Sheep breeding has an important role in animal production in Turkey. The diversity of animal genetic resources of Turkey have not been fully appraised and some indigenous farm animal breeds are in danger of disappearing even before being scientifically defined. An equilibrium is needed between the genetic improvement studies and the conservation of the genetic resources Ozcan et al (1994). The greatest part of the wool produced by the indigenous sheep breeds in Turkey is of coarse and mixed type of wool and most of it is used in the hand woven authentic carpet production Kizilay (1986). This paper reports body weights and wool production characteristics of the indigenous Red Karaman and Karayaka sheep breeds.

The Moghani is the main fat-tailed type of sheep in north-west of Iran and north-east of Turkey, where it is raised for meat, milk and carpet wool. In sheep, a wide range in litter size has been observed among different breeds and within breeds. Several genes have been recently identified that affect female fecundity in domesticated sheep such as BMP15 gene which encodes bone morphogenic protein 15 (Davis 2005 and Hanrahan et al,. 2004) and is a member of the transforming growth factor b (TGFb) super family (Galloway et al, 2000). The identification of the BMP15 mutation is important for the sheep industry and those involved in the study of mammalian fertility. In this study we investigated mutation of BMP15 gene in Moghani sheep in Iran.

In Iran various varieties of sorghum (Sorghum vulgare) are planted mainly for broom production but also for use in animal nutrition. There appears to be no documented research about nutritive value of microwave processed sorghum grain. With microwave irradiation, heat is generated throughout the material, leading to faster heating rates and shorter processing times compared to conventional heating, where heat is usually transferred from the surface to the interior (Fakhouri and Ramaswamy, 1993). In the in vitro gas production method for predicting nutritive value, the kinetics of fermentation can be studied on a single sample and therefore a relatively small amount of sample is required or a larger number of samples can be evaluated at any one time. Gas production measurement provides useful data on digestion kinetics of both soluble and insoluble fractions of feedstuffs (Getachew et al., 1998). The purpose of this study was to evaluate effects of microwave irradiation on nutritive value of broom sorghum grain using the in vitro gas production technique.

Cellulolytic bacteria, such as Ruminococcus albus, R. flavefaciens and Fibrobacter succinogenes are major micro-organisms responsible for ruminal digestion of plant cell walls ingested by the animal due to their numerical predominance and metabolic diversity (Cheng et al., 1991). It has been proposed that sodium hydroxide might breakdown hemicelluloses, expose the cellulose to microbial attachment and improve digestibility (Chen et al., 2006). The objective of this experiment was to estimate the disappearance of dry matter (DM) and neutral detergent fibre (NDF) of sunflower meal (25 g fat/kg DM; SM) as untreated or treated with formaldehyde (3 g/kg DM) or sodium hydroxide (40 g/kg DM) using in vitro culture with isolated mixed rumen bacteria.

Whole soybean is used as a high energy-protein supplement for dairy cows, but contains various antinutritional factors and the protein is highly degradable by rumen microbes. Roasting and extrusion are very popular ways of feeding soybeans to dairy cows but these processing methods may adversely affect the protein digestibility and lysine availability of the final product in the small intestine. Gamma irradiation has been recognized as a reliable and safe method for improving the nutritional value and inactivation or removal of certain antinutritional factors in foods and feeds (Siddhuraju et al., 2002). As far as we know, information about the effects of γ-irradiation on ruminal crude protein (CP) degradation of full-fat soybean in the literature is scarce. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of gamma irradiation (γ-irradiation) on nutritional value and antinutritional factors of soybean (SB) for ruminants.

Canola (Brassica napus L.) recently has received consideration as a forage source for livestock (Lancaster et al., 1990). Canola is reasonably widely adapted and performs well in semiarid countries such as Iran. In addition to its low water requirements and high growth rate, its cultivation season is well matched with environmental condition in Iran. Canola could not reach to stage of blossom in some climates such as cold climate, so farmers could mow and making silage for animal nutrition. Application of silage additives is the most important factor in improving silage quality (Muck, 1993). The main objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of some additives on fermentation parameters, in vitro and in situ dry matter digestibility of experimental whole canola silage.

