نشریه پژوهش های علوم دامی
سال بیست و هفتم شماره 3 (پاییز 1396)

The dry and semi-arid climates and the deficiency of rainfall in Iran have led to increasing the nutrition cost, which will be affected the incomes of animal farmers. In recent decades, demand for livestock products (like meat and milk) has grown because of population growth and economic progress. In order to reduce feed costs, in many countries, crop residues are used as agricultural by-product in feeding of farm animal, including mung bean straw. Mung bean is a plant that has been cultivated in the arid and semi-arid regions of Iran and elsewhere in the Middle East. This plant is important because of the ability to stabilize nitrogen in the soil, to strengthen and prevent its erosion. Most of the nutrition studies that have been done in relation to mung beans have been more focused on mushy seed, but few studies have been conducted on mung bean straw. Therefore, the present experiment was conducted to study the effects of replacing mung bean straw with wheat straw or corn silage on digestibility, rumen fermentation and protozoa population in Arabic lambs.
Material and The present experiment was conducted in two steps. The first step was to determine the appropriate level of replacing the mung bean straw with wheat straw or corn silage in the diet using a gas production technique. In the second step, by examining the results of the first stage of the experiment, some levels of replacing mung bean straw instead of wheat straw and corn silage were selected and digestion and metabolism of diets were investigated. After determining the appropriate level of replacing mung bean straw with wheat straw and corn silage in diet, 16 lambs fed with selected diets from first step. The experimental diets included: diet without mung bean straw (control ration), 100% replacing of mung bean straw with wheat straw (ration 1), 25 and 50% replacing of mung bean straw instead of corn silage (rations 2 and 3 respectively) were fed in a completely randomized design. In order to estimate blood and ruminal fermentation parameters, and protozoa population count at the end of the experiment, rumen fluid and blood was taken from the lambs 3 and 4 h after the morning feeding, respectively.
Mung bean straw had a higher crude protein and crude fats than wheat straw and more crude fat than corn silage. While the crude protein content of corn silage was higher than mung bean straw. Although no statistical analysis was performed, protein content, NDF, ADF, ME mung bean and corn silage had a slight difference, but differences were considerable with wheat straw. Wheat straw had the highest amount of NDF, ADF and lignin and the lowest amount of crude fat and ME. Mung bean straw had the highest amount of fat. In one experiment, mung bean straw had 88.20% dry matter, 9.70% crude protein, 26.56% crude fiber, 2.39% crude fat and 11.43% ash in dry matter base (Khatik et al. 2007), the data of present experiment was closely same with them. Based on the results of chemical analysis, wheat straw or corn silage were detected as a suitable replacement for mung bean straw in diet. In the first step of study, replacing mung bean straw with wheat straw in the diets, for all levels (25 to 100%) increased the potential of gas production (GP) compared to control (P0.05). Only the rumen fluid pH in the diet 3 had significant difference with control and was the lowest amount (P Therefore, due to proper price and abundance of mung bean straw in some regions of the Iran included Khuzestan province, we can recommend using it as replacement for wheat straw or low-grain corn silage in feeding of sheep.

The amount of nitrogen obtainable from the slaughterhouse wastes was 22.36 kg per 1,000 head which could be an excellent biological source of nitrogen (protein) in animal nutrition. The poultry by-product meal (PBM) is one of the most important rendering by-product with a high protein content for use to feed ruminants. It has been reported previously that including PBM as protein substitute for soybean meal (SBM) could decrease feed costs in growing hair lambs. However, a better understanding of the chemical composition and protein degradation patterns of PBM would be very useful in improving the accuracy of formulation of animal diet. Among the chemical analysis clearing the protein quality, the evaluation of metabolisable protein of feedstuffs could help in more precise ration formulation especially in protein-rich by-products. Soybean as well as fish meal are two commonly used protein sources in ruminant nutrition. Evaluation and comparison of MP for different protein sources in ruminant nutrition bring this opportunity for replacement the feedstuffs instead of each other. There are different methods to identify the coefficient of crude protein convert in to metabolisable protein. Each method have robustness and weakness as well. This study was carried out to estimate and compare the crude protein to metabolisable protein (MP) conversion coefficients of poultry by-product meal, roasted soybean (RSB) and fish meal (FM) by in situ method.
The experiment was conducted on three male rumen cannulated Ghezel sheep which allocated in Latin Square change over design. The sheep were fed two times daily on 0800 and 1400 h. The basal diet was consisted of 50, 35 and 15% of alfalfa hay, barley and a composition of three experimental feedstuffs (PBM, SB, and FM), respectively. The in situ experiment was done with incubation times on 4, 8, 16, 24, 36 and 48 h. The crude protein for all incubation times were measured. The slow degradable and fast degradable fractions of protein contents were estimated based on in situ experiment. The fractionating of protein based on Cornell net carbohydrate and protein system (CNCPS) was carried out as well. Phosphate buffer soluble nitrogen was measured using phosphate buffer. Neutral detergent insoluble nitrogen and acid detergent insoluble nitrogen (ADIN) were determined as nitrogen content of residual after neutral and acid detergent procedures, respectively. B2 fraction calculated by difference and results were presented as percentage of CP. The degradation profiles were calculated by the nonlinear model described by Ørskov and McDonald (1979). The effective degradability (ED) in the rumen was calculated, ED = a [(b × c)/ (c k)], using NEWAY software; where "a" is the water-soluble fraction, "b" the potentially degradable fraction, "c" degradation rate of parameter "b", and "k" the passage rate of the digesta out of the rumen. Then metabolisable protein estimation as well as rumen degradable and undegradable contents of the protein in different experimental feedstuffs were calculated based on in situ data.
The chemical analysis of the experimental feedstuffs results show that the greatest protein content was for fish meal. The protein content of PBM was obtained 561 g/kg. The protein content of PBM was similar as previous reports. The ether extract of the PBM was however the greatest value among treatments. Because most of the ether extract refusal was included in PBM, so this fraction was greater than that of those observed for FM and RSB. The CNCPS fractionation of different PBM sources clear that except than that of “A” fraction all the fractions were differed among samples. This shows the huge difference for different sub-samples of this byproduct. This suggests to do the chemical abalysis for PBM before using as feedstuff in animal nutrition. Regarding the degradability trail results suggest that the parameter (a) was 76.6, 98.2 and 79.2% for PBM, RSB and FM, respectively (P The results of this study indicated that, lowering the content of ADIN from poultry byproducts through the different forms of processing may improve protein efficiency and consequently cause improvement in CP to MP conversion coefficient. Improving the protein quality of PBM may make it a suitable replacement feeding instead of commonly used protein sources in ruminant nutrition.

