Distiller’s dried grains with solubles (DDGS) is a coproduct of bioethanol production from cereal grains. Due to the selective removal of starch during the production process, the protein and fibre in DDGS is approximately three times more concentrated compared with the starting material. In Europe, wheat is the main cereal used in bioethanol production and DDGS derived from this process has been traditionally fed to ruminants. Modern bioethanol plants produce DDGS with high protein quality and DDGS is therefore increasingly used in monogastric rations. However, the high fibre content remains a challenge to animal performance. An increased intestinal viscosity is the primary concern when animals are raised on diets with high levels of soluble fibres. Feed enzymes are widely used to neutralise this antinutritional effect. The major part of the dietary fibre in wheat and wheat DDGS consists of insoluble fibre, which does not cause viscosity problems, but traps valuable nutrients in the feed matrix. At least a partial degradation of this fibre is required to release the nutrients in the gastrointestinal tract. Fibre fermentation in the hindgut of monogastric animals may represent a significant energy salvage due to the production of volatile fatty acids and contribute to the maintenance of the intestinal health status. This paper presents an in vitro comparison of the functionality of fibre from both whole wheat and wheat DDGS in monogastric nutrition, and shows how feed enzymes may improve the nutritional quality of DDGS.

Starch is digested rapidly in the rumen, but more slowly than sugar sources. The effective use of high-sugar products in supplementation programs requires knowledge of their effects on forage use and of how they compare with other common supplemental carbohydrate sources such as starch (Sniffen and Robinson, 1987). The objective of this study was to determine the effect of supplementing sucrose or starch on in vitro first order dry matter disappearance model of various ruminant feeds (lucerne, wheat bran and sugar beet pulp).

There is an increased demand for raw materials that can be used as substrate for bio-ethanol production. The resultant by-products will have an important role in animal nutrition as possible feeds. Most of these potential feeds are high in cell walls with high lignin contents, limiting its nutritive value. The development and use of alternative enzyme methodologies can increase the availability of structural carbohydrates. Enzymes with the potential to break down cell walls, including lignin, are available in aerobic white-rot fungi. The aim of this study was to evaluate two white-rot cultivation procedures in wheat straw in order to determine if any differences were obtained between the ligninolytic enzyme concentrations. In addition, the susceptibility of the residual carbohydrates to hydrolysis with a commercially available cellulase was also evaluated.

Due to the practical advantages of fermenting the carbohydrate-rich cereal component of fermented feeds separately and combining it with the protein-rich components just before feeding (Beal et al., 2005; Moran et al., 2006), it is desirable to have a high lactic acid concentration in the fermented cereal component so as to minimise the dilution effect on the acid concentration and pH of the feed when mixed with the protein-rich component at feeding. With the same cereal substrate and lactic acid bacteria (LAB), a key factor that might influence lactic acid production is the particle sizes produced at milling which could affect the amount of sugars available for microbial enzymatic fermentation. Further more, Anguita et al. (2006) indicated that technological processing of ingredients promotes higher starch hydrolysis in addition to increasing the amount of soluble non-starch polysaccharides and modifications in the physicochemical properties depending on the nature of the feed ingredients. The present study was designed to investigate the effect of particle size on fermentation of sorghum for poultry feed.

Many methods have been tested in the past for upgrading low quality roughages; physical, chemical and biological methods. Pre-soaking of compound feed pellets has been reported to have a large effect on the fermentability characteristics of this feed (Van Laar et al., 2007). The application of soaking may also improve the degradation and so utilisation of fibrous feeds including cereal straws. Therefore, the objectives of the current study were to test the effect of different physical pre-treatments (soaking with water, with or without heating at different times) on the in-vitro dry matter degradability (DMD) of wheat straw.

X-ray computed tomography (CT) measurements of live sheep have been used to predict carcass composition very accurately (Macfarlane et al., 2006). The utilisation of spiral CT scans (SCTS) for quantifying muscle volumes and weights, using automatic image analysis procedures has also been shown to be very accurate in sheep (Navajas et al., 2006). Although the limiting size of the CT gantry prevents CT scanning of live beef cattle, beef primal joints are small enough to be scanned. Hence, SCTS could be used to quantify beef carcass composition, and provide valuable information for breeding programmes including composition faster than by anatomical dissection. The objective of this study was to develop a CT image analysis procedure to assess fat, muscle and bone weights of beef carcasses and to evaluate its accuracy.

