• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
• /
• v.47 no.4
• /
• pp.501-512
• /
• 2005

In Exp. 1, a total of forty eight multiparous sows were used in a 21-d performance assay. All litters were standardized at eleven piglets within 24h of parturition. Sows were fed one of the four experimental diets 1) CON(basal diet; Control), 2) MP1(basal diet added 0.05% of medicinal plant mixtures), 3) MP2 (basal diet added 0.1% of medicinal plant mixtures) and 4) MP3(basal diet added 0.2% of medicinal plant mixtures). Backfat thickness difference from farrowing to weaning was tended to increase in CON treatment compared to those of medicinal plants mixture(MP) treatments. However, there were not significant differences among the treatments(P>0.05). Sow’s ADFI was increased in sows fed MP2 treatment compared to MP3 treatment(P<0.05). Piglet weight gain was tended to increase in MP1 treatment compared to CON treatment(P<0.05). The glucose concentration of MP3 treatment was higher that of CON treatment(P<0.05). Exp. 2, a total of one hundred twenty weaning pigs ($L{\time}Y{\time}D$, 4.70$\pm$0.63kg average initial body weight) were used in a 20-d performance assay. Weanling pigs were fed treatments diets included 1) CON(basal diet; Control), 2) MP0.05(basal diet added 0.05% of medicinal plant mixtures), 3) MP0.1(basal diet added 0.1% of medicinal plant mixtures) and 4) MP0.15(basal diet added 0.15% of medicinal plant mixtures). Through entire experimental period, as MP increased in the diets, there was an increase in ADG(linear, P<0.067), improvement gain/feed(linear, P<0.018) and a decrease in ADFI (linear, P<0.008). DM digestibility was significantly increased with addition of MP(linear, P<0.004; quadratic, P<0.030). In conclusion, sows fed MP2 had showed less body weight loss and increased weight gain for suckling piglet. In weaning pigs, as supplementation MP from 0.05 to 0.1% in diet had improved growth performance and DM digestibility.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• v.11 no.2
• /
• pp.121-127
• /
• 1998

Thirty two Omani sheep with eight animals each of; intact males (INT), males castrated with rubber rings immediately after birth (RR), males castrated with a burdizzo at 8 weeks of age (BC) and intact females (IF) were fed ad libitum a concentrate diet (CP 16%) plus chopped Rhodesgrass hay (8% CP) from weaning until slaughter at 28 kg. INT lambs grew faster from 9 to 20 weeks of age (p < 0.05) thus they were significantly heavier at 20 weeks of age than BC and IF, but not RR lambs. INT consumed more total feed than other sex groups over the period from 9 to 20 weeks of age. There were no significant differences between lambs of all experimental groups in feed per gain ratio. INT lambs had lower (p < 0.01) dressing percentage (DP) than RR, BC and IF. As a percentage in the empty body weight (EBW), INT had higher proportions of head, feet, empty gut (p < 0.001), liver (p < 0.05) and genitals (p < 0.05) but lower proportions of lungs and trachea (p < 0.05) than BC and IF lambs. INT males had a significantly higher (p < 0.05) proportion of bone than RR and IF lambs but lower (p < 0.05) proportion of fat than RR and IF. As a percentage in EBW, IF had the highest protortion (p < 0.001) of total body fat (TBF) followed by BC and RR whereas INT males had the lowest proportion. There was a general trend of IF having the highest proportion of individual and total non-carcass fat (TNCF) and total carcass fat (TCF) followed by BC and RR lambs whereas INT lambs had the lowest protortions of individual carcass and non-carcass fat depots. There were only few sex or castration effects on carcass tissue distribution. IF had higher proportions of intermuscular fat in the chuck, plate, leg and flank than INT and BC. The current study demonstrated that castration of intensively-raised male Omani native sheep especially at weaning using a burdizzo retarded growth rate and reduced carcass quality by increasing fat content.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• v.5 no.3
• /
• pp.419-426
• /
• 1992

