The gas measured in an in vitro experiment is an indirect measurement of nutritionally important events. Feeds in the rumen are converted to short-chain fatty acids, to CO2, to CH4 and to microbial mass plus water. The pathways used for microorganisms for carbohydrate degradation will determine the amount of ATP available for microbial cell production and vary with the type of substrate, nature of inoculum and time of observation. The aim of this work was to study the relationship between gas volume and microbial growth regarding to the substrate quality.

Tree leaves or shrub leaves are used in small ruminant diets in Turkey during the critical period of the year when quality and quantity pasture herbages is limited. The information about the leaves as a foodstuff for ruminant is limited. Therefore the aim of this study was to determine chemical composition, organic matter digestibility and metabolizable energy (ME) content of leaves of some threes and compare with wheat straw.

Forages, either fed as a silage or hay, represent a major component of ruminant diets. Tumbleweed (Gundelia Tournefortii L.) is a perennial spiny herb. In central Anatolian generally tumbleweed is collected and dried for winter fodder. There is no information about tumbleweed silage. The aim of this study was to compare tumbleweed silage with alfalfa and maize silage in terms of dry matter degradation and metabolizable energy (ME).

Digestible nutrient concentrations in feeds are often used to estimate metabolisable energy (ME) concentration. The objective of the present study was to develop equations to calculate nutrient digestibility in silages from silage chemical and fermentation variables.

AFRC (1993) recommends a factor of 16 to calculate metabolisable energy (ME) concentration in a grass silage from its digestible organic matter (DOM) in total dry matter (DM) (DOMD), irrespective of variations in the concentrations of other nutrients (crude protein (CP), carbohydrate and lipid) in DOM. The objective of the present study was to examine the effect of silage quality on the relationship between ME concentration and DOMD in grass silages.

In situ dry matter and protein degradation of urea supplemented whole-crop barley in the rumen of Mehraban rams were studied. DM degradability estimated from disappearance of DM from dacron bags. The degradable fraction CP is converted to ammonia, fatty acids and CO2, with a portion of ammonia being used for microbial protein synthesis in the rumen. The undegradable fraction escapes digestion in the rumen and subsequently available for intestinal digestion and absorption.

The growth rate of Arabi lamb during the suckling period (from birth to weaning at about day 100) is very slow particularly for lambs born in the autumn (Dabiri, 1999). Poor quality and limited quantity of feed for lactating ewes was shown to limit milk production, which was the main reason for slow lamb growth (Dabiri and Mosavi 2000). On the other hand, in conventional Iranian sheep production systems, a limited quantity of low quality supplemental feed (creep feed) is offered to the suckling lambs. I hypothesised that offering a higher quality supplemental creep feed ad-libitum would improve the growth rate of lambs. This would increase the number of weaned lambs for sale at earlier ages for the good market during Eid of Nooroz, the big national celebration in Iran. The growth of lambs may be affected by different sources of protein in the creep feed. Therefore, the aims of this experiment were to 1) compare the growth of lambs fed experimental supplements with the growth of lambs fed conventionally, and 2) compare the effect of diets containing different sources of supplemental protein on lamb growth.

In our previous study with kids (Marinova et al., 2001) it was shown that a sunflower oil supplemented diet changed deposition and distribution of body lipids. In this study, however, we are particularly interested on the effect of sunflower oil supplemented diet on the fatty acid composition of liver lipids of kids, due to the important role of liver in nutrient uptake and regulation of lipid metabolism.

During the recent years, considerable interest has been shown in the use of probiotics to improve health and productivity in livestock animals and the use of yeast cultures in ruminant diets has received notable attention (Newbold et al 1996). Results from various experiments indicate that these microorganisms are able to alter microbial digestion in the rumen and may have positive effects on the performance of animals (Wolht, et al. 1998). Although numerous studies investigated the use of yeast culture in cattle (either dairy or beef and also calves) little work has been done on the production response from the use of this feed additive in finishing lambs. Therefore, the aim of this experiment was to investigate the effects of Biosaf, a live yeast strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae (Sc 47), on the performance of finishing Shal lambs.

Circulating concentrations of the adipocyte hormone, leptin, are associated with body fat levels in most species so far studied, including ruminants and non-ruminants. However, fat is deposited at different rates in the various adipose depots eg. subcutaneous, visceral and muscular due, in part, to different activities of the main lipogenic enzymes in each depot (Eguinoa et al., 2003). While the potential for leptin expression (via leptin m-RNA levels measured by PCR techniques) has been shown to differ between adipose tissues, and other tissues also, there is little data to show that circulating leptin concentrations are more, or less, strongly associated with the accumulation of fat in different adipose depots. The current study used growing lambs, fed to gain at different rates and to accumulate different quantities of fat, to investigate the relative strength of these relationships.

Long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) are essential components of cellular membranes and are associated with prostaglandin synthesis. Supplementing ewes with long-chain PUFAs during gestation has been demonstrated to increase gestation length and improve lamb vigour (Capper et al., 2002). Furthermore, increasing the dietary vitamin E supplied to pregnant ewes is reported to increase lamb growth rate (Gentry et al., 1992). However, fish oil supplementation during lactation may reduce milk component yield and lamb growth rate (Capper et al., 2002). The objective of this experiment was to investigate the effects of dietary long-chain PUFA and vitamin E supplementation of pregnant ewes on lamb performance.

