Effect of dietary levels of a modified meat meal on performance and small intestinal morphology of broiler chickens

A locally produced meat meal in Ardabil province in Iran is mixed with 150 g wheat bran, 100 g feather meal and 150 g zeolite per kg. Experimentally, this leads to an improvement in physical texture andpreservation characteristics. In this experiment, six hundred 3-week-old Cobb 500 broiler chicks of both sexes were assigned randomly to 24 floor pens with 25 chicks in each pen. Dietary modified meat mealat six inclusions levels of 0 (control diet containing 50 g/kg fish meal), 20, 35, 50, 65 or 80 g/kg, created the treatments of a completely randomized design to survey analysis the performance traits. For histological data, a completely randomized design with a 2 × 6 factorial arrangement was used. The experimental factors were bird sex at 2 levels and dietary modified meat meal at the corresponding levels noted above. The experiment was carried out at 21 to 42 days of age. Dietary modified meat meal did not affect on birds’ feed intake and body weight gain, but feed conversion ratio improved in the birds fed diet with 20 g modified meat meal/kg in comparison to the control. Compared to the control,the birds fed 20, 35 and 50 g of modified meat meal/kg diet had a significantly lower villus height, crypt depth and crypt depth to villi height ratio, increased goblet cell number and higher epithelium thicknessin duodenum. However, these values significantly altered after feeding of 65 and 80 g of modified meat meal/kg diet and showed an almost similar value to control. The same condition observed in jejunum section, with the exception of the goblet cell number that was not affected by dietary alteration. Ileal histological morphology was not influenced by dietary manipulation. The only significant effect of sex was the higher jejunal epithelial thickness in females compared with males. The results of this study demonstrate that the inclusion of modified meat meal up to 80 g/kg of broiler diets resulted in comparable small intestinal morphometric characteristics to a common commercial fish meal based diet. It seems that the processed meat meal can be used as a suitable alternative to dietary fish meal in broiler chickens diets

Effect of zinc sources on milk yield, milk composition and plasma concentration of metabolites in dairy cows

This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of different sources of zinc (Zn) on feed intake, milk yield, milk composition, and blood metabolites. Twenty-four dairy cows were randomly allocated to one of four treatments in a randomized complete block design. The treatments consisted of i) control diet (no zinc supplementation), ii) zinc oxide (ZnO), iii) zinc glycine (ZnGly), and iv) zinc nano (ZnN). The Zn sources were added to provide 60 mg of supplemental Zn per kg diet. There were no differences in dry matter intake, milk yield, bodyweight, and body condition score of the cows between treatments. Zinc supplementation in the form of ZnN and ZnGly decreased somatic cell count compared with the other treatments. The superoxide dismutase and plasma Zn concentrations in the cows provided ZnGly and ZnN were greater than those in the ZnO and control groups. No difference was detected between groups in biochemical and haematological parameters, except that blood urea nitrogen concentrations of cows supplemented with ZnGly and ZnN were less than for the ZnO supplemented and control cows. The results showed that nano and organic Zn sources in the diet of dairy cows were more suitable than inorganic Zn as supplements for dairy cows.Keywords: milk composition, milk production, metabolism, somatic cell coun

The Effect of Cinnamon Extract on Spermatogenesis and

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of a medical plant mixture and a probiotic on performance, antioxidant activity and weaning age of suckling Holstein calves. For this experiment, 30 newborn calves (0-10 days of age) with an average birth weight of 42 ± 8 kg were used in a factorial design (3×2) with 6 treatments and 5 replicates. Treatments were: 1) basal diet including a calves starter feed and whole milk, 2) control diet + 2 g probiotic 3) control diet + 1.5% of medical plant, 4) control diet + 1.5% medical plant + 2 g probiotic, 5) control diet + 3% medical plant and 6) control diet + 3% medical plant + 2 g probiotic. The calves were offered experimental pelleted feeds ad libitum and after one month were supplied with imported hay. Results showed that the treatments had no significant effect on dry matter intake during the experiment. However, addition of the 1.5% medical plant increased dry matter intake (P<0.05). However, the 1.5% level of medical plant reduced calves weaning age (P<0.05). Calves receiving control diet + 1.5% of medical plant mixed and 1.5% medical plant mixed + 2 g probiotic showed a higher plasma antioxidant activity (P<0.05). This study suggested that 1.5% of medical plant in calves starter feed will improve performance and the immune system and will also reduce the weaning age of calves. KEY WORDS antioxidant activity, calves, feed intake, medical plant, starter diet, weaning age