• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.316-320
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• 2001

Sixteen growing crossbred Anglo-Nubian goats, 10-12 months old, pre-experimental average body weights of $18.3{\pm}0.28kg$ were randomly allotted to four diets to investigate the efficiency of utilisation of diets containing increasing levels of desiccated coconut waste meal (DCWM) in the tropical environment of Samoa, South Pacific region. The four diets were designated as 1, 2, 3 and 4. Diet 1 that has no DCWM served as the control, while diets 2, 3 and contained different levels of DCWM. Voluntary concentrate intake, growth rate, feed efficiency and nutrient digestibility coefficients were measured. Gross energy (GE) and organic matter (OM) values of the diets increased linearly with increase in the levels of DCWM in the diets. Voluntary concentrate intake decreased with increasing proportion of DCWM in the diets. Forage intake increased with increase in the levels of DCWM diets offered to the growing goats. Total voluntary feed intakes were statistical significant (p<0.05) and the goats on diet 4 had the least intake followed by those on diet 3. Goats an diets 1 and 2 were different in total feed intake but not at a significant level (p>0.05). Feed efficiency (FE) followed the trend of voluntary concentrate intake and daily live weight gains. Dry matter digestibility (DMD) was significantly different (p<0.05) among the goats offered the different diets. DMD improved with increasing levels of DCWM. The goats accepted all, the diets that were compounded with the different levels of dried DCWM and this seems to suggest that DCWM have no deleterious effects. However, the best level at which dried DCWM could replace brewers dried grains in the diets of growing goats is at 38.5% (diet II). Based on voluntary feed intake, live-weight gain and apparent nutrient digestibility coefficients of the goats it could be concluded that DCWM based diets merits further attention as a locally available feed source in ruminants nutrition in the Pacific Island countries where feed availability is seasonal.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.723-731
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• 1992

Two similar experiments were designed to evaluate the interaction of dietary CP and ME levels on the production performance parameters at the age between 155 and 300 days in Starcross layers. In both experiments, the feed intake and mortality decreased but the egg weight, body weight gain and feed conversion efficiency increased as the dietary CP and ME levels increased. The CP intake was highest CP and lowest ME levels. With the increasing CP and decreasing ME levels, the ME intake decreased significantly (Experiments 1 & 2). The $CP{\times}ME$ interactions were significant only on mean egg weight and egg production in Experiment 2. In both the experiments, the CP levels were positively correlated with CP intake, egg weight, body weight gain and egg production and negative correlation with feed intake, mortality percentage and ME intake. The ME levels showed negative correlation with feed intake, protein intake, mortality percentages and positive correlation with all other parameters in both experiments. The highest values were noted for all the parameters (except mortality percentages) in Experiment 1 than that recorded in Experiment 2.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.29 no.12
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• pp.1742-1747
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• 2016

A $2{\times}5$ factorial experiment, using 2 dietary methionine levels (0.28% and 0.48%) and 5 dietary choline levels (0, 394, 823, 1,239, and 1,743 mg/kg), was conducted to study the effects of dietary methionine status on choline requirements of starter white Pekin ducks from 7 to 28 days of age. Four hundred eighty 7-d-old male White Pekin ducks were randomly allotted to ten dietary treatments, each containing 6 replicate pens with 8 birds per pen. At 28 d of age, weight gain, feed intake, and feed/gain were measured and the legs of all ducks from each pen were examined for incidence of perosis. Perosis and growth depression were observed in choline-deficient ducks and supplementation of choline reduced perosis and significantly increased weight gain and feed intake regardless of dietary methionine levels (p<0.05). In addition, significant positive effects of dietary methionine supplementation on weight gain, feed intake, and feed/gain were observed at any choline level (p<0.05). Supplementation of 1,743 mg/kg choline in diets alleviated the depression of weight gain and feed intake caused by methionine deficiency at 0.28% methionine level. The interaction between choline and methionine influenced weight gain and feed intake of ducks (p<0.05). At 0.28% methionine level, 1,743 mg/kg choline group caused 4.92% and 3.23% amount of improvement in weight gain and feed intake compared with 1,239 mg/kg choline group, respectively. According to the broken-line regression, the choline requirements of starter Pekin ducks for weight gain and feed intake were 1,472 and 1,424 mg/kg at 0.28% methionine level and 946 and 907 mg/kg at 0.48% methionine level, respectively. It suggested the choline recommendations of starter Pekin ducks on a semi-purified diet were 1448 mg/kg at 0.28% methionine level and 927 mg/kg at 0.48% methionine level, respectively. Compared with the adequate methionine level, menthionine deficiency markedly increased the choline requirements of ducks.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.19 no.9
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• pp.1291-1297
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• 2006

