Effect of egg weight on ostrich (Struthio camelus) chick weight and growth

The aim of this paper is to evaluate the effects of the age of ostriches and month of laying on egg production and chickgrowth. On a small ostrich farm egg production, egg incubation and chick growth from hatching to 56 days of age wererecorded from 2000, when the breeders were 5 years old, until 2002. Ostriches were kept in groups and fed commercialfeed. In all, 568 eggs were laid and weighed at laying and during incubation (at 15th and 30th day of incubation), while353 chicks were weighed at hatching, 7, 14, 28 and 56 days of age.The female’s productivity was calculated assuming a laying of 3.5 eggs per week and ranged between 45% and 48%.The fertility was around 70% with a peak of 74% recorded in 2001. The hatchability of all eggs was higher than 62%with a peak of 72% in 2001, while the hatchability of fertile eggs was higher than 90%. In each year the number of eggslaid increased from March to July, productivity showed a positive trend from May to June, while the fertility and hatchabilityof all eggs, as well as fertile eggs, was unaffected by year and month. As the hens aged, the egg mass grew constantlywith an increase of about 8%. During the first 30 days of incubation the egg weight decreased with the percentagesof weight loss around 10.0%. At hatching, the weight of chick ranged between 765 g and 847 g, respectively, in2000 and 2002. Egg weight influenced the hatching weight showing a linear relationship (R2=0.84). The effect of eggweight on the chick weight decreased as the chick grew. At 56 days of age, only the effect of year is significant. Themonth of laying did not demonstrate any effect on chicken weight

Apparent digestibility of compound diets with increasing levels of perilla (Perilla frutescens L.) seeds in rabbit.

The aim of this study was to determine the effects of three levels (0, 5 and 10%) of perilla (Perilla frutescens L.) seeds (PFS), included in isonitrogenous and isocaloric diets, on the apparent digestibility in rabbit aged of 73 days. The trial was carried out on 30 crossbred (Carmagnola Grey x New Zealand) rabbits randomly divided in three groups of ten animals each (five male and five female rabbits). Each of them was kept in individual cages. The faeces were collected during the last week of a growing trial that lasted 50 days. No obvious health problems were encountered during the experiment and no rabbits died during the trial. The measured parameters were digestibility of dry matter, organic matter, crude protein, ether extract, neutral detergent fibre, acid detergent fibre and gross energy. The only parameter that was modified by the inclusion of PFS was the ether extract digestibility; it resulted higher in the 10% PFS diet (83.9%) than in the other two diets. Perilla seed may be used satisfactorily as a nutrient supplement for rabbits at levels of up to 10% in the diet with a better digestibility of ether extract than in the other two diets

Dietary Supplementation of Oregano and Sage Dried Leaves on Performances and Meat Quality of Rabbits

Abstract The aim of this research was to evaluate the dietary supplementation 1% (w/w) of oregano and sage dried leaves on performances and meat quality of broiler rabbits. A feeding trial, which lasted 48 d, was carried out on 105 male Bianca Italiana rabbits randomly divided in seven groups and fed ad libitum. At the end of the trial ten animals per group were slaughtered and samples of dorsal muscle were taken in order to perform laboratory analysis. Mortality rate did not statistically differ between groups. Growth performances of animals fed diets supplemented with aromatic plants were higher (