Rapeseed meal and egg taint: Treatment of rapeseed meal to reduce tainting potential

1. Treatment of rapeseed meal with calcium hydroxide suspension decreased the sinapine content by up to 90%. Smaller decreases were obtained by autolysis, steaming and treatment with ammonia.

2. When this treated meal was fed to susceptible ("tainting") hens the concentration of trimethylamine in the eggs was decreased to much less than that required to cause taint.     

Rapeseed Meal and egg taint

1. Certain rapeseed meals in the diet of hens laying brown eggs result in the production, from some birds, of eggs which have a “ fishy ” or “ crabby ” odour because of the presence of trimethylamine.

2. Such susceptible birds have been used to demonstrate that the activity can be extracted from rapeseed meal with appropriate solvents.     

A survey of northern Victorian dairy farmers to investigate dairy calf management: colostrum feeding and management

Objectives

To describe colostrum management practices carried out in northern Victorian dairy herds and to identify weaknesses in these areas that may affect calf health and welfare by comparing the results with the current industry recommendations

Methods

A questionnaire to obtain information about colostrum management and calf‐rearing practices was sent to commercial dairy farming clients of Rochester Veterinary Practice between June and September 2013. The questionnaire consisted of a general herd overview and colostrum harvesting practices.

Results

The response rate was 39% (58/150). Many dairy producers were not meeting the current industry recommendations in the following areas: (1) time of removal calf from the dam, (2) relying on calf suckling colostrum from the dam to achieve adequate passive transfer, (3) failing to supplement calves with colostrum, (4) feeding inadequate volumes of colostrum, (5) delayed colostrum harvesting, (6) pooling of colostrum, (7) failing to objectively assess colostrum quality or relying on visual assessment and (8) storing colostrum for a prolonged periods of time at ambient temperatures.

Conclusion

The results from this survey highlight the need for greater awareness of industry standards for colostrum management and feeding hygiene.

     

双氰胺对土壤酶活性的影响

本文选用沈阳市东陵区天拄山耕作棕壤,采用室内培养试验研究了双氰胺对土壤酶活性的影响情况。双氰胺对土壤中性磷酸酶活性的影响主要在培养的前20天,表现为显著的抑制作用;对土壤脲酶活性的影响主要在培养的第20、30天时表现为显著的抑制作用;对土壤过氧化氢酶活性的影响在培养的第30天时表现为显著的激活作用;对土壤转化酶活性影响不大。     

Effects of induction treatments on flowering in Populus deltoides

Stimulation of early flowering is required to shorten breeding cycles of eastern cottonwood (Populus deltoides Bartr. ex Marsh. var. deltoides), a commercially important and fast-growing hardwood species. A series of experiments was conducted to evaluate the influence of various treatments on flowering in rooted cuttings from mature and juvenile trees. A combined treatment of water stress, root pruning and paclobutrazol was applied to 3-month-old rooted cuttings from mature trees. These cuttings had been subjected to root restriction and long days. All treated plants flowered, whereas no untreated plants formed flower buds. One-year-old rooted cuttings from juvenile trees did not flower when treated with either paclobutrazol, paclobutrazol plus water stress, paclobutrazol plus root pruning, or paclobutrazol plus girdling. This was true both under continuous or periodic growth. Assessment of the lack of flowering in juvenile trees may require an integrated approach that investigates environmental or physiological stimuli, assimilate shift, gibberellic acid type and concentration, and flowering-time gene activity in the new shoots of mature and juvenile cottonwood trees.     

Testing and evaluation of natural durability of wood in above ground conditions in Europe – an overview

Natural durability of wood is determined by the European standard EN 252 for specimens in ground contact and EN 113 for basidiomycetes in the laboratory, but no test exists for above ground conditions. For above ground conditions, the European prestandard ENV 12037 and EN 330 are used to determine the durability of treated wood. The most important factors for fungal establishment on the surface and within wood are the moisture content, the surrounding temperature, and the relative humidity. Strength tests are the most sensitive for decay detection, but neither strength tests nor identification of fungi responsible for the decay are included in the standards of above ground durability in field tests. To detect decay, visual examination, pick or splinter tests, and mass loss determination are used. Identifying fungi with traditional methods, e.g., growth on solid medium, is time consuming and complicated. Molecular methods like polymerase chain reaction and sequencing do not require mycological skill for identification to species level, and furthermore the methods do not depend on the subjective judgement like most traditional methods, but are based on the objective information of the target organism (e.g., nucleotide sequences). The next generation of standard field tests will probably consider the drawbacks of standard tests today and be rapid and include both quality tests like molecular identification and nondestructive quantitative tests, e.g., acoustic tests. Laboratory tests can be improved by using fungi identified from field trials and by combining different fungi in the same test and thus simulate degradation in practice.     

