The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of two dietary supplements (monensin and a live yeast culture) on acid-base balance in steers maintained in a commercial feedlot system, considering effects over the finishing productive cycle. Steers (no. =42) were allotted randomly to one of the three study groups: (1) control group (no supplementation, C), (2) monensin supplementation (MON), and (3) live Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain 47 supplementation (SACC). Venous blood samples were collected for the measurement of acid-base parameters and l-lactate. Production parameters were also used as a complementary tool for understanding the internal changes associated with supplementation. During the finishing period, MON steers tended to gain more efficiently than C and SACC steers. In the C group, the finishing-period diet caused a progressive decline in blood bases, in line with the high-grain diet consumption. In contrast, supplemented animals did not show this trend, although lower HCO3− and base excess values were registered in SACC steers than in MON, indicating that ionophore supplementation is less effective for reducing blood base consumption than yeast supplementation. In our study, the lack of the expected response to yeast supplementation may be attributable to the high crude protein content of the ration, a common feature of commercial feedlot industries.

Three trials have been made with growing pigs to measure the digestibility of four samples of wheat offal. Two samples were measured at the levels of 0, 20, 40 and 60% of the diet and two samples were measured at the levels of 0 and 60% of the diet. The offal replaced equal quantities of glucose in the diets and no attempt was made to equalize nutrient levels between diets.

Apparent digestibility coefficients of the diets declined with increasing dietary wheat offal content, but the digestibility of wheat offal did not change with level of inclusion. No differences in digestibility occurred between offals from hard and soft wheats, apart from a low N digestibility in one sample of soft wheat offal. The average digestible energy and TDN contents were 2810 kcal/kg and 63·1 for samples of offal containing 12·5% moisture.

A minimally invasive biopsy technique was evaluated for udder tissue collection in dairy cows with Escherichia coli mastitis. Meanwhile, the effect of taking repeated liver and udder biopsies on the systemic and local acute phase response (APR) of the dairy cows was investigated during the disease. The cows were divided into a biopsy group (B) (n = 16) and a no-biopsy group (NB) (n = 16) and were sampled in the acute disease stage and in the recovery stage. The cows’ pre-disease period served as a control period for establishing baseline values for the investigated parameters. A total of 32 Holstein-Friesian cows were inoculated with 20 to 40 colony-forming units (cfu) of E. coli in one front quarter at 0 hour. Liver biopsies were collected at −144, 12, 24 and 192 h, and udder biopsies were collected at 24 and 192 h post E. coli inoculation (PI) using a minimally invasive biopsy technique. Effects of combined biopsying were investigated by recording production traits, clinical response, and measuring inflammatory milk and blood parameters: E. coli, somatic cell count, milk amyloid A (MAA) levels, white blood cell count, polymorphonuclear neutrophilic leukocyte numbers and serum amyloid A levels at several time points. E. coli inoculation changed all production parameters and the clinical and inflammatory response in all cows except one that was not infected. Combined biopsying had no constant or transient effect on the daily feed intake, the clinical responsiveness or the blood parameters, but affected the daily milk yield and some milk parameters transiently, that is, the presence of blood in milk, increased E. coli counts and MAA levels during the acute disease stage. Combined biopsying had no effect on the parameters in the recovery stage apart from the presence of blood in the milk. In conclusion, although, a minimally invasive biopsy technique was used, tissue damages could not be avoided when biopsying and they transiently affected the inflammatory parameters in the mammary gland. Nevertheless, we believe combined biopsying of liver and udder is as an acceptable approach to study the systemic and local APR in dairy cows during E. coli mastitis, if the timing of biopsying and other types of sampling is planned accordingly.