The potential of the spot urine sampling technique as an alternative to performing a total urine collection to predict the microbial nitrogen supply was evaluated in crossbred bulls. In a completely randomized design, 20 growing crossbred bulls were assigned four levels of feed intake (120, 100, 80 and 60% of voluntary dry matter intake) on diets comprised of wheat straw and concentrate mixture (50:50). After three months of experimental feeding, a metabolism trial was conducted for ten days, during which spot urine collections were performed every 6 h post feeding on days 9 and 10. The daily urinary excretion of allantoin (A) and purine derivatives (PD) decreased with the reduction in feed intake while creatinine (C) excretion remained similar in animals fed at different levels. The microbial nitrogen (MN) supply calculated from the PD excreted in total urine (35.08 to 72.08 g/d) was higher at increased levels of feed intake. PD concentration in spot urine samples had poor correlation with feed intake except at 12 h post feeding. A/C ratio and PD/C ratio in spot urine samples remained similar irrespective of sampling time and significantly (p<0.01) correlated with daily urinary PD excretion, digestible organic matter intake and dry matter (DM) intake. However, no significant differences were evident in these ratios among animals fed at levels 120, 100 and 80% of voluntary dry matter intake (VDMI) at different times post feeding. These results suggests that the spot urine sampling technique to predict the microbial protein supply is not suitable for detecting small differences in MN supply and hence, estimation of PD excreted in total urine (mmol/d) is necessary to assess precisely the MN supply in crossbred bulls.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.14 no.8
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• pp.1129-1132
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• 2001

Seventy-two Korean native bulls, with an average initial body weight of $247.2{\pm}2.34kg$ were used to determine the effect of different flaked lupin seed inclusion levels (0%, 15% and 30%; Control, LS15, LS30, respectively) on growth with a $3{\times}3$ randomized complete block design at the experimental farm of TS Corporation in Korea for 150 days. There were no significant differences in average daily gain (ADG) and feed:gain among treatments, However, LS30 increased concentrate intake and total feed intake (p<0.05) and decreased rice straw intake compared with Control and LS 15 (p<0.05), With inclusion of flaked lupin seeds, concentrate intake and total feed intake increased (p<0.01) and rice straw intake decreased (p<0.05) compared with Control. There were no specific changes in the health status of animals used in this experiment with inclusion of flaked lupin seeds in concentrates. Inclusion of flaked lupin seeds in the concentrates showed a tendency of reduced average daily total feed cost per kg weight gain compared with Control by 1.6% and 3.4%, respectively, in LS15 and LS30.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.359-362
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• 1996

A study was conducted to assess the influence of copper on the total sulphur amino acid requirements of broiler chickens reared under two growing periods. The TSAA levels used were 0.73, 0.83, 0.93% with copper levels of 0, 125, 250 and 375 mg/kg for the starter period and the TSAA levels of 0.72, 0.79 and 0.86% with copper levels of 0, 125, 250 and 375 mg/kg for the grower period. Total feed consumption, body weight gain and feed L gain ratio were used as the parameters for the assessment. The results showed that adding copper at 250 mg/kg to the diets improved feed : gain ratio of the starter broilers and resulted in small improvement of body weight gain and feed : gain ratio of the grower broilers. Growth was depressed in relation to the reduction of feed intake on the chicks fed diet containing 375 mg/kg copper. There was a significant interaction between dietary TSAA and copper levels for feed intake, hence, indicating that the supplementation of copper at the level of 375 mg/kg increased the TSAA requirement of the starter broilers, although no interference with the requirement of grower broilers.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.107-111
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• 1996

Studies on the effects of protein levels on the total sulphur amino acid (TSAA) requirements of chickens were conducted on the starter broilers by feeding four levels of crude protein(16, 18, 20 and 23%) at three levels of TSAA (0.83, 0.93 and 1.03%) and on the grower broilers by feeding three levels of crude protein (16, 18 and 20%) at three levels of TSAA(0.72, 0.79 and 0.86%). The metabolisable energy of the diets was maintained constant at 3,200 kcal/kg and the experiments were carried out for two growing periods: starter (0-3 wk) and grower (3-6 wk). The results showed that there were significant differences in body weight gain, feed intake and feed:gain ratio under different protein levels of the starters. Crude protein, ME and TSAA intake were significantly affected by increasing the CP levels. The TSAA requirement of the starter broilers is recommended at 0.93% and it is not influenced by different protein levels used in the experiment. For the grower period, body weight gain and feed:gain ratio improved significantly at higher protein diets. Birds fed higher protein diet consumed greater quantities of protein. Responses to TSAA supplementation for body weight gain, feed intake and feed:gain ratio were not significant. The present results showed that the TSAA level of 0.79 to 0.86% was required for grower diets and that the protein levels of the diet did not influence the TSAA requirement.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.32-37
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• 2005