Wheat bran is a by-product of conventional milling and is commercially available in large quantities. Milling of one million tons of wheat, can yield 0.25 million tons of wheat bran (Javed et al. 2012). Beside its high content of dietary fibre it contains proteins, minerals as well as vitamins (Pomeranz 1988). Wheat bran has a different nutritional value, which is due to climatic conditions, wheat type, wheat variety, storage and etc. Also wheat bran is a feed with high digestibility fiber and palatability with a wide range of applications. Due to its relatively low price, More than 95% of it is used as animal feed. Wheat bran, which consists almost entirely of the coarse outer coating of the wheat kernel, is one of the important livestock feeds.On the other side, goat milk production is a growing industry that is very important to the wellbeing of people worldwide and is an important part of the economy in many countries. The aim of the investigations is to provide an integrated analysis of the major aspects in this field to highlight unexploited nutritional potential of goat milk and the need for improvements, particularly in food safety. Goat milk like cow milk delivers many nutrients with relatively low energy content, and is relevant to the health of consumers (Silanikove et al. 2010). In order to reduce costs in the animal husbandry (especially in the case of dairy goat), it was decided to replace the wheat bran instead of barley in the concentration of Saanen goats. Therefore this experiment follows two goals and was carried out in two stages. In the first step, the nutritive value and chemical composition of different wheat brans produced in flour factories of Khorasan Razavi province were compared in summer and winter using common laboratory methods. In the second step, the effect of replacing various levels of barley with wheat bran in mixed concentrate of Saanen goats was studied.
Material and The chemical composition, gas production parameters and factors estimated from gas production of different wheat brans obtained from 8 flour factories were determined using a completely randomized design with 8×2 factorial arrangement. Changes in body weight, milk production and milk composition of Saanen goats and the effect of substituting different levels of barley with summer wheat bran in the concentrates of under study was investigated using a completely randomized design.
There were a significant differences between all chemical compositions of different wheat brans (with the exception of crude fat) in various factories (P0.05), although the DM, NDF, ADF and CP (%) in the samples was significantly higher in summer than winter (P Wheat bran samples produced by different flour factories in two seasons of the year yielded various nutritive values. Bartnick and Jacobzick (1989) also stated that the difference in the value of wheat bran produced in flour mills could be due to the difference in the stages of crushing wheat in different factories. It was also identified that the replacement of barley with wheat bran in the diet, did not have any effect on body weight, milk production and milk composition. Different researchers believe that in the case of medium-quality diets, goat is the most highly digestible among other ruminant species (Devendra 1978; Illius and Gordon 1991).Whether the barley grain in concentrate can be replaced by wheat bran up to a level of 50 percent in the ration concentrate of Saanen goats needs to be further studied in the future. Similarly, the reasons underlying the difference between bran compositions produced in different factories in different seasons or regions of varying climates need to be further explored.

Applications of molecular genetics have many important advantages (Mousavizadeh et al. 2009). Using genetic markers in animal selection and breeding may also dramatically expedite genetic improvement (Javanmard et al. 2008). Study of native breeds is necessary for conservation of genetic resource in livestock (Mohammadabadi et al. 2010). There are more than 26 sheep breeds in Iran adapted to different environmental circumstances (Zamani et al. 2015). One of the most important breeds of Iranian sheep is Kermani sheep. This local breed lives in the south-eastern of Iran and is a fat-tail breed and well adapted to a wide range of harsh environmental conditions in Kerman province (Mohammadabadi 2017). Growth differentiation factor (GDF) 9 is a member of the transforming growth factor β superfamily that is secreted from oocytes during folliculogenesis (Aaltonen et al. 1999) and is essential for folliculogenesis and female fertility (Khodabakhshzadeh et al. 2016). Hanrahan et al. (2004) revealed eight single nucleotide polymorphisms across the entire coding region (G1–G8) and these differences correspond to one SNP in exon 1, one SNP in the intron, and five SNPs in exon 2. It is proven that exon 2 is more important than exon 1 and intron.
Material and The blood samples were randomly collected from Kermani sheep (102 animals) from both sexes and with different ages (Kerman, Iran), using vacuum tubes with 0.25% ethylene diamine tetra acetic acid (EDTA). The blood samples were transferred in dry ice to the laboratory and stored at -20 °C pending assays. Blood samples of the animals were used to extract genomic DNA using the salting out procedure described by Abadi et al. (2009). The quality of DNA was checked by spectrophotometry taking ratio of optical density (OD) value at 260 and 280 nm. The sheep GDF9 gene was amplified using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with designed specific primers. These primers were used to amplify fragment 647 bp of the exon 2 for the sheep GDF9 gene. The PCR reaction was performed in a 25 μL reaction volume containing 2 μL of genomic DNA (50 ng/μL), 1 μL of MgCl2 (3 mM), 1μL of each forward and reverse primers (10 pmol each), 0.5μL of dNTPs (500 μM each), 0.3 unit of Taq DNA polymerase (Cinna Gene, Iran) and 10X PCR buffer. DNA amplifications were performed using thermo cycler (CLEMENS, Germany) programmed for a preliminary step of 5 min at 94°C, followed by 33 cycles of 30 s at 94°C, 50 s at 62.5°C for the first primer pair and 63.6°C for the second primer pair and 50 s at 72°C, with a final extension of 8 min at 72°C. Amplification was verified by electrophoresis on 1% (w/v) agarose gel in 1 x TBE buffer (2 mM of EDTA, 90 mM of Tris-Borate, pH 8.3), using a 100bp ladder as a molecular weight marker for confirmation of the length of the PCR products. Gels were stained with ethidium bromide (1 μg/mL). The SSCP technique was used to allow the sequence variants to be detected from the migration shift in PCR amplified fragments of the gene. For SSCP analysis, 6 μL of each PCR product was mixed with 12 μL of denaturing loading buffer (19 mL formamide, 0.98 gr NaOH (3% NaOH solution), 0.01 gr xylene cyanol and 0.01gr bromophenol blue). The samples were denatured by heating at 95°C for 10 min, then immediately chilled on ice and loaded onto 8% polyacrylamide gel (37.5:1). Gels were run at 170-180 V for 7-8 hours at 4°C. The electrophoresis was carried out in a vertical unit in 1x TBE buffer (Tris 100 mM, boric acid 9 mM, EDTA 1mM). The gels were stained with silver nitrate to observe the conformational patterns. After revealing the single stranded conformation polymorphism (SSCP) patterns for this locus, from each of the ovine GDF9 variants identified by PCR–SSCP, one sample was sequenced (Mahan Gene, Iran). The raw sequence data were edited using Bioedit 7.0 software. Multiple sequence alignments were performed with Bioedit 7.0 and DNAMAN software to identify single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the exon 2 of the GDF9 gene in Kermani sheep. The nucleotide sequence of exon 2 was translated to amino acid sequence for each particular allelic variant. The BLAST algorithm was used to search the NCBI GenBank databases for comparison of the ovine GDF9 sequences with homologous sequences of other animals to determine similarity percentage and detect the novel SNPs in the studied locus. Population genetic parameters were obtained using GenAlex6.41 software.
As expected, PCR amplification of the ovine GDF9 gene for Kermani sheep gave uniform fragment 647 bp by running on 1% agarose gel and the amplified fragment size were consistent with the expected size and subsequently sequencing of the ovine GDF9 amplicons confirmed them to be 647 bp in size (Fig 1). The SSCP analysis revealed four unique banding patterns for the second half of the exon representing different allelic variants (Fig 2). In the studied population, four different genotypes and three haplotypes were observed for the second half of the exon 2 (Table 1). Frequencies of the detected genotypes and haplotypes in the studied population are provided in Table 2. In total, in this population, genotype 2 in the second half of the exon 2 were most common with a frequency of 0.411. The sequencing results were representative of the point mutations at nucleotide positions 994 and 978 in exon 2 of the GDF9. The analysis results of the GenAlex software in the studied position revealed the lack of Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium in single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) at position 978. The high level of Shannon index in both positions of the identified mutations indicated that the level of Biodiversity in GDF9 gene position associated with the sample population was high. Hanrahan et al. (2004) discovered eight variants (G1 to G8) of GDF9 gene in Cambridge and Belclare sheep breeds using PCR-SSCP and sequencing. However, G8 variant caused serine to phenylalanine substitution at residue 395 which replaced an uncharged polar amino acid with a nonpolar one at residue 77 of the mature coding region and may change the function of GDF9 in sheep (Hanrahan et al. 2004). Nikol et al. (2009) discovered 4 variants (G3, G4, G5 and G6) of GDF9 gene in Icelandic Thoka sheep that is in agreement with the result of the present study. The high level of genetic variability observed in the coding region of the ovine GDF9 gene in this study suggests that this region of the GDF9 gene probably affects folliculogenesis and female fertility in sheep; hence further association studies using appropriate populations are needed to identify genetic variants that can be used as markers related to fertility.
Regarding the estimated criteria and relatively high level of heterozygosity, it can be concluded that the studied population has a relatively high polymorphism in the examined locus. The discovered alleles and genotypes can also be used as markers in marker-assisted selection of sheep for economic traits in future.

