• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.486-495
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• 2012

Twenty four periparturient cows were used to determine the effects of DCAD on acid-base balance, plasma and urine mineral concentrations, health status, and subsequent lactation performance. Each group of 12 cows received either a diet containing -100 DCAD or +100 DCAD for 21 d prepartum. Both anionic and cationic groups were divided into two groups, one received a +200 DCAD and the other +400 DCAD diet for 60 d postpartum. Prepartum reduction of DCAD decreased DMI, urinary and blood pH, urinary concentrations of Na or K and increased plasma and urinary Ca, Mg, Cl and S. Also cows fed -100 DCAD diet consumed the most dry matter in the first 60 d after calving. Postpartum +400 DCAD increased milk fat and total solid percentages, urinary and blood pH and urinary Na and K concentrations, but urinary Ca, P, Cl and S contents decreased. Greater DMI, FCM yields were observed in cows fed a diet of +400 DCAD than +200 DCAD. No case of milk fever occurred for any diets but feeding with a negative DCAD diet reduced placenta expulsion time. In conclusion, feeding negative DCAD in late gestation period and high DCAD in early lactation improves performance and productivity of dairy cows.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.433-450
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• 2002

The daily food intake for dairy cows has to be effectively controlled to breed a sound group of cows as well as to enhance the productivity of the cows. But, feed stuffs are fed in the common bulk for a group of cows in most cases despite that the individual food intake has to be varied. To obtain the feed for each cow, both the nutrient requirements and the nutrient composition of fred have to be provided in advance, which are based on the status of cows such as weigh marginal weight amount of milk, fat concentration in milk, growth and milking stages, and rough feed ratio, etc. Then, the mixed ration fur diet would be computed by the nutrient requirements constraints. However, when TMR (Total Mixed Ration) is conventionally supplied for a group of cows, it is almost impossible to get an optimal feed mixed ration meeting the nutrient requirements of each individual cow since the constraints are usually conflicting and over-constrained although they are linear. Hence, addressed in this paper is a simulated annealing (SA) technique to find the food intake for dairy cows, considering the characteristics of individual or grouped cows. Appropriate parameters fur the successful working of SA are determined through preliminary experiments. The parameters include initial temperature, epoch length. cooling scheduling, and stopping criteria. In addition, a neighborhood solution generation method for the effective improvement of solutions is presented. Experimental results show that the final solution for the mixture of feed fits the rough feed ratio and some other nutrient requirements such as rough fiber, acid detergent fiber, and neutral detergent fiber, with 100 percent, while fulfilling net energy for lactating, metabolic energy, total digestible nutrients, crude protein, and undegraded intake protein within average five percent.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.122-142
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• 2012

The importance of rainfed areas and animal agriculture on productivity enhancement and food security for economic rural growth in Asia is discussed in the context of opportunities for increasing potential contribution from them. The extent of the rainfed area of about 223 million hectares and the biophysical attributes are described. They have been variously referred to inter alia as fragile, marginal, dry, waste, problem, threatened, range, less favoured, low potential lands, forests and woodlands, including lowlands and uplands. Of these, the terms less favoured areas (LFAs), and low or high potential are quite widely used. The LFAs are characterised by four key features: i) very variable biophysical elements, notably poor soil quality, rainfall, length of growing season and dry periods, ii) extreme poverty and very poor people who continuously face hunger and vulnerability, iii) presence of large populations of ruminant animals (buffaloes, cattle, goats and sheep), and iv) have had minimum development attention and an unfinished wanting agenda. The rainfed humid/sub-humid areas found mainly in South East Asia (99 million ha), and arid/semi-arid tropical systems found in South Asia (116 million ha) are priority agro-ecological zones (AEZs). In India for example, the ecosystem occupies 68% of the total cultivated area and supports 40% of the human and 65% of the livestock populations. The area also produces 4% of food requirements. The biophysical and typical household characteristics, agricultural diversification, patterns of mixed farming and cropping systems are also described. Concerning animals, their role and economic importance, relevance of ownership, nomadic movements, and more importantly their potential value as the entry point for the development of LFAs is discussed. Two examples of demonstrated success concern increasing buffalo production for milk and their expanded use in semi-arid AEZs in India, and the integration of cattle and goats with oil palm in Malaysia. Revitalised development of the LFAs is justified by the demand for agricultural land to meet human needs e.g. housing, recreation and industrialisation; use of arable land to expand crop production to ceiling levels; increasing and very high animal densities; increased urbanisation and pressure on the use of available land; growing environmental concerns of very intensive crop production e.g. acidification and salinisation with rice cultivation; and human health risks due to expanding peri-urban poultry and pig production. The strategies for promoting productivity growth will require concerted R and D on improved use of LFAs, application of systems perspectives for technology delivery, increased investments, a policy framework and improved farmer-researcher-extension linkages. These challenges and their resolution in rainfed areas can forcefully impact on increased productivity, improved livelihoods and human welfare, and environmental sustainability in the future.

