli. Egg-yolk cholesterol content was not influenced by garlic juice administration. It is concluded that garlic juice improved performance characteristics and may increase egg shelf life as indicated by egg quality improvement and lower bacterial count of E. coli-challenged eggs. The levels of garlic juice used in this study were insufficient to influence egg yolk cholesterol.

Effect of Graded Dietary Levels of Neem (Azadirachta indica) Seed Kernel Cake on Carcass Characteristics of Broiler Rabbits

  • Vasanthakumar, P.;Sharma, K.;Sastry, V.R.B.;Kumar, S.
    • Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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    • v.12 no.8
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    • pp.1246-1250
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    • 1999
  • Rabbits (48) of Soviet chinchilla (24) and White giant (24) were fed from 6 weeks to 12 weeks of age intensively on either of four isonitrogenous - isocaloric diets containing 0 ($D_1$), 5($D_2$), 10($D_3$) and 20($D_4$) percent raw neem seed kernel cake (NSKC), respectively as per NRC (1977) requirements in a Randomized block design and slaughtered at the end to find out differences in their carcass traits due to NSKC feeding. Dietary treatment had no significant effect on weight of edibles and inedibles and their percentages and dressing percentage in terms of carcass, carcass with pluck and carcass with pluck and head. Similarly, the meat-bone ratio of various primal cuts and overall carcass, yield of edibles per unit of inedibles and eye muscle area were not influenced due to the dietary variations. Chemical composition of fresh meat, and organoleptic evaluation of cooked meat with and without salt did not vary significantly due to incorporation of NSKC in the diets. The rabbits fed 20% NSKC ($D_4$) though consumed more (p<0.05) DM and DE per kg meat production, the intake of crude protein and total digestible nutrients was similar with other dietary treatments. Feed cost per unit meat production was, however, lower on 5 and 10% NSKC containing diets by 7.75 and 12.56%, respectively, as compared to deoiled ground nut cake containing control diet. It appears that NSKC could be used as a wholesome vegetable protein supplement upto 10% in diet of rabbits without any adverse effect on commercial carcass traits.

Animal Face Classification using Dual Deep Convolutional Neural Network

  • Khan, Rafiul Hasan;Kang, Kyung-Won;Lim, Seon-Ja;Youn, Sung-Dae;Kwon, Oh-Jun;Lee, Suk-Hwan;Kwon, Ki-Ryong
    • Journal of Korea Multimedia Society
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    • v.23 no.4
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    • pp.525-538
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    • 2020
  • A practical animal face classification system that classifies animals in image and video data is considered as a pivotal topic in machine learning. In this research, we are proposing a novel method of fully connected dual Deep Convolutional Neural Network (DCNN), which extracts and analyzes image features on a large scale. With the inclusion of the state of the art Batch Normalization layer and Exponential Linear Unit (ELU) layer, our proposed DCNN has gained the capability of analyzing a large amount of dataset as well as extracting more features than before. For this research, we have built our dataset containing ten thousand animal faces of ten animal classes and a dual DCNN. The significance of our network is that it has four sets of convolutional functions that work laterally with each other. We used a relatively small amount of batch size and a large number of iteration to mitigate overfitting during the training session. We have also used image augmentation to vary the shapes of the training images for the better learning process. The results demonstrate that, with an accuracy rate of 92.0%, the proposed DCNN outruns its counterparts while causing less computing costs.

In vivo Methane Production from Formic and Acetic Acids in the Gastrointestinal Tract of White Roman Geese

  • Chen, Yieng-How;Wang, Shu-Yin;Hsu, Jenn-Chung
    • Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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    • v.22 no.7
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    • pp.1043-1047
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    • 2009
  • Three experiments were conducted to determine the conversion rate of formic and acetic acids into methane in the gastrointestinal tracts of geese. In experiment I, two sets of two 4-month-old male White Roman geese were allocated to one of two treatment groups. Each set of geese was inoculated either with formic acid or with phosphate buffer solution (PBS). After the acid or the PBS was inoculated into the esophagi of the geese, two birds from each treatment were placed in a respiratory chamber as a measurement unit for 4 h in order to determine methane production rate. In experiment II and III, 6- and 7-wk-old male White Roman goslings were used, respectively. Birds were allocated to receive either formic acid or PBS solution injected into the ceca in experiment II. Acetic acid or PBS solution injected into the cecum were used for experiment III. After either the acids or the PBS solution were injected into the cecum, two birds from each treatment were placed in a respiratory chamber as a measurement unit for 3 h; each treatment was repeated 3 times. The results indicated that formic acid inoculated into the oesophagi of geese was quickly converted into methane. Compared with the PBS-injected group, methane production increased by 5.02 times in the formic acid injected group (4.32 vs. 0.86 mg/kg BW/d; p<0.05). Acetic acid injected into the ceca did not increase methane production; conversely, it tended to decrease methane production. The present study suggests that formic acid may be converted to methane in the ceca, and that acetic acid may not be a precursor of methane in the ceca of geese.

