Study of meat quality of goats fed rice straw supplemented with Moringa (Moringa oleifera Lam.) foliage

The study was conducted to investigate the effects of dietary levels of Moringa foliage on the fatty acid profiles and antioxidant activity in the muscles of Black Bengal goats. Thirty buckling of 6 to 8 months of age with an average initial live weight (LW) of 8.07 (±0.87) kg were allocated into five different diets having six in each group for 105 days. Keeping molasses treated rice straw ad libitum as sole diet, 70% of dietary dry matter (DM) requirement was supplied with a conventional concentrate which was replaced with Moringa foliage in treatment diets at 25, 50, 75 and 100%, respectively. Consequently, Moringa foliage intake represented 17.8, 35.6, 52.9 and 67.2% of total diet or 0.85, 1.7, 2.5 and 3.4% of LW in treatment diets keeping the daily gain and dietary intake unchanged (P>0.05). The dietary DM intake and LW gain was 4.6 to 4.8% of average LW and 67.3 to 79.3 g/d. The ratio of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) n-6 to n-3 was significantly (P<0.01) reduced in diet containing 67.2% Moringa foliage, from 4.2 to 2.4% and 3.8 to 2.6% in Longissimus dorsi (LD) and Semitendinosus (ST) muscles of goats, respectively. The saturated fatty acid was reduced from 47.7 to 39.8% and 45.8 to 39.3%, respectively in both muscles. The lipid oxidation was reduced linearly (y=-0.1x+0.698, r 2 =85 for LD; y=-0.073x+0.675, r 2 =95 for ST) with increasing supplementation of Moringa foliage. It was concluded that supplementation of Moringa foliage up to 67.2% of diet will produce meat with high PUFA

Partial or total replacement of soybean meal with Iranian cottonseed meat in diets for rainbow trout (Oncorhychus mykiss.)

Apparent digestibility coefficients (ADC) were calculated in experiment 1 by using chromic oxide in the diet as an indigestible marker to evaluate the Iranian Cottonseed meal (CSMP). Experiment 2 was carried out to investigate the nutritional value of cottonseed meal (CSM) as soybean meal (SBM) substitute in quality low cost rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) ration. In this study, six formulated feeds consisting different levels of CSMP (0, 20, 40, 60, 80, 100%) substitution of SBM were fed to a total of 540 rainbow trout with initial mean body weight of 50±5 g. Fish were randomly stocked into eighteen 100 L. fiberglass tanks with 30 fish per tank and 3 tanks per diet and fed to apparent satiation 3 times a day and 7 days per week for 60 days. The ADC of CSMP and SBM were measured as of dry matter, 62.7 and 69.2%; crude protein, 82.4 and 87.3%; fat, 66.6 and 78.5%, respectively. After an 8 week feeding trial, the average weight gain of fish fed with diets 1 to 6 was: 100.6, 102, 102.9, 103.3, 103.9, and 103.4 g, respectively. Average feed conversion ratio (FCR) of fish fed diets 1 to 6 was measured as of 1.280, 1.317, 1.310, 1.273, 1.290, and 1.253, respectively. For all six treatments, the survival percentage was more than 99%. ADC value for most nutrients of CSMP was different from those of SBM. Weight gain and survival rate were not significantly different (P>0.05) for fish fed with CSMP diets compared to the control diet but the differences of FCR, specific growth ratio (SGR), and daily weight gain (DWG) were significant among different diets (P<0.05). In the feasibility study, complete replacement of SBM by CSMP revealed to be economic and based on the gossypol analysis, total gossypol levels was not observed for toxicity on liver of fish fed by CSMP, indicating the possibility of total replacement of SBM by CSMP in rainbow trout fed formulations

Forage yield and quality of kenaf (Hibiscus cannabinus L.) for consumption as ruminant feed

This study was carried out to evaluate 40 kenaf accessions for forage yield and quality at Universiti Putra Malaysia in 2009. Forage yield and quality traits were measured at the initial flowering stage. The kenaf accessions showed highly significant variation for most of trait studied. Plant dry matter yield ranged from 5286 kg ha-1 (Everglade 41) to 16801 kg ha-1 (IX51). Crude protein content of the leaf ranged from 13.6% (G46) to 22.3% (75-71) and it was higher than stem which is ranged from 2.7 % (FDW-75-8) to 7.5 % (K465/117). Leaf ADF were significantly different among the accessions, where FDW 75-82 gave the highest (24.7%) while C74 gave the lowest (16%). Broad-sense heritability was highest for days to flowering (hB2= 97.6%) and lowest for CP of stem (h2= 11.2 %). In conclusion IX51, Cuba2032 (with high yield), 75-71 and Everglade 41 (with high CP content), were the most superior among the 40 kenaf accessions evaluated and were found highly potential for forage. These accessions can therefore be utilized in further breeding programs to produce new kenaf varieties with high feed value for ruminant consumption