• Food Science and Biotechnology
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.566-571
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• 2005

Process of screw-pumping system (SPS) was optimized for mass production of encapsulated bifidus. SPS entrapment device was composed of feeding component, with optimized nozzle size and length of 18G (0.91 cm) and 4 mm, respectively, screw pump, and 37-multi-nozzle. Screw component had five wing turns [radius (r)=26 to 15 mm] from top to bottom of axis at 78-degree angle from middle of the screw, and two wings were positioned at screw edge to push materials toward nozzle. For nozzle component, 37 nozzles were attached to 20-mm round plate. Air compressor was attached to SPS to increase productivity of encapsulated bifidus. This system could be operated with highly viscous (more than 300 cp) materials, and productivity was higher than $1128\;{\pm}\;30\;beads/min$. Viability of encapsulated bifidus was $5.45\;{\times}\;10^8\;cfu$/bead, which is superior to that of encapsulated bifidus produced by other methods ($2.51{\times}10^8\;cfu$/bead). Average diameter of produced beads was $2.048\;{\pm}\;0.003\;mm$. Survival rate of SPS-produced encapsulated bifidus was 90% for Simulator of the Human Intestinal Microbial Ecosystem test and 88% in fermented milk (for 14 days). These results show SPS is effective for use in development of economical system for mass production of viable encapsulated bifidus.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.748-756
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• 2019

Objective: The objective of this study was to examine the effect of using a tunnel ventilation system within the dairy barn environment upon the productivity of dairy cows during the winter season. Methods: The study was performed at the University Farm, Faculty of Agriculture, Utsunomiya University. Twenty-one Holstein dairy cows (5 heifers and 16 multiparous) were enclosed in a stall barn. Unventilated (UV) and tunnel-ventilated (TV) was operated by turns every other week, and a number of key parameters were measured in the barn, including tunnel ventilation output, temperature, relative humidity, gas concentrations (oxygen [$O_2$], carbon dioxide [$CO_2$], and ammonia [$NH_3$]). Also, skin and rectal temperature, respiratory rate, blood gas concentrations, and bacterial count were measured from nipple attachments on ten cows. The amount of fodder left uneaten, and general components and somatic cell count of the milk were measured. Results: As for our dairy barn environment, air temperature dropped significantly with the passage of time with TV. Humidity was significantly higher with TV at 0600 h compared to UV, while $CO_2$ and $NH_3$ concentrations with UV were significantly higher than with TV at 0000 h and 0600 h. Skin temperature was significantly lower with TV compared to UV at 0000 h and 0600 h. Respiratory rate was also significantly lower at 0600 h with TV than with UV. Bacterial count for the nipple attachments was significantly lower with TV than with UV at 0600 h. The amount of leftover fodder was significantly less with TV in comparison with UV. Conclusion: Our results suggest that a TV system in the winter barn results in environmental improvements, such as reductions in unfavorable gas concentrations and bacterial growth. Consequently, it is expected that barns utilizing a TV system will be beneficial for both animal health and production.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.151-159
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• 2007

This experiment was carried out to protect drops of feed intake should be plural prepartum and postpartum to reduce metabolic diseases after calving to know how feeding systems, which is divided as a low quility, a high quility and total mixed rations(TMR), affects on postpartum productivity of Holistein cows. Three diets (low or high quality forage separately fed with concentrate and TMR containing high quality roughage) were fed to 21 cows from 3 weeks prepartum to 8 weeks postpartum to examine their effects on the productivity of cows. DM intakes was noticed significantly higher with TMR (17.11kg/day) than low-quality (13.48 kg/day) and high-quality forage (13.10kg/day). TDN and CP intakes were also higher with TMR compared to other experimental diets. Mean daily milk yield was non-significant among the cows fed different diets. Blood non-esterified fatty acids(NEFA) content was higher in cows fed low-quality or high-quality forage separately with concentrate compared with those fed TMR. The results concluded that TMR feeding to transitional cows is better than feeding the low or high quality forage separately for their health and productivity.

• Korean Journal of Animal Reproduction
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.9-14
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• 2003

The pBT-L transgenic mice carrying human TPO gene in conjunction with bovine $\beta$-casein promoter express human TPO in milk during lactation. In this study, stability of germ line transmission and expression of pBT-L transgene integrated into host chromosome were monitored up to generation F10 of transgenic pBT-L/15 line. When male mouse of generation F8 was crossbred with normal females, approximately half of offsprings (51.3$\pm$18.98%) were identified as transgenic mice. Generation F9 and F 10 mice also showed similar transmission rates (43.8$\pm$18.98% and 71.4$\pm$26.98%, respectively), implying that pBT-L transgene can be transmitted stably up to long term generation in the transgenic mice. Expression levels of human TPO from milk of generation F9 and F10 mice were 1.1$\pm$0.33 mg/ml and 1.1 $\pm$0.45 mg/ml, respectively, which are similar to expression level of generation F2 mice. In conclusion, our results suggest that transgenic animals once established will continuously pass their transgenes to the progeny through the breeding program with the same productivity of human protein in their milk.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.777-782
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• 2002

