Effects of vermicompost produced from cow manure on the growth, yield and nutrition contents of cucumber (Cucumis sativus)

An experiment was conducted to determine the effects of vermicompost on the growth, yield and nutrient contents of cucumber grown under the glasshouse conditions. This experiment was performed in completely randomized design with five replications. The base medium (control) was selected to be a mixture of 75% farm soil with 25% sand that had been substituted with 0, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60% by volume of cow manure vermicompost. The highest leaf area, stem numbers, stem and root dry weight, fruit yield, and chlorophyll content were resulted from substitution of base medium with10 and 20% vermicompost that were significantly different from control (P≤0.05). Further, increase in the vermicompost content of the base medium, reduced the stem height, leaf area, stem dry weight, root dry weight, and chlorophyll content. Plant yield was the lowest in the 50% and 60% vermicompost medium. Shoot macro and micro-nutrient content such as nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, iron, zinc, manganese, and copper increased significantly in response to the increase in vermicompost ratio from 0 to 60%, therefore, the lowest and the highest of these nutrient contents were observed in the control and 60% vermicompost, respectively, and even in some cases, nutrients content reached the toxic levels

Correlation between serum lipoproteins and abdominal fat pad in broiler chickens

In this experiment, four hundred day-old broiler chicks were assigned randomly to 16 floor pens with 25 chicks each. Three diets containing 0% fish oil + 7% soybean oil, 3.5% fish oil + 3.5% soybean oil and 7% fish oil + 0% soybean oil and a free oil control diet were formulated. The birds fed fish oil diet showed a lower body weight than control group (P < 0.05). Abdominal fat percent in birds fed soybean oil and fish oil diets, were lower than control group (P < 0.05). The high density lipoprotein (HDL) concentration in birds fed fish oil diet was higher than other treatments, but the serum low density lipoprotein (LDL) decreased in birds fed fish oil diet (P < 0.05). The live weight of birds was positively correlated with glucose and LDL and negatively correlated with HDL concentrations (P < 0.01). The abdominal fat pad percent was positively correlated with triglyceride, glucose, LDL and very low density lipoprotein (VLDL) and a negative correlation was observed with HDL concentrations (P < 0.01). Triglyceride, cholesterol and VLDL concentrations were positively correlated with each other and a negative correlation was observed between high-density lipoprotein and low-density lipoprotein (P < 0.01). The results of the present study showed that higher fish oil inclusion in broiler diets can result in some unfavorable reduction in live weight and a beneficial influence on abdominal fat reduction.Keywords: Broiler chickens, fish oil, high-density lipoprotein, low-density lipoproteinbr>African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 9(35), pp. 5779-5783, 30 August, 201