Generation mean analysis for forage yield and quality in Kenaf

Several techniques have been used for estimation of peak outflow from breach when dam failure occurs. This study proposes using a generalized regression artificial neural network (GRNN) model as a new technique for peak outflow from the dam breach estimation and compare the results of GRNN with the results of the existing methods. Six models have been built using different dam and reservoir characteristics, including depth, volume of water in the reservoir at the time of failure, the dam height and the storage capacity of the reservoir. To get the best results from GRNN model, optimized for smoothing control factor values has been done and found to be ranged from 0.03 to 0.10. Also, different scenarios for dividing data were considered for model training and testing. The recommended scenario used 90% and 10% of the total data for training and testing, respectively, and this scenario shows good performance for peak outflow prediction compared to other studied scenarios. GRNN models were assessed using three statistical indices: Mean Relative Error (MRE), Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) and Nash – Sutcliffe Efficiency (NSE). The results indicate that MRE could be reduced by using GRNN models from 20% to more than 85% compared with the existing empirical methods

Effects of feeding fermented sago pith meal on the growth performance of broiler chickens

Rhizopus sp. was used to improve the nutritive value of sago pith meal by solid state fermentation (SSF). The optimized conditions for SSF were moisture 50ml/50 g substrate, pH 6.0, 30°C and 1% ammonium sulphate for 44h incubation. The crude protein increased but the crude fibre decreased slightly. Feeding broiler chickens with diet containing fermented SPM (Diet C) increased the average weight gain to 1.33±0.143 kg but group fed on diet containing untreated SPM (Diet B) had lower weight gain 1.27±0.162 kg. The FCR of Diet C group was higher than FCR of Diet A group; 2.15±0.243 and 1.99±0.316, respectively. The organs to live weight ratios of liver, bursa, heart, spleen and gizzard were not significantly different and the hepatic histopathology did not show any abnormalities. Fungal fermentation enhanced the nutritive value of SPM and broilers fed diet containing 25% of fermented SPM during the grower-finisher period showed better feed efficiency when compared to broilers fed untreated SPM

Grass-legume mixtures for enhanced forage production: analysis of dry matter yield and competition indices

A six months field trial was conducted at the University Putra, Malaysia to evaluate dry matter yield and nature of competition between Panicum maximum (guinea grass) and each of the following legumes; Stylosanthes guianensis (stylo), Macroptillium bracteatum (burgundy bean), Arachis pintoi, and Centrosema pubescens (centro) in accordance with DeWit (1960) replacement principle. There were 20 treatments in all consisting of monocultures of grass, legume and grass-legume mixtures in the ratios 4:0, 3:1, 2:2, 1:3 and 0:4. The competition indices employed were relative yield total (RYT), relative crowding coefficient (RCC) or (k) and aggresivity index (AI). Guinea-stylo, guinea-Arachis and guineaburgundy mixtures, irrespective of ratio combination, showed lower total dry matter yields than their respective grass monocultures. Guinea-centro (2:2) and guinea-centro (3:1), on the other hand, gave higher total dry matter yields (14.52 and 13.82 tons/ha), respectively than their grass monocultures. No significant differences were observed among mixtures; however, monocultures of legumes produced significantly lower yields (p < 0.05) than those of grass and mixtures. All mixtures recorded mean RYT values of greater than one (1). Guinea-stylo (GS 2:2) and guinea centro (GC 2:2) had the highest RYT values of 1.41 and 1.40 respectively. Mean k values of grasses in mixtures were higher than those of legumes except in guinea-stylo (GS 1:3) and guinea- Arachis (GA 1:3). Mean aggressivity index suggests that legumes were generally more aggressive at 1:3 grass-legume mixture combination, while grass gained the upper hand at 2:2 and 3:1 grass-legume proportion. Guinea-centro (GC 2:2) was recommended as the most compatible combination