The most important element in consumer enjoyment of meat is tenderness, closely followed by flavour, with variation in these traits having a significant impact on consumer satisfaction (Casas et al. 2006). In order to forge improvements in these traits, either through quantitative breeding or molecular genetics, it is essential that there is a reliable method of trait testing. Sensory data, as collected using a taste panel, are subject to high measurement error as well as problems associated with subjectivity. Unfortunately these sensory panels are a necessary step in the improvement of the above mentioned beef traits, as no machine can measure the range of interacting characteristics that contribute to eating quality and palatability (Warriss 2000). This study aimed to test the repeatability and reproducibility values for seven sensory beef traits assessed by a taste panel operating in a commercial setting.

Myosin is a major contractile protein in skeletal muscle and its different isoforms reflect differences in the properties of fibres, with the major fibre types being named according to the isoform of myosin heavy chain they contain. Four major adult genes encoding isoforms of myosin heavy chain (MHC I, IIA, IIX and IIB) have been identified in skeletal muscle from a variety of species (Pette & Staron, 2000), the expression of these is a characteristic of muscle fibres. Differences in the number, size and proportions of fibres are suggested to affect growth performance and meat quality (Maltin et al., 2003). Conventional myosin ATPase staining characterises individual muscle fibres as slow (MHC type I) or fast (MHC Type IIA, IIX, IIB) based on the activity of myosin ATPase. We previously demonstrated that anti-myosin isoform antibodies could be used to identify muscle fibre compsition by comparing to myosin ATPase staining (Sazili et al 2005). The aim of this study was to develop a quantitative PCR method for determining ovine skeletal muscle fibre composition, based upon the expression of different adult MHC isoform transcripts.

Predictors of carcass and meat quality are sought that can be measured in the live animal, preferably at a young age, on-farm, and with minimum stress to the growing animal. Several in vivo methods of assessing these traits indirectly in lambs have been developed, most of which are expensive and require restraint/handling of animals, which can cause stress and affect growth rate. This study investigates the use of linear dimensions obtained from video image analysis (VIA) to assess live weight, carcass composition and meat quality (MQ) in lambs of two divergent breeds, in a non-disruptive way.

Sensory characteristics of tenderness, juiciness and flavour of beef are important criteria that affect consumer’s evaluation of beef quality. Near infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIR) may be an effective tool to predict sensory characteristics of beef meat. This method is non-destructive, fast and potentially suitable for on-line measurements. The association between NIR measurements and sensory characteristics is expected to be based on chemical (e.g. water, lipid and protein content) and physical or structural (e.g. muscle fibre characteristics) properties of the meat. Objective measurements of physical or structural characteristics can be obtained using Volodkevitch shear force or slice shear force techniques (Shackelford et al., 1999). The objective of this study was to investigate the associations between eating quality traits of beef and NIR measurements.

Previous work has shown that dimensional information derived from visual images can be used to accurately estimate pig growth, in terms of size and shape (Doeschl et al, 2004). The use of visual images to derive accurate estimates of weight could be very useful information in the commercial environment within and across the livestock industries. The objective of the current study was to examine a small number of digital images of finished beef cattle to ascertain if digital image analysis (DIA) has potential to predict the liveweight (LW) of the animals at slaughter.

The current upward trend in cereal prices will have a negative impact on the economics of intensive beef finishing systems. Patterson et al (1994) concluded that continental bulls could perform at a high level on diets which were relatively low in concentrates and predominantly based on grass silage. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the effect of forage:concentrate ratio and weight at slaughter on the meat quality of ¾ or more continental bulls.

We have previously demonstrated that feeding red clover relative to grass silage results in meat characterised by higher levels of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) but reduced shelf life which was associated with lower levels of vitamin E in the muscle (Scollan et al., 2006). Colour shelf life could be ameliorated by feeding additional vitamin E (Scollan et al., 2006). Feeding red clover silage followed by finishing off pasture may help alleviate the problem of colour shelf life while maintaining the benefit of the legume in delivering higher PUFA into meat. Hence this study examined feeding red clover compared with grass silage during the winter, following by a summer finishing period at grass, on fatty acid composition, vitamin E content of meat, colour shelf life and sensory attributes of beef.

Supranutritional supplementation of cattle with vitamin E has improved the colour and lipid stability of beef. Grass-fed cattle have muscle vitamin E concentrations which are 2 to 3 times greater than unsupplemented concentrate-fed cattle (Lanari et al., 2002) but also have higher concentrations of the highly oxidisable long chain n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (Nuernberg et al., 2005). The objective was to compare the oxidative stability of grass-with concentrate-fed beef, both minced and intact, and to determine if supplemental vitamin E can increase the oxidative stability of such beef in high oxygen packaging.