The effect of lactation number, stage, length, and milking frequency on milk yield in Korean Holstein dairy cows using automatic milking system

  • Vijayakumar, Mayakrishnan;Park, Ji Hoo;Ki, Kwang Seok;Lim, Dong Hyun;Kim, Sang Bum;Park, Seong Min;Jeong, Ha Yeon;Park, Beom Young;Kim, Tae Il
    • Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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    • v.30 no.8
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    • pp.1093-1098
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    • 2017
  • Objective: The aim of the current study was to describe the relationship between milk yield and lactation number, stage, length and milking frequency in Korean Holstein dairy cows using an automatic milking system (AMS). Methods: The original data set consisted of observations from April to October 2016 of 780 Holstein cows, with a total of 10,751 milkings. Each time a cow was milked by an AMS during the 24 h, the AMS management system recorded identification numbers of the AMS unit, the cow being milking, date and time of the milking, and milk yield (kg) as measured by the milk meters installed on each AMS unit, date and time of the lactation, lactation stage, milking frequency (NoM). Lactation stage is defined as the number of days milking per cows per lactation. Milk yield was calculated per udder quarter in the AMS and was added to 1 record per cow and trait for each milking. Milking frequency was measured the number of milkings per cow per 24 hour. Results: From the study results, a significant relationship was found between the milk yield and lactation number (p<0.001), with the maximum milk yield occurring in the third lactation cows. We recorded the highest milk yield, in a greater lactation length period of early stage (55 to 90 days) at a $4{\times}$ milking frequency/d, and the lowest milk yield was observed in the later stage (>201 days) of cows. Also, milking frequency had a significant influence on milk yield (p<0.001) in Korean Holstein cows using AMS. Conclusion: Detailed knowledge of these factors such as lactation number, stage, length, and milking frequency associated with increasing milk yield using AMS will help guide future recommendations to producers for maximizing milk yield in Korean Dairy industries.

Effects of Probiotic-vitacogen and β1-4 Galacto-oligosaccharides Supplementation on Methanogenesis and Energy and Nitrogen Utilization in Dairy Cows

  • Mwenya, B.;Zhou, X.;Santoso, B.;Sar, C.;Gamo, Y.;Kobayashi, T.;Takahashi, J.
    • Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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    • v.17 no.3
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    • pp.349-354
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    • 2004
  • The effects of probiotic-vitacogen and galacto-oligosaccharides (GOS) supplementation on methanogesis, energy and nitrogen utilization in replacement dairy cows were evaluated. A basal diet comprising orchardgrass hay, lucerne hay cube and concentrate (2:2:1, DM basis) were fed with or without supplements to four cows at $80g\;DM/kgBW^{0.75}$per day in a $4{\times}4$ Latin square arrangement. The four treatments were; 1) basal diet, 2) basal diet plus 100 g probiotic-vitacogen, 3) basal diet plus 50 g GOS, 4) basal diet plus 50 g GOS and 100 g probiotic-vitacogen. Nutrient apparent digestibility was not altered by the effect of supplementation. Nitrogen intake was significantly (p<0.001) higher for the two vitacogen-supplemented diets compared to control and GOS supplemented diets. However, vitacogen supplemented diets had numerically higher fecal and urinary nitrogen losses, thereby, having lower nitrogen retention compared to control and GOS supplemented diets. Gross energy intake was also significantly (p<0.05) higher for vitacogen-supplemented diets compared to control and GOS diets, however, due to higher losses in feces, urine, methane and heat, GOS supplemented diet had numerically higher energy retention. There was an 11% reduction in methane emission (liters/day) in GOS supplemented diet compared to control diet. However, the combination of GOS with vitacogen resulted in an increased methane emission. When expressed per unit of animal production (g/kg live-weight gain), methane production tended to be lower in vitacogensupplemented diets compared to control and GOS diets. The supplementation of replacement dairy cows with GOS reduced methane emission (liters/day), while, vitacogen supplementation reduced methane emission per unit animal production. The two feed supplements may contribute to the abatement of methane as a greenhouse gas.

