Influence of Syzygium cumini extract as feed additives on performance and haematological parameters of commercial broiler chickens

Phytogenies have been widely used as alternative feed additives to replace antibiotics in animal production. The present study aims to evaluate inclusion of S. cumini extract as feed additives on performance and haematological parameters of commercial broiler chickens. A total of 100-day-old commercial chickens (mixed sex) were randomly allocated to four treatments with five replicates. Each treatment was administrated different level of S. cumini extract in the drinking water (P0=control, P1=0.25 g/l drinking water, P2=0.50 g/l drinking water and P3=1.0 g/l drinking water). Commercial diet was provided during experiment based on nutrition requirement for starter and grower. Water and feed were given ad libitum. Data were collected to measure broiler performances and haematological parameters. One way ANOVA was applied in this study and significantly different among treatments were stated (P≥0.05). The results indicated that inclusion of S.cumini extract as feed additives in drinking water did not significantly affected (P>0.05) on animal performances and haematological parameters of commercial broiler chickens. Therefore, it concluded that S.cumini extract can be applied as alternative feed additive due to no negative effects of the S.cumini iextract on performances and haematological parameters.

Feed autonomy in organic cattle farming systems: a necessary but not sufficient lever to be activated for economic efficiency

Increasing the level of feed autonomy is usually considered as a prerequisite for conversion of cattle farms to organic management. This study is aimed at generating references for organic dairy and beef production through a technical and economic assessment of feed autonomy in commercial farms. Data were collected in 2014 and 2015 on 11 farms located in distinct agricultural regions of Wallonia, Belgium. Dry matter (DM) production, animal performance and all cash in- and outflows were recorded. Economic efficiency (EE) was computed as the share of the feed margin, i.e., the gross product minus the total feed and processing costs, in the gross product. The mean level of mass feed autonomy (FAm) was 94 ± 6%. Feed production costs (p < 0.05) and feed purchase costs (p < 0.001) were negatively correlated with FAm so that the total feed cost decreased with FAm (p < 0.001). All farms with EE > 65% had a level of FAm ≥ 90%; however, one farm with FAm ≥ 90% had a mean EE of 55% over both study years. This observation suggested that a 90% level of FAm is necessary, but not sufficient, to be economically efficient in organic cattle farming. Four production systems with EE > 65% and thus FAm ≥ 90% were finally characterized based on the observed crop rotations, overall DM yields, stocking rates and animal performances.

A Longitudinal Study of Cattle Productivity in Intensive Dairy Farms in Central Ethiopia

Ethiopia is witnessing an emergence of intensive urban dairy farming. The aims of this study were to capture cattle productivity parameters in selected intensive dairy farms in and around Addis Ababa (Central Ethiopia). The study is a pre-requisite and baseline for further economic analysis of diseases such as bovine tuberculosis (BTB) and to assess some of the current challenges faced by farm owners for optimal animal performances. Hence, a 3-year longitudinal observational study was conducted for the first time in Ethiopia, in 24 dairy farms with intensive husbandry, including a total of 1,705 dairy animals. Herd characteristics, animal movement, and productivity parameters (fertility, morbidity, mortality) were recorded in a herd-book. Whereas, half the farms saw their animals increase in number over the 3 years, 37.5% (mainly large farms) saw their herd size decrease. Offtakes accounted for 76.6% of all animal exits. One hundred and ninety (11.1%) animals died of natural causes. Highest mortality was observed in young stock (13.9%). Overall, diseases were the leading cause for death (57.5%). The majority of calves (69%) that died, did so within the first week of life. Mean calving interval (CI) was 483.2 days. Successful conception after artificial insemination (AI) was 66.1% with Addis Ababa and smaller farms faring worst. Mean time interval from calving to first service was 152 days. Date of birth to first service was 592.2 days and date of birth to first calving was 794.7 days. In conclusion, the study showed sub-optimal productivity performances in intensive dairy cattle and highlighted some of the current gaps and challenges in urban dairy productivity.

Mixed Grazing and Dietary Supplementation Improve the Response to Gastrointestinal Nematode Parasitism and Production Performances of Goats

Small ruminants are very affected by gastrointestinal nematode (GIN) parasitism worldwide. The improvement of the host protective response and the reduction of the probability of contact between hosts and parasites appear as very promising strategies. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of a combination of two components of these two strategies on natural GIN infection and production performances of Creole goat kids: dietary supplementation and a rotational mixed grazing system. One hundred and twenty weaned Creole kids and six Creole heifers were divided into four experimental batches: Splus (supplemented) vs. Szero (non-supplemented) × Mixed grazing (kids associated with heifers) vs. Control (kids alone), and grazing plots of forage grasses were balanced for live weight (LW) in both species. The feed intake, blood, and parasitological parameters and production performances between 3 and 11 months of age were monitored. The fecal egg count (FEC) was significantly lower and the packed cell volume (PCV) significantly higher in the Mixed grazing groups. No effect of supplementation was observed for FEC. In contrast, PCV, body condition score, and live weight were significantly higher in supplemented animals whatever the groups. Mixed grazing system and supplementation had significant effects on the slaughter parameters (P &lt; 0.05), but there was no significant interaction. Our results suggested that the advantage driven either by mixed grazing or dietary supplementation on kids' performances would be equivalent, and the combination of both would improve the animal performances.