Because of beneficial consequences of herbal plants on the performance and intestinal microlflora of broilers (Windisch et al. 2008), they have been proposed as an organic alternative to antibiotic growth promoters. Miswak (Salvadora persica) is a plant that grows around Mecca and in the Middle East area in general. High levels of active compounds such as flavonoids, eugenol, sodium chloride, potassium chloride, salvadourea, alkaloids and oleic and linoleic acids are present in Miswak. It has antibacterial, antioxidant and antifungal properties (Battaa et al. 2013). There is no report on the influences of dietary supplementation of Miswak in broiler chickens. However, in a previous study dietary supplementation with different levels of Miswak (0.50, 0.75 and 1.0% diet) improved performance as well as reproductive performance of Dokki4 laying hens (Battaa et al. 2013). Common Myrtle (Myrtus communis) belongs to the Myrtaceae family. The genus Myrtus includes flowering plant with approximately sixteen species reported in areas of the Middle East and Asia. Myrtle is one of the important aromatic and medicinal species from this family. It is a native plant to southern Europe, North Africa and west Asia (Nadkarni, 1989). Different compounds such as 1,8-cineole, linalool, linalyl acetate, terpineole, terpinolene, tannins and flavonoid are found in dried leaves of Myrtle. However, antibacterial, antifungal and antioxidant properties of this herb have been reported (Garg and Denger, 1988). Mahmoudi Bardzardi et al. (2012) indicated that dietary supplementation with 100, 200 and 300 mg/kg diet of Myrtle extract improved body weight gain and also feed conversion ratio of broilers. In another study, it was shown that addition of Myrtle extract reduced the adverse effects of aflatoxin-contaminated diets on broilers (Sadeghi et al. 2013). On the other hand, Myrtle extract can reduce the count of E. coli and increase the number of Lactobacillus in gut system of broilers (Ghazanfari et al. 2014). The aim of the current study was to investigate the effects of Miswak stem and leaf powder and Myrtle leaf powder on the performance and cecal bacteria of broilers.
Material and A total number of 408 one-day-old Cobb -500 chicks (male and female) were obtained from local hatchery and transferred to the rearing place. In a completely randomized design, birds were allocated to 6 experimental treatments with 4 replicate pens of 17 chicks each. The control group was provided a basal diet without any feed additive, while supplemented groups were received same basal diet which supplemented with one of the following feed additives: antibiotic (1g Neomycin/Kg diet), 0.5% stem and leaf powder of Miswak, 1% stem and leaf powder of Miswak, 0.5% Myrtle leaf powder and mix of 0.5% stem and leaf powder of Miswak 0.5% Myrtle leaf powder. All groups had free access to starter (d 1-21) and finisher (d 22-42) diets, throughout the rearing period. Fresh steam and leaf of Miswak and leaf of Myrtle were collected from the range of Larestan, Fars Province, Iran. They were dried in shadow, finely ground and added to the experimental diets based on their dosage. Body weight and feed intake were measured on 21 and 42 days of age. Moreover, at 21 and 42 days of age, one bird from each replicate pen (4/treatment) was slaughtered and samples of cecal content were collected to determine the population of E coli and Lactoacillus bacteria.
The current findings indicated that feed intake was not significantly influenced by dietary treatments (P> 0.05) throughout the study. Dietary addition of 0.5% Myrtle had deleterious effects on body weight gain and feed conversion ratio during starter phase of the study. Thus, birds fed diet containing 0.5% Myrtle gained less body weight and worse feed conversion ratio than those feed the control diet (P0.05). In line with these results, Al-Fadil et al. (2013) did not find positive effect of Neomycin on broiler body weight. Bulbul et al. (2014) reported that supplementation with 500, 1000 and 2000 mg/kg Myrtle oil did not influence broiler body weight gain while, 5000 mg/kg of this additive decreased body weight gain. Inconsistency in their results and others was attributed to the source and levels of Myrtle oil. In contrast to our results, in a previous study (Battaa et al. 2013) dietary supplementation with Miswak resulted in significant improvements in performance and reproductive traits of Dokki4 laying hens. On day 21, significant differences were observed in count of E.coli and Lactobacillus bacteria among experimental treatments (P Under condition of the current study, dietary addition of different feed additives (antibiotic, Miswak and Myrtle) had no significant effect on broiler body weight gain, feed intake and feed conversion ratio. Population of cecal Lactobacillus and E coli were significantly influenced by the feed additives which used in the current study.