The present study was designed to measure the use of various, simultaneously available resources in a complex housing environment in juvenile blue foxes. Twelve blue fox sibling (male–female) pairs were housed in two-section experimental cages from the age of 8 weeks until the age of 7 months (from June to December). Each experimental cage was furnished with two platforms, a nest box, a sand box and a wooden block. This housing set-up provided the foxes with social contact, and an opportunity for oral manipulation, scratching and nesting, as well as the choice of staying on a solid floor material or on an elevated location. The foxes’ behaviour was recorded at three time points during autumn (September, November and December). The foxes used all available resources. The most utilised resource was the nest box, possibly because it could be utilised in several ways (as a shelter, an elevated location, an object for scratching and for oral manipulation). The foxes also stayed more in the cage section containing the nest box than in the cage section containing a sand box. The foxes rested much on the cage floor, but they also used the interior of the nest box and elevated locations for resting. Social contact often occurred during resting. Thus, the nest box and elevated location, in conjunction with social contact seem to be valuable while resting. While active, the foxes utilised the cage floor and roof of the nest box instead of the platforms. Scratching, digging and an interaction with the wooden block were seldom observed. Activity occurred mainly on the ‘empty’ cage area. In conclusion, all studied resources provided blue foxes with a distinct value, as they all were used in the complex housing environment. The nest box is used most and for most variable behaviours.

About 350 single- and 250 twin-born female Ayrshire cattle were compared on the same feeding regime in respect of 12 linear body measurements at 3-monthly intervals up to 36 mo of age, and some two-thirds of them up to 48 mo. The twins were purchased from a wide variety of farms, and it is unlikely that their dams were significantly better fed, in pregnancy, than the dams of single calves.

The effects of month and year of birth and age at first calving (including some pregnancy and lactation effects) were estimated by least-squares procedures. The trends of the differences between single and twin-born animals were analysed as percentages of current and of mature size. Earliness of maturing had no apparent effect. For the traits of height and girth, twin-born animals were smaller than single-born by nearly 2 % of mature size (3 % of current size) at 3 mo of age and for the other traits the difference was around 1 %. By 12 mo the differences were generally about half their initial value and remained at this level, except for head width where the difference declined to zero around 2 years of age.

It is concluded that twin-, compared to single-born, cattle are subject to a small degree of permanent stunting in most linear measurements.

Two experiments were carried out to compare the performance and carcass quality of pigs given diets based on barley, wheat or maize meal, and another two experiments comparing these cereals, flaked maize and sorghum. In general, differences in the utilization of feed for live-weight gain could be related to differences in the digestible energy content of the cereals used in the diet, although in some experiments pigs behaved atypically on individual diets. Flaked maize was consistently inferior to the other cereals in the efficiency of conversion of its digestible energy, possibly because of its poorer amino acid balance and its low levels of lysine and tryptophan in relation to energy. Differences between experiments in the performance of pigs fed on the various diets are also discussed. Differences between treatments in killing-out percentage and predicted lean percentage were small, and carcasses of pigs from all treatments were acceptable for bacon curing.

Milk temperature was measured automatically during milking with a view to detecting silent oestrus in dairy cows. A total of 38 silent oestrous periods were studied, based mainly on ovulation and milk progesterone levels together with visual observation.

In 78·9% of silent oestrous periods, a significant increase in milk temperature amounting to a mean of 0·6 (s.e. 0·07)°C was found, and this was highly correlated (r = 0·90) with an increased body temperature. In most silent oestrous periods increases in milk and body temperatures and ovulation with milk progesterone levels below 2 μg/l were found, the oestrous cycles being characterized by typical progesterone profiles. In some cows increases in milk and body temperatures and ovulation during a silent oestrous period were associated with non-typical progesterone profiles although most of these occurred shortly after parturition.

Oak acorn contains high levels of tannins which have capacity to form complexes with proteins and consequently reduce their availability and as a result it could reduce colostrum quality and immunoglobulin (Ig) synthesis. Thus, the aim of this experiment was to investigate the effects of dietary oak (Quercus persica) acorn (OA) level during the last 60 days of pregnancy on colostrum composition and plasma metabolites and IgG level of goats and their kids. In all, 24 multiparous pregnant goats (41.7±2.3 kg BW) were assigned into one of the three experimental diets consisted of control diet (without OA) and diets containing 20% (OA20) or 40% (OA40) OA on dry matter basis. Goats fed OA40 had lower BW change compared with other groups (P⩽0.05). Kids birth weight was not affected by experimental diets (P>0.05). Goats fed OA containing diets had lower plasma glucose, triglyceride and Fe concentrations compared with those fed the control diet (P<0.01). Plasma IgG (P<0.01) and urea (P<0.05) concentrations were lower in goats fed OA40 compared with others. Animals fed OA containing diets had higher plasma alanine aminotransferase than those fed the control diet (P<0.05). Goats fed OA40 produced colostrum with lower fat (P⩽0.05) and lactose (P<0.01) contents compared with other animals. Goats fed OA containing diets had lower colostrum IgG level than those fed the control diet (P⩽0.05). Kids plasma total protein concentration was not affected by experimental diets (P>0.05), whereas kids born from goats fed OA containing diets had lower plasma IgG level compared with the control diet (P<0.01). It is concluded that feeding OA during the last 60 days of pregnancy decreased colostrum quality which may have adverse effect on kid’s survival.