Yeast culture (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) has been widely used as a dietary supplement in ruminants. Saccharomyces cerevisiae supplementation in ruminant diets can increase dry matter intake, production performance, cellulose degradation, and nutrient digestibility (Callaway and Martin, 1997). In vitro techniques are routinely used to evaluate the nutritional quality of feeds because of their convenience, adaptability and efficiency. The in vitro gas production technique is an accurate and fast method to evaluate the nutritive value of feeds and it can be a good alternative method instead of in vivo trials to evaluate commercial feed additives. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of different levels of inclusion of Saccharomyces cerevisiae on the nutritive value of lucerne hay using the in vitro gas production technique.

Probiotics present an attractive alternative to the use of chemical and hormonal promoters in the livestock growth production industry. Preparations that contain micro-organisms have been safely used for many years and are generally accepted by both the farmer and the final consumer. Saccharomyces cerevisiae supplementation in ruminant diets can increase DMI, production performance, cellulose degradation, and nutrient digestibility (Callaway and Martin, 1997). The gas measuring technique has been widely used for the evaluation of nutritive value of feeds. Gas measurement provides useful data on digestion kinetics of both soluble and insoluble fractions of feedstuffs (Getachew et al., 1998). In the gas method, kinetics of fermentation can be studied on a single sample and therefore a relatively small amount of sample is required or a larger number of samples can be evaluated at time. The purpose of this study was to study effect of adding different levels of Saccharomyces cerevisiae on in vitro gas production from a dried grape by-product.

It is generally believed that heavy metals react with proteins by combining the thiol (-SH) groups, which leads to the inactivation of the proteins (Cho et al., 2005). Silver nano-particles (Ag-NPs) are being used vastly as a strong anti-germ product. In general, Ag ions, which have antimicrobial activity, are used as an antibacterial agent. The antibacterial activity of Ag ions is inhibits intracellular enzyme activity (Cho et al., 2005). Therefore, the other possibility can be considered that remaining Ag ions in Ag-NPs solution or dissolved Ag ions might affect bacterial growth. Recently, dairy farmers have tended to apply this anti-bacterial for sanitization of the environment (as a disinfectant material) of animals. However, the environmental residual effect of this anti-bacterial on ruminant microbial activity is still questionable. In the present study, a gas production technique was applied in order to determine the effect of silver nano-particles on in vitro gas production of barley grain and lucerne hay.

Microbial inoculants are applied to forage at the time of ensiling to accelerate the decline of pH during the initial stage of silage fermentation, to preserve plant carbohydrates through homofermentation, and to preserve plant protein by decreasing proteolysis and deamination. Thus, inoculated silages are expected to improve animal performance. Whole crop barley has a low buffering capacity and abundant fermentable carbohydrates and is considered relatively easy to ensile. Results of previous experiments indicated that lactic acid bacteria-based inoculants have the potential to improve the ensilage of whole crop barley (Kung and Ranjit, 2001). The objective of the present study was to determine the chemical composition and in situ dry matter degradability of whole crop barley silage treated with one of two different types of inoculants (Lactobacillus plantarum or mixed with Pediococcus pentosaceus plus propionbacter freudenreichii as provide 1×105 CFU of lactic acid producing bacteria plus 1×104 CFU propionbacterium per g of DM).

Anaerobic digestion of carbohydrates by ruminal microbes produces short chain fatty acids (SCFA), CO2, CH4, and traces of H2; hence, measurement of gas production in vitro can be used to study the rate and extent of digestion of feedstuffs (Hungate, 1966). When a feedstuff is incubated with buffered rumen fluid in vitro, the carbohydrates are fermented to SCFA, gases mainly CO2 and CH4 and microbial cells. Gas production is basically the result of fermentation of carbohydrates to acetate, propionate and butyrate (Wolin, 1960; Beuvink and Spoelstra, 1992; Blummel and Ørskov, 1993). High correlations between gas production and NDF disappearance, r2 = 0.99 (Pell and Schofield, 1993) or gas production and DM disappearance, r2 = 0.95 (Prasad et al., 1994) have been reported. In vitro techniques that estimate digestion kinetics indirectly by measuring gas production are a more viable option than other in vitro methods. Gas production technology allows for a more usable collection of digestion kinetics data and has allowed for a growing body of knowledge that is directly applicable to the feeding programs that are in daily practical field use. The range of data that can be acquired is broad and will no doubt grow over time. One of the most challenging problems associated with using gas production methods is that the amount of gas produced varies with different molar proportions of SCFA. For example, a higher propionate concentration is associated with lower gas production because an extra carbon atom in propionate would otherwise have appeared as CO2 (Wolin, 1960). The object of this study was to evaluate the nutritional quality of noodle waste (NW), tomato pomace (TP) and apple pomace (AP) using the gas production technique.