Introduction Tomato, one of the most popular vegetable used in food preparations is used to processing and production of tomato juice. During processing, large amount of pulp including seeds is produced which can be used in poultry feeding. Tomato pulp is known as a protein source in poultry diets but its seeds have strong antioxidant such as ß-carotene and lycopene) Friedman et al, 2000). Some researchers used tomato pulp up to 19-20% in laying hen diet and reported no significant changes in performance criteria (Salajegheh et al, 2012; Calislar and Uygu, 2010). The positive effects of antioxidant compounds in some plants such as tomato on egg quality have been reported previously by some researchers (Sahin et al, 2008; Uuganbayar, 2005). It have been documented that layer hens meet some oxidative attacks during force molting, cause to depressing production performance and egg internal quality traits (Siegel 1980), therefore, adding antioxidant to diets, may be useful after force molting phase (Skrivan et al, 2010). The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of different levels of tomato pulp in post molted laying hens on egg production performance and egg internal quality traits during different storage times and temperatures.
Material and methods One hundred and twenty W-36 White leghorn laying hens in post-molting phase (78 week) were assigned to 3 treatments with 5 replications and 8 birds each based on completely randomized design. Some dried tomato pulps were obtained from a commercial tomato processor in West Azarbaijan province. After chemical analysis of dry matter, crude protein, crude fiber and also determining TMEn of tomato pulp, three isocaloric and isonitrogenous diets formulated to have 0, 7.5 and 15 % of tomato pulp and fed to birds for 8 weeks. Egg production, egg weight, feed consumption, egg mass and feed conversion ratio were recorded weekly and reported as monthly or total period. Six egg samples from each replicates of control group and group having best production performance (15 % tomato pulp) collected and stored in different temperatures (4 and 27° C) and duration times (1 day, 1 week and 1 month after production) then evaluated for their internal quality traits such as albumen pH, Haugh unit and yolk index.
Results and discussion Results showed that using tomato pulp up to 15 % of diet could not affect egg production of post-molted hens during 8 weeks of production (P>0.05). Similar findings have been reported by Calislar and Uygu (2010), who used up to 20 % tomato pulp in layers diet, but reported no significant effect on egg production performance, but some researchers (Jafari et al, 2006) reported decrease in egg production performance of birds fed 15% tomato pulp. In agreement with Salajegheh et al. (2012), egg weight, egg mass, feed intake and feed conversion ratio of hens were not affected significantly by use of tomato pulp up to 15 % in diet. Results of egg quality traits during different times and temperatures showed that main effects of usage levels and storage duration times were significant (P It is possible to use 15 % tomato pulp in post-molting diets of layer hens with no significant adverse effects on production performance and due to significant interaction effect of tomato pulp usage level and duration time on albumen pH and Haugh unit, the use of 15 % tomato pulp could restrict fluctuations of egg internal quality traits during storage.

Todays, use of antibiotics as growth-promoting in poultry production has been restricted in some countries because of antibiotic resistance and antibiotic residue problem. Therefore, tendency to search alternative components for antibiotics such as natural phytogenic additives was increasing. Spices and essential oils and extracts derived from herbs are receiving much attention as feed additive in poultry nutrition over the past decade (Steiner et al, 2010). Commercial feed additive as named Essential is a mixture of herbal essential oil derived from castor oil (Ricinus Communis) and cashew nut shell liquid. Ricin oleic acid is the main and active molecule in the castor oil and has been shown to have anti-inflammatory (Vieira etal, 2001) and antimicrobial actions (Novak etal, 1961). The shell of the cashew nut (Anacardium occidentale L.) is known as “cashew nut shell liquid” and constitutes nearly 25% of the total weight of the nut. This oil is mainly composed of anacardic acid (3-n-pentadecylsalicylic acid), cardanol (3-n-pentadecylphenol), cardol (5npentadecylresorcinol), and methylcardol (2-methyl-5-npentadecylresorcinol) (Orwa etal, 2009). Murakami et al., (2014) showed that the addition of essential oil derived from castor oil (Ricinus Communis) and cashew nut shell liquid in broiler diet at the level of 1.5 and 2 gr/kg was effective in improvement of body weight gain and feed conversion rate compared to the control diet. The cashew coat and castor grain has antioxidant and antimicrobial effects and it can be useful in hens’ nutrition. This experiment was conducted to study the effect of a mixture of essential oil of castor and cashew nut shell on performance, egg quality, and blood and egg yolk parameters in commercial laying hen.
Material and One hundred and twenty eight 58-wk-old LSL laying hens were allotted into 4 dietary treatments in a completely randomized design. Each treatment has 4 replicate pens with 8 birds per pen. Birds were fed the following experimental diets for 5 weeks: 1) control diet (C); 2) C plus 0.75 g/kg an essential oil mixture of castor and cashew nut shell (EOM); 3) C plus 1.5 g/kg EOM; and 4) C plus 2.25 g/kg EOM. The performance of hens and egg quality characteristics were determined at 61 and 63 wk of age. For egg quality measurement, 12 eggs from each treatment were used after being weighed, Egg width and length and shell thickness was assessed by Using a Vernier caliper. HU and albumen height for each egg was measured with Egg Multi Tester (EMT- 5200) using the following equation (Haugh, 1937): Haugh unit = 100 log (height of the albumen - 1.7egg weight0.37 7.6). Shell thickness of broken eggs was calculated as the mean of 3 measurements taken at the broad end, middle, and narrow end. The yolks of the four eggs were mixed together and frozen at -20◦C until measurement of their parameters including cholesterol and triglyceride. At the end of experimental period, two birds were randomly selected from each replicate and were bled from the brachial vein by the tube contain EDTA. Blood samples were centrifuged (1500 rpm, 15 min, 24°C) and the plasma was stored at -20°C. Plasma metabolites including cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL), triglyceride, aspartate aminotransferase and alanine aminotransferase were measured enzymatically with an autoanalyzer (Allison 300). The difference in the means of blood and egg yolk metabolites were subjected GLM procedure of SAS 9.0 software and the Duncan test. (SAS, 2009). Data of performance and egg quality analyzed using repeated measurement PROC MIXED of SAS adding factor time as a fixed effect and pen was considered a random effect. Tukey test was performed to detect differences among treatments at (P Effects of different levels of dietary blend essential oil of Cashew nut shell and castor on laying hen performance and egg quality at 58 to 63 age of week are shown in Tables 2, 3 and 4. Results indicated that, essential oil supplementation had no significant effect on laying rate, egg weight, egg mass, feed intake and feed conversion ratio. Similarly among treatments significant differences were not seen in egg quality traits, including egg shape index, shell thickness, shell weight, albumen height and haugh unit (P>0.05). Effects of different level of blend essential oil (Cashew nut shell and castor) on egg yolk cholesterol and triglyceride and blood parameters in laying hens at 63 age of week are presented in Tables 5 and 6. The dietary inclusion of different level of EOM decreased total cholesterol (P0.05). It was concluded that addition of essential oil (Ricinus communis and Anacardium occidentale L.) at 0.75 to 2.25 g/kg in the diet of laying hens has no effects on laying hen performance and egg quality traits in the late phase of production.

