Intensive research has been directed to the potential of Natural Growth Promoters (NGPs) to replace antibiotics. Phytogenics and organic acids (OA) have been shown to be effective in reducing the incidence of gastrointestinal disorders, thereby improving growth performance in pigs (Steiner, 2006). The addition of OA to nonruminant diets is supposed to have beneficial effects on feed safety since OA have a detrimental impact on moulds and other feed contaminants. Moreover, due to a decrease in gastric pH, acidification of the diets creates favourable conditions for nutrient digestibility, especially in young piglets (Radcliffe et al., 1998). Dietary supplementation with essential oils originating from aromatic plants may directly affect the intestinal microflora, both in quantitative and qualitative terms. As shown under in vitro (Helander et al., 1998) and in vivo conditions (Kroismayr et al., 2005), oregano essential oils have strong antimicrobial properties. Finally, it has been confirmed that addition of fructooligosaccharides (FOS) to diets for nonruminants may stabilize the gut microflora by selectively supporting the growth of beneficial bacteria (Macfarlane et al., 2006). Depending on individual farm conditions, a well-adjusted combination of different strategies is supposed to maximize the efficacy of NGPs in antibiotic-free feeding systems. The aim of the trial was to investigate the effects of phytogenics and OA alone and in combination in comparison with a commercial diet containing no additives.

At weaning piglets are exposed to physiological and environmental stress, which often result in reduced feed intake and little or no weight gain (Ravindran and Kornegay, 1993). During the last few decades, diets for weaning piglets have been boosted with various antibiotics in prophylactic doses against gastrointestinal disorders in order to obtain economic benefits due to improved growth rates (4 to 15%) and feed efficiency (2 to 6%; Mroz, 2003). However, growing public concern about the use of antibiotics in animal agriculture and the risk of developing cross-resistance of pathogens to antibiotics used in human therapy has prompted the pig industry to look for alternatives to antibiotic growth promoters that will give similar pig performance. The objective of this study was to evaluate the potential of inorganic acids (phosphoric acid) for nursery pig diets in order to determine their effects on weight gain, diarrhoea and resistance to illness.

Piglet weaner diets are often supplemented with the antimicrobial mineral zinc oxide (ZnO) to minimise the characteristic growth check post weaning in commercial systems. Zinc has been shown to decrease the incidence of scours, maintain gut morphology and feed intake, and increase growth rate, although the mechanism for these effects remains unclear. Weaning is often accompanied with a decrease in digestive enzyme production by enterocytes, decreasing digestive and absorptive capacity. Digestive enzyme requirements also alter with the dietary change from milk to a solid cereal-based diet, and improvements in enzymatic adaptations may increase digestion and absorption and improve feed utilisation. It is hypothesised in this study that the growth effects of ZnO are linked to improvement in digestion by altering digestive enzyme expression and activity. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the effects of ZnO are linked to expression of the digestive enzymes lactase phlorizin hydrolase (LPH) and aminopeptidase N (ANPEP) in the small intestine (S.I.).

Public concern about animal welfare has increased both legislation and consumer pressure, to introduce new technical developments in sow’s housing. In recent years, there has been increased interest in less intensive production systems for pigs, including outdoor production. The issue of sow’s housing and its relation to welfare has been investigated for sometime now (SVC, 1997; McGlone et al., 2004). Concerns over animal welfare combined with European based scientific data have led to the progressive removal of gestation stalls in several European countries, and from 2013 the use of stalls will be restricted throughout the European Union. Therefore one of the greatest challenges in swine housing management is the development of a viable alternative to stalls. In this way, we carried out a study to (1) compare the agonistic behaviour of two breeds of sows moved from individual stalls to an outdoor park, and to (2) determine the evolution of behaviour throughout four weeks of study for each breed.

The psychological disturbance caused to pigs at loading is thought to be responsible for increased difficulty in handling and impaired well-being through associated rough handling and injury (Geverink et al., 1998). Environmental enrichment (toys and driving) has been shown to reduce the force required and the excitability of pigs driven through a chute (Grandin et al., 1986). The objective of the current study was to investigate whether it is possible to reduce the psychological stress of slaughter-weight pigs at loading by reducing the novelty of the loading process.