Tenderness can be considered as a function of three components: connective tissue content/composition, sarcomere length and proteolysis of the myofibrillar proteins (ageing) (Koohmaraie, 2002). Improvement of sarcomere length and proteolysis can be achieved through optimal processing (e.g. hanging and aging; Thompson, 2006). The main technique that improves the sarcomere length is tenderstretch hanging. This technique increases the tension of the hindlimb and loin muscles avoiding the contraction of the fibers at rigor (Bouton, 1973). In this experiment the aim was, under commercial conditions, to compare two methods of tenderstretch hanging and to examine the potential to improve the tenderness of lamb muscles.

Human intakes of Very Long Chain n-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids (VLC n-3 PUFAs) are sub-optimal and enrichment of animal-derived foods with C22:6 (DHA) provides a potential route to increased intakes. Chicken meat is popular and versatile, and has the potential to provide meaningful amounts of VLC n-3 PUFAs to the human diet if enriched with these fatty acids through supplementation of growing broiler diets. Marine oils are potential sources as they are known to be rich in DHA. The enrichment of edible poultry tissues with DHA, particularly breast muscle is well established. However, the effect of dietary supplementation of DHA, on the enrichment of other tissues of the chicken is not well known, therefore work to investigate the distribution of these fatty acids within the broiler chicken is valuable to further understand the distribution and enrichment process. The objective of the present study was to compare different levels of DHA in broiler diets in relation to its effect on DHA concentration in the major organ tissues of the broiler chicken.

Enriching chicken meat with the long chain n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (LC n-3 PUFA) 20:5 (EPA) and 22:6 (DHA) by the inclusion of fish oil in the poultry diet is a means of increasing the human consumption of these essential fatty acids. However, a potential drawback of this practice is the adverse effect this can have on the sensory characteristics of chicken meat. Although freshly cooked meat may still be acceptable, oxidative stability of cooked and refrigerated meat from birds fed diets containing more than 40 g/kg fishmeal can be greatly diminished due to the development of unacceptable flavours in the cooked meat when it is reheated (O’Keefe et al., 1995). However, increasing the vitamin E content of the poultry diet increases the oxidative stability of the meat (Nam et al., 1997). The objective of this experiment was to determine the effects on LC n-3 PUFA content and sensory characteristics of white chicken meat when the inclusion rates of vitamin E and fish oil were increased in broiler diets.

The United Kingdom Food Standards Agency (FSA, 2007) noted that the balance of current scientific evidence did not support the view that there were nutritional benefits in consuming organically produced food, although they acknowledged environmental and animal welfare benefits. Nurenberg et al. (2005) reported an increase in n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) and conjugated linoleic acid (CLA cis-9, trans-11) levels in muscle and subcutaneous fat from lambs grazing fresh pasture compared to concentrate-fed lambs. In this report, fatty acid composition data from two lamb finishing trials were statistically analysed to compare the effects of organic grazing with grazing or indoor intensive concentrate feeding.

It is widely accepted that the intake of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) in the human diet should increase, in particular the long chain n-3 PUFAs such as docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, 22:6n-3). Diet has a significant effect on the fatty acid profile of lamb muscle. Meat from concentrate-fed lambs generally has the highest ratio of n-6:n-3 PUFAs, although supplementation with fish oil has been used to enrich the 22:6n-3 content of lamb (Wachira et al., 2002). Lambs finished off grass, a rich source of α-linolenic acid (18:3n-3) tend to have the lowest n6:n3 ratios. However the 18:3n-3 content of grass decreases with advancing maturity and exposure to shading (reviewed by Dewhurst et al., 2006). With a large proportion of UK lambs finished during late autumn when pasture may have a low nutritional value, the health benefits of late season lamb could be reduced. The aims of the current trial were to investigate the effects of lamb finishing system and fish oil supplementation on the fatty acid profile of sheep meat, produced during autumn and winter finishing.

It is the practise for some farmers to supplement new season lambs with concentrates, often as a creep feed, in order to get them to market early before the price declines. This concentrate is usually based on cereals and would be high in n-6 fatty acids, diluting the beneficial effect of grass grazing which promotes the n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) content in the meat (Fisher et al., 2000). The purpose of this trial was to assess the addition of linseed to the concentrate, fed in a creep-feed system, which would maintain or enhance the n-3 fatty acid composition of the meat of animals fed concentrates at grass during the finishing period (Cooper et al., 2004).