فصلنامه پژوهشهای علوم دامی ایران
سال چهاردهم شماره 2 (تابستان 1401)

 Zinc is part of more than 300 enzymes involved in immunity, metabolism, growth and reproductive functions. This element is essential for the metabolism of nucleic acids, proteins, carbohydrates, the development and proper functioning of immune cells. Therefore, zinc deficiency can affect the performance of animals by reducing appetite and growth and immune system disorders.Fat supplementation in milk replacer or starter diets has been suggested to improve the energy density of calf diets. Linoleic and alpha-linolenic are two essential fatty acids precursors of eicosanoids, important molecules in regulation of inflammation. Eicosanoids derived from linoleic acid has the inflammatory effects, while Eicosanoids derived from alpha-linolenic acid has anti-inflammatory effects. Adding alpha-linolenic acid in the form of Ca-salt of flaxseed oil to calf starter improves daily weight gain and feed efficiency. It seems to decreasing the ratio of linoleic acid to alpha linolenic acid in the diet have positive effects on the health and immune system of dairy calves.Zinc has a direct effect on modulating the activity of desaturase enzymes in fatty acid metabolism and also indirectly affects the absorption, oxidation and composition of fatty acids. In addition, zinc participates in the structure of superoxide dismutase, which is an important enzyme in the oxidative process of lipids. Free radicals reaching the cytoplasm are neutralized by this enzyme. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of organic supplementation of zinc and dietary Ca-salt of flaxseed oil on growth performance, health status and some blood parameters of Holstein calves.

A total of Twenty-eight 3-day-old female Holstein calves with a starting average weight of 35.7±2 kg were used based on a completely randomized design with a 2×2 factorial arrangement of treatments and 7 replications per treatment for 49 days (before weaning). The experimental treatments were: 1) Control (CON), 2) diet containing 0.1% Zn-methionine supplement (+Zn), 3) diet containing 2.5% Ca-salt of flaxseed oil supplement (+Fat) and 4) diet containing 2.5% Ca-salt of flaxseed oil supplement with 0.1% Zn-methionine supplement (+Fat +Zn). The calves were housed in individual pens and fed with whole milk and had free access to the feed starter and water. Milk was offered 4 L/d in two equal meals daily at 07:00 and 19:00. All the calves were weighed at the beginning of the experiment and days 14, 28, 42 and 49. Daily weight gain and feed efficiency (gain to feed) were calculated. Apparent digestibility was determined by the internal marker method of acid-insoluble ash. Changes in skeletal growth and health scores from birth to 42 days were recorded. Blood samples were collected from the jugular vein on last week of the trial (3 h after the morning feeding). Blood parameters data were analyzed using the PROC GLM procedure of SAS (9.1v). Repeated measured data (body weight, feed intake and feed efficiency) were analyzed using the PROC MIXED procedure and health scores were analyzed using a multivariable logistic mixed model (GLIMMIX). Significance among treatments was determined by the Tukey test and results were considered as significant the P-value was less than 0.05.

 This study results showed that the use of Zn-methionine and Ca-salt of flaxseed oil had no significant effect on dry matter intake and growth performance. Daily weight gain tended to increase from day 29 to day 49 in treatments containing fat supplement. Fat supplementation increased dry matter and organic matter apparent digestibility. Addition of zinc-methionine supplement to diets had no effect on apparent nutrient digestibility. Skeletal growth indices did not affect by dietary treatments. Attitude score, nasal discharge, days with fever, days with diarrhea and days with poor attitude were not affected by experimental treatments. Ca-salt of flaxseed oil reduced rectal temperature and improved fecal consistency. Organic Zn did not improve calf health status. Decreased rectal temperature as a result of consuming the source of alpha-linolenic acid may be due to the effects of alpha-linolenic acid and its derivatives eicosanoids in reducing the incidence of inflammatory responses. Interaction among fat and Zn-methionine tended to affect alanine aminotransferase enzyme concentration. Zn-methionine supplement increased the concentration of alkaline phosphatase. Alkaline phosphatase has four Zn element in its active site. This enzyme is involved in calcium absorption and animal growth and is considered as indicator of Zn status. The increase in alkaline phosphatase concentration in the present study can be attributed to the increase in zinc uptake from the source of the organic zinc-methionine.

 It seems that feeding of Ca-salt of flaxseed oil with high levels of unsaturated fatty acids in dairy calves have a positive effect on calf health status and apparent feed digestibility.

