Evaluation of Megasphaera elsdenii supplementation on rumen fermentation, production performance, carcass traits and health of ruminants: a meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVE: This study was conducted to evaluate the use of Megasphaera elsdenii (M. elsdenii) as a probiotic on rumen fermentation, production performance, carcass traits and health of ruminants by integrating data from various related studies using meta-analysis. METHODS: A total of 32 studies (consisted of 136 data points) were obtained and integrated into a database. The parameters integrated were fermentation products, rumen microbes, production performance, carcass quality, animal health, blood and urine metabolites. Statistical analysis of the compiled database used a mixed model methodology. Different studies were considered random effects, while M. elsdenii supplementation doses were considered fixed effects. p-values and the Akaike information criterion were employed as model statistics. The model was deemed significant at p<0.05 or had a tendency to be significant when p-value between 0.05〈p〈0.10. RESULTS: Supplementation with M. elsdenii increased (p<0.05) some proportion of fermented rumen products such as propionate, butyrate, isobutyrate, and valerate, and significantly reduced (p<0.05) lactic acid concentration, acetate proportion, total bacterial population and methane emission. Furthermore, the probiotic supplementation enhanced (p<0.05) livestock production performance, especially in the average daily gain and body condition score. Regarding the carcass quality, hot carcass weight and carcass gain were elevated (p<0.05) due to the M. elsdenii supplementation. Animal health also showed improvement as indicated by the lower (p<0.05) diarrhoea and bloat incidences as well as the liver abscess. However, M. elsdenii supplementation had negligible effects on blood and urine metabolites of ruminants. CONCLUSION: Supplementation of M. elsdenii is capable of decreasing ruminal lactic acid concentration, enhancing rumen health, elevating some favourable rumen fermentation products, and in turn, increasing production performance of ruminants.

The effect of different types of in ovo selenium injection on the immunity, villi surface area, and growth performance of local chickens.

BACKGROUND AND AIM: The presence of free radicals may lower chicken's performance. Thus, the antioxidant defense is needed and can be made through a nutritional approach such as selenium supplementation before hatches. This study aimed to investigate the type of selenium that, as an in ovo feeding (IOF) material, can provide the most enhancement of immunity, villi surface area, and early growth performance of local chickens. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study, with a completely randomized design, used 480 fertile Kampung Unggul Balitbangtan (KUB, a selected local breed) chicken eggs, with 120 eggs per treatment for four treatments. The four treatments of IOF material included the treatment with organic selenium yeast (SY), organic hydroxy-selenomethionine (HSM), inorganic sodium selenite (SS), and uninjected selenium (control). A solution containing 0.15 ppm of different selenium was injected into the egg amnion after 18 days of incubation. Once hatched, the chicks were placed in three individual cages for each treatment (capacity of eight birds per cage). The parameters observed were the villi surface area, antibody titer, the number of total and differentiated leucocytes, glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) activity levels, and growth and feed efficiency of the early growth performance. RESULTS: All the in ovo selenium feeding, except SS, significantly affected the villi surface area, antibody titer, and lymphocyte and heterophil percentages; however, the feedings were still not optimal for enhancing antibody titers and total and differentiated leukocytes. All types of selenium were demonstrated to increase the activity of GSH-Px significantly compared to the control treatment (p<0.05). Furthermore, the daily gain and feed conversion ratio of the groups treated with SY and HSM was significantly improved compared to that of the control group. CONCLUSION: In ovo SY and HSM improve immunity significantly, villi surface areas and performance. Therefore, both types are the best nutrient ingredients of IOF for building immunity and producing good performance in chickens.

Physical characteristic and palatability of biscuit bio-supplement for dairy goat.

The objective of this study was to apply the physical characteristic and palatability of biscuit bio-supplement for dairy goat. This research was conducted at Laboratory of Feed Industry, Faculty of Animal Science, Bogor Agricultural University, Indonesia and the palatability test was conducted on the dairy goat farm at Leuwiliang, Bogor, Indonesia on March-July 2012. Twenty heads of dairy goat were randomly assigned to five dietary treatments (four heads of goat/treatment). Experimental design used Completely Randomized Design (CRD). The treatments were biscuit bio-supplement composition i.e., R1 = biscuit bio-supplement of Indigofera sp., R2 = biscuit bio-supplement of Sauropus androgynus L. Merr leaf, R3 biscuit bio-supplement of Carica papaya L. leaf, R4 = biscuit bio-supplement of Sauropus androgynus L. Merr leaf and Indigofera sp., R5 = biscuit bio-supplement of Carica papaya L. leaf and Indigofera sp. The variables measured were moisture, water activity, water absorption, density and palatability of dairy goat. The results of this research indicated that the treatments of biscuit bio-supplement gave significant effect (p<0.05) on water content, water absorption, density and palatability, but had not significant effect on water activity. Palatability of R1 was 76.38±7.92, R2 was 23.81±6.08, R3 was 40.25±3.54, R4 was 29.56±4.77 and R5 was 95.63±7.36 g/head. Biscuit bio-supplement of Carica papaya L. leaf and Indigofera sp., (R5) had the best value of palatability for dairy goat and had the best crude protein (36.65%), also had lowest water activity, highest density than the other biscuits.