Effect of Pair Housing Versus Individual and Group Housing on Behavioural Patterns of Buffalo Calves

This study aimed to evaluate the effect of pair housing versus individual and group housing on behavioural patterns of female buffalo calves (n = 18; 15.0±3.0 days of age) were assigned randomly to 1 of 3 treatments of group housing with (C1=one calf/pen, C2=two calves/pen, or C3= three calves/pen) supplying a total pen space allowance of 1.82 m2 /calf, regardless of pen size. Behaviour was recorded by direct observation throughout the day from 10:00 to 14:00 clock, during a single day each week for 12 weeks using scan sampling every 15 min within 4 hours’ observation sessions. Calves housed in C2 group showed more (P ≤ 0.05) eating and drinking, chewing/ruminating, object manipulation and self grooming, lying activities, and less (P < 0.05) inactivity and standing when compared to calves housed in C1 and C3 groups. In conclusion, raising buffalo calves in paired housing system provided calves more opportunity to express their comfort, grooming, and feeding activities compared to individual and group housing system, however further investigation is still required to study the effect of paired housing system on the performance and physiological indicators in buffalo calves

Effects of Propolis, Ascorbic Acid and Vitamin E on Thyroid and Corticosterone Hormones in Heat Stressed Broilers

The study was designed to evaluate the effect of oxidative stress during the summer on serum levels of Triiodothyronine (T3), thyroxine (T4) and corticosterone hormones in Ross 308 broiler chickens and to compare the efficacy of propolis, ascorbic acid and vitamin E (α-tocopherol acetate) as antioxidants in amelioration of heat stress and normalization of serum T3 and T4 and corticosterone levels in broilers. Birds were divided into five groups during the experimental period (15 to 42 days of age), the positive control group (G1) was kept under thermo-neutral condition (28.0±4.0°C ) and fed control diet, while the other four groups were exposed to heat stress (38.0±1.4°C), control group (G2) chicks were fed control diet without additives, propolis group (G3) chicks were supplemented with 250 mg Chinese ether extracted propolis /kg diet, group (G4) supplemented with 250 mg ascorbic acid/kg diet and group (G5) supplemented with 250 mg of α-tocopherol acetate/kg diet (vitamin E). At the end of day 42, five broilers were randomly chosen from each treatment and slaughtered, and then sera were collected to estimate T3 and T4 and corticosterone levels. The results indicated that dietary supplementation of broilers with 250 mg/kg diet propolis, vitamin E or vitamin C can attenuate heat stress induced oxidative damage. These positive effects were evidenced by reduced serum corticosterone levels and improvement in thyroid hormonal levels in comparison to non-supplemented birds reared under heat stress

Influence of Swimming Deprivation on Behavior, Performance and some Blood Parameters of Muscovy Ducks

This experiment was done to determine the effect of swimming deprivation on drinking behaviour, feather pecking behavior, feed consumption, weight gain, feed conversion ratio, live body weight, slaughter weight, carcass weight and dressing percentage, serum corticosterone, triiodothyronine (T3) and tetraiodothyronine (T4) of Muscovy ducks. Two groups were used; the first one is the control group fed on basal diet with free access to swimming pond, and the second fed on basal diet without access to swimming pond. The previous parameters were recorded daily or weekly during the experiment or after slaughtering for collecting blood parameters. The results explained that, there was an insignificant decrease in drinking behavior and significant increase in feather pecking. However, there was an insignificant decrease in feed consumption, live body weight, feed conversion, weight gain, dressing percentage, liver weight and serum corticosterone level. There was an insignificant decrease in T3 and T4 level and significant increase in feather pecking behaviour. It could be concluded that, swimming deprivation at the end of the fattening period of ducks had an adverse effect on some duck behaviors but it have no significant effect on improvement of performance parameters and carcass characters

Force feeding as a Stress Factor on Muscovy Ducks

The experiment was done to determine the effects of force feeding on drinking, panting behaviors, feed consumption, weight gain, feed conversion ratio, live body weight, slaughter weight, carcass weight and dressing percentage, serum corticosterone, triiodothyronine (T3) and tetraiodothyronine (T4) of Muscovy ducks. Two groups were used; the first one was the control group, which fed on basal diet only and the second group was force fed by grabbing the neck, and a metal or plastic tube 8 to 12 inches long was inserted down the esophagus. Ducklings were forced to ingest a greater amount of food than what they would eat voluntarily. The previous parameters were recorded daily or weekly during the experiment or after slaughtering. Blood samples for separation of serum were collected after slaughtering. The results explained that, there was an insignificant increase in drinking behavior. However, there was a significant increase in feed consumption, live body weight, feed conversion, weight gain, dressing percentage, panting behavior, liver weight and serum corticosterone level while there was a significant decrease in T3 and T4 level. It could be concluded that, force feeding at the end of the fattening period of ducks had adverse effect on some duck behaviors and some blood parameters but led to improvement in performance parameters and carcass characters

Differential Leucocyte Count and Total Colony Count Changes in Heat Stressed Broiler