Provoking Animal Realities on TV: Exploring the Affinities between STS and Screen Studies

This paper investigates the logistics of crafting and accounting for animal realities on television. Using the case of The Making of David Attenborough’s Conquest of the Skies, a behind-the-scenes documentary about how the Sky TV series David Attenborough’s Conquest of the Skies was created, it explores how the material reality of animals becomes a televisual reality. In seeking to challenge the lingering concern within many media studies critiques of wildlife TV about the constructed and manipulated nature of televisual animals, we propose an approach focused on how realities are provoked. This approach draws on recent debates within STS and screen theory about the contingent elements and accountability relations that become practically operative in making something real. Equally significant is the animal performer. How do the animals, often domesticated, that are used in television to simulate wildness or scientific facts participate in and resist the television apparatus? And how do these animal performances shape distinct animal–human relations and contact zones?

Open Data for Open Questions in Comparative Nutrition

Achieving a better understanding of the consequences of nutrition to animal fitness and human health is a major challenge of our century. Nutritional ecology studies increasingly use nutritional landscapes to map the complex interacting effects of nutrient intake on animal performances, in a wide range of species and ecological contexts. Here, we argue that opening access to these hard-to-obtain, yet considerably insightful, data is fundamental to develop a comparative framework for nutrition research and offer new quantitative means to address open questions about the ecology and evolution of nutritional processes.

Spectroscopic Kernel Quality from a Symbiotic Corn Production

The management of the inoculation of a plant’s roots, by means of biofertilizers (BF) containing arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi, is aimed at inducing modifications of the quality of the seeds. It is here shown that a seed-soil treatment can be elicited in the fingerprints of a symbiotic treatment using Near Infra Red (NIR)-SCiO NIR-SCiO spectra collections of single kernels: overall, a sensitivity of 73% and a specificity of 73% have been achieved, thus suggesting that it may be possible to assign the symbiotic origin of corn from just twenty kernels, provided that the dataset is adequately representative of the cultivar and AM. A global correlation study has shown a positive general trend (R2 0.45) of quality vs. quantity, in the sense that an increase in yield corresponded to an increase in the spectral differences between the symbiotic spectra and the control ones, but the inverse was also true, as a result of the parasitic behaviour of the BF treatments. The efficacy of the symbiosis can be back predicted from the NIR spectra; in fact, around 90% of the positive yield outcome results were discriminated from the negative ones. A reduction in the foliar pH (R2 0.37) and an increase in the foliar protein (R2 0.43) were observed as immediate phenotypic signs of a productive symbiosis. The commercial raw composition of the kernels appeared to only be affected slightly by the BF treatments; thus, till now uncharted secondary compounds of the maize kernels are involved, as supported by animal performances.

Construction of a statistical learning tool based on ordinary differential equations to model the digestive behaviour of ross chickens

Being able to monitor and forecast farm animal performances is a strategic problem in the agronomy industry. We use a Data-Model Coupling approach to build a biomimetic Statistical Learning tool taking into account some aspects of the biological dynamics of the animal body. The objective is to build a tool which is able to assimilate data about daily feed consumption and measured performances. The model encompasses several sub-models corresponding to compartments and permitting to mimic a kinetic process divided into several steps. Each sub-model contains parameters which can be learnt by using an optimization algorithm and data. The goal of the first application of the model on field data was to simulate and predict the growth of chickens. An experiment was performed during 70 days to collect every day the feed consumption and the weight gain of a male and a female chickens. After the learning of the model parameters, the model shows a very good approximation of the chicken’s weight evolution over time.

Modeling the Role of the Striatum in Non-Stationary Bandit Tasks

Decision making in non-stationary and stochastic environments can be interpreted as a variant of non-stationary multi armed bandit task where the optimal decision requires identification of the current context. We formalize the problem using a Bayesian approach taking biological constraints into account (limited memory) that allow us to define a sub-optimal theoretical model. From this theoretical model, we derive a biological model of the striatum based on its micro-anatomy that is able to learn state and action representations. We show that this model matches the theoretical model for low stochasticity in the environment and could be considered as a neural implementation of the theoretical model. Both models are tested on non-stationary multi-armed bandit task and compared to animal performances.Author SummaryDecision making in changing environments requires knowledge of the current context in order to adapt the response to the environment. Such context identification is based on the recent history of actions and their outcome: when some action used to be rewarded but is not anymore, it might be a sign of a context change. An ideal observer with infinite memory could optimally estimate the current context and act accordingly. Taking biological constraint into account, we show that a model of the striatum, which is the largest nucleus of the basal ganglia, can solve the task in a sub-optimal way as it has been shown to be the case in rats in a T-maze task.