The mulberry belongs to the genus Morus of the family Moraceae. Mulberry is found from temperate to subtropical regions and they can grow in a wide range of climatic, topographical and soil conditions. In most countries, including Turkey, Greece and Iran, mulberries are grown for fruit production rather than foliage (Ercisli, 2004; Mulberry fruits can be used as a worming agent, as a remedy for dysentery, and as a laxative, odontalgic, anathematic, expectorant, hypoglycaemic and emetic (Baytop, 1996). Phonemics possess a wide spectrum of biochemical activities such as antioxidant, ant mutagenic and anticarcinogenic properties, as well as the ability to modify gene expression (Nakamura, et al., 2003; Mulberry fruit contains essential fatty acids that humans cannot synthesise, and must be obtained through diet. One of the most important points about mulberry fruits is its sensitive to environmental condition in harvesting time and the methods of harvesting that is not suitable. Because of this mentioned problem, mulberry fruits have a lot of waste. In animal feed industry, agricultural by-products were used in animal and poultry nutrition. One of the greatest challenges to a nutritionist is to formulate diets that adequately meet the nutrient requirements of the animal without having to provide excessive quantities of the expensive nutrients. In order to formulate the diets economically, it is essential that nutrient content of candidate ingredients analyzed as detail as possible. There was no information about mulberry fruits wastes nutritive value.

The gas production technique was developed to determine the fermentation kinetics of organic matter in rumen fluid. However, the gas production technique can be adapted for the determination of protein fermentation characteristics. To do that the buffer must be N-free. All the N coming with the rumen fluid must be incorporated into microbial mass. This can be done by supplying the buffered rumen fluid with an excess of fast fermentable carbohydrates. To prevent a too high input of N from the rumen fluid the rumen fluid can be diluted further compared to the standard 3 times (Cone et al., 1996). This makes N the limiting factor for fermentation and the obtained gas production profiles reflect the availability of N from the feed samples. The aim of the present study was to investigate if the adapted gas production technique is suitable to determine differences in protein availability in rumen fluid. The fermentation characteristics of N of 19 feed samples were determined using the adapted gas production technique. The amount of sample incubated, was that sufficient to provide 15 mg N. The results were compared with data of N degradation obtained with the nylon bag technique.

In developing countries, low quality forages (LQF), like cereal straws are the main basal feed for ruminants. But these forages are low in nutrient contents and so the ruminants cannot utilize these forages effectively which results in poor ruminant health and production. So it is needed to improve the quality of these forages. Conversely, rumen fermentation of these forages may result in considerable energy and protein losses as methane and ammonia N which cause pollution to the environment. So it is needed to find out additives that can also be used as supplements to reduce nutrient loss as methane and nitrogen. It would be desirable if these supplements or additives improve the efficiency of nutrient use in the rumen as well. Herbs and spices can be used as alternative sources. Researchers have been using plant extracts to manipulate rumen fermentation. But processing extracts from plant products will be costly and will require expensive instruments. Khan and Chaudhry (2008) have reported the potential in using spices to modify degradability and fermentation of different forages. However, it may be helpful to observe the degradability and fermentation profiles of these spices alone before their use as additives to improve forage degradability perhaps by stimulating the fibrolytic and or inhibiting the undesirable microbes. Therefore, this study compared the in vitro dry matter degradability (IVD) and rumen ammonia level (AL) and pH of different concentrations of selected spices at different times.