The present study aimed to explain the role of additives in alleviation of the negative effect of heat stress on differential leucocytes count, heterophil / lymphocytic ratio with especial studies on the microbial count of duodenum, jejunum, ileum and caecum. A total of 270 day-old (Ross308) broiler chickens randomly divided into 6 groups, which were kept under elevated temperature (34-36◦C) and feed diet containing 1% Nigella Sativa (G2) or a mixture of sodium bicarbonate and potassium chloride (0.3% KCL+ 0.5% NaHCO3) (G3) or 2% coriander seed (G4) or 0.03% Acetylsalicylic acid (aspirin) (G5) or 250 mg of Ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) (G6) for 6 weeks. The previous parameters were recorded after slaughtering to take microbial sample and collecting blood parameters. The results explained that, there was a significant increase lymphocyte percentage in case of G2, G3, G4, G5 and G6. while, there was significant decreases in Heterophil percentage, heterophil/lymphocyte ratio (H/L), eosinophils percentage, monocytes percentage, jejunum total colony count and caecum total colony in case of (G2, G3, G4, G5), (G6, G2, G3, G4, G5), (G6, G3), (G5; G2), (G3; G2) and (G2, G4) respectively in compared with control group (P<0.05). It could be concluded that black seed and coriander seed have a positive effect on heat stress broiler diet

Behavioral, Performance, Carcass Traits and Hormonal Changes of Heat Stressed Broilers Feeding Black and Coriander Seeds

The experiment was done to determine the effects of feeding heat stressed broilers (Ross308) diets contain Nigella Sativa seeds or coriander seeds on Ingestive, panting behaviors, feed consumption, weight gain, and feed conversion ratio, live body weight, slaughter weight, carcass weight and dressing percentage, corticosterone, triiodothyronine (T3) and tetraiodothyronine (T4). Three groups were used; the first one is the control group, which fed on basal diet only and the second fed diet contains 1% Nigella Sativa seeds (black seed) while the third group fed diet contain 2% coriander seeds. The previous parameters were recorded daily or weekly during the experiment or after slaughtering to collecting blood parameters. The results explained that, there was a significant increase in feeding behavior, feed consumption, weight gain and dressing percentage while there was a significant decrease in panting behavior, water to feed ratio, T3 level and corticosterone level. Moreover, there was no significance difference in drinking behavior live body weight, slaughter weight, feed conversion rate and T4 level (P<0.05). It could be concluded that, black seeds and coriander seeds can be used to alleviate the negative effect of heat stress in broiler during summer seasons in Egypt

Measurement of the azimuthal anisotropy of Y(1S) and Y(2S) mesons in PbPb collisions at √S^{S}NN = 5.02 TeV

The second-order Fourier coefficients (υ$_{2}$) characterizing the azimuthal distributions of Υ(1S) and Υ(2S) mesons produced in PbPb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 5.02 TeV are studied. The Υmesons are reconstructed in their dimuon decay channel, as measured by the CMS detector. The collected data set corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 1.7 nb$^{-1}$. The scalar product method is used to extract the υ$_{2}$ coefficients of the azimuthal distributions. Results are reported for the rapidity range |y| < 2.4, in the transverse momentum interval 0 < p$_{T}$ < 50 GeV/c, and in three centrality ranges of 10–30%, 30–50% and 50–90%. In contrast to the J/ψ mesons, the measured υ$_{2}$ values for the Υ mesons are found to be consistent with zero

Measurement of prompt D0^{0} and D‾\overline{D}0^{0} meson azimuthal anisotropy and search for strong electric fields in PbPb collisions at root SNN\sqrt{S_{NN}} = 5.02 TeV

The strong Coulomb field created in ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions is expected to produce a rapiditydependent difference (Av2) in the second Fourier coefficient of the azimuthal distribution (elliptic flow, v2) between D0 (uc) and D0 (uc) mesons. Motivated by the search for evidence of this field, the CMS detector at the LHC is used to perform the first measurement of Av2. The rapidity-averaged value is found to be (Av2) = 0.001 ? 0.001 (stat)? 0.003 (syst) in PbPb collisions at ?sNN = 5.02 TeV. In addition, the influence of the collision geometry is explored by measuring the D0 and D0mesons v2 and triangular flow coefficient (v3) as functions of rapidity, transverse momentum (pT), and event centrality (a measure of the overlap of the two Pb nuclei). A clear centrality dependence of prompt D0 meson v2 values is observed, while the v3 is largely independent of centrality. These trends are consistent with expectations of flow driven by the initial-state geometry. ? 2021 The Author. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY licens

Performance of the CMS Level-1 trigger in proton-proton collisions at √s = 13 TeV

At the start of Run 2 in 2015, the LHC delivered proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13\TeV. During Run 2 (years 2015–2018) the LHC eventually reached a luminosity of 2.1× 10$^{34}$ cm$^{-2}$s$^{-1}$, almost three times that reached during Run 1 (2009–2013) and a factor of two larger than the LHC design value, leading to events with up to a mean of about 50 simultaneous inelastic proton-proton collisions per bunch crossing (pileup). The CMS Level-1 trigger was upgraded prior to 2016 to improve the selection of physics events in the challenging conditions posed by the second run of the LHC. This paper describes the performance of the CMS Level-1 trigger upgrade during the data taking period of 2016–2018. The upgraded trigger implements pattern recognition and boosted decision tree regression techniques for muon reconstruction, includes pileup subtraction for jets and energy sums, and incorporates pileup-dependent isolation requirements for electrons and tau leptons. In addition, the new trigger calculates high-level quantities such as the invariant mass of pairs of reconstructed particles. The upgrade reduces the trigger rate from background processes and improves the trigger efficiency for a wide variety of physics signals