Under a typical Mediterranean environment in southern Australia, the evaporation rate increases significantly in hot summers, resulting in highly saline drinking water for grazing animals. Also in the cropping areas, dryland salinity is a problem. Grazing animals under these environments can ingest excessive amount of salt from feed, drinking water and soil, which can lead to a reduction in growth rate. To understand the impact of high salt intake on grazing deer, two experiments were conducted to assess the effect of salt levels in drinking water on feed intake and growth rate of red and fallow weaner deer. The results revealed that fallow deer did not show any abnormal behaviour or sickness when salt level in drinking water was increased from 0% to 2.5%. Feed intake was not affected until the salt content in water exceeded 1.5%. Body weight gain was not affected by 1.2% salt in drinking water, but was reduced as salt content in water increased. Compared with deer on fresh water, the feed intake of red deer on saline water was 11-13% lower when salt level in drinking water was 0.4-0.8%. An increase in salt level in water up to 1% resulted in about a 30% reduction in feed intake (p<0.01). Body weight gain was significantly (p=0.004) reduced when salt level reached 1.2%. The deer on 1% salt tended to have a higher (p=0.052) osmotic pressure in serum. The concentration of P, K, Mg and S in serum was affected when salt level in water was over 1.0%. The results suggested that the salt level in drinking water should be lower than 1.2% for fallow weaner deer and 0.8% for red weaner deer to avoid any reduction in feed intake. Deer farmers need to regularly test the salt levels in drinking water on their farms to ensure that the salt intake of grazing deer is not over the levels that deer can tolerate.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.59-66
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• 1989

Growing and finishing Korean native bulls were used to investigate the effects of different dietary energy levels on performance and energy intake. Experimental observations were made over three weight categories (200 to 250 kg, 250 to 350 kg and 350 to 450 kg). Three diets (2.4, 2.6 and 2.8 Mcal ME/kg DM) were used for each weight category. Crude protein levels of the diets were 12, 11 and 10% for the respective weight groups. Dietary energy level did not significantly affect daily body gain within a weight range but daily body gain during the entire experiment was higher (P<.05) in bulls receiving 2.6 Mcal energy diet than in those fed 2.4 and 2.8 Mcal energy diets. The following equation was developed to predict daily body gain(Y) from energy levels(X) of ration. $Y\;=\;1.3.475X\;-\;2.5949X^{2}\;-\;16.355$ Increasing energy levels significantly (P<.05) decreased daily feed intake. The following equation was developed to predict daily feed intake(Y) from energy levels(X) of ration. $Y\;=\;-30.013X\;+\;5.4401X^{2}\;+\;49.119$ Feed intake per metabolic body size during the entire feeding period ranged from 100.9 to 110.8 g and was lower in bulls fed 2.6 and 2.8 Mcal energy diets than in those fed 2.4 Mcal energy diet. Increasing energy levels significantly (P<.05) improved feed efficiency. The following equation was developed to predict feed efficiency(Y) from energy levels(X) of ration. $Y\;=\;-118.34X\;+\;22.448X^{2}\;+\;162.85$ Daily energy intake during the entire experiment ranged from 18.90 to 19.99 Mcal and there was no significant difference among energy levels. Daily energy intake per metabolic body size during the feeding period ranged from 248.6 to 260.8 kcal and was slightly higher in bulls receiving 2.8 Mcal than in those fed 2.4 and 2.6 Mcal energy diets. Energy required per kg body gain ranged from 17.25 to 19.11 Mcal and was slightly lower in bulls receiving 2.6 Mcal energy diet than in those fed 2.4 and 2.8 Mcal energy diets.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.13 no.12
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• pp.1717-1725
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• 2000

The objective was to determine the relationship between feed intake levels and patterns, and growth performance and body composition of barrows and gilts using automatic feed intake recording equipment (F.I.R.E.). This system records the time of visits to the feeder and the duration and size of meals for individual animals housed in groups. Ninety-six crossbred pigs were grown from $33.4{\pm}0.51$ to $109.7{\pm}1.39kg$ live weight over a 13-week period. Eight mixed-sex groups of 12 pigs were used and 4 dietary treatments were compared giving 2 pens per treatment. The dietary treatments consisted of corn-soybean meal diets with differing protein levels which ranged from 14.7% to 19% between 30 to 55 kg, from 13.3% to 16.9% between 56 and 85 kg, and from 12.3% to 16.8% for the remainder of the study. Animals were ultrasonically scanned to measure loin-eye area and backfat thickness to estimate carcass fat-free lean content at the beginning and end of the study. Barrows had higher daily feed intake than gilts (2.67 vs. 2.46 kg resp. p<0.05) which was the result of a longer feeder occupation time per visit (4.77 vs. 4.54 min, resp. p<0.05), higher feed consumption rates (30.4 vs. 29.0 g/min, resp. p<0.05), and higher feed intakes per visit (136.9 vs. 126.8 g, resp. p<0.01). Gilts had less backfat and greater loin-eye area than barrows (p<0.05). Diet had no significant effect on growth performance and had limited impact on feeding patterns. Body weight showed high correlations with ADG (r=0.74), feed intake per visit (r=0.51) and feed consumption rate (r=0.69). Positive correlation were also found between daily feed intake and feed intake per visit (r=0.45), feeder occupation time per day (r=0.56), and feed consumption rate (r=0.55), and between daily feed intake and backfat thickness (r=0.32) and feed consumption rate and loin-eye area (r=0.32). There were negative correlations between number of feeder visit per day and daily feed intake (r=-0.54), and between feed intake per visit and number of feeder visits per day (r=-0.43). However, correlations between feed intake traits and carcass traits were generally low. Visits to the feeder were greatest during the morning (0700 to 1100 h) and lowest during the evening and nighttime. These results highlight limited variation among the sexes in feeding patterns and suggest important relationships between feeding behavior and feed intake.