Effects of whole plant brown algae (Laminaria japonica) on zootechnical performance, apparent total tract digestibility, faecal characteristics and blood plasma urea in weaned piglets.

Two trials were conducted with 48 newly weaned piglets (28 d old) each 8.6 ± 0.05 kg to study how Laminaria japonica plants (LJ) affect zootechnical performance, feed conversion and the apparent total tract digestibility (ATTD) of crude nutrients. All basal diets consisted of cereals, soybean meal, skim milk powder and premixes according to recommendations (no growth promoters or enzymes). For Trial 1, piglets from 16 litters (50% male-castrated, 50% female) were assigned to three treatment groups (n = 16) in a completely randomised block design. Groups received either 2.5% supplementation with sun dried (SD) or drum dried (DD) LJ powder or 2.5% of diatomaceous earth (control). For Trial 2, piglets from 12 litters received either 5% of diatomaceous earth (control) or one of three mixtures of diatomaceous earth + DD LJ powder (3.3%+1.7%, 1.7%+3.3% or 0.0%+5%; n = 12). Data collection included zootechnical performance, faecal consistency, blood plasma urea (Trial 1 and 2) and ATTD (Trial 2). Metabolisable energy (ME) of DD LJ and diets in Trial 2 was estimated using digestible nutrients. Statistical analysis included two-way ANOVA (treatment, block) and mixed linear regression. During both trials, LJ at dosages ≥2.5% significantly reduced feed:gain ratio compared to control (p ≤ 0.0001, = 0.01 for Trial 1, Trial 2) irrespective of the drying method. ATTD from Trial 2 significantly increased digestibilities of dry matter (DM) and crude ash (CA) (p ≤ 0.01) and significantly decreased digestibilities of organic matter and crude fibre in animals fed ≥3.33% DD LJ (p = 0.01). Fractional digestibility of the DD LJ resulted in limited ME of ~9.3 ± 2.5 MJ/kg DM. Dietary conversion ratios of ME and digestible DM of DD LJ diets from Trial 2 decreased linearly with increasing algal supplementation (R2 = 0.93, 0.94 and pslope = 0.002, 0.002 for MCR, DCR). In conclusion, dried LJ powder was included up to 5% into diets without impairing zootechnical performance. The improved feed conversion in the presence of LJ was partly due to slightly higher ME within the algae diets compared to control. However, piglets receiving LJ during Trial 2 needed significantly lower dietary ME and digestible DM to maintain growth performance. Thus, LJ exerted a performance enhancing effect on weaned piglets. The precise mode-of-action is yet unclear.

Effects of different iron supply to pregnant sows (Sus scrofa domestica L.) on reproductive performance as well as iron status of new-born piglets.

The present study aimed to investigate the effects of different iron (Fe) supply to sows during gestation on their reproductive performance and placental Fe load. Additionally, the Fe status of the corresponding offspring was assessed. Twenty multiparous sows were fed from insemination to farrowing with isoenergetic and isonitrogenic balanced diets differing in Fe content. The diet low in Fe (Group -Fe) was mainly composed of soybean meal and maize meal and had a Fe content of 114 mg/kg DM. For the diet high in Fe (Group +Fe), the diet was supplemented with Fe(II)SO4 · 7H2O to a total Fe content of 256 mg/kg. Blood characteristics (haemoglobin, haematocrit, mean corpuscular haem concentration, total Fe-binding capacity, transferrin saturation) of all sows were measured at the beginning and at the end of gestation. Daily Fe retention was calculated at the day of farrowing. After birth, reproductive performance (litter size, piglet weight, litter weight), placental Fe content and Fe blood characteristics of the piglets were determined. Apparent daily Fe retention tended to be greater in Group +Fe (p < 0.1). Blood parameters of the sows did not show any variations between feeding groups, neither at the beginning nor at the end of pregnancy, whereas placental Fe content was lower in Group -Fe (p < 0.05). In addition, Fe supply during gestation improved litter size (p < 0.01) and litter weight (p < 0.05). Although all sows were supplied according to the current Fe recommendations, a significant decline in reproductive performance of Group -Fe was recognised. Therefore, it was concluded that the re-evaluation of the gross Fe requirements of pregnant sows is inevitable to accommodate the current feeding recommendations.

Deterministic composite nanophotonic lattices in large area for broadband applications.

Exotic manipulation of the flow of photons in nanoengineered materials with an aperiodic distribution of nanostructures plays a key role in efficiency-enhanced broadband photonic and plasmonic technologies for spectrally tailorable integrated biosensing, nanostructured thin film solarcells, white light emitting diodes, novel plasmonic ensembles etc. Through a generic deterministic nanotechnological route here we show subwavelength-scale silicon (Si) nanostructures on nanoimprinted glass substrate in large area (4 cm2) with advanced functional features of aperiodic composite nanophotonic lattices. These nanophotonic aperiodic lattices have easily tailorable supercell tiles with well-defined and discrete lattice basis elements and they show rich Fourier spectra. The presented nanophotonic lattices are designed functionally akin to two-dimensional aperiodic composite lattices with unconventional flexibility- comprising periodic photonic crystals and/or in-plane photonic quasicrystals as pattern design subsystems. The fabricated composite lattice-structured Si nanostructures are comparatively analyzed with a range of nanophotonic structures with conventional lattice geometries of periodic, disordered random as well as in-plane quasicrystalline photonic lattices with comparable lattice parameters. As a proof of concept of compatibility with advanced bottom-up liquid phase crystallized (LPC) Si thin film fabrication, the experimental structural analysis is further extended to double-side-textured deterministic aperiodic lattice-structured 10 µm thick large area LPC Si film on nanoimprinted substrates.