Global demand for goat milk and its products has been growing. The decreased pasture quality has led goat producers to use intensive production systems with economical fodder resources. Goat milk contains functional compounds that enhance human immune system and overall health. Goat milk is enriched with functional peptides, conjugated linoleic acid, and healthy oligosaccharides that can immensely benefit human immunity and health. Goats are usually capable in utilizing lower quality forages. In few recent studies, alfalfa hay was compared with different by-products and local feeds with no significant effects found on rumen fermentation and milk production or composition. Murciano-Granadina goats were capable to utilize low quality fiber sources towards milk production.The objective of this study was to determine effects of feeding various forage sources on milk production, nutritional behaviors, and blood parameters of Murciano-Granadina dairy goats in Iran.

  Thirty second-parity Murciano-Granadina goats (190 ± 3 days in milk; 2 ± 0.03 kg/d milk yield) were used in a completely randomized design study with three treatments (10 goats per treatment). Treatments were diets containing 1) wheat straw (WS), 2) alfalfa hay (AH), or 3) corn silage (CS). To enable sound comparisons among forage sources, treatment diets were balanced to be isoenergetic and isonitrogenous. The concentrate portion of the rations was similarly ground for all treatments. Feed and milk (from a.m. and p.m. milking) samples were collected weekly for later analytical measurements. To determine goat behavior time; eating, ruminating, and resting times were observed and recorded by technical individuals on days 30 and 50 of the experiment in two 24-h period. Blood samples were taken at 0800 h on d 1, 30, and 56. The data were analyzed using mixed models of SAS program.

 The dry matter intake (DMI) was significantly affected by treatments (P <0.001). Body weight and its changes were similar among treatments, suggesting that nutrient partitioning towards tissue accretion or depletion was not different among treatments during the study, since goats were in late lactation. However, DMI was 228 g higher for goats received diet containing corn silage than for those received AH (P < 0.05). Decreased DMI for diets with wheat straw and alfalfa hay compared with corn silage could at least partially be related to increased dietary fat and indigestible cell wall in the former diets. Ruminating, standing, and resting times were not different among treatments (P > 0.10). These data would suggest that despite the differences in forage nutritional characteristics, digestibility, and intake, ruminating time was similar among treatments.Goats fed CS had higher milk production than the other two groups (P <0.001). The percentage of milk fat in the alfalfa hay treatment was higher than in the other treatments (p> 0.05). Similar to milk volume, daily yields of milk protein, lactose, and total solids were also higher for corn silage than for other treatments. This could be a result of increased milk volume and unchanged milk contents of protein and lactose for corn silage. Milk fat content was higher (P < 0.01) for AH treatment but milk fat yield tended (P < 0.10) to be greater for CS treatments than for other treatments.Serum concentration of glucose, albumin and non-esterified fatty acids (NEFA) were not significant among experimental treatments. Glucose and NEFA values are usually interpreted as indices for energy status of experimental animals. Similar glucose and NEFE concentrations in blood for the three forage treatments could be evaluated in light of the fact that goats were in mid and late lactation and thus were not in negative energy balance. As a result, they may have not been metabolically sensitive enough to respond to treatments at this stage of lactation. Serum concentrations of total proteins were higher for AH than for other treatments (P < 0.05). Findings  of this study suggest that lactating Murciano-Granadina goats are capable to utilize different forage sources including alfalfa hay, corn silage and wheat straw. However, corn silage leads to higher raw and fat-corrected milk yields, whereas alfalfa hay increases milk fat content. For higher feed efficiency and lower feed cost and where more available, Wheat Straw may be used in Murciano-Granadina goat diets. To improve milk yield and fat content and yield simultaneously, certain combinations of alfalfa hay and corn silage may be required. Determining this will require future experimentation. Future experiments could also investigate forage choice effects on milk fatty acids profile and other functional compounds.

 Animal feed additives are used worldwide for many different reasons. Breeding management of sucking animals, including proper nutrition and prevention of common diseases up to the age of weaning, has an effective role in the economic value of the livestock industry.Some help to cover the needs of essential nutrients and others to increase growth performance, feed intake and therefore optimize feed utilization. The health status of animals with a high growth performance is a predominant argument in the choice of feed additives. Herbs, spices and their extracts (botanicals) have a wide range of activities. They can stimulate feed intake and endogenous secretions or have antimicrobial, coccidiostatic or anthelmintic activity. Among the advantages of using medicinal plants are simple use, no adverse effects in most of them on animal performance, no harmful residues in livestock and poultry products and less cost than antibiotics.The aim of the present investigation was to study of effect of Ziziphora tenuior on the performance of suckling kids, dry matter digestibility, blood parameters and the effect on the incidence of diarrhea.

