Ten Scottish male castrated cashmere-yielding (C) and 10 Angora (A) goats with initial live weights of 38·2 (C) and 32·1 (A) kg respectively were used in a 112-day study in the time period August to December. The goats were blocked within genotypes according to live weight and randomly assigned to one of two treatments: either no supplementation (O) or dietary supplementation (S) with 2·5 g/kg dry matter (DM) intake of rumen-protected intestinally available methionine (Smartamine™ M, Rhone Poulenc, Animal Nutrition, Antony 92164, France) in a 2 × 2 factorial arrangement.

The goats were offered a basal diet in the proportion of 0·6, grass hay and 0·4 concentrate according to their live weight. Diet metabolizable energy (ME) and crude protein (CP) concentration per kg DM were estimated as 9·9 MJ (ME) and 107 g (CP) and DM intake was restricted to 28 g/kg live weight daily. Apparent digestibility and nitrogen (N) balance studies were conducted from days 24 to 40 and 51 to 64. Measurements were made within three time periods of days 0 to 40, 41 to 75 and 76 to 112.

Angora goats excreted less urinary N than cashmere-yielding goats and had lower values for plasma urea and glucose and greater overall retention ofN, associated with a two- to three-fold greater total fibre yield. Cashmere as a proportion of total fibre by weight, (guard hair plus cashmere) varied from 0·27 to 0·43.

The main effects due to methionine supplementation were improvements in live-weight gain and food conversion ratio. Reductions in urinary N excretion and increases in N retention were recorded, which were generally greater for Angora than for cashmere-yielding goats, and were again associated with the larger responses in fibre production. Clear evidence was also obtained for methionine-induced increases in the weight of raw cashmere, although not guard hair up to day 58. This response was obtained in the absence of significant effects on cashmere diameter, although methionine supplementation consistently increased the average diameter of mohair fibres.

A grower diet containing barley, wheat and soya-bean meal was expanded at 110°C and subsequently pelleted at 80°C. This processing was evaluated in laboratory tests as well as in digestibility experiments involving 12 barrows with an average initial live weight of 40 kg. The unprocessed control diet was offered as a meal. Each diet was offered ad libitum to six pigs during a 5-week period. The 1st week was an adaptation period and measurements were not carried out. Each pig was used in two 5-day digestibility trials which were performed in weeks 2 and 4. Neither food intake, weight gain nor food: gain ratio during the whole 4-week experimental period, nor apparent faecal digestibility and apparent retention of protein were significantly affected (P > 0·05) by expanding and pelleting the diet. Processing caused an increase in the in vitro protein solubility (P < 0·05) and reduced the dietary contents of free lysine and methionine (P < 0·05) while the contents of available lysine and free threonine and tryptophan were not significantly changed (P > 0·05). Apparent faecal digestibility of crude fibre increased substantially (P < 0·05) when the diet was processed, resulting in significantly lower production of faecal mass (P < 0·05) as well as lowerfaecal moisture content (P < 0·05). These phenomena were parallelled by a smaller water consumption (P < 0·05). Apparent digestibility and retention of phosphorus and calcium were diminished (P < 0·05) when the diet was expanded and pelleted.

This trial investigated the effects of virginiamycin on sow and litter performance. Virginiamycin was added to the sow diet during the period of gestation and lactation at the levels of0, 40 and 60 mg/kg, throughout two breeding cycles. Virginiamycin did not significantly affect sow weight change during gestation or lactation, or litter size and weight; there were no significant effects on food consumption (P > 0·05). However, when added at a level of 40 mgl kg virginiamycin tended to produce a better condition of sows which resulted in a significant reduction of replacement rate (P < 0·05), even though the proportion of gilts culled in the treated and untreated groups was high. The most evident result was a significantly shorter weaning-to-conception interval for the virginiamycin group at the end of the second reproductive cycle (first period, 5·9 days less than the control group, 2·5 days less than the 60 mg/kg group; second period, -9·5 days v. control group, P < 0·05, and -7·1 days v. 60 mg/kg group, P < 0·05), allowing a numerical improvement in productivity. Piglet performance was not significantly improved by the use of virginiamycin even though there was an evident trend in favour of the 40 mg/kg group which presented a higher proportion of heavier piglets (P < 0·05) and a reduction of pre-weaning mortality. A significant quadratic regression was found for weaning-to-conception interval and numeric productivity, indicating that the dosage more efficient to improve these parameters was 32 mg/kg. The results obtained in the virginiamycin 60 group were generally inferior to those of the 40 mg/kg group and also to the control group and seem to demonstrate that the 60 mg/kg dosage was too high.

