The fat and protein content of the sheep milk under different conditions

In Hungary the Hungarian Combing Merino has been and still is the most common sheep breed. In order to increase the milk production traits, especially the milk components, several crossings were made. In an experiment lasting three years the fat, protein and dry matter contents of the milk produced by ewes belonging to different genotypes: Merino, (Merino x East-Friesian) F1, (Merino x Langhe) F1, (Merino x Sarda) F1, (Merino x Pleven) F1 and (Merino x Awassi) F1 were studied. The test milkings of the ewes were carried out fortnightly, twice a day. From the study the following conclusions could be drawn: (i) the East-Friesian F1 ewes produced the largest amount of fat, protein and dry matter in their milk; followed by Langhe F1, Sarda F1, Pleven F1, Awassi F1 and Merinos in the ranking; (ii) the improvement in conditions gave an increased yield of the studied traits; and (iii) the pre-selection of Merinos on the basis of milk production should be made prior to the start of crossbreeding considering to increase the milk production traits

Roles of Dietary Cobalt and Administration of Mixed Rumen Bacteria in Regulating Hematological Parameters of Pre-weaning Twin Lambs

Cobalt (Co) is required by rumen microorganism for vitamin B12 synthesis. Vitamin B12 is an important cofactor for methionine synthesis and gluconeogenesis. In young ruminants up to 6–8 wk old, the rumen has not been completely developed and rumen microorganisms are not ready to supply vitamin B12. The aim of this research was to determine the potency of mixed rumen bacteria and dietary supplementation of Co and its effect on plasma glucose, blood minerals (Co, Fe, and Zn) concentrations, and hematology of pre-weaning twin lambs. Twelve one month-old local twin lambs were assigned to 4 groups in a randomized complete block design. Lambs were fed cow milk at 10% body weight, adjusted weekly for 80 d. Mixed rumen bacteria were offered at 15 mL/d (8.295x1010 cfu). Dietary treatments were: 1) basal diet (Control), 2) basal diet + 1 mg/kg DM cyanocobalamin (VitB12) and 3) basal diet + 1 mg/kg DM of Co + administration of 15 mL mixed rumen bacteria (CoBac). There were no treatment effects on neither plasma glucose and blood mineral concentrations nor hematological profiles. This study demonstrated that pre-weaning twin lambs are not responsive to supplementation of Co and administration of mixed rumen bacteria

Prediction of the relationship between body weight and body condition score in sheep

During the whole production cycle it is important to monitor the energy balance and to quantify body reserve changes of the ewes. This can be done, both in experimental settings and in the field, by estimating the body condition score (BCS) of the ewes and its variations. However, if this tool is used to balance the diets it is necessary to know the relationship between BCS and body weight (BW), which varies depending on the mature size of the breed and of the population considered within each breed. The relationship between BW and BCS has been studied only for some sheep breeds and populations. For this reason, this research aimed to develop a prediction model of this relationship in ewes for any breed or population

Systematic review of brucellosis in the Middle East: disease frequency in ruminants and humans and risk factors for human infection

This paper considers the problem of finding global states incoming to a specified global state in a Boolean network, which may be useful for pre-processing of finding a sequence of control actions for a Boolean network and for identifying the basin of attraction for a given attractor, We show that this problem is NP-hard in general along with related theoretical results, On the other hand, we present algorithms that are much faster than the naive exhaustive search-based algorithm. ©2007 IEEE.link_to_subscribed_fulltex

Effect of tail docking in Awassi lambs on metabolizable energy requirements and chemical composition of carcasses

The effect of tail docking on metabolizable energy requirements and carcass characteristics was studied using 80 weaned entire Awassi male lambs. Docking was performed within 3 days of birth and lambs were weaned at 90 days old. Docked and undocked lambs were randomly allocated to four groups, individually penned and offered different amounts of a pelleted concentrate diet. The pelleted diet was estimated to contain 11.8 MJ of metabolizable energy (ME) and 182 g of crude protein (CP) per kg dry matter (DM). Lambs on the high levels of intake were slaughtered at a target weight of approximately 45 kg. Other lambs were maintained on the diet for 149 days before being slaughtered. The right sides of all carcasses were cut into standardized commercial cuts then dissected into muscle, fat and bone. The soft tissue was pooled and analysed for DM, CP, ash and fat. Prediction of live-weight gain (LWG) and empty body gain for a given ME intake (MEI) was made using the growth and MEI data. MEI was expressed as MJ per kg metabolic body weight (M 0.75) per day. Tail docking had no effect (P> 0.05) on lamb growth from birth to weaning. During the post-weaning growth period, LWG and empty body gain were significantly higher (P 0.05) at high levels of intakes (between 0.74 and 1.1 MJ/kg M 0.75 per day). Hot and cold carcass weights were similar (P > 0.05) for the two groups. Differences in empty body weight and fleece-free empty body weight were significant (P 0.05) on food conversion efficiency (FCE). Carcasses from docked lambs had significantly lower (P 0.05) ash content

Sheep and goat organic meat production in the mediterranean region

All animal livestock of the South Mediterranean Countries suffer from climatic condition of mild region characterised by moist winter and hot dry summer. Crop resources in the majority of the countries cannot cover the animal need, so farmer has two solutions feeding his flock under than necessary with effects on yield of production or adding in the animal ration a concentrate with high energy value but this is costly. Also the majority of small ruminants breeds in Mediterranean countries are local breeds which are well adapted to the local conditions but with low level of production . For this reasons organic animal production appears the most suited solution to solve these problems because organic agriculture with its specific techniques uses less quantities of inputs (minimum of concentrated aliments) and valorises pasture resources with good management of grazing. As to organic production it is preferable to have local animal breed, the most important criterion is the quality of the product and not the quantity. Consumers start now to give more importance to quality of meat consumed because of the problems of BSE , toxins and brucellosis. They aim at healthy products with traceability and without any use of OGM crops or animal powder in animal ration. This condition can be easily realised with organic techniques. Many Mediterranean countries like Tunisia start to make policies supporting the organic agriculture sector and write their own regulation based on IFOAM Basic Guidelines and EU-Regulation. In Tunisia legislation for organic animal production is in preparation now and must be effective before the end of 2001 but the analysis of draft standards shows that there is a copy of UE-Regulation 2092/91 for animal production. This legislation may present some problems in terms of application because of the wide differences between European conditions and Tunisian conditions, for instance techniques of flock conduct are different because of the climatic conditions, traditional farm habits and nature of animal breed. Other problems for Mediterranean countries concern the lack of local markets for organic meat, so all the production is for exportation towards European market and here it seems impossible to export living animal because of European restriction in terms of processing. In the case of Tunisia there is no slaughterhouse which respond to international standards that’s why nowadays southern Mediterranean countries cannot export their meat (organic or conventional) towards developed countries. The only solution is to develop local market and to have at international level slaughterhouses , means of storage and meat processing