Bulls (½ Blonde d'Aquitaine ⅜ Charolais) were used in a 2 × 3 factorial design experiment with two planes of nutrition in the finishing period and three slaughter weights. High and low planes of nutrition were based on diets with similar forage to concentrate ratio (0·40 of dry matter (DM)) offered ad libitum or at 0·78 of ad libitum DM intake at equal live weight respectively. The target slaughter live weights were 550, 625 and 700 kg. Twelve bulls were taken to each slaughter point and an additional five animals were killed as a pre-experimental slaughter group. Mean initial live weight was 412 (s.e. 5·3) kg at a mean age of 342 (s.e. 2·5) days. No significant interactions were found between the main factors. For the high and low planes, live-weight and estimated carcass gains were 1251 and 989 (s.e. 47·7), and 816 and 668 (s.e. 35·3) g/day respectively, the reduction in gains being similar to the proportional degree of nutritional restriction. Plane of nutrition had no effect on live-weight or carcass gain per unit of energy intake. The low plane of nutrition produced significant decreases in body cavity fat depots, subcutaneous fat in the sample joint and increased the proportions of both saleable beef and high-priced joints in the carcass.

With increase in slaughter weight, energy intake per unit of live weight0·75 and rates of both live-weight and carcass gain tended to decline. The dressing proportions were 583,579 and 609 (s.e. 9·1) g/kg for the slaughter live weights of 550, 625 and 700 kg. Carcass conformation improved while fat depots in the body cavity and estimated concentration of separable fat in the carcass increased with increase in slaughter weight, and both estimated lean and bone concentrations decreased. Forequarter as a proportion of total side tended to increase with increase in slaughter weight. Slaughter weight had no effect on concentration of saleable meat or ultimate pH of carcass muscle. It is concluded that bulls of this genotype can be taken to high slaughter weights on diets having a relatively high proportion of forage as grass silage, with high rates of growth and acceptable carcass leanness.

Live-weight gain responses were investigated using 36 individually penned lambs (mean live weight 35·2 kg) given three sodium hydroxide treated straw-based diets: low-protein, low-rapeseed meal (control) diet; high protein, high-rapeseed meal (HR) diet; or high-protein, fish meal (FM) diet. The diets were formulated to provide 3 or 9 g undegradable nitrogen per kg dry matter (DM) respectively for the diets without or with fish meal. Diets were offered once a day in a 50: 50 forage-to-concentrate ratio in amounts calculated to support maintenance plus 150 g gain and were adjusted weekly according to live weight. Live-weight gain, measured for 7 weeks, was improved by the FM diet only (P < 0·05).

The three diets were given also to rumen-fistulated sheep. The FM diet maintained higher rumen ammonia concentrations during most of the day. The FM and HR diets reduced rumen solid particle outflow rate (P < 0·05) and increased the effective degradability of DM and acid-detergent fibre.

The effects of three levels of crude protein in the diet, 10, 12 and 14 %, on the performance of entire Israeli Friesian male cattle (bulls) during fattening, was studied in two experiments.

The bulls were 5 months old and 200 kg live weight, and 7·5 months and 250 kg, at the start of Experiments 1 and 2, respectively, and were slaughtered after 178 to 268 days (Experiment 1) or 156 to 166 days (Experiment 2) on trial, at a live weight of 430 to 480 kg.