Low frequency oscillatory motion (0·05 to 0·5 Hz) experienced in ships and road vehicles is known to cause motion sickness in humans and some predictive models are available. There have been very few studies of the incidence of motion sickness in pigs and none which has attempted to identify the frequencies of motion of transporters which are likely to be implicated. In this study, the vibration and motion characteristics of a commercial pig transporter were measured while seven individually penned 40-kg pigs were transported for short (100 min) journeys and 80-kg pigs penned in groups of 12 or 13 were transported for longer (4·5 h) journeys. Direct behavioural observations were made of individual pigs for symptoms of travel sickness (sniffing, foaming at the mouth, chomping, and retching or vomiting). A comparison was then made between the incidence of travel sickness in pigs and that expected in humans given the measured vehicle vibration characteristics. The low frequencies of motion measured on the transporter (0·01 to 0·2 Hz) were well within the range implicated in human motion sickness with considerable power in the longitudinal and lateral axes but little in the vertical axis. On both short and long journeys pigs exhibited symptoms of travel sickness. The likely incidence of travel sickness on the short journeys predicted by the human model was 24 to 31% which corresponds to approximately two of the seven 40-kg pigs becoming travel sick. The numbers observed were generally lower than this although the same pigs were transported twice each day for 2 days and this may have therefore reflected the effects of habituation. The incidence of travel sickness on the long journeys predicted by the human model was 34%. During these journeys which involved four groups of 80-kg pigs which were not repeatedly transported, 26% of pigs vomited or retched (13 out of 50) while 50% showed advanced symptoms of foaming and chomping. These results are not inconsistent with the human model which should form the basis offurther research.

The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of various factors on average pig weight at weaning on farms using early weaning. Farms were selected based on average weaning age and whether they recorded lactation food intake and litter weights at weaning. The database contained 9834 litter weights and 8903 food intake records. Average pig weight at weaning, litter size at weaning, weaning age, and average daily food intake during lactation (ADFl) were 4·9 (s.d. 1·0) kg, 9·3 (s.d. 1·6) pigs, 16·8 (s.d. 2·8) days, and 4·9 (s.d. 1·1) kg, respectively. Litter size, weaning age, parity, farrowing season, and ADFl groups influenced average pig weight at weaning (P < 0·01). Three two-way interactions between parity and season, weaning age and farrowing season, and weaning age and ADFl groups were found fP < 0·01). Average pig weights for litter sizes between six and 10 were higher than those between litter sizes one and four, and 11 and 22. Parity 1 sows produced lighter pig weights than any other parity group during any other season (P < 0·01). Average weights of weaned pigs farrowed during the summer in all parities groups were lighter (P < 0·01) than those during the autumn. Pig weights for weaning ages between 22 and 21 days during the summer tended to be lighter than those during the autumn. Pigs weaned between days 16 and 22 of age in the high ADFI group (>5·6 kg) were heavier (P < 0·01) than those in the low ADFl (> 4·2 kg) group.

A total of 1580 pigs killed in three slaughter -plants were held in lairage for ≥ 1 h, 3 h or overnight before slaughter. Blood samples were collected at exsanguination and subsequent carcass and meat quality monitored. Longer lairage reduced stress levels based on the concentration of cortisol, lactate and creatine phosphokinase in the blood. It also reduced the prevalence of pale, soft, exudative (PSE) but increased the prevalence of dark, firm, dry (DFD) meat. Additionally, it produced progressively greater amounts of skin damage caused by fighting between unfamiliar pigs and an overnight lairage reduced carcass yield and backfat thickness. The overall conclusion ivas that a period of between 1 and 3 h rest in lairage was optimal. There was no evidence that leaner, potentially more stress-susceptible pigs reacted differently from fatter, potentially more stress-resistant animals with regard to the effects of lairage time.