After the virtual eradication of cattle during World War II, Papua New Guinea herds were rebuilt with Shorthorn and Aberdeen Angus cattle from Australia. These, and Red Sindhi and Sahiwal, imported in 1952, were considered unsuitable breeds. In 1954, Department of Agriculture, Stock and Fisheries imported three Brahman bulls and three heifers from Texas and in 1960 began importations of Afrikaner from Queensland. In Central Province, Brahmans were crossed with Angus and at Erap (Morobe) the hottest place in Papua New Guinea, Shorthorns were crossed with Afrikaners. In 1965, Brahman and Brahman-cross were sent to Erap. Records of breeding and growth rates were collected for use in upgrading in cattle of the basis of performance, not pedigree. The data are not ideal for genetic analysis, since no control groups were maintained. Birth weights (BWT), weaning weights (WWT) and calving intervals (CI) were analysed for the period 1969-1978. After exclusion of unsatisfactory data, 2,514 calf records were used, including both breeds from 1969 to 1973, but only Brahman-cross subsequently. Breed mean BWT ranged only from 30.6 to 33.8 kg. As Brahman content increased, BWT decreased and WWT increased; within a genotype, there was a negative maternal effect of high Brahman content on BWT and a positive effect on WWT which ranged from 138 to 174 kg. Afrikaner calves had heavier BWT but lighter WWT. As expected, bulls were heaviest, heifers lightest and mature cows bore and reared heavier calves. Calving interval (405 days, equivalent to 90% calving) was unaffected by breed but 4-year old cows averaged 423 days. Breed differences in BWT and WWT are consistent with the body of literature on performance of Brahmans and Afrikaners. Since cattle tick are not present and internal parasites are insignificant at Erap, the superiority of Brahmans indicates that they were better at utilizing the mediocre quality grazing of the Markham Valley or were more heat tolerant. Performance selection over ten years resulted in the virtual elimination of Afrikaners, with the final genotype approximately 9/16 Brahman, 3/8 Shorthorn and 1/16 Afrikaner.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
• /
• v.47 no.3
• /
• pp.371-378
• /
• 2005

This study was conducted to evaluate effects of dietary herbal extracts mixturetMiracle" included Angelicae Gigantis Radix, Rehmanniae Radix, Cnidii Rhizoma, Glycyrrhizae Radix, Schizandrae Fructus, Plantago asiatica and Dioscoreae Radix) on the productivities of lactating sowsand growth performance and hematological characteristics of piglets. Twenty seven sows (Yorkshire ${\times}$ Landrace ${\times}$ Duroc, 1 to 3 parities) were used in a 21 day old trial. Dietary treatments included 1) CON (control; basal diet), 2) HPMO.l (basal diet + herbal plant mixture 0.1 %) and 3) HPMO.2 (basal diet + herbal plant mixture 0.2 %). Backfat thickness losses from farrowing to weaning was decreased in HPM treatmentscompared with control(linear effect, P $\leq$ 0.003). ADFI was decreased in sows fed herbal plant mixture(linear effect, P < 0.05). Also, treatments of dietary herbal plant mixture reduced day of return to estrus compared with control(linear effect, P < 0.05). Energy digestibility in HPM treatments were higher than control(linear effect, P $\leq$ 0.05). In piglets, weight gain(P > 0.05) and survivability(P> 0.05) after weaning werenot affected by treatments. No statistical differences were found(P> 0.05) forhematological characteristics in piglets. In conclusion, dietary herbal plant mixture reduces backfat thickness losses and day of return to estrus and improves energy digestibility in lactating sows.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• v.25 no.7
• /
• pp.980-987
• /
• 2012

In order to investigate the effect of physical forms of starter diets on performance, weaning age, nutrient digestibility and rumen biochemical factors, 24 female of neonatal Brown Swiss calves (average body weight of $39.5{\pm}1.2kg$) were randomly assigned to three treatments. Dietary treatments were mashed (MS), pelleted (PS), and texturized (TS) starter using 8 calves from birth till 90 days of age in each treatment. Diets were formulated to be iso-nitrogenous with 21% crude protein. Based on the experimental results, calves that received PS and TS diets, had significant higher average daily gain (ADG) than those receiving MS (p<0.01). Dry matter intake in calves fed PS and TS was greater than calves fed MS (p<0.05), but there was no significant difference in feed efficiency. Treatments had no effect on initiation of rumination. Weaning age of calves in MS was longer than the other two treatments (p<0.05). Crude protein and organic matter digestibility in MS treated calves were lower than other treatments (p<0.05). No differences were observed in neutral detergent fiber (NDF) and ash digestibility among treatments (p>0.05). Ruminal pH was higher (p<0.01) in MS than the other groups, but ruminal ammonia (g/dl) concentration was not different among the treatments. Body measurements such as body length, pin width, hip width, pin to hip length, size of metacarpus and metatarsus bones, hip height, wither height, stomach size and heart girth were not significantly different among the treatments. Overall, it is concluded that starter diets in the form of pellet and texture can improve performance in neonatal Brown Swiss calves compared to the mashed form.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• v.16 no.9
• /
• pp.1326-1331
• /
• 2003