In Experiment 1 mixed diets of two metabolizable energy concentrations (11·1 and 10·5 MJ metabolizable energy/kg dry matter) were used, each containing concentrates with 10, 12 or 14% crude protein content. In half of the treatments the crude protein content of the concentrate was increased by two percentage units for the first 61 days of the experiment. Daily live-weight gain was significantly higher at 14% and 16% crude protein than at 10% and 12% crude protein during the first 61 days for animals on the high energy diet, but liveweight gain was not affected by crude protein content on the low energy diet over this period, or at either energy concentration from 62 days to slaughter.

In Experiment 2 the diet consisted of concentrate, wheat straw and cotton hulls, giving a metabolizable energy concentration of approximately 10·55 MJ/kg dry matter. Daily live-weight gain did not differ significantly between concentrates containing 10, 12 or 14% crude protein, but carcass weight gain was higher at 12% and 14% crude protein than at 10% crude protein.

It is concluded that in order to ensure the best performance of bulls of the Israeli Friesian breed, diets with a high concentration of energy should contain 14% crude protein when fed to animals with a body weight of 200 to 300 kg, and 12% crude protein for heavier animals.

Litter size is essential for an efficient production of rabbit meat. A diallel cross between four maternal lines was carried out and the analysis of the components of litter size has been already done. This paper presents the analysis of litter size traits themselves (total born (TB), number born alive (NBA), number weaned (NW)) and kindling interval (KI), that complete the analysis of the reproductive performance. The 16 genetic groups were distributed in four Spanish farms. The V line was present in all farms in order to be used as reference group. A total of 34 546 parities from 7111 does, were analysed. The crossbreeding parameters were estimated according to Dickerson model. The differences between lines performance were of low magnitude and not significant for litter size traits. The LP line showed the shortest KI followed by H respect to lines A and V. These differences reflected the differences between direct and maternal genetic effects. The differences between the average of all crosses and line V were found to be significant and seemed to be important, being 0.46 for TB, 0.56 for NBA, 0.75 for NW and −2.21 days for KI. The differences between reciprocal crosses for litter size were of low magnitude and non-significant, which indicate that the maternal effects are not important between these lines. In general, the lines did not show significant differences in direct and maternal genetic effects for TB, NBA and NW but there were some significant differences for KI, which ranged from 1.54 to 6.85 days in direct effects and from 0.63 to 3.38 days for maternal effects. A positive and, in some cases, relevant heterosis was found. The largest heterosis was for TB in the HV cross (1.05 rabbits), followed by the AH (0.74 rabbits), AV (0.57 rabbits) and LH (0.55 rabbits) crosses. For NBA, significant heterosis was found in HV (1.11 rabbits) and AV (0.49 rabbits) and for NW in AV (0.90 rabbits), LH (0.70 rabbits) and LV (0.58 rabbits). Favourable and significant heterosis for KI was found in AV and LV crosses, whereas it was unfavourable in AL and in LH. The more recommended crosses were AV and LH, showing the greatest performances on NW, while the cross HV, which shows the greatest performances an NBA, could be highly recommended when cross-fostering is practised to equalise litter sizes after birth, in this situation the lower NW performance observed could be improved.

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the feeding characteristics and the productive responses of lamb diets containing increasing levels of dried brewers' grains (DBG). Five groups of six 70-day-old Bergamasca lambs were housed in individual pens and given ad libitum for 9 weeks pelleted diets containing 200 g/kg of concentrate and 800 g/kg of a mixture of DBG and lucerne hay in the ratios of 0:80 (DBG0), 20:60 (DBG20), 40:40 (DBG40) 60:20 (DBG60) and 80:0 (DBG80). During the last 12 days of the experimental period, a digestibility trial was carried out for each diet. After this, all the lambs were slaughtered and the composition of the empty body weight was determined. The initial composition of the empty body was estimated from the composition of a sixth group of lambs slaughtered at the beginning of the trial.