Analysis on Association of a SNP in the Chicken OBR Gene with Growth and Body Composition Traits

  • Wang, Ying;Li, Hui;Zhang, YuanDan;Gu, ZhiLiang;Li, ZhiHui;Wang, QiGui
    • Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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    • v.19 no.12
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    • pp.1706-1710
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    • 2006
  • Leptin receptor (OBR) is a member of the class I cytokine receptor family. It signals mainly via the JAK/STAT pathway and plays an important role in regulating body energy storage and metabolism. This study was designed to investigate the effects of the OBR gene on chicken growth and body composition. Broiler lines selected divergently for or against abdominal fat were used. Primers for the exon9-region in the OBR gene were designed using chicken genomic sequences from the public genome domain. A C/A single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) was found and its three genotypes (AA, AB and BB) were identified in this population. The results showed that the OBR polymorphism was associated with fatness traits, such as abdominal fat weight and abdominal fat percentage. This research suggests that OBR or a linked gene has effect on fat deposition in the chicken.

Effect of Graded Levels of Cottonseed Cake Supplementation on Intake, Nutrient Digestibility, Microbial N Yield of Growing Native (Bos Indicus) Bulls Fed Rice Straw

  • Chowdhury, S.A.
    • Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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    • v.14 no.3
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    • pp.326-332
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    • 2001
  • On a urea-molasses-straw (3:15:82; UMS) based diet effect of graded levels of cottonseed cake (CSC) supplementation on the performance of native (Bos indicus) bulls has been studied for 167 days. Eighteen growing bulls of $129{\pm}13.4kg$ weight and about 14 months old were randomly allocated to three dietary treatments designed in a completely randomized design, having six animals in each treatment. Three dietary treatments were 0, 0.5 and 1.0 kg CSC per head/d. In addition, each animal also received ad lib. UMS, 4 kg Napier (Pennisetum purpureum) grass, 500 g of each of rice and wheat bran and 60 g mineral mix daily. For unit increase in CSC, total DM intake was increased by $1g/kg\;W^{0.75}/d$ but the straw DM intake decreased by $0.54g/kg\;W^{0.75}/d$. Whole gut digestibility of DM and OM was not effected but N and ADF digestibility increased with incremental increase in dietary CSC. For unit (1kg) increase in dietary CSC intake N and ADF digestibility increased by 10 (${\pm}1.155$) and 3 (${\pm}1.732$) unit respectively. Microbial N yield for the 0, 0.5 and 1.0 kg CSC were 5.63, 5.28 and 5.16 g/kg OM apparently fermented in the rumen respectively. For each gram increase in CSC, N intake and N balance increased by 0.626 (${\pm}0.015$) and 0.625 (${\pm}0.0814$) mg/kg $W^{0.75}/d$. High apparent N balance was contrasted with low live weight gain, e.g., for 1 kg increase in CSC supplementation, live weight gain increased by only 0.077 (${\pm}0.00288$) kg/d ($r^{2}=0.99$; p<0.01). The conversion efficiency was 12.98 kg CSC per kg of live weight gain. It was concluded that unless the protein is being protected from the rumen degradation, addition of CSC to UMS diet would have little nutritional or economic advantages.

Production of Pectolytic Enzymes by Botryosphaeria dothidea (사과겹무늬썩음병균(病菌) Botryosphaeria dothidea에 의한 Pectin질(質) 분해효소(分解酵素)의 생산)

  • Park, Seok-Hee;Kim, Kee-Hong;Lee, Chang-Un
    • The Korean Journal of Mycology
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    • v.19 no.2
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    • pp.143-147
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    • 1991
  • Botryosphaeria dothidea causing apple fruit rot was cultured in pectin-polypectate mine­raI salts or apple mediumss, to investigate pectolytic enzyme production and activity. Exo-polygalactu­ronase(PG) and exo-polymethylgalacturonase (PMG) in apple medium showed maximum of activity to 6.4 and 7.2 units at six days of culture, respectively. Their maximum activity in pectin-polypectate mineral salts medium was 5.9 and 5.3 units at eight days of culture lower than in apple medium respectively. Endo-PG and endo-PMG in pecin-polypectate mineral salts medium were maximum of activity to 4.4 and 16.2 units at six and eight days of culture, respectively, but activities in apple medium were 3.2 and 6.7 units at eight days of culture. Activity of polygalacturonate-trans-­eliminase(PGTE) and pectinmethyl-trans-eliminase(PMTE) was higher in pectin-polypectate mineral salts medium than in apple medium. Fungal growth was maximum at six and eight days of culture in pectin-polypectate mineral salts and apple medium, respectively.

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