The aim of the study was to assess the efficacy of Toyocerin, a probiotic containing Bacillus toyoi spores, on the health status and productivity of pigs, during nursery, growing and finishing phases. On a commercial farrow-to-finish farm in Greece, 3 experimental groups were formed, each of 72 weaned piglets. The pigs of the first group (T1 group; negative controls) received normal feed with no antimicrobials or probiotics, the pigs of the second group (T2 group) received the same type of feed but supplemented with 1.0${\times}$10$^9$, 0.5${\times}$10$^9$ and 0.2${\times}$10$^9$ spores per kg of feed at weaning, growing and finishing stage, respectively, and the pigs of the third group (T3 group) were fed with Toyocerin at the dose of 1.0${\times}$10$^9$ spores per kg of feed during the entire fattening period (weaning, growing and finishing stages). The results have shown that, compared to the controls, Toyocerin treated pigs had reduced incidence of postweaning diarrhoea (p<0.05). Enterotoxigenic strains of Escherichia coli were detected in faecal samples of 0% to 25% of pigs of the treated groups, but in 33.5% to 50% of pigs of the non-treated group (p<0.05). Over the negative controls, a significant improvement of weight gain (4.5% and 8.3% for T2 and T3 groups, respectively), and of feed conversion ratio (6.6% and 13.0% for T2 and T3 groups, respectively) was observed. The 76.5% of the carcasses of the T3 group was classified in the top three categories of the EUROP scale (S, E and U), whilst the respective figures were 47.8% for T2 group and only 10.5% for T1 group (p<0.05).

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• v.17 no.12
• /
• pp.1635-1640
• /
• 2004

Two experiments were conducted to evaluate developmental gene expression of antimicrobial peptide PR-39 and effect of zinc oxide on gene regulation of PR-39 in piglets using semi-quantitative RT-PCR analysis. In experiment 1, fifteen female Tai-Hu pigs (a local breed in China) in five groups, each of three pigs at 1, 14, 28, 42 and 56 days of age were used to determine effect of age and weaning on mRNA expression of PR-39. In experiment 2, nine groups of pigs (total seventy-two female 36 days-age weanling Tai-Hu piglets) were assigned to three treatments (${ZnO}_0$, ${ZnO}_{100}$ and ${ZnO}_{3000}$). The feeding experimental period lasted 15 days. After feeding experiment, nine pigs with three animals in each treatment were chosen to determine the effect of ZnO on PR-39 mRNA expression of pigs. The results showed that PR-39 mRNA levels increased steadily in postnatal day 1-28 (preweaning), and weaning significantly decreased PR-39 mRNA expression of piglets (p<0.05). ${ZnO}_{3000}$ (3,000 mg zinc/kg diet) significantly increased PR-39 mRNA expression (p<0.05) when piglets were feed ${ZnO}_{3000}$ diet for 15 days. ${ZnO}_{100}$ (100 mg zinc/kg diet) also increased PR-39 gene expression, but the result was not statistically significant (p>0.05). The result was in accordance with the effect of ${ZnO}_{3000}$ and ${ZnO}_{100}$ on weight gain of piglets and prevention of diarrhea.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• v.18 no.8
• /
• pp.1075-1079
• /
• 2005