Nutrient requirements of the pregnant ewe increase with stage of pregnancy and with expected litter size. Foetal growth takes place principally during the final 6 weeks of gestation. As uterine volume increases with growing foetal size, rumen volume is decreased due to a lack of abdominal space. This can cause a reduction in dry matter intake in late pregnancy as lambing approaches. Even the introduction of supplementary concentrates in late pregnancy cannot always provide sufficient nutrients to the multi-foetal ewe, resulting in mobilisation of maternal body energy reserves to maintain foetal growth. The provision of a high energy feed supplement, available on a self-help basis, allows ewes the opportunity to “top up” their nutrient intakes. This study examined the effect of feeding Extra High Energy CRYSTALYX® (feed lick), containing sugars, oil, protein and minerals, on an ad libitum self-help basis on the performance of housed ewes fed silage and concentrates in late pregnancy and post lambing. This paper reports the final part of a full gestation and post-lambing study, the first stage of which was reported by Chaudhry et al. (2003).

Previous work has shown that supplementing grazing ewes with soyabean meal increased total intake but did not influence dietary selection or herbage intake when sward heights (SH) were 4-6 cm (Hyslop et al, 2003). This study’s main objective was to investigate body condition score (CS) as a possible factor influencing voluntary herbage intake and diet selection in 30 lactating Scottish-Blackface (SBF) ewes grazing different plots of mixed perennial ryegrass (PRG) and white clover (WC) swards.

There is a world wide attempt to reduce antibiotic use in animal production because increased microbial resistance to antibiotic and residues in animal products can be harmfull to consumers.It is speculated that the benefit derived from probiotics is a result of the organisms growing and contributing some benefical function in the intestinal tract(Fuller, 1997).The objective of the present study was to determine the effect of the probiotic on performance and serum parameters of broiler chikens.

One of the most common reason of poultry deaths, their growth inhibition and decrease of body weight in first weeks of chicken life is the vitamin A deficit (Ziele, 1998). The aim of this work were studies, which can help to state the optimum vitamin A concentration for fast growing broilers and to show how vitamin A influences the chicken growth and physic-chemical traits of their meat.

One of the major problems of poultry production is high cost of feeds. The supplementation of broiler diets with fats and oils is the most practical method for increasing the energy density, stimulating growth and utilisation of energy, improving the consistency and palatability of mash (Peebles et al. 1999). The type of fat inclusion in broiler diets has been shown to influence on carcass fat quality, because dietary fatty acid are incorporated with little change into body fat (Sklan and Ayal, 1989, Scaife et al 1994). Inclusion of fat in the diet may be influenced by the interaction between different added fats sources in the basal diets. This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of various sources of dietary supplemented fat on performance and abdominal fat of two-broiler strain.

There has been constant efforts to increase animal protein intake in Nigeria. The need to provide protein at a low cost to consumers has stimulated continued search for new additives, which will increase the efficiency and growth rate and therefore level of production of poultry birds. This has led to the present use of growth promoters (variously called growth permitters, growth enhancers, biostimulators). Growth promoters are antimicrobials, synthetic agents or mixtures of these. These substances directly or indirectly enhance digestion and hence anabolism. They remove pathological conditions, inhibit the action of organisms causing damages to the intestinal tissues (Robin and Batty, 1986) and therefore cause growth promotion. This study reports the use of a commercial growth promoter recently introduced into the poultry market in Nigeria, on the performance of broilers

Processed agro-idustrial by-products are gradually becoming important as supplemental energy sources for poultry feeding in Nigeria. Agro by-products such as wheat bran (WB) and brewer’s dried grain (BDG), on treatment with polysaccharidase enzymes have their nutritional status improved (Oldale, 1996) hence they can be used as alternative energy sources for poultry. The objective of this study was to asses the performance of broilers maintained on WB- and BDG-based diets supplemented with Roxazyme G enzyme.

Cereal grains provide the bulk of energy in practical diets for broiler production. In the world wide wheat appropriate the second place for itself ‘after maize’ among the other grains in poultry industry application. Triticale is a hybrid of wheat and rye and its nutritive value vary between it’s parents. It is established that the main antinutritional factor of these grains is soluble arabinoxylane that can inhibits digestion and absorption of nutrients in digestive tract and decrease the performance of broiler chickens (Bedford and Schulze, 1998). Soluble indigestible polysaccharides may also affect the water consumption in broilers (Van der Klis et al., 1993). Nowadays above mentioned problems are solved by supplementation of specific feed enzymes to the diets. Therefore the objective of this trial was to study the effect of wheat and triticale based diets on broiler performance and water consumption with and without enzyme supplementation.

Fat digestibility in broilers depends not only on fat type but also on the particular cereal grain that is used. There are considerable evidences showing antinutritive effect of NSP in cereals have a pronounced negative effect on digestibility of fat in young birds. An increase in intestinal viscosity depresses fat digestibility more in animal fat-based diets. Reduction in viscosity due to enzyme addition in such diets should exert a more pronounced effect (Danicke, 1999a). Significant interaction effect between dietary fat type and carbohydrase addition was also reported (Danicke, 1999b). The objective of the present study was to examine the effects of dietary levels of tallow and NSP degrading enzyme supplements on broiler chickens.