The apparent digestibility of dry matter (DM), organic matter, crude protein, ether extract, neutral-detergent fibre and energy increased with the proportion of DBG. The daily DM intake relative to metabolic body weight (M0·75) diminished significantly with the increasing proportion of DBG in the diet, from 127 g/kg M0·75 for diet DBG0 to 83 g/kg M0·75 for diet DBG60. The daily live-weight gain and food DM conversion efficiency were highest with the intermediate diets (414 g/day with diet DBG40 and 240 g/kg DM with DBG60), showing a quadratic trend, an indication of a positive interaction between DBG and lucerne hay. The fat content of the live-weight gain was particularly high in the lambs given the diet with the highest proportion of DBG. It was concluded that DBG may be profitably used in growing-fattening diets for lambs in a proportion not exceeding about 400 g/kg DM.

Incubation with rumen liquor gave a lower rate of release of ammonia and a higher dehydrogenase activity with urea phosphate (UP) than with urea.

Four concentrate diets containing 13 % crude protein, 27% of which was supplied by urea or three different forms of UP, were each given to eight Awassi lambs. With twice-daily feeding (but not five-times daily feeding), a beneficial effect of UP over urea was observed, expressed in lower blood ammonia and urea levels. There was no effect on the pH of rumen liquor.

In a N-balance experiment with 24 lambs, four diets were examined: a basal diet containing 9·5% crude protein and three other diets in which the crude protein content was raised to 13% by addition of soya bean meal, urea or UP. The diets were given twice daily. Urea phosphate and the soya bean meal gave a significant increase in N retention whereas the urea treatment did not. However, the difference in N retention between the UP and urea treatments was not significant. Total volatile fatty acid concentrations in the rumen did not differ significantly between treatments but the ratio of acetic to propionic acids was significantly lower with the urea diet.

Recombinantly derived bovine somatotropin (bST) was administered to 25 Friesian cows by 2-weekly injections of a controlled release formulation at a dose rate equivalent to 25 mg/day. Treatment commenced 7 to 11 weeks after calving and continued for 26 weeks. A comparable group of 25 cows treated only with the slow release vehicle served as a control. During the treatment period, administration of bST increased yields of milk (controls 2358 v. bST 2598 (pooled s.e. = 39·8) kg; P < 0·01), fat (107·4 v. 119·3 (pooled s.e. = 1·9) kg; (P < 0·01) and protein (84·7 v. 93·7 (pooled s.e. = 1·2) kg; (P < 0·001). Magnitude of the treatment effect was strongly influenced by season, being greatest in spring/early summer (weeks 1 to 13 of treatment) and autumn (weeks 19 to 25) but not significant during the intervening summer dry period when herbage yield was low. Voluntary intakes, as measured by indigestible marker techniques at weeks 7 to 8 and 12 to 13 of treatment, were not influenced by bST administration. However, the net loss of body condition experienced by bST-treated cows (0·3 condition score units) was not sufficient to explain their responses in yield of milk and milk components, suggesting that some responses in voluntary intake had occurred. Administration of bST had little effect on milk composition, fatty acid composition of milk fat, live weight, reproductive performance or milk yield in the subsequent lactation.

To estimate the nutritional requirements of hair sheep, knowledge about the animal’s weight and its relationships with growth performances is essential. A study was carried with the objective to establish the relationships between BW, fasting BW (FBW), empty BW (EBW), average daily gain (ADG) and empty BW gain (EBWG) for hair sheep in growing and finishing phases in Brazilian conditions. Databases were obtained from 32 studies, for a total of 1145 observations; there were 3 sex classes (non-castrated male, castrated male and female) and 2 feeding systems (pasture and feedlot). The most representative breeds in the database were Santa Ines (n = 473), Morada Nova (n = 70) and Brazilian Somali (n = 47). The other animals in the database were crossbreeds (n = 555). The FBW (kg), EBW and EBWG (kg/day) were estimated according to linear regression. A random coefficient model was adopted, considering the study as a random effect and including the possibility of covariance between the slope and the intercept. The coefficients obtained from the linear regression of the FBW against the BW, EBW against the FBW and EBWG against the ADG did not differ between sex class (P > 0.05) and genotype (P > 0.05). The equations generated to estimate FBW from the BW, EBW from the FBW and EBWG from the ADG are as follows: FBW = −0.5470 (±0.2025) + 0.9313(±0.019) × BW, EBW = −1.4944 (±0.3639) + 0.8816 (±0.018) × FBW and EBWG = 0.906 (±0.019) × ADG, respectively. The low mean squared error values found in the cross-validation confirmed the reliability of these equations. Considering a sheep with a BW of 30 kg and a 100 g ADG, the estimated FBW, EBW and EBWG calculated using the generated equations are 27, 22.65 and 0.090 kg, respectively. In conclusion, the generated equations can be used in growing hair sheep. The validation procedure applied to the generated equations showed that its use for hair sheep seems to be appropriate.