The effect of environmental conditions on health indices, performance and reproduction of poultry such as hatchability of eggs is very important. In recent years, several studies have been paid to theeffect of electromagnetic and magnetic fields onliving organisms, physiologicalchanges, production and health (Adair, 1998; Baharara et al., 2008; Shafey et al., 2011). Animals and poultry are exposed to electromagnetic fields from various sources such as electric wiring, industrial electric furnaces, mobile telephones and electric motors. Electromagnetic fields might impact the biological processes. The electromagnetic fields would also appear to have some negative effects in poultry welfare and economic efficiency. The researchers reported that exposing cells to electromagnetic fields could cause DNA to break apart and thus affect how cells develop (Focke et al., 2010). The effect of artificially generatedelectromagnetic field of low frequency on survival of chick embryos was examined by Siddiqi et al. (2015) and Shafeyet al. (2011). The results of such studies are differentand recurrently controversial mainly becausedifferent induction frequencies and intensities aswell as different times of exposure to the effect of these fields were used.The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of electromagnetic fields (EMF) on hatchability and some serum parameters of one- day old chicks.
Material and Number of 115 fertilized eggs divided randomly to five treatments each replication 23 eggs. Treatments included control group, EMF 2mT, 4 mT, 6 mT and 8mT with low frequency (50 Hz). Each treatment was exposed to electromagnetic fields for 2 hours. Four replicates with 23 eggs were allocated to each experimental treatment. Eggs were stored at room temperature (about 15-18°C). After the exposure of electromagnetic fields, 3 eggs from each treatment analyzed for egg quality parameters. At sampling, eggs were weighed and broken on to a flat surface where the height of the albumen and yolk were measured. The height of the albumen and yolk were measured using micrometer. Mortality was recorded on a group basis as it occurred. Hatching eggs were stored at 18°C and 75% RH. 115 eggs from five treatment groups were incubated in commercial setter and hatcher with 23 eggs in each of treatment group. The setter and hatcher were operated at temperatures of 37.5±0.5°C and 37.0±0.5°C respectively. Hatchability was calculated as the number of chicks hatched per fertile or total eggs. Haugh units were calculated from records of egg weight and albumen height as an indicator of interior egg quality. Haugh unit= 100 log (H 7.57-1.7W0.37), where H= height of the albumen and W= egg weight. At the end of the experiment, one-day chicks were slaughtered and blood samples were provided and analyzed for different parameters. Blood samples were centrifuged (at, 6500× g for 20 min) and serum was separated and then stored at -200C until assayed for measuring biochemical parameters (glucose, cholesterol, triglyceride, total protein, HDL, LDL, VLDL) using appropriate laboratory kits. The data obtained from the experiment were analyzed using SAS (SAS Institute, 2003) statistical programs with ANOVA procedure. Significant differences among treatments means were separated using Duncan, s multiple range test with a 5% probability.
There were no significant differences between treatments for parameters such as egg weight and egg large diameter. There were significant differences in the egg small diameter and albumen height (P It can be concluded that electromagnetic fields decreased levels of serum lipids but had not effect on hatchability and Haugh unit.

In order to stimulate growth, eliminate nutrient deficiencies, strengthen immune responses and prevent diseases, several additives are being added into the poultry feeds (Rakhshan et al. 1389). Initially, the first materials that were considered as food additives were antibiotics and anti-bacterial agents (Hedayati et al. 2015). Since 2006, the EU and later US have prohibited the use of all antibiotics as a growth promoter in livestock industry (Hashemi et al., 2009). Addition of medicinal herbs is aimed for replacing with the chemical compounds available in poultry diets. The minimum benefit of medicinal plants compared to chemical drugs is that if they do not role a positive effect, they have much-more limited side effects. Chicory plant (Cichorium intybus L.) and the English name Succory is a plant of the Asteraceae family, which are available in different parts of Iran. In order to evaluate the effects of Chicory root extract with growth promoter antibiotic, an experiment was conducted on blood biochemical parameters, immune titers and Cecum bacterial population.
Material and 192 Ross 308 mixed sex day-old chicks were used in a completely randomized design manner for 42 days, which were distributed after initial weighing. Experimental design of current trial was consisted of 4 treatments, 4 replicates and 12 chicks per each replicate. Treatments were 1) control, 2) Flavomycin antibiotic growth promoter (0.045%), 3 and 4) Chicory root extract in 0.5 and 0.1%, respectively. Extract of chicory root was prepared by the maceration method at Malayer University central laboratory. At first, the required amount of dried chicory root was prepared and the woods and groves were removed and then thoroughly grinded with a miller. The required amount of powder was then weighed and injected into the Laboratory Becher. For every 100 grams of powder, 700 ml of 96% ethanol and 300 ml of distilled water were added to Bechers and thoroughly blended for 2 minutes, then an aluminum foil was applied on it and 48 hours later using Whattman filter paper (W-42, UK) was flattened. Then, the ethanol was isolated and the pure extract was obtained and kept until it was used in the refrigerator. In order to study the performance, body weight gain, feed consumption and feed conversion ratio were measured and recorded on a weekly basis. Also, at the end of trial, from each experimental unit, two birds were selected and 3 ml of blood samples were collected for assessing immunity and biochemical parameters of blood serum. Biochemical parameters including triglyceride, cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) and low density lipoprotein (LDL), were checked and sent to a biochemical laboratory using a centrifuge at 3000 rpm, for 10 minutes, the serum was isolated from the specimen and measured using an auto-analyzer (Technicon RA-1000, USA). Collected data were analyzed and statistical analysis was performed in a completely randomized design with SAS version 9.1 and GLM procedure. Mean comparison was performed using Duncan's multiple range test at the probability level of P It is found that the maximum body weight and minimum FCR was significantly (P It can be concluded that Chicory root extract at 0.1% dosage when compared with growth promoter antibiotic fed group could improve the blood biochemical parameters and reduce the bacterial population of feces.