Nigeria, which produces an estimated 34 million metric tons of cassava annually, is the leading producer of cassava world-wide (FAO, 2004a). There have been several studies by many scientists on the use of cassava for livestock feeding. Most of these studies centred on the use of either flour or peels or leaves. Besides, most of these studies confirmed the suitability of cassava flour to replace maize partially or wholly in the diets of all species of livestock. The replacement of maize with cassava flour was reported to be economical. These findings appeared to have been over taken by events and recently in Nigeria, cassava has been attracting interest as an industrial crop having found various uses in the starch, pharmaceutical, bread, and biscuit industries. This has made the price of cassava flour to be on the increase. Based on the high cost of cassava flour, its use to replace maize is becoming unattractive economically. As a result of this, attempt was made to reduce the flour content in the diets of monogastric animals considerably by adding more of peels, leaves, and tender-stems. Most of these by products from cassava especially peel, leaves, and tender-stems are under-utilised as they are often left to rot away after harvest on farms and homesteads where cassava is grown in Nigeria. Hence, the objective of these studies was to evaluate the effect of inclusion of various products and by products obtainable from cassava in a single or composite diet on the performance of monogastric animals.

Reproductive problems in sows are the cause for at least 15% of the sow culls in Cyprus. The main cause of reproductive failure is urogenital tract infections (UTI), caused by pathogenic bacteria entering the sow’s reproductive tract, especially at risk times of farrowing and serving when the cervix is open (Almond and Richards 1992). Indigenous people have used cranberry preparations to prevent UTIs and other illness for centuries (http://www.cranberryinstitute.org/health/urinarytract.htm). An endogenous mechanism of the sow as protection against bacterial infections in the urogenital tract is the urinary pH, which can be manipulated by dietary means affecting the dietary anion-cation balance (Beker 1999). The objective of this experiment was to evaluate the effect of a dietary urine acidifier based on acidic acting substances (mixture of phosphoric acid and selected ingredients containing anions) and cranberry extract on sow urine parameters (pH, leucocytes and nitrates) and sow fertility parameters.

The sustainable animal production systems, based on pastures require the knowledge of animal and vegetation responses to different management strategies (Oliván and Osoro, 1997). The lack of knowledge about the grazing behaviour, intake and diet digestibility of “Alentejano pigs” explored under “Montanheira”, leads to many doubts about the most adequate production strategies. N-alkanes are components of plant cuticular wax and have been successfully used as markers for estimation of intake in ruminants (Dove and Mayes, 1991), however few studies with pigs have been published, particularly “alentejano pigs”. In the “Montanheira” system, the main components of the diet are acorns and pasture. Therefore this trial was conducted to validate the use of the n-alkane technique to estimate intake and digestibility of the particular diet composition of “Montanheira” (acorns and pasture) by “Alentejano pigs”.

The major constraint limiting the development of livestock production in many developing countries is inadequacy of animal feed; although there are a wide range of valuable by-products and residues eligible to complement it. To estimate whether a material is appropriate for animal feeding, in vitro gas production (GP) technique have been used to evaluate the potential of different classes of feedstuffs to supply nutrients to ruminants. Thus, the fermentation characteristics of artichoke by-product (Cynara scolymus), alfalfa and Tifton 85 (Cynodon sp) hay were evaluated by in vitro GP technique.

Crop residues are a major source of low-quality biomass that can be fed to ruminants. Sugarcane bagasse and sugarcane pith, the residue after rind removal, are highly lignified by products of the sugar and paper industries, respectively (Muller, 1978). The low digestibility, high lignin and very low nitrogen content, are considered the main reasons for unsatisfactory performance of animals fed this roughage. Steam-pressure treatment cleavage the bounds between lignin and the other component of the cell wall, These are associated with the improved utilization of cell wall polysaccharides in the steam pre-treated materials by cell-free enzymes and enzymes of the rumen microbial ecosystem. The possibility of increasing nutritive value of fibrous feedstuffs by enzymes treatment has been studied in recent years. A number of studies in the 1960s involving cattle and sheep showed that enzymes substantially improved feed digestibility and animal performance, but results were often inconsistent The objectives of our study were to characterize the response of sugarcane bagasse, pith, untreated and steam treated, to sodium hydroxide and enzyme mixtures treatment.

Ration formulation systems require information on nutrient requirements of the animal and reliable values for rumen degradable and undegradable fractions of feed ingredients. The in situ nylon-bag technique is widely used to characterize the disappearance of feeds from the rumen (Woods et al., 2002). The objective of this study was determining of relationship between in vitro and in situ dry matter disappearance.

The in situ technique forms the basis of many feed evaluation systems for ruminants. Although this method is widely used, the NBT is very laborious, time-consuming, and incubations and analyses of the feed residues often last several weeks. Therefore, several other techniques have been investigated to measure and predict ruminal degradation of various chemical components of feedstuffs. The aim of this study is to investigate the possibilities of estimating in situ degradation characteristics of DM, CP, ADF and NDF in several feedstuffs by gas production characteristics and chemical composition.