 In order to investigate the effect of adding different levels of Ziziphora tenuior on performance, blood parameters and fecal score of Sistani infants from 18 lambs aged 1 to 2 months with an average weight of 13 2. 2.7 kg in a completely randomized design with three treatments and 6 replications Were. Treatments included:  control (milk without additive), 2) milk contains 2.5 g powder Ziziphora tenuior, 3) milk contains 5 g powder Ziziphora tenuior. The duration of the experiment was 70 days. The diets used in this experiment were prepared according to the tables of the National Association of Sheep Research (NRC) and were given to the goats in the morning (8 o'clock) and in the evening (16 o'clock) as an appetite suppressant. Daily feed was provided to the animals in a completely mixed form. The Ziziphora tenuior plant used was dried in an oven, ground and added to milk as a powder, and milk was given to the goats twice a day (10% of body weight) by pacifiers. Kids were weighed one day per week to evaluate weight changes. Dry matter intake was measured and fecal score was recorded daily. Feces samples were collected for digestibility in the final week for 5 days. Goat feces were evaluated daily. Feces scores were determined based on 1-firm and consistent, 2-soft and loose, 3-loose and watery, 4-watery with some blood and 5-watery with blood and mucus. Blood sampling was performed on day 63 so that all goats were sampled intravenously before the morning meal and with dietary restriction for 12 to 14 hours and the blood was taken in two separate tubes, one containing heparin to obtain plasma and the other without heparin. The concentrations of triglycerides, cholesterol, glucose, blood urea nitrogen, albumin and total protein were also determined by spectrophotometer. About 3 ml of blood was transferred to tubes containing EDTA solution and hematological parameters including white blood cells, neutrophils, eosinophils, lymphocytes and monocytes were measured and red blood cells, hemoglobin, hemoglobin, hemoglobin, hematogram. The mean concentration of cellular hemoglobin was also counted and calculated.

  The dry matter, crude protein and ether extracts of Ziziphora tenuior were 87.91, 7.91 and 3.21 percent, respectively. Based on the obtained results, adding of different levels Ziziphora tenuior to milk. Dry matter digestibility in two leves 2.5 and 5 grams significantly increase compared to control. Daily gain, feed conversion ratio, blood parameter and immune respones were not affected by treatment trials. Fecal score significantly decreased between treatment level 5g and control. There were no significant differences between treatments for blood parameter. Ziziphora tenuior has appetizing, antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties due to the presence of linalool and stimulates the digestive process Can increase dietary intake and weight and improve feed conversion ratio.The result showed that adding herbal to milk in neonatal calves have positive effect because of affecting on starter intake, dry matter digestibility and fecal consistency score.

 This study showed that the inclusion of Ziziphora tenuior kids diet increase dry matter intake, Improved the  fecal score and incidence of diarrhea. Therefore, it is recommended to use this additive plant in milk or starter diet of suckling animals.

 The main factors limiting the consumption of low-quality fodder is their low nitrogen. Therefore, it is often difficult to provide sufficient nutrients, especially energy and protein for ruminants, which use these resources. Deficiency of nutrients in low quality forage also affects the supply of nutrients for growth of ruminal microorganisms and leads to a decrease in the ruminal digestion rate of these forages; this in turn reduces the feed intake and performance of the animal. Providing the sufficient nitrogen to ruminal microorganisms is important to increase carbohydrate digestibility and microbial protein production. Therefore, to achieve optimal performance, it is important to provide appropriate nitrogen supplements in areas where a significant portion of the ruminant diet consists of low-quality forage. One of the characteristics of ruminants is the ability to use non-protein nitrogen sources to synthesis of microbial protein in the rumen. Non-protein nitrogen, mainly urea, has been considered as a substitute for part of true protein due to its low price per unit of nitrogen compared to other true protein sources. The problem with using common urea is its rapid hydrolysis in the rumen and its conversion to ammonia. Most ruminal ammonia enters the bloodstream and causes destructive effects, from reduced feed intake and animal function to death from ammonia poisoning. The various slow-release urea compounds are made with the aim of continuously supplying nitrogen in the rumen. However, a part of the slow-release urea compounds may leave rumen without being converted to ammonia, reducing their performance for microbial protein production. Therefore, different sources of slow-release urea may have different effects. Processed or slow-release urea reduces ammonia poisoning and nitrogen wastage by reducing the rate of nitrogen release and improving feed costs. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the effects of two sources of slow-release urea and compare them with diets without urea or containing common urea in the fattening lambs fed with low quality forage, to ultimately reduce production costs.