In recent years the fat content and fatty acid composition of foods have been highlighted as consumers have become more aware of the relationships between dietary fat and the incidence of diseases (Corpet, 2011; Daley et al., 2010). Increasing ruminant’s meat content of PUFA and conjugated linoleic acid isomers accepted as targets to improve nutritional quality of ruminant meat (Mapiye et al., 2012). Among all possible factors, feeding strategies, especially dietary supplementation with PUFA rich oils, are known as the most effective factor on alteration of fatty acid composition (Boles et al., 2005). However, conflicting results have been reported on altering fatty acid content of meat by supplementing ruminant diets with lipid sources high in PUFA (Ivan et al., 2001; Radunz et al., 2009).
To study the effects of pomegranate seed oil (PSO) supplementation on non-carcass components weight, carcass characteristics and some meat quality attributes 21 male Sanjabi lambs (BW=27.5±2.6 kg, 3 months old) were used. Lambs were randomly distributed among three treatments (control, control% PSO, and control%PSO) and were fed ad libitum for 90 days before slaughter. Four lambs from each treatment were slaughtered. After slaughter, non-carcass component (head, skin, feet, lungs and trachea, liver, heart, kidneys, spleen, gastro-intestinal tract, testicles, and kidney and abdominal fat depots), were removed and weighed. Following a 24 h chilling period, the carcasses were cut into different anatomical regions (neck, behind of neck, ribs, loin, fore shank, brisket, flank, long leg and fat tail) and the weight of each region was recorded. The carcass fat depth over the midpoint of LD muscle at the 12th rib was measured; fat thickness was assessed at three sites on the location. The LD muscle depth (B), width (A), and area were measured on the cut surface of the LD muscle at the 12th rib. Enough samples of longissimus dorsi (LD) and biceps femoris (BF) muscles were vacuum-packed and frozen at −20°C until subsequent determination of meat quality attributes. Samples of LD and BF muscles, without any subcutaneous fat, were ground to homogeneity and the percentage of moisture, ash, fat, and protein was determined using AOAC (2000) methods. Meat colour was measured on both muscles after ageing for 24 h at 4°C. Meat colour of bloomed (1 h at 21 °C) samples was assessed using the L*, a* and b* system (CIE, 1986) with a Hunter Lab colourimeter (Konica Minolta, Chroma meter model CR-400, Japan). To measure cooking loss (%), samples of LD and BF muscles were weighed, placed in plastic bags, and cooked in a water bath, at 75°C for 60 min as described by Hoffman et al. (2003). After cooking, samples were dried and cooking loss (%) was estimated by means of percentage of weight loss of the cooked sample to initial sample weight. Cooked samples were used to determine shear force value. Three sub-samples (3×1×1 cm3) were taken from each cooked sample. Shear force values of each subsample was determined using a Testometric machine (Model M350-10CT, England) equipped with a Warner Bratzler (WB) shear force apparatus.
Empty total digestive tract and empty reticulum had significantly higher mass in lambs fed 2% PSO supplemented diet (P0.05). In other species, on the other hand, Engle et al. (2000) and Najafi et al. (2012) reported that dietary linoleic acid decreased kidney and pelvic fat percentage in Angus steers and Mahabadi goat kids, respectively. This discrepancy may be attributed to difference in PUFAs content of the diet among different studies (Solomon et al., 1992). The carcass cut weights of lambs were not affected (P>0.05) by the oil supplementation at 2 or 4%. This result agrees with those in which no significant effects on weights or percentage of carcass cuts were observed as a result of supplementing lambs (Boles et al., 2005) or kids (Najafi et al., 2012; Roy et al., 2013) diets with various oils. Similarly, other measured carcass characteristics of the lambs including subcutaneous fat depth, and longissimus depth, width and area were not affected (P>0.05) by oil supplementation. Similar studies in lambs (Radunz et al., 2009; Boles et al., 2005) have reported no effect of oil supplementation on rib eye area of lambs fed high unsaturated oils. In the present study, PSO inclusion in lamb diet did not make any significant change (P>0.05; Table 3) in moisture, protein and ash contents of LD muscle; although feeding this oil in 4% level caused a significant (P0.05). In contrast to the findings of the current study, fish oil (Najafi et al., 2012), soybean oil (Bessa et al., 2005), safflower oil (Boles et al., 2005) and soybean and linseed oils (Francisco et al., 2015) supplementation in lambs diet did not alter meat colour indexes. In the present study, cooking loss and WB shear force in LD and BF muscles were not affected by oil supplementation (P>0.05). Other findings in goat (Najafi et al., 2012) and lambs (Manso et al., 2009; Radunz et al., 2009; Francisco et al., 2015) confirm that oil supplementation is ineffective (P>0.05) on cooking loss percentage and WB shear force.
The results of this study suggest that pomegranate seed oil supplementation in the diet of fattening lambs up to 4% have potential to improve colour indexes of meat without negative impact on carcass characteristics and physical attributes of meat.

Beekeeping as an economic activity, while preventing the degradation of pastures and forests in developing countries, has many opportunities for improving the livelihoods of small farmers by engaging them in this work (Masuku 2013; Jaafar-Furo 2014). Despite the expected important role of beekeeping in improving the livelihoods of farmers, jobs related to bees generally, have a low income (Mirmohammad Sadeghi et al. 2007). Several factors such as climate, vegetation (Golchin and Jalali 2013; Karimi et al. 2009) and human factors (management and knowledge) affect the performance of beekeepers. If production in the agricultural and livestock sectors is due to three major sources of land, labor and capital, without the factor of management it is incidental to produce. The returns of both physical and economic factors generally depend on the manager's skill in the combination of resources in an appropriate and efficient manner (Nuthall 2006; Daneshvar Khaki 2010). It should be emphasized that although the beekeeper has no control over environmental and climatic factors, an empowered beekeeper can make the most use of climate and environmental conditions by making appropriate decisions. Therefore, there is a need for planning to improve the performance and productivity of this activity, and this involves understanding the production status of beekeepers and their actions. According to the Agricultural Jihad Organization of the West Azerbaijan province in 2013, average honey production per colony (yield), was 19.3 kg in the province, while average production was reported in Osnavieh region equals 6.6 kg. Distribution of yield among beekeepers in the region was also significant. The range of yield varies from 3 kilograms to 40 kilograms per hive unit (Abdi, personal communications 2014). Therefore, the main issue of the present research was why, despite the almost similar conditions in the region, there is a meaningful difference between beekeepers? Therefore, the present study assumes that some of these differences are attributable to beekeeper's breeding practices. In this regard, different activities of beekeepers, as a result of their knowledge and management skills, effect on the performance of their apiary. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of different activities of beekeepers on apiary yield
Material and This research work was conducted in Oshnavieh region in the district of West Azerbaijan province, Iran. The target groups were the beekeepers which their numbers are estimated to be 218 households. Cochrane’s sampling formula was adopted to get the appropriate sample size for this research, which involved 115 of beekeepers. Samples selected through randomized sampling method. Information related to honybee production system was recorded by interviewing the farmers in their farm unit, using a structured questionnaire (research tool). The questionnaire included several sections. The dependent variable was the performance of the apiary in 2015 and in this research, income per hive was used to measure the yield. The data obtained were managed, collected and analyzed using Excel and SPSS20. The descriptive analysis was used to describe the sampled population in the study. The correlation test was used to describe the relationship between variables and multiple linear regressions was used to explore the effective variables on the yield of beekeepers.
the results showed that all beekeepers were male and most of them (95.7%) were married. The average age of beekeepers was 40 years; most of them (40%) were in the age group of 29 to 41 years old. Most respondents (83.5%) live in the village and among respondents, 105 were heads of household. 99 beekeepers were trained in beekeeping. Based on the results of this research, beekeeping was the main occupation of 74.8% of the respondents and the remaining 25.2% were occupied by beekeeping as the second occupation. The average number of hives in the apiary was 218 hive, and 70% of beekeepers had less than 250 hives. Average sugar consumption per hive was 17.35 kg. More than 92% of beekeepers migrate their honey colonies, with a mean distance of 357 km. The results showed that almost all beekeepers use beekeeping clothing (hats, gloves, clothing, etc) and bee brush, but in contrast, a small number of beekeepers use artificial insemination and bee venom collector. Results showed that beekeepers had 40 different activities related to the production system. Average income per hive was about 1950000 rails. Correlation analysis revealed that education and actions of beekeepers e.g. Considering standard space of hive placement, migration (movement), considering health issues, removing sick hives from the field had positive significant correlation with farm yield (P The result of regression analysis showed that two variables including the amount of sugar feeding and second migration distance is determining 39.8% of the farm yield variance.