Morphometry,Morphology and Ultrastructure of Ring‐tailed Coati Sperm (Nasua nasua Linnaeus, 1766)

The ring‐tailed coati (Nasua nasua) is a procyonid whose population is in sharp decline. Therefore, studies are needed to better understand the reproduction of this animal. For this reason, this study aimed to evaluate the morphology, morphometry and sperm ultrastructure of ring‐tailed coati sperm. Four captive adult males were used for this study. Slides stained with Bengal Rose were used for the morphometric and morphologic analyses. The length and width of the head were measured, as well as the length of the midpiece and tail and the total length of the sperm. Scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy were used for the ultrastructural analyses. The most obvious morphological abnormalities observed were coiled tails (6.1 ± 8.7%) and the lack of acrosomes (5.4 ± 4.4%). Regarding the morphometry, the measurements of the head (length × width), midpiece (length) and tail (length) were (mean ± SD) 6.2 ± 0.4 × 8.1 ± 0.6 μm, 14.1 ± 0.5 and 63.9 ± 4.1 μm, respectively, and the total length of the sperm was 86.1 ± 4.3 μm. Through electron microscopy, the presence of electron‐lucent points in the nucleus and the presence of approximately 55 mitochondrial spirals in the midpiece were identified. The data obtained in this study provide detailed information on the sperm characteristics of coatis and may inform future research on germplasm conservation, both for this species and other threatened procyonids.     

The effect of footrot on body weight and wool growth of sheep

Body weight and traits associated with production of wool were measured over a 2-year period between 1985 and 1987 in south-western New South Wales in a flock of Merino wethers experimentally infected with footrot. The disease was allowed to spread freely amongst 150 of the flock but kept at very low prevalence in the remaining 50 by preventive footbathing during transmission periods. Severe, underrunning footrot had a significant adverse effect on body weight, for each year of the trial. Body weight was most severely reduced at times of the year when footrot was spreading among animals and lesions were severe. The mean body weight of the infected group at the end of the 2 years of observation was 7.3 kg (11.6%) below that of the control group. Footrot also depressed wool growth, with the mean clean fleece weight of the infected group being 0.4 kg (8%) lighter than that of the controls at each of the 2 annual shearings. There were no consistent differences between the groups for the other wool characteristics measured.     

广西旱地分带间套轮作试验示范研究

于1986～1988年,在广西六个县、市进行了旱地分带种植试验、示范,已取得了预期效果。(1)经济产量比对照高187.9kg/亩,增产44.4%;(2)纯收入比对照高108.1元/亩,增收83.7%;(3)每个工日产粮、产值比对照分别高7.6 kg、2.7元/工,增54.7%、37.0%;每元投入产粮、产值比对照分别高1.2kg、0.7元,增33.3%、41.2%; (4)产/投能量效率高31%;每投一单位辅助能,产生物能,食物能比对照分剐高400kcal、120kcal;光能利用率及光能生产率此对照分别多0.17%,0.1%;(5)土地等量比率(L.E.R)为对照的4.4倍;(6)土壤肥力比对照有所提高。     

影响克隆牛生产效率之因素研究

为了提高牛体细胞克隆的效率,比较了不同融合电压对核移植胚发育的影响,其中1.7kv/cm电场强度,获得了较高的融合率、卵裂率和囊胚率,分别为67.14%,76.59%和29.16%。比较了血清饥饿处理体细胞对核移植效率的影响,血清饥饿处理体细胞后,融合率、卵裂率和囊胚率分别为68.91%,74.79%和28.26%,与非血清饥饿处理的相比没有明显差异(分别为60.96%,71.91%和20.31%,P>0.05)。而且胚胎移植后的怀孕率和产犊率也没有差异(分别为29.17%,8.33%和33.33%,16.66%,P>0.05)。另外,通过加强克隆牛的产后护理,可以提高克隆牛的成活率。总之,优化生产克隆牛的各环节因素,可以从整体上提高克隆牛的生产效率。