Legume forages are an important source of protein in ruminant feeding but some legumes contain anti-nutritional factors, such as tannins, which can interfere in fermentability. In vitro methods to determine quality of feeds are important to nutritionists. These methods are less expensive, less time consuming and allow more control of experimental conditions than in vivo experiments. The aim of this work was to evaluate the nutritive value of four Brazilian legume forages, with different tannin levels, using the in vitro bioassay technique.

Chemical composition and physical characteristics of diet influences its optimal utilization in dairy cow. Neutral detergent fiber measures the chemical characteristics, but not the physical characteristics of fiber such as particle size and density (Mertens, 1997). Both the amount and physical form of fiber are important in the diet of lactating dairy cow for maintaining normal milk fat content, chewing and digestive activities. A sufficient supply of long particles or NDF must be included in the ration to increase chewing activities, maintaining the rumen pH and providing an optimal rumen environment in order to avoid metabolic disorders. Current NRC guidelines (NRC, 2001) have proven useful information in defining animal requirements and feed composition but do not provide detailed recommendation on physical form of ration. The objective of this experiment was to determine the effect of lucerne particle size on feed intake and digestibility in dairy cow in early lactation period.

In ruminants, as much as 50% of the dietary crude protein can be converted to ammonia by ruminal microorganisms. A part of ammonia can be utilized as a bacterial nitrogen source; however, rates of ammonia production often exceed rates of ammonia utilization. Peptides are intermediates in the conversion of ingested protein to ammonia in the rumen and their accumulation depends upon the nature of diet (Mesgaran & Parker, 1995). The objective of the present experiment was to investigate the effect of diets differing in concentrate: lucerne hay ratios on the ruminal pH, ammonia-nitrogen concentration and ruminal peptide nitrogen concentration in Holstein steers.

Some physical properties including particle size, functional specific gravity (FSG; Teimouri Yansari et al., 2004), hydration rate, water holding capacity (WHC) and ionion-cation exchange (Van Soest, 1994) influenced on physically effective factor (pef), but only particle size measurement is central to all effective fibre systems. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of three types of beet pulp (BP) on physical characteristics including bulk density, particle size, kinetics of hydration, FSG, WHC, and intrinsic osmotic pressure that measured using in vitro and in situ methods.

Rumen microbes are rich in nucleic acid: around 18% of total nitrogen is present on nucleic acids or 11% in purines. Rumen microbes constitue the major source of protein supply to the ruminant. The purines from the rumen microbes are metabolized and excreted in the urine as their end products: hypoxanthine, xanthine, uric acid and allantoin. In buffalo and cattle because of high xanthine oxidase activity in intestine and blood, hypoxanthine and xanthine convert to uric acid therefore only uric acid and allantoin excreted in urine way (Chen, X. B., Ørskov, E. R., 2003). This research carried out to use excretion of purine derivatives namely allantoin and uric acid as a parameter to estimate the microbial protein synthesis in the rumen of native swamp buffalo in north of iran, Mazandaran Province.

Gas measurement provides a useful data on digestion kinetics of both soluble and insoluble fractions of feedstuffs (Getachew et al., 1998). Carbohydrate portion of each feed is divided into three digestible fraction: the A fraction, containing sugars, short oligosaccharides, and organic acids; the B1 fraction, containing starch and pectin; and B2, the digestible fibre fraction (Doane et al. 1998). The objective of this study was to measure of fermentation parameters of tropical clover (Trifolium resupinatum) (pre bud, full bud, pre bloom and full bloom) using gas production technique.

In Egypt, animals suffer from under feeding and mal-nutrition due to the shortage of local produced feed which are not sufficient to cover the nutritional requirements of animals. The annually amount produced of agro-by¬products in Egypt are around 2.5 million ton of rice straw and one million ton of sugarcane bagasse. These wastes are usually burned causing environmental pollution. The potential use of these wastes in ruminant ration will participate in reducing the shortage of feedstuffs and subsequently increase milk and meat production in Egypt. Gas measuring technique has been widely used for evaluation of nutritive value particularly to estimate agro-industry by-products, different feed classes and energy value of straws. Therefore, the main objective of this study was to assess the nutritive value of rice straw, date stone, sugarcane bagasse and berseem hay using the in vitro gas production technique.

Oak trees (Quercus spp.) are the main source of animal feedstuff in the forest areas of Zagros mountain chain in Iran. The leaves of oak contain high level of tannins particularly hydrolysable, which causes mortality in ruminant animals (Makkar, 2003). Polyethylene glycol (PEG) can form a stable complex with tannins, preventing the binding between tannins and dietary proteins (Makkar, 2003). Little information is available on the nutritive value of Quercus species (Q. persica and Q. infectoria). This study, therefore, is evaluating the chemical composition, phenolic compounds, organic matter digestibility (IVOMD) and metabolisable energy (ME) of these species with or without PEG using gas production technique in sheep.