Urea as the final product of nitrogen metabolism plays a pivotal role in ruminants’ nitrogen economic efficiency (Marini and Van Amburgh, 2003). Ruminants are capable to recycle and return a tremendous amount of urea to rumen rather than excretion to urine; the recycled urea is hydrolyzed to CO2 and ammonia and thereafter is used for the synthesis of microbial protein (Harmeyer and Martens, 1980). By changing ruminal and blood metabolites, Monensin and herbal extracts can change and modify the expression of urea transporter gene in rumen epithelium. Monensin is an ionophore antibiotic which changes the ratio of VFAs in the rumen in favor of propionic acid and decreases the production of methane (Duffield and Bagg, 2000). The aim of present study was to investigate the effects of Monensin and herbal extracts as feed additives on type B urea transporter gene in rumen epithelium and also on ruminal ammonia, VFAs, pH and blood ammonia in fattening lambs.
Material and In this experiment 16 Afshari ram lambs with initial BW of 41±5.6 kg and 6 months of age were used. The lams were randomly assigned to four experimental dietary treatments in a completely randomized design; 1) no additive (control), 2) 30 mg monensin.d-1 per lamb, 3) periodical inclusion of 30 mg monensin.d-1 per lamb, and 4) 2 g of a commercial blend of plant extract.d-1 per lamb. During the experiment, lambs were kept in individual boxes and the diets and fresh drinking water were offered ad libitum. 3 weeks were considered as an adaptation to diets and 8 weeks were considered as an experimental period in which treatments and samplings were conducted. The forage: concentrate ratio was set to 20:80 and the rations were prepared daily, mixed by hand and were offered two times at 09:00 and 16:00. Two hours after morning feeding rumen samples were collected every other 2 weeks by using a special tube and electrical vacuum pump. Also, immediately after slaughtering and before skinning 2 rumen samples were collected, filtered and the pH was determined. 8 ml of the first sample was mixed with 2 ml of % 25 sulfuric acid for measurement of ammonia and 8 ml of the second sample was mixed with %25 meta-phosphoric acid for measurement of VFAs. The mixed samples were kept in -20ºC until assays. After thawing, rumen samples were centrifuged for 10 to 15 min and then the supernatant was separated and stored for FAs and ammonia measurements. Blood and rumen samples were collected before slaughtering and rumen tissue samples were taken from ventral part of the rumen. VFA in rumen samples was measured by using Gas chromatograph (Mirzaei-Alamouti et al. 2016). The ammonia nitrogen was measured by using a spectrophotometer. Blood samples were taken at the beginning of the experiment and then every 2 weeks after the morning feeding into heparinized tubes. Blood samples were centrifuged at 3000 rpm for 15 min and plasma samples were stored at -20º C for plasma urea nitrogen. Blood urea nitrogen was measured with commercial kits using a spectrophotometer. The lambs were slaughtered 56 days after feeding with experimental diets and the tissue samples were taken from ventral part of the rumen. Relative gene expression of UT-B was determined by Real-time PCR technique (Mirzaei_Alamouti et al, 2016). Experimental data were subjected to analysis of variance by the mixed procedure of SAS (9.1).
The relative expression of urea transporter gene in lambs fed with periodical Monensin was 0.167 in comparison to control group. In Pfaffl’s (2001) method, the gene expression in control group is considered 1; thus, the expression of urea transporter gene in periodical Monensin group has been reduced (P all in all, the results of this study showed an inverse or average relationship between urea transporter gene expression with ammonia nitrogen, butric acid and valeric acid and a positive relationship with VFAs. The periodical inclusion of Monensin to the diets may change the rumen fermentation and reduce the expression of urea type B transporter. In comparison to this, the continued inclusion of Monensin to the diets would improve rumen fermentation and increase the expression of the urea-type B transporter gene. The herbal extract used in this study may change the rumen fermentation but is not possibly effective on epithelial cells which are involved in urea transportation. In this study, the rumen variables were more effective in urea transportation in compare to blood variables.

Nowadays the genetic markers are very usual for the diversity and management in different horse breeds all around the world. One of the most important goals for horse breeders is conserving the typical phenotype and characters of horses. This conservation is performed based on selection and inbreeding (Winton et al. 2015). In this regard, the main disadvantage is the homozygosity of undesirable alleles in the populations, which results in the reduced level of genetic variation, that in turn leads to lots of defects and susceptibility to recessive diseases (Shahsavarani et al. 2010). DNA genotyping by microsatellites is usually used for determining genetic diversity and parentage testing. However, there are inherited regions of DNA that can vary in different creatures. Variations in DNA sequence are named "polymorphisms". As findings show, sequences with the highest degree of polymorphism are very useful for DNA analysis in paternity verifications. This term is based on analyzing the inheritance of a class of DNA polymorphisms known as Short Tandem Repeats (STR). STRs are short sequences of DNA, normally of length 2-5 base pairs, that are repeated numerous times in a head-tail manner. The polymorphisms in STRs are due to the different number of copies of the repeat element that can occur in a population of individuals. On the basis of different repeat units, STRs can be classified into different types. On the one hand, according to the length of the major repeat unit, STRs are classified into mono-, di-, tri-, tetra-, penta-, and hexanucleotide repeats. The total number of each type decreases as the size of the repeat unit increases. Short tandem repeats (STRs) like microsatellites represent lots of advantages including codominant inheritance and extreme polymorphism (Miller et al. 1988). This study determined short tandem repeat (STR) and allele frequency of Arab and Caspian horse breeds in different regions of Iran using four loci (VHL20, AHT4, HTG4, HMS7) recommended by the (ISAG).
Material and Blood samples were collected from 37 Iranian horse breeds (East Azerbaijan and Gilan provinces). EDTA as an anticoagulant agent was used in blood tubes. Genomic DNA was extracted and purified by salting out method from whole blood (Miller et al. 1988). Then, DNA concentration was evaluated using NanoDrop at 260 nm. Next, four microsatellite markers were used as labelled with fluorescent dye (6-FAM) (Table1). Afterwards, multiplex PCR was performed in a total volume of 25 μl using the following cycling conditions: the first denaturation at 95˚C for 5 min followed by 25 cycles at 95˚C for 30 sec, 59˚C for 1 min, 72˚C for 30 sec, and a final extension at 72˚C for 5 min. PCR products were checked through electrophoresis on 1/8% agarose gel. Then, they were genotyped by capillary electrophoresis on Genetic Analyzer ABI PRISM 3100 (Applied Biosystems, USA). The size of alleles was measured by fluorescent fragment analyzer Gene Marker genotype software and the alleles per locus were calculated by counting.
Genotypes showed the mean number of alleles 7.5 in Arab horses and 7 in Caspian horses. As regards that mean observed heterozygosity (Ho) 0.761 in Arab and 0.799 in Caspian horse also expected heterozygosity (He) calculated 0.779 in Arab and 0.84 in Caspian horse. The equine microsatellite was introduced by (Ellegren et al. 1992). In the present study, the highest number of polymorphism was 10 for AHT4 locus in Arabian horses compared with 9 in Egyptian Native horses (Mahrous, Hassanane et al. 2011). Two Iranian horse populations (Caspian and Arabian) had high heterozygosity. Iranian Caspian pony heterozygosity (0.84) was higher than that of UK Pony (Winton, Plante et al. 2015). This result was even higher than what was obtained in another study 0.605 (Amirinia et al. 2007) and lower than 0.8 (Shahsavarani et al. 2010).
Our findings were in agreement with other studies in that microsatellite DNA genotyping is useful for individual identification, and paternity and maternity verification on horse population. These kinds of studies help in assessing genetic diversity for conservation, management and breeding program in horse breeds. The number of alleles and heterozygosity level in four loci in our studied population showed higher genetic variability and polymorphism.

