In New Zealand, agriculture is predominantly based on pastoral grazing systems and animal excreta deposited on soil during grazing have been identified as a major source of nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions. Forage brassicas (Brassica spp.) have been increasingly used to improve lamb performance. Compared with conventional forage perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.), a common forage in New Zealan...

Selenium and vitamin E are micronutrients essential for normal health and maintenance in poultry. They are necessary in preventing free radical damage to phospholipid membranes, enzymes and other important molecules. Two experiments were conducted in a semi-commercial environment to examine the effect of Se source and vitamin E level in diet on broiler performance and meat quality. Increasing v...

The Fusarium mycotoxin zearalenone (ZEN) can be conjugated with polar molecules, like sugars or sulfates, by plants and fungi. To date, the fate of these modified forms of ZEN has not yet been elucidated in animals. In order to investigate whether ZEN conjugates contribute to the total ZEN exposure of an individual, ZEN (10 µg/kg b.w.) and equimolar amounts of two of its plant metabolites (ZEN-...

Based on the basic principles of radioimmunoassay (RIA), it can be expected that by using this method, residues of anabolic sex hormones in animal tissues can be quantitated in the ng/g to pg/g range with adequate reliability. This was demonstrated for various endogenous and exogenous steroids as well as for stilbene-estrogens. Using the RIA for DES as a regulatory method allowed the successful...

The effect of chemical composition of sunflower seed meal (SFSM) on TMEn and true amino acid digestibility (TAAD) was studied. In Experiment 1, the excretion pattern of three SFSM samples force-fed (30 g) to 10 adult cockerels (Hy-Line) each was followed for 84 h to determine the time interval for complete excretion of SFSM. Type of SFSM did not affect the excretion pattern of DM and energy (P ...

The concentration of plant pigments in excreta vs. food provided a measure of digestibility of most plants by grasshoppers. Digestibility values obtained with the chromogen-ratio method and consumption-excretion ratios were highly correlated (r = 0.789**). Greatly disparate results were obtained in 4 cases. The chromogen method, when applicable, gave better duplicability and eliminated many of ...