• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.23 no.9
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• pp.1250-1260
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• 2010

Mycotoxins are secondary metabolites produced by fungi. These toxins pose serious health concerns to animals as well as human beings. Biodegradation of these mycotoxins has been considered as one of the best strategies to decontaminate food and feedstuffs. Biodegradation employs the application of microbes or enzymes to contaminated food and feedstuffs. Ruminants are considered to be resistant to the adverse effects of mycotoxins presumably due to the biodegrading ability of rumen microbes compared to mono-gastric animals. Therefore, rumen microbial source or microbial enzyme could be a great asset in biological detoxification of mycotoxins. Isolation and characterization of pure culture of rumen microorganisms or isolation and cloning of genes encoding mycotoxin-degrading potential would prove to have overall beneficial impact in the food and feed industry.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.1 no.4
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• pp.195-199
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• 1988

Two experiments were conducted to evaluate the nutritive value of a diet containing 20% alkaline hydrogen peroxide(AHP) treated aspen sawdust for ruminants. In experiment 1, sheep fed treated aspen(treated) had higher (p < 0.05) average daily gain and improved feed/gain ratio compared to animals fed untreated aspen (untreated), Apparent NDF and ADF digestibilities of treated aspen were higher (p < 0.05) than for untreated material. A similar trend was observed for DM, organic matter and cellulose digestibilities coefficients. In experiment 2, the soluble and degradable DM and crude protein (CP) fractions tended to increase with AHP treatment. Treatment also increased (p<0.05) the degradation rate of the degradable fraction. Results of these experiment indicate that AHP treatment results in a substantial improvement in the extent of utilization of aspen sawdust by ruminants.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.29 no.11
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• pp.1523-1529
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• 2016

Soybean meal (SBM), a commonly used protein source for animal feed, contains anti-nutritional factors such as trypsin inhibitor, phytate, oligosaccharides among others, which limit its utilization. Microbial fermentation using bacteria or fungi has the capability to improve nutritional value of SBM by altering the native composition. Both submerged and solid state fermentation processes can be used for this purpose. Bacterial and fungal fermentations result in degradation of various anti-nutritional factors, an increase in amount of small-sized peptides and improved content of both essential and non-essential amino acids. However, the resulting fermented products vary in levels of nutritional components as the two species used for fermentation differ in their metabolic activities. Compared to SBM, feeding non-ruminants with fermented SBM has several beneficial effects including increased average daily gain, improved growth performance, better protein digestibility, decreased immunological reactivity and undesirable morphological changes like absence of granulated pinocytotic vacuoles.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.215-221
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• 1996

In the marginal upland areas of East Java, Indonesia, ruminants provide farming households with tradable assets in addition to manure and draught power. Households are interested in acquiring ruminants at an early stage of household development. This paper discusses farmers' access to cattle via sharing arrangements. In these arrangements owners lend animals to other farmers in retum for a share of the offspring or the profits. Livestock owners only entrust cattle to households with prior experience in livestock keeping and sufficient labour. Details of the sharing contracts differ between villages. Changes in cattle numbers and ownership over time are attributed to patterns of the development of village agriculture and the economic development of farming households. Feed shortages in the dry season bring about short-term changes; cattle numbers decline and the proportion of households rearing shared cattle increases. The institution of sharing plays a major role in replenishing herds after periods of severe drought.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.257-259
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• 1992

Three tropical legumes, very different in growth form, but believed to be of potential value for animal production were evaluated by substituting the leaf meal made from each for lucerne at the level used in a standard diet for growing rabbits (50%). Each leaf meal had a nitrogen content of close to 3.5% and contributed about 60% of the crude protein in the diet. Albizia lebbeck and Clitoria ternatea showed no evidence of toxic or antinutrient effects. The protein digestibility of the complete diets were 66 and 61% respectively, implying a protein digestibility of the leaf of at least 50%. Both species would be suitable for practical production diets for rabbits and should be excellent for ruminants. In contrast, the diet containing Desmanthus virgatus had a protein digestibility of only 40%, implying that only about 15% of the leaf protein was available. The leaves showed marked non-enzymic browning on drying. When dried this species is clearly unsuitable as a feed for rabbits and possibly also for ruminants. However, it may well be valuable as fresh forage.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.251-253
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• 1989

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.489-490
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• 1989

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.392-393
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• 1989

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.20 no.8
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• pp.1305-1318
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• 2007

On a global scale agriculture and in particular enteric fermentation in ruminants is reported to produce about one fourth (21 to 25%) of the total anthropogenic emissions of methane ($CH_4$). Methane is produced during the anaerobic fermentation of hydrolyzed dietary carbohydrates in the rumen and represents an energy loss to the host besides contributing to emissions of greenhouse gases into the environment. However, there appears to be uncertainty in the $CH_4$ estimation from livestock due to the limited availability of data to document the variability at the farm level and also due to the significant impact of diet on the enteric $CH_4$ production. The methane mitigation strategies require robust prediction of emissions from rumen. There are many methods available which would be suitable for measuring $CH_4$ produced from the various stages of animal production. However, several factors need to be considered in order to select the most appropriate technique like the cost, level of accuracy required and the scale and design of the experiments to be undertaken. Selection of any technique depends on the accuracy as each one has its advantages and disadvantages. Screening of mitigation strategies may be evaluated using individual animal before large-scale trials on groups of animals are carried out. In this review various methods for the estimation of methane production from ruminants as well as for the determination of methane production potential of ruminant feeds are discussed. The advantages and disadvantages of the methods starting from respiration chamber, ventilated hood, facemask, sulphur hexafluoride ($SF_6$) tracer technique, prediction equations and meteorological methods to in vitro methods are detailed.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.845-855
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• 2000

As high as 50% of pregnancies are known to fail and the majority of such losses occur during the peri-implantation period. For the establishment of pregnancy in mammalian species, therefore, implantation of the conceptus to the maternal endometrium must be completed successfully. Physiological events associated with implantation differ among mammals. In ruminant ungulates, an elongation of the trophohlast in early conceptus development is required before the attachment of the conceptus to the uterine endometrium. Moreover, implantation sites are restricted to each uterine caruncula where tissue remodeling, feto-maternal cell fusion and placentation take place in a coordinated manner. These unique events occur under strict conditions and are regulated by numerous factors from the uterine endometrium and trophoblast in a spatial manner. Interferon-tau (IFN-${\tau}$), a conceptus-derived anti-Iuteolytic factor, which rescues corpus luteum from its regression in ruminants, is particularly apt to play an important role as a local regulator in coordination with other factors, such as TGF-${\beta}$, Cox-2 and MMPs at the attachment and placentation sites.