In vivo and in vitro availability of lysine in heat treated blood meal for young poultry and swine

Three experiments were conducted utilizing 498 Hubbard x White Mountain 8 day-old chicks, 162 in experiments 1 and 3 and 165 in experiment 2. One other experiment was conducted utilizing 42 cross bred pigs allotted by weight within litter replicate. The objectives of these experiments were to evaluate the effect of method of incorporation of the test protein, blood meal, on growth response to supplemental lysine; to determine the effect of heat treatment on lysine bioavailability from two sources, either purified spray-dried whole beef blood (BBM) or a commercially obtained vat dried beef-pork blood meal (BPBM) using the slope-ratio technique; and finally to test the validity of using the chick as a biological model for young pigs. Chicks were allotted by weight to one of 9, 11, or 9 dietary treatments in experiments 1-3. Diets contained 45% of the chicks or pigs requirement for lysine (0.43% and 0.36%, respectively), served as control diets. In experiment 1, experimental diets were supplemented with 0.10% or 0.20% lysine as L-lysine-HCl or from spray-dried whole beef blood that had undergone no further processing plus the addition of excess amino acids to simulate the amino acid pattern of the blood meal. The experimental diets in experiment 2 were supplemented at graded levels with L-lysine*HCl or at graded isonitrogenous levels with spray-dried whole beef blood that had been treated in one of four ways: (1) untreated blood meal was included in the diet with no further processing; (2) blood meal A was mixed with 5% dextrose and 40% water, then dried at 60°C for 28 hours; (3) blood meal B was mixed with 5% dextrose and 20% water, then dried at 100°C for 14 hours; (4) blood meal C was mixed with 10% dextrose and 20% water and then autoclaved at 13.78 bars and 122°C for 20 minutes. Diets in experiment 3 were supplemented with graded levels of L-lysine-HCl or a mixture of commercial beef-pork blood meal that had received the same treatments as blood meals B and C above, with an untreated sample used as a control. In experiment 4, diets were supplemented with L-lysine-HCl, untreated beef-pork blood meal and beef-pork blood meal C. Body weight and feed consumption were recorded for all four experiments. Blood plasma samples and aliquots of diets in experiment 4 were collected for total lysine analysis. Results from experiment 1 indicated that crystalline lysine always supported more growth, and graded additions of 0.10% and 0.20% lysine from either source regardless of amino acid pattern resulted in linear responses in gain, feed intake, and gain feed ratio. The percent bioavailable lysine from BBM was 11.3 ± 1.08% for young poultry. Results from experiment 2 indicated linear increases in gain, feed intake, and gain feed ratio with graded levels of supplementation. There were differences in these parameters among treatments of blood meal, indicating that the treatment of blood meal significantly reduced the percent bioavailable lysine in blood meal B (P\u3c.05) and C (P\u3c.001). The percent bioavailable lysine of BBM, BBM-A, BBM-B and BBM-C were 9.08 ± 0.65, 8.16 ± 0.68, 7.49 ± 0.07 and 3.88 ± 0.87%, respectively. Performance data from experiment 3 exhibited the same trends in gain, feed intake, and gain feed ratio as in experiment 2. Heat treatment had a significant effect on the blood meal samples, reducing the percent bioavailable lysine in BPBM-B and BPBM-C (P\u3c.001). How ever, BPBM-B was not significantly different from BPBM-C (P\u3e.4). The percent bioavailable lysine contained in BPBM, BPBM-B and BPBM-C were 8.57 ± 0.25, 5.98 ± 0.33 and 5.66 ± 0.39%, respectively. Pigs from experiment 4 exhibited linear increases in gain and gain feed ratios. Feed intake of pigs fed beef-pork blood meal C was lower than for all other test groups, indicating lysine bioavailability was significantly reduced under reducing conditions at elevated temperatures (P\u3c.001). The lysine bioavailability of untreated beef-pork blood meal and beef-pork blood meal C was 9.89 ± 0.73% and 0.50 ± 0.55%. Data from this experiment suggested that the chick may not be a good biological model for the pig when low quality proteins are utilized as the test protein. The plasma lysine values for each treatment were not significantly different. Multi-enzyme, pepsin digestibility and a rapid dye-binding procedure were performed. The blood meal samples were also analyzed for mineral composition and total lysine. These factors were used as independent variables and regressed on the dependent variable, bio available lysine, to obtain prediction equations. The best model with a R2 value of 0.99 for BBM contained pepsin digestibility and multienzyme values; the best single variable model for BPBM included pepsin digestibility values, which also had a R2 value of 0.99

Felony Murder and Capital Punishment: an Examination of the Deterrence Question

A proper test of the deterrent effect of the death penalty must consider capital homicides. However, the criterion variable in most investigations has been total homicides—most of which bear no legal or theoretical relationship to capital punishment. To address this fundamental data problem, this investigation used Federal Bureau of Investigation data for 1976–1987 to examine the relationship between capital punishment and felony murder, the most common type of capital homicide. We conducted time series analyses of monthly felony murder rates, the frequency of executions, and the amount and type of television coverage of executions over the period. The analyses revealed occasional departures (for vehicle theft and narcotics killings) from the null hypotheses. However, on balance, and in line with the vast majority of capital punishment studies, this investigation found no consistent evidence that executions and the television coverage they receive are associated significantly with rates for total, index, or different types of felony murder

Iron Behaving Badly: Inappropriate Iron Chelation as a Major Contributor to the Aetiology of Vascular and Other Progressive Inflammatory and Degenerative Diseases

The production of peroxide and superoxide is an inevitable consequence of aerobic metabolism, and while these particular "reactive oxygen species" (ROSs) can exhibit a number of biological effects, they are not of themselves excessively reactive and thus they are not especially damaging at physiological concentrations. However, their reactions with poorly liganded iron species can lead to the catalytic production of the very reactive and dangerous hydroxyl radical, which is exceptionally damaging, and a major cause of chronic inflammation. We review the considerable and wide-ranging evidence for the involvement of this combination of (su)peroxide and poorly liganded iron in a large number of physiological and indeed pathological processes and inflammatory disorders, especially those involving the progressive degradation of cellular and organismal performance. These diseases share a great many similarities and thus might be considered to have a common cause (i.e. iron-catalysed free radical and especially hydroxyl radical generation). The studies reviewed include those focused on a series of cardiovascular, metabolic and neurological diseases, where iron can be found at the sites of plaques and lesions, as well as studies showing the significance of iron to aging and longevity. The effective chelation of iron by natural or synthetic ligands is thus of major physiological (and potentially therapeutic) importance. As systems properties, we need to recognise that physiological observables have multiple molecular causes, and studying them in isolation leads to inconsistent patterns of apparent causality when it is the simultaneous combination of multiple factors that is responsible. This explains, for instance, the decidedly mixed effects of antioxidants that have been observed, etc...Comment: 159 pages, including 9 Figs and 2184 reference