The amount of by-product feedstuffs generally increases as the human population increases and economies grow. Large quantities of by-products are used in the ruminant’s diet in agro-industrial areas. (Gasa, et al. 1989). However, little is known about their fermentation pattern in the rumen and a better understanding of their digestion and products of fermentation is necessary in order to properly balance their introduction into the diets and the knowledge about their potential feeding value is insufficient.

There is increasing demand for efficient use of animal food by products due to economic and environmental concerns. Agricultural by products such as tomato pomace, citrus pulp and grape pomace (GP) may be substituted advantageously to tackle animal feed shortage. Alipour and Rouzbehan (2006) demonstrated that GP tannins have adverse effects on nutrient utilization and other nutritional parameters in ruminants. Ensiling (Makkar, 2003) and drying (Martin-Garcia and Molina-Alcaide, 2007) can be used as a method of decreasing and inactivation of tannins. The aim of this study was to determine the effects of ensiling and drying on chemical composition, tannin content and improving nutritive value of GP.

Conventional pest management (the use of synthetic pesticides) is being increasingly hampered by issues of pest resistance, tighter legislation and greater consumer demand for food stuffs produced in an environmentally friendly manner. A growing body of research suggests that essential oils may be of use as an alternative to synthetic products in managing the poultry red mite (Dermanyssus gallinae), a serious pest of egg production systems for laying hens (Kim et al., 2004). It is necessary to ensure that any essential oil recommended as an acaricide against this pest does not taint the eggs produced from hens in poultry units in which the oil would be deployed. The aim of the current study was to test the hypotheses that thyme and pennyroyal essential oils, having been found to be effective as acaricides for D. gallinae in preceding work, would have no effect on the occurrence of taint in hens’ eggs.

Marek’s disease (MD), caused by a herpes virus, is a very infectious, lymphoproliferative and chronic disease of poultry. Breeding for improved MD resistance poultry stock is possible since MD resistance has been associated with MHC haplotypes, QTL and candidate genes. However, integration of host genetics vis-à-vis other control strategies and the utilisation of genes or gene markers for MD in practical breeding programmes is still a challenge. The objective of the present study was to develop a basic genetic-epidemiological model for Marek’s disease infection in poultry, identify parameter spaces that describe the disease dynamics correctly and investigate the impacts of possible genetic and vaccination control strategies on overall disease dynamics.

The few days before and after hatch is a critical period for the development and survival of commercial broilers. Glycogen reserves in the chick embryo are significantly depleted during the perihatch period in order to meet the high energy demands during the process of emergence (Uni and Ferket, 2004). The immediate posthatch period is characterized by a transition from the use of lipid-rich yolk as the nutrient source to exogenous feed rich in carbohydrates and proteins. This transition is accompanied by rapid physical and functional development of the gastrointestinal tract (Sklan, 2001). The accelerated rate of development posthatch is reflected in the several-fold improvement in the development of the gastrointestinal tract and organ growth which will allow for a more efficient uptake of nutrients for muscle development. During late embryogenesis, solutions administered into the amniontic fluid (in ovo feeding) are consumed by the embryo, digested, and absorbed by the embryonic intestine prior to pipping (Uni et al., 2005). In ovo feeding of supplemental nutrients may help to overcome the constraint of limited egg nutrients (Foye et al., 2006). The objective of this experiment was to evaluate the effects of in ovo feeding of carbohydrates and threonine, alone or in combination, on growth performance of broiler chicks from 1 to 42 d of age.

Selection for increased growth rate in livestock may be accompanied by increases in requirements for energy and nutrients. It has been suggested that intensively selected broilers have altered food intake control mechanisms and could be constantly hungry, due to their high resource demands (Bokkers et al. 2004), which would be a major welfare issue. Such alterations in food intake control mechanisms as a side-effect of genetic selection would lead to changes in the feeding behaviour of birds, such as the clustering of visits into meals and the probability of birds starting a new meal in relation to the time since the last meal. The aim of this study was to test whether broilers intensively selected for growth showed any alteration in the structure of their feeding behaviour that would indicate a change in the underlying hunger and satiety control mechanisms.