Effect of addition of exogenous enzymes in hypocaloric diet in broiler chicken on performance, biochemical parameters and meat characteristics

In developing countries, broiler farmers often use imbalanced energy diets, hence our study aims to evaluate the combined effect of addition of commercial exogenous enzymes (CEE), in low energy level corn/soybean meal based-diet on performance, serum biochemical parameters, meat characteristics in male and female of broiler chickens. A total of 120 one day old Hubbard F15 broiler chickens were divided on 2 groups (60 animals/group) with 5 replicates/group. The control group received a standard diet, while CEE group received the same diet supplemented with enzymes (250 g/ton). Addition of enzymes reduced significantly feed (p<0.001) and water intakes (p<0.05); in meantime, feed conversion ratio tended to be lower (p=0.08). No changes were observed in pH, protein or moisture contents of meat in both sexes broiler between CEE and control groups. No perturbation was found in all serum biochemical parameters in both sexes between CEE and control groups, except total protein and albumin levels were significantly higher in male birds fed enzymes when compared to male birds of the control group (p<0.001; p<0.01) respectively. Addition of enzymes allowed a decrease of 950 g/bird in feed intake for the total rearing period, hence save 337 €/1000 birds; thus, use of CEE in hypocaloric diet enhances broilers feed efficiency and procures an economic benefit to farmers

Neo-deterministic seismic hazard assessment in North Africa

North Africa is one of the most earthquake- prone areas of the Mediterranean. Many devastating earthquakes, some of them tsunami-triggering, inflicted heavy loss of life and considerable economic damage to the region. In order to mitigate the destructive impact of the earthquakes, the regional seismic hazard in North Africa is assessed using the neo-deterministic, multi- scenario methodology (NDSHA) based on the compu- tation of synthetic seismograms, using the modal sum- mation technique, at a regular grid of 0.2 × 0.2°. This is the first study aimed at producing NDSHA maps of North Africa including five countries: Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt. The key input data for the NDSHA algorithm are earthquake sources, seismotectonic zonation, and structural models. In the preparation of the input data, it has been really important to go beyond the national borders and to adopt a coher- ent strategy all over the area. Thanks to the collaborative efforts of the teams involved, it has been possible to properly merge the earthquake catalogues available for each country to define with homogeneous criteria the seismogenic zones, the characteristic focal mechanism associated with each of them, and the structural models used to model wave propagation from the sources to the sites. As a result, reliable seismic hazard maps are pro- duced in terms of maximum displacement (Dmax), max- imum velocity (Vmax), and design ground acceleration