Reciprocal effects among local breeds and additive and heterosis effects were estimated for total milk production per lactation (TLP), lactation length (LL) and daily milk yield (DMY). Procedures for an optimum crossbreeding system were examined by comparing various crossbred combinations. Three data sets were chosen from the total records collected from 1962 to 1997. Data set I with a total of 5,938 records composed of 9 breed groups for reciprocal crosses, data set II with a total of 6,064 records composed of 5 breed groups for additive and heterosis effects and data set III with a total of 10,319 records composed of 42 breed groups for optimum crossbreeding system were analyzed. The least squares ANOVA was used. The reciprocal crosses between Red Sindhi and the Bangladeshi Local showed significant difference. When the Red Sindhi was used as cow, the cross was superior to the opposite in terms of the three performance traits. The results showed that additive breed effects on both TLP and DMY were positive and highly significant between Bos indicus and Bos taurus, whereas the individual heterosis effects were not significant. In general, any local breeds were improved two to three times by crossing with the Friesian once or twice. However, the effect was reduced when the grading up with the Friesian was repeated more than twice. On the other hand, when the local breed was crossed with the other breeds such as Holstein and Jersey, the improvement of TLP was less. Crossing the F1 cows with the Friesian bull gave further improvement. Almost the same trends were found also for LL and DMY. The local breeds and their crosses are raised mainly for draft animals, then it is recommended that the crossbreds between the local cows and Friesian are used for dairy purposes and more than 75% Friesian blood is used for beef.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.450-456
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• 2009

This study evaluated the efficacy of topical eprinomectin (0.5% pour-on solution, $Eprinex^{(R)}$, Merial) against Chorioptes texanus (C texanus) infestation in dairy cows reared in Korea. Dairy cows naturally infected with C texanus showed skin lesions as alopecia, erythema, excoriations and crusts on the tail head, the caudal folds, the back of udder and the rump area. Fourteen adult Holstein dairy cows with chorioptic mange at National Institute of Animal Science were selected on the basis of gross lesion and microscopic examination. Experimental dairy cows infected with chorioptic mange were treated with eprinomectin ($Eprinex^{(R)}$, Merial, France) at the rate of 1 ml /10 kg/BW. Evaluation of therapeutic effect is based on mite counts and gross lesion at weekly interval for 6 weeks. Milk yields were measured every day and calculate at the mean of milk yield at weekly interval. Mange mites absolutely removed after 1 week of topical eprinomectin against C. texanus infestation on dairy cows. The skin lesion of dairy cows infested with C. texanus recovered normal status after 6 weeks of eprinomectin treatment. After eprinomectin treatment, return to the normal level of milk yields in diary cows infested with C. texanus has indirectly indicated that C. texanus infestation have negative effect on productivity of dairy farm. However, it would be suggested that the investigation of actual condition and the effective control method of C. texanus infestation of dairy farms in Korea should be studied in the future.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.30 no.7
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• pp.1048-1053
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• 2017

Objective: The objectives of the study were to assess the effect of cacao bean husk as bedding material in free-stall barn on the behavior, productivity, and udder health of dairy cattle, and on the ammonia concentrations in the barn. Methods: Four different stall surfaces (no bedding, cacao bean husk, sawdust, and chopped wheat straw) were each continuously tested for a period of 1 week to determine their effects on nine lactating Holstein cows housed in the free-stall barn with rubber matting. The lying time and the milk yield were measured between d 4 and d 7. Blood samples for plasma cortisol concentration and teat swabs for bacterial counts were obtained prior to morning milking on d 7. The time-averaged gas-phase ammonia concentrations in the barn were measured between d 2 and d 7. Results: The cows spent approximately 2 h more per day lying in the stalls when bedding was available than without bedding. The milk yield increased in the experimental periods when cows had access to bedding materials as compared to the period without bedding. The lying time was positively correlated with the milk yield. Bacterial counts on the teat ends recorded for cows housed on cacao bean husk were significantly lower than those recorded for cows housed without bedding. Ammonia concentration under cacao bean husk bedding decreased by 6%, 15%, and 21% as compared to no bedding, sawdust, and chopped wheat straw, respectively. The cortisol concentration was lowest in the period when cacao bean husk bedding was used. We observed a positive correlation between the ammonia concentrations in the barn and the plasma cortisol concentrations. Conclusion: Cacao bean husk is a potential alternative of conventional bedding material, such as sawdust or chopped wheat straw, with beneficial effects on udder health and ammonia concentrations in the barns.