Phosphorus (P) losses from dairy farms can severely damage aquatic ecosystems, so it is important to have tools to assess overfeeding of P. This study screened P intake and faecal excretion of different P fractions in dairy cows on conventional and organic farms, compared the P feeding level of the herds against the recommendations and analysed different sampling and analysis methods for assessing the general status of P feeding on the farms. The organic (n=14) and conventional farms (n=15) were of comparable size and were located in southern Sweden. On each farm, feed intake was registered for 10 cows representing four different lactation stages and their P intake was calculated and related to current recommendations. Faecal samples taken from the same cows were analysed for total P (TP) and soluble P. Milk production data for the cows were obtained from the Swedish official milk recording scheme. TP was determined in one slurry sample per farm. More than 70% of the cows studied, representing both conventional and organic herds, consumed P in excess of the recommendations. Conventional herds had higher P content in the ration than organic herds, and lactating cows in conventional herds had higher faecal concentrations of total and soluble P than those in organic herds. However in dry cows, the P content of the ration and soluble P and TP in faeces did not differ between the two management systems. Soluble P was well correlated to TP in faeces, and both were good indicators of P overfeeding.

A crossbreeding trial was conducted in the hot wet tropical zone of Ceylon at Karagoda-Uyangoda. Sinhala cows were mated to Jersey, Friesian and Sinhala bulls. A few reciprocal matings were done with the Jersey breed.

The milk yields of the Friesian crosses were higher than those of the corresponding Jersey crosses which were higher than those of the Sinhala. The ½ Sinhala ½ Friesian also had a longer lactation and larger body size than the Jersey cross or purebred Sinhala. A decline of about one-third of the milk yield of the F1 was evident in the F2 generation.

The liability to perinatal mortality increased from the F1 generation calves to F3 calves.

Four experiments were conducted with lactating dairy cows offered a hay and concentrate diet (0·5:0·5) to investigate the effects of (1) the frequency of feeding a completely mixed diet (experiment 1) compared with feeding the concentrate fraction and the roughage fraction separately (experiment 2), and (2) the addition of sodium chloride to a completely mixed diet (experiment 3), on the fractional rate of outflow (FRO) of chromium (Cr)-treated fish meal from the rumen, and on milk yield and composition. The cows were offered the diet at either twice the maintenance requirement (experiments 1 and 2), or 2-5 x maintenance (experiment 3) in a 4 x 4 Latin-square design. The effect of the particle size of the Cr-treated soya bean meal was investigated in experiment 4.

The frequency of feeding of the completely mixed diet had no significant effect on the rate of outflow of Cr-treated fish meal from the rumen, or on milk yield or composition. FRO per h were 0·070, 0·085, 0·079 and 0·086 when the diet was offered once, twice, four times or 12 times per day respectively. Increasing the frequency of feeding of the concentrate fraction of the diet had no significant effect on FRO. FRO per h were 0·073, 0·078, 0·081 and 0·081 when the concentrate fraction was offered once, twice, four times or 12 times per day respectively.

The addition of NaCl to the diet significantly increased water intake (P < 0·001), but had no significant effects on FRO or milk yield. FRO per h were 0·074, 0·075, 0·076 and 0080 when 50, 265, 529 or 794 g of NaCl were added into the diet respectively. The respective intakes of water were 66·6, 74·1, 88·4 and 101·6 kg/day.

The FRO per h of fine particles of Cr-treated soya bean meal was 0·085 and for coarse particles, 0·096. The difference was not significant.