The main objective of this study is to examine genetic changes in growth rate and carcass composition traits in group housed, ad libitum fed pigs, from lines of Large White divergently selected over four years for high and low post-weaning daily gain on a fixed but restricted ration. Genetic parameters for production and carcass traits were also estimated by using average information-restricted maximum likelihood applied to a multivariate individual animal model. All analyses were carried out on 1,728 records of group housed ad libitum fed pigs, and include a full pedigree of 5,324 animals. Estimates of heritability (standard errors in parentheses) were 0.11 (0.04) for lifetime daily liveweight gain (LDG), 0.13 (0.04) for daily carcass weight gain (CDG) and 0.28 (0.06) for carcass backfat (CFT). Genetic correlations between LDG and CDG were highly positive and between LDG and CFT negative, suggesting that selection for lifetime daily gain under commercial conditions of group housing with ad libitum feeding would result in favourable improvement in carcass traits. CFT showed negative genetic correlations with CDG. Correlated genetic responses evaluated as estimated breeding values (EBVs) were obtained from a multivariate animal model-best linear unbiased prediction analysis. After four years of divergent selection for 6 week post-weaning growth rate on restricted feeding, pigs performance tested on ad libitum feeding in groups exhibited changes in EBVs of 6.77 and -9.93 (g/d) for LDG, 4.25 and -7.08 (g/d) for CDG, and -1.42 and 1.55 (mm) for CFT, in the high and low lines, respectively. It is concluded that selection for growth rate on restricted feeding would significantly improve genetic performance and carcass composition of their descendants when group housed and ad libitum fed as is a common commercial practice.

• Development and Reproduction
• /
• v.20 no.4
• /
• pp.349-357
• /
• 2016

The present research was chiefly designed to determine the effect of the treatment of estrogenic agonist, estradiol benzoate (EB), or antiandrogenic compound, flutamide (Flu), at the weaning age on the expression of connexin (Cx) isoforms in the caudal epididymis of adult male rat. Animals were subcutaneously administrated with a single shot of either EB at a low-dose ($0.015{\mu}g$ of EB/kg body weight (BW)) or a high-dose ($1.5{\mu}g$ of EB/kg BW) or Flu at a low-dose ($500{\mu}g$ of EB/kg BW) or a high-dose (5 mg of EB/kg BW). Expressional changes of Cx isoforms in the adult caudal epididymis were examined by quantitative real-time PCR analysis. The treatment of a low-dose EB caused significant increases of Cx30.3, Cx31, Cx32, and Cx43 transcript levels but reduction of Cx31.1, Cx37, and Cx45 expression. Exposure to a high-dose EB resulted in very close responses observed in a low-dose EB treatment, except no significant expressional change of Cx37 and a significant induction of Cx40. Expression of all Cx isoforms, except Cx45, was significantly increased by a low-dose Flu treatment. Expressional increases of all Cx isoforms were detected by a high-dose Flu treatment. The current study demonstrates that a single exposure to estrogenic or antiandrogenic compound during the early postnatal developmental period is sufficient to disrupt normal expression of Cx isoforms in the adult caudal epididymis.

• Development and Reproduction
• /
• v.21 no.4
• /
• pp.379-389
• /
• 2017

Connexin (Cx) involves in the regulation of various physiological functions of tissue by forming a channel, a gap junction which allows direct cell-cell communication, between adjacent cells. The effect of a single subcutaneous treatment of estradiol benzoate (EB) or flutamide (Flu) at the weaning age on the expression of Cx isoforms in the adult caput epididymis was evaluated in this research. Using quantitative real-time PCR analysis, a low-dose of EB [$0.015{\mu}g/kg$ body weight (BW)] caused significant decreases of Cx30.3, Cx32, Cx40, Cx43, and Cx45 mRNA levels and no change of Cx26, Cx31, Cx31.1, Cx37 transcript levels. The treatment of a high-dose EB ($1.5{\mu}g/kg\;BW$) resulted in reduced expression of Cx30.3, Cx31, Cx43, and Cx45 but increased expression of Cx37 and Cx40. Expression of all Cx isoforms examined, except Cx31, was significantly increased by the treatment of a low-dose Flu ($500{\mu}g/kg\;BW$). However, the treatment of a high-dose Flu (5 mg/kg BW) led significant expressional suppression of Cx30.3, Cx31, Cx31.1, Cx32, Cx40, Cx43, and Cx45 but an increase of Cx37 transcript level. With the comparison of previous findings, the expression of Cx isoforms in the adult epididymis after the exposure to EB or Flu is likely differentially regulated in regional-specific and/or exposed postnatal age-specific manner.