The aim of this experiment was to study the effect of stimulation of pre-mating energy intake on reproductive performance at the subsequent mating or parturition of rabbit does during four successive cycles. In the C (control, no. = 59) and R (restricted, no. = 67) groups, females had free access to the M diet (9·92 MJ/kg dry matter (DM)), except from 18 to 31 days of gestation when R females were given 150 glday. In the E group (high energy diet, no. = 64), females were given ad libitum the H diet (12·19 MJ/kg DM) from 1 to 14 days of lactation, with the M diet for the rest of the time. Females were presented to the male 10 toll days after parturition during four cycles. For primiparous does, the experimental design had no effect on pre-mating energy intake, acceptance or conception rate and litter size or weight. However, for multiparous does, pre-mating energy intake was higher for the E and the R group females than for the C group females (+0·08 and +0·04; P < 0·01). Acceptance rate of the male (47·1% v. 69·0%) and weight of the young rabbits at birth (-0·09) were lower in the R group than in the other groups (P < 0·001). The mortality of sucking rabbits was lower (6·5% v. 24·7%) and conception rate for the fourth litter was higher (97·1% v. 78·4%) in the E group than in the other groups (P < 0·05).

These results suggested that increased pre-mating energy intake could have a positive effect on conception rate. However, inadequate pre-partum energy intake (food restriction) has a detrimental effect on receptivity and litter weight.

This study was carried out on Bauscat (B), New Zealand (N), Californian (C), N × C (NC) and B × NC (BNC) rabbits. Overall reproductive performance for does with premature parturition (pre-term) of the five breeds was determined and compared with that of does delivering at the normal time (full-term). Full-term does showed a reproductive performance superior to that of pre-term does in all five breeds with larger litter size at weaning, more pups weaned per doe and a lower proportion of stillbirths. Pre-term B, N and BNC does had a larger number of pups weaned than pre-term C and NC does (P < 0·01). There was a high incidence of pup mortality in premature litters, and the main causes of this high mortality were respiratory distress syndrome, crushing of the skull and starvation and chilling.

The mean serum oestradiol 17-β concentrations and degrees of cervical mucous ferning in pre-term B does were higher than in full-term does (P < 0·01) but the mean serum progesterone concentrations in pre-term B does were lower than in full-term does during the gestation period (P < 0·01). Treatment with either dexamethasone or progestin reduced pup mortality in pre-term does and the birth-to-remating interval was shorter in pre-term does treated with dexamethasone (P < 0·01) but longer when treated with progestin (P < 0·01).

Energy metabolism during flushing of mink (Mustela vison) in relation to a control group was studied by means of combining pooled data from balance and respiration experiments carried out in 1993 (experiment I) and 1994 (experiment II) and some blood metabolites from experiment II. The experiments, which were divided into six 1-week balance periods, started on 7 February and continued until 22 March. Flushing was performed by restricted feeding in periods 2 and 3 and refeeding in periods 4 and 5. Each balance period included a 24-h measurement of heat production by means of indirect calorimetry in open-air circuit respiration chambers. In experiment II blood samples were taken at weekly intervals and analysed for total triiodothyronine, total thyroxine, free thyroxine, glucose, insulin and fructosamine. Generally, intake of digestible nutrients and energy metabolism measurements within the flushed group were strongly influenced by period (energy supply), whereas they remained stable in the control group and differences between treatment groups over the total experiment were non-significant. The fluctuation in energy status induced by flushing did not involve major changes in body weight. Blood metabolites reflected the food intake by being fairly stable in the control group and decreasing during restriction and increasing during refeeding in the flushed group (P < 0·05). As an effect of flushing the number of corpora lutea increased significantly (P < 0·05).

This experiment was conducted to test two different protein sources as alternatives to the commonly used fish meal (FM) in the diet of the European eel (Anguilla anguilla). Six experimental diets were tested in three replicated lots of European eels. All diets contained the same protein and energy content (ca, 300 g crude protein per kg dry matter and 18·5 MJ/kg, respectively) but differed in the nature of the protein source: FM was the only protein source in the control diet and was fully or partially (0–5: 0–5) replaced by meat meal (MM) or sunflower meal (SFM) in four other diets; a sixth diet included SFM as the only protein source but was supplemented with several essential amino acids. Food intake, fish growth and several indices of diet and protein utilization were measured. MM clearly was the poorest protein source while SFM could replace, at least 0·5 of the FM with no significant reduction in performance. In addition, the European eel was able to utilize the supplement of essential amino acids. The full-SFM diet was improved significantly when supplemented and results were not statistically different from the control FM-based diet. Overall, a good correlation was found between the results of each diet and the respective essential amino acid index, calculated using as reference the essential amino acid requirements previously defined for another eel species, Anguilla japonica. This index could be used as a reliable measure for an a priori evaluation of alternative protein sources to be included in commercial foods for eels.