The genus of Pistacia which contains 11 or more species belongs to Anacardiaceae family (Karimi et al., 2009). One of the most widely distributed species of Pistacia is Pistacia atlantica which is called “Baneh” in Iran and is the most economically important tree species in many rural areas (Pourreza et al., 2008). The fruit of wild pistachio is used by natives as flavor in food after grinding it and it is used for its oil, although the fruit is small and not commercially valuable. Tree nuts and their oils contain several bioactive and health-promoting components. Dietary consumption of tree nut oils may have even more beneficial health effects than consumption of whole tree nuts, possibly due to the replacement of dietary carbohydrates with unsaturated lipids and/or other components present in the oil extracts (Hu and Stampfer 1999).This study was carried out to evaluate and compare the quality of phenological stages, antioxidant properties and intestinal digestibility of Pistacia atlantica by nylon bags method.
Material and In order to prepare experimental treatments, Pistacia atlantica was collected and dried in three stages (early growing season, mid and end of growing season) from foothills of the around the city of Birjand. The treatments were: 1. pistachio fruit in early growing season, 2. pistachio fruit in middle of growing season, and 3. pistachio fruit at the end of growing season. Approximate analysis of samples was undertaken by AOAC (2005). Neutral detergent fiber and acid detergent fiber was determined by method of Van Soest (1991). The total amount of phenolic compounds was measured by the method of Folin ciocalteu (Marino et al., 2004). The total amount of tannins was obtained by calculating the difference between before and after the reaction with Polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) (Makar et al., 1993). Condensed tannin was measured by the method of Porter et al. (1986). The antioxidant activity was measured by the method of Turkmen and colleagues (2006). Degradability parameters of the samples were measured after incubation for 0, 2, 4, 8, 16, 24, 48, 72, 96 & 120 hours in the rumen of two fistulated Holstein cows. Also, ruminal and post ruminal digestibility were determined with the incubation of samples for 16 hours in the rumen by Daisy system. The DM and CP degradation data were fitted by exponential equation P=a (1-e –ct) (17). Effective degradability (ED) were calculated using of equation ED = a {(cb) / (c k)} and taking into consideration passing rate (k) 0.04, 0.06 and 0.08 per hour.
The results showed with the advance stage of growth increased, percentage of dry matter, crude fat, NDF and ADF. The highest amount of dry matter belonged to the end of the growing season (85.29%) and the lowest was related to the beginning of the growing season (18.03%). The highest amount of crude protein observed at the first stage (early growth) (15.17%) and the lowest at the mid of the growing season (P Based upon the present research it is concluded that Pistacia atlantica is rich in phenolic compounds and antioxidant, and it can be used as an alternative to synthetic antioxidants. Also, due to having about 83 percent unsaturated fatty acids, it has a high nutritional value and could be used in livestock diets in order to enrich and enhance oxidative stability of animal products.

The indigenous stocks play an important role in villager economy in developing countries, especially in Iran. Indigenous breeds could maintain higher level of performance under Incompatible environment compared to commercial strains. In classic breeding programs for poultry, selection of birds was based on phenotypic and pedigree information. The development of genomic selection prefers new strategies in animal breeding. Genomic selection has a major limitation for implementation. This method need genotyping of large numbers of markers for implementation and the costs of genotyping for these markers is high, especially for developing countries. To overcome this problem, before applying genomic selection, different scenarios have to be compared using computer simulation. The objective of this study was comparison of results in genomic selection and classic selection method in Iranian native fowls by using ZPLAN software (Täubert 2010). ZPLAN software is a very useful tool to optimize conventional and genomic breeding programs this software allows modeling of all relevant breeding structures, while taking all relevant biological, technological and economic parameters for complex breeding programs into account (Sitzenstock et al. 2013). This software then generates results such as the annual genetic gain for the breeding objective using a pure deterministic approach (Dekkers 2007). This program has been based on the discounted gene flow-method (Hazel 1943) and selection index theory (Hazel and Lush 1942). This software calculates genetic gain, discounted return, profit and costs within and over selection paths. The results of monetary in ZPLAN are standardized to an animal unit and are given per year (Sitzenstock et al. 2013).
Material and A reference scenario and a genomic scenario were simulated on 3460 birds in both sexes. Reference scenario was simulated based on phenotypic information and genomic scenario was simulated based on combination of phenotypic and genomic data with two reference populations of 500 and 1000 birds. Genomic data was based on the information of 4000 hens and variable numbers of cocks (800 to 4000). Studied traits included egg number, body weight at 8 weeks, mean of egg weight and age at sexual maturity. In this simulation, genetic and phenotypic parameters were used (Table 1). These parameters included: phenotypic standard deviation, heritability, genetic and phenotypic correlations and traits economic coefficients. Economic weights were based on the study of Kianimanesh et al. (2001) and the other parameters were extracted from the study of Yousefi 2012. The variable costs of rearing a cock or a hen were assumed to be 440000 Rial per animal (over a period of 20 weeks). During production, daily feeding costs resulted from a feed consumption of 0.11 kg per day at a price of 12000 Rial per kg. For each cock and hen, additional costs for the animal care (20000 Rial) were assumed. The costs of selection were assumed 40000 Rial per animal. The fixed costs were not considered in conventional scenario, because it was difficult to quantify them in breeding program. But these costs must reduce from profit. The interest rate was set to %7 for discounted costs and %2 for discounted returns (Sitzenstock et al. 2013).
The generation interval for both scenarios was 14.5 months. By adding genomic information to reference scenario, accuracy of estimations increased from 0.62 for chocks and 0.64 for hens in reference scenario to 0.77 for both sex in genomic scenario. Genetic development of traits increased with increase in the number of genotyped birds and the number of birds of reference population. Genetic development for traits egg number, body weight at 8 weeks, mean of egg weight and age at sexual maturity increased from 0.22, 2.57, 0.09 and -0.23 (Table 2) respectively in reference scenario to 0.30, 3.60, 0.11 and -0.27 respectively in genomic selection with 1000 reference population. The profit of breeding program was higher than reference scenario only in genomic scenario with reference population with 1000 birds (Figure 2). The discounted return per animal unit in the conventional scenario was 20102400 Rial per year. The variable costs for conventional scenario were 1057200 Rial per animal unit. This resulted in a profit of 19044800 Rial per animal unit. The accuracy of the genomic information and the size of the reference population have a large impact on the benefits from genomic selection. Dekkers 2007 showed that with increasing of marker information increased the benefits from genomic scenarios.
The use of genomic information caused increasing genetic development in all traits. Although in this study costs were not reduced, but genomic information increased the accuracy of selection of breeding program. This study showed that genomic selection can increase the genetic improvement rate of native chickens. However, the costs of genomic scenarios were higher than conventional scenario, but genomic information increased accuracy of selection and genetic gain of breeding goals traits. To overcome this problem, use of low density SNP chips is suggested.