Nutritional significance of amino acids,vitamins and minerals as nutraceuticals in poultry production and health – a comprehensive review

Nutraceuticals have gained immense importance in poultry science recently considering the nutritional and beneficial health effects of their constituents. Besides providing nutritional requirements to birds, nutraceuticals have beneficial pharmacological effects, for example, they help in establishing normal physiological health status, prevent diseases and thereby improve production performance. Nutraceuticals include amino acids, vitamins, minerals, enzymes, etc. which are important for preventing oxidative stress, regulating the immune response and maintaining normal physiological, biochemical and homeostatic mechanisms. Nutraceuticals help in supplying nutrients in balanced amounts for supporting the optimal growth performance in modern poultry flocks, and as a dietary supplement can reduce the use of antibiotics. The application of antibiotic growth enhancers in poultry leads to the propagation of antibiotic-resistant microbes and drug residues; therefore, they have been restricted in many countries. Thus, there is a demand for natural feed additives that lead to the same growth enhancement without affecting the health. Nutraceuticals substances have an essential role in the development of the animals’ normal physiological functions and in protecting them against infectious diseases. In this review, the uses of amino acids, vitamins and minerals as well as their mode of action in growth promotion and elevation of immune system are discussed.     

Suitability of mapped sequence tagged microsatellite site markers for establishing distinctness, uniformity and stability in aromatic rice

At present, testing for distinctness, uniformity and stability (DUS) of crop varieties relies on a set of morphological characters. These characters suffer fromthe limitations of number, interaction with the environment in which the variety grows and subjectivity in decision-making. The potential of DNA-based markers such as sequence tagged microsatellite site (STMS), for establishing DUS merits investigation. In the present study, a set of 55 mapped STMS markers, selected from 12 linkage groups of rice genome, was used to examine distinctness of 23 aromatic rice genotypes including the commercially important Basmati varieties. Forty-one of these markers (74.5%) showed polymorphism between the varieties. The number of alleles per locus ranged from 2–4 with an average of 2.3. The polymorphism information content (PIC) of the markers varied from 0.083 to 0.665 with an average of 0.338. All the varieties could be differentiated from each other at a low probability (0.07×10^-13) of identical match by chance. The marker-based clustering of the varieties corresponded with the known phenotypic classification, thereby providing confidence in the distinctness established by the mapped STMS markers. The utility of these markers to study uniformity and stability was analysed using a commercially important crossbred Basmati rice variety Pusa Basmati 1(IET-10364) that contributes about 40–50% of Basmati rice export from India. Genotyping of twenty individual plants, grown from the nucleus, breeder, foundation, certified and farmer's saved seed samples using all the 55 markers revealed no variation among the plants. These observations suggested that the set of mapped markers employed in this study could be further used for establishing distinctness of aromatic rice varieties and for studying DUS of the important commercial variety Pusa Basmati 1. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Microbial populations,enzyme activities and nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium enrichment in earthworm casts and in the surrounding soil of a pineapple plantation

Summary Total populations of bacteria and fungi, dehydrogenase activity (as a measure of total potential microbial activity), and urease and phosphatase activities were determined in earthworm casts and surrounding laterite soils planted to pineapple. The casts contained higher microbial populations and enzyme activities than the soil. Except for fungal populations, statistically significant (P = 0.05) increases were found in all other parameters. Microbial populations and enzyme activities showed similar temporal trends with higher values in spring and summer and lower values in winter. The earthworm casts contained higher amounts of N, P, K and organic C than the soil (P = 0.05). Selective feeding by earthworms on organically rich substrates, which break down during passage through the gut, is likely to be responsible for the higher microbial populations and greater enzyme activity in the casts.     

One-step RT-PCR for the Detection of Infectious Bursal Disease Virus in Clinical Samples

A single-tube, non-interrupted, one-step RT-PCR has been standardized to amplify the hypervariable region of the VP2 gene sequence of infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV). The technique standardized on purified viral RNA was successfully applied to the detection of the virus directly in clinical samples. The amplified products were confirmed to be IBDV specific by their size in ethidium bromide-stained agarose gel, nested PCR and restriction enzyme digestion. Digestion of the amplicons with StyI restriction enzyme also differentiated classical virus from six very virulent field isolates. The sensitivity of the one-step RT-PCR was found to be 0.2 pg of viral RNA.     

Acute cortisol responses of calves to scoop dehorning using local anaesthesia and/or cautery of the wound

Objective To measure plasma cortisol responses in calves dehorned using a scoop after administration of local anaesthesia and/or cautery of the wounds.
Design A physiological study with controls.
Procedure There were six treatments: control handling with and without local anaesthesia, dehorning, dehorning after local anaesthesia, dehorning followed by wound cautery, and dehorning after local anaesthesia followed by wound cautery. Blood samples were taken before and after dehorning.
Results Dehorning caused an increase in plasma cortisol concentrations, which decreased a little to plateau values and then declined to pretreatment values 3 to 4 h after dehorning. The peak was smaller after local anaesthesia was administered but when its effects wore off, cortisol concentrations increased and thereafter were similar to those in the dehorned animals. The combination of local anaesthesia and cautery resulted in a plasma cortisol response similar to those in control calves with or without local anaesthesia.
Conclusions If plasma cortisol concentrations reflect the distress being experienced by the calves, then local anaesthesia reduces the acute distress for about 3 h after dehorning but not during the subsequent 3 to 4 h. Combining local anaesthetic and cautery prevented the significant increase in plasma cortisol following dehorning and may eliminate the acute distress caused by scoop dehorning.     

Evaluation of hyperimmune sera against goat pox viral antigens

Tropical Animal Health and Production -