Submit Manuscript | http://medcraveonline.com Abbreviations: MCWF: Mycobacterium Cell Wall Fraction; BRDC: Bovine Respiratory Disease Complex; ADG: Average Daily Gain; IL-2:Interleukin-2; IL-6: Interleukin-6; IFN-γ: Interferon Gamma; TDM: Trehalose 6,6′-Dimycolate; MDP: Muramyl Dipeptide; IBR: Infectious Bovine Rhinotracheitis; PI3: Parainfluenza 3; BRSV: Bovine Respiratory Syncytial virus; BVD...

OBJECTIVE Average daily gain (ADG) is an important target trait of pig breeding programs. We aimed to identify single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and genomic regions that are associated with ADG in the Duroc pig population. METHODS We performed a genome-wide association study involving 390 Duroc boars and by using the PorcineSNP60K Beadchip and two linear models. RESULTS After quality c...

Seventy-two crossbred pigs (average initial weight 6 kg) were used to study the effect of L. acidopbilus (lactic acid-producing bacteria common in probiotics) in starter diets on gain, feed conversion, fecal lactobacillus and coli-form counts, hematology and serum proteins. The nonmedicated experimental diets were corn-soybean meal (18% crude protein) diets with two levels of lactose (0 and 10%...

A total of 140 weanling pigs [(Yorkshire × Landrace) × Duroc] with an average body weight (b.w.) of 6.75 ± 1.48 kg were used in a six-week trial. Pigs were randomly allotted to one of four experimental treatments according to their initial b.w. (seven pens per treatment with five pigs per pen). Dietary treatments were: CON = control diet, T1 = CON + 0.05% bromelain, T2 = CON + 0.10% bromelain, ...

Although a number of recent studies have focused on the existence of a non-negligible sire contemporary group interaction effect (s) affecting the estimation of genetic parameters for maternally influenced traits in beef cattle, the assessment and interpretation of this effect using field data remains poorly understood. In this study 27,639 records of both birth weight (BW) and weaning weight (...

Background: This study was conducted to assess the effect of neem (Azadirachta indica) leaves powder (NLP) and cinnamon (Cinnamomum zeylanicum) oil (CNO) on growth performance broiler chickens. Methods: Four hundred twenty day old commercial Vencobb 400 chicks were randomly distributed into 6 groups 7 replicates each. Dietary treatments were; T0 (control: basal diet), T1 (basal diet + 2 g NLP/k...

A meta-analysis on the effects of management and animal-based factors on the performance and feed efficiency of growing pigs can provide information on single factor and interaction effects absent in individual studies. This study analysed the effects of such factors on average daily gain (ADG), feed intake (FI) and feed conversion ratio (FCR) of grower and finisher pigs. The multivariate model...

Two winter steer growth trials were conducted to investigate responses of steer calves to ammoniation of wheat straw, level of alfalfa haylage (50 or 66.7% of diet) and source of supplemental protein, soybean meal (SBM), blood meal (BM), or a blood meal-urea mixture (BM-U). In trial 1, the main effect of arnmoniation significantly increased average daily gain (ADG) from .15 t o .24 kgld, dry ma...

Intra-uterine growth restriction (IUGR) impairs postnatal growth and skeletal muscle development in neonatal infants. This study evaluated whether dietary β-hydroxy-β-methylbutyrate Ca (HMB-Ca) supplementation during the early postnatal period could improve muscle growth in IUGR neonates using piglets as a model. A total of twelve pairs of IUGR and normal-birth-weight (NBW) male piglets with av...

The present study investigated the effects of varying durations of nursery diets differing in percentages of milk products on growth performance of pigs during the nursery phase (NP) and subsequent grow-finish phase (GFP) to find the feasibility of reducing the use of nursery diets containing costly milk products. A total of 204 21-d-old weanling female and castrated male pigs were subjected to...