Effects of dietary energy density and L-carnitine supplementation on growth performance, carcass traits and blood parameters of broiler chickens

The present study was conducted to determine the effects of dietary metabolisable energy (ME) density and L-carnitine supplementation on the performance, carcass traits and blood parameters of broiler chickens. The experiment was designed with three levels of dietary energy (low, medium and high) and two levels of L-carnitine (0 and 100 mg/kg diet) in a 3x2 factorial arrangement. L-carnitine supplementation did not significantly affect body weight gain (BWG), feed intake (FI) and feed conversion ratio (FCR). However, FCR and BWG showed a significant improvement as dietary energy density increased. No significant interactions were observed between energy density and L-carnitine supplementation in the performance and carcass parameters studied in the study. Carcass yield and proportion of carcass sections were not affected significantly by any of the treatments. Chemical composition of the leg (thigh and drumstick) and breast muscle was not significantly influenced by dietary energy or carnitine, with the exception of the dry matter (DM) content of breast muscle. A low ME diet caused a significant increase in the DM content of chicken breast muscle. Furthermore, blood parameters did not show any differences between treatments. However, aspartate aminotransferase (AST) activity in blood was elevated in chickens fed a high ME diet compared to those on a low ME diet. The results of the investigation showed that L-carnitine supplementation produced no significant improvement in broiler performance and meat quality. Higher levels of diet ME increased broiler performance, though no significant interactions could be found between energy and carnitine levels. South African Journal of Animal Science Vol. 37 (2) 2007: pp. 65-7

schoolchildren: An epidemiological study

Objective: The aim was to determine the prevalence of voiding dysfunction and its related risk factors in Turkish schoolchildren.Materials and methods: A randomly selected, cross-sectional study was conducted using a self-administered and previously validated questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of two parts. The first part included personal demographic and familial information, and the second part included the Dysfunctional Voiding and Incontinence Scoring System (DVISS). The questionnaires were given to 4668 children between 6 and 15 years of age, which were completed by the parents and children together. The children with a score of >= 9 were accepted as having lower urinary tract dysfunction (LUTD).Results: The data were collected from 4016 children (the response rate was 86.0%), including 48.6% boys and 51.4% girls. The mean age was 10.5 +/- 2.2 years. The overall frequency of LUTD was 9.3%. While the 6-year-old children had the highest frequency (23.1%) of LUTD, this rate was 7.9% at the age of 10, and the children aged 14 years had the lowest frequency (4.9%), (p = 9) had the following risk factors: less educated parents, a parent that had lower urinary tract symptoms when he or she was a child, more persons per room (>= 2 persons), more siblings (>= 4 siblings) at home, past medical history of urinary tract infections, and squatting position (in girls).Conclusions: Lower urinary tract problems are one of the most important and ongoing health problems in childhood. Determining the prevalence of lower urinary tract problems in children and their related risk factors is the first step to managing and reducing the number of children suffering from voiding problems. (C) 2014 Journal of Pediatric Urology Company. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

The Effect of Vitamin D on Expression of TGF beta 1 in Ovary

The transforming growth factor beta (TGF-beta) is thought to have important roles in several stages of folliculogenesis. Vitamin D is effective in cell proliferation, differentiation and on estrogen biosynthesis. The aim of the present study was to determine the respective role of 1,25-dihydroxy-vitamin D3 on expression of TGF-beta 1 in developing rat ovaries. 24 (one-month-old n = 12 and adult n = 12) female Wistar rats were enrolled in this study. All animals were divided into 4 groups. Group I and II that consist of one-month-old (n = 6) and adult rats (n = 6) respectively served as control groups. Intramuscular vitamin D3 (0.05 mu g/kg/every other day) was injected for 8 weeks to group III and IV which consist of one-month-old and adult rats respectively. After last injection, ovaries of animals were removed and processed for immunohistochemistry assay. No remarkable differences in staining intensity and localization for TGF-beta 1 were observed in group I and group III. TGF immunostaining was also predominantly found in oocytes. In granulosa cells, TGF-beta 1 immunoreactivity was negative. TGF-beta 1 immunostaining were observed both in nuclei and cytoplasm of granulosa cells in group II. But in group IV granulosa cells and oocytes were negative for TGF-beta 1. We found that vitamin D administration resulted in a decrease in TGF-beta 1 levels in the adult rats, but, TGF-beta 1 expression did not significantly decrease in the newborn rats. However, in multiple linear regression analysis, TGF-beta 1 expressions were independently associated with vitamin D administration. It is observed that Vitamin D attenuated TGF-beta 1 expression. The results of this study suggest that vitamin D may play role in folliculogenesis via TGF-beta 1

De-inversion of an inverted appendectomy for the Malone procedure

[No abstract available

Enzymatic debridement of burn wound with collagenase in children with partial-thickness burns

WOS: 000180141900013PubMed ID: 12464480Seventy-eight pediatric burn patients treated by enzymatic debridement with collagenase clostridiopeptidase A (CCA), were compared to 41 patients those burn wounds were excised surgically. Patients whose burn wounds were initially assessed as partial-thickness at admission were enrolled in the study. Total removal of eschar was achieved in 49 of 78 (62.8%) patients by CCA only (group D). In 29 patients (37.2%), therapy with CCA was ceased because of the development of burn wound infection or a manifest need for grafting of the wound, therefore, these patients underwent tangential wound excision (group DS). The records of 41 patients, treated by early tangential excision, having similar burn wounds by extent and depth with groups D and DS were used as controls (group S). There was no significant difference between the time to achieve a clean wound bed in groups D, DS and S (mean 7.8, 8, and 7 days, respectively, P > 0:05). In group D, none of the patients required blood transfusion, except one. Patients in group DS were found to have fewer excisions (mean 1.1) when compared to those in group S (mean 1.5, P < 0.05). The shortest hospital stay was found in group D (12.5 days, P < 0.01). In conclusion, the use of CCA, provided a short hospital stay, reduced the overall need for surgery and blood transfusions in patients with partial-thickness burns. Thus, CCA should be considered as an initial treatment of choice for removal of eschar in children, having a partial-thickness burn wound without infection. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd and ISBI. All rights reserved

The effects of phytase supplementation and dietary phosphorus level on performance and on tibia ash and phosphorus contents in broilers fed maize-soya-based diets

WOS: 000313392500012To test phytase efficiency, 4 dietary treatments including a positive control (T1), negative control (T2, containing 0.10% less total phosphorus than T1), negative control plus 500 FTU phytase (T3), and low-negative control plus 500 FTU phytase (T4, containing 0.13% less total phosphorus than T1) were used. Reducing the available phosphorus level of the broiler diet from 0.47% to 0.37% during the starter, and from 0.37% to 0.26% during the grower-finisher period significantly (P<0.01) depressed growth performance as compared with T1. Phytase supplementation significantly (P<0.01) improved the growth performance of the birds for both starter and grower periods. Tibia ash and phosphorus content in both the T3 and T4 groups were similar to T1 and higher (P<0.01) than in T2. Phytase supplementation of both negative control diets significantly (P<0.01) reduced the phosphorus level in excreta. It can be concluded that with phytase supplementation, the total phosphorus level in broiler diets can be decreased by 0.13%