 The present experiment was conducted at Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University of Khuzestan. Four experimental treatments were including 1- control treatment (without urea) and three treatments containing three different sources of non-protein nitrogen including 2- 1.8% slow-releasing urea-slowgen 3- 1.69% slow-release urea-optigene 4- 1.6% common urea. Twenty-four male Arabic lambs with (a mean weight of 25.65 ± 0.6 kg and 5± 1.0 months old were assigned to four experimental treatments with six replications. The nutrients digestibility was measured during seven days. The feed orts and feces were daily weighted and about 10% of them were kept in the plastic bags at -20˚C. At the end of this short period, the orts and feces samples were mixed and one representative sample obtained. The samples were oven-dried and grounded using 1 mm mesh screen. The chemical composition of rations, feed orts and feces, including dry matter, neutral detergent fiber, acid detergent fiber, organic matter, and crude protein were measured with standard methods. The dry matter intake, initial weight, every two weeks weight, final weight was recorded and feed conversion ratio and feed efficiency were calculated. Protozoa population, ammonia nitrogen, and pH of the rumen liquor were measured with standard procedure. The blood glucose, cholesterol, triglyceride, high density lipoprotein (HDL), low density lipoprotein (LDL), and BUN, were measured by spectrophotometric procedure. The data was analyzed using the GLM procedure of SAS (version 9.4). The differences among treatments were evaluated using Duncan’s adjustment (P < 0.05).

 Compared to the control group, the use of slow-release urea sources had no effect on feed intake and digestibility of dry matter, NDF, ADF, and organic matter. Crude protein digestibility was highest in the control treatment and lowest in common urea treatment (P <0.05) and the control was not different from the slowgen treatment. Feed intake tended to increase in treatments containing urea (P = 0.07). Due to urea malnutrition, the use of urea sources may reduce feed intake, but in the present experiment this did not occur and even a slight increase was observed. This may be due to the presence of more molasses in urea-containing treatments; because molasses, due to its palatability, can increase the dry matter consumption of livestock. The growth performance of lambs in the whole period including final weight, average daily weight gain, total gain, feed conversion ratio, and feed efficiency were not affected by experimental treatments. The experimental treatments had no significant effect on the concentration of ruminal ammonia nitrogen, volatile fatty acids, protozoa population, pH, and blood parameters such as glucose and urea nitrogen. The diets containing common urea and slowgen had better benefits than control diets. In general, the findings of the present experiment showed that the results of treatments containing non-protein nitrogen sources were competitive with protein sources (control diet). In addition, there was no obvious difference between two sources of slow-release urea with each other, control, and common urea diets; but the slowgen worked better.

 Finally, according to the results of the present experiment, related to the concentration of ruminal parameters in the present experiment, it can be concluded that the use of non-protein nitrogen compounds such as normal urea or slow-release as a substitute for conventional protein sources such as soybean meal did not have negative effects on ruminal fermentation. so, due to the lower price of urea compounds compared to soybean meal and other real nitrogen sources, although no difference was observed between slow-release urea sources and common urea; it can be stated that production productivity has also improved economically, therefore, the use of urea sources for fattening periods is recommended.

  It is advantageous to include as many ingredients as possible when formulating a diet for broiler chickens, because the supplementary nature of nutrients in different feedstuffs promotes the reduction of nutrient variation. The results of some experiments have shown that diet uniformity, through variance reduction for nutrients, improves broiler performance. In addition, lower variability of nutrients reduces the possibility of nutrient wastage. Also, in practical feed formulation when using of cheaper feed ingredients such as canola meal (CM) or poultry by-product meal (PBM) instead of more expensive ingredients such as soybean meal (SBM) in such a way that inclusion of them didn’t result in a lower production and quality indices thus they may result in a lower feed costs and higher economic benefit for producer. Both CM and PBM are good sources of protein for broilers and less expensive than SBM. Canola meal is a worthful feed ingredient and according to climatic condition and type of processing contains 36-39% crude protein. It may consider as a good source of calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, manganese, zinc, and iron as well as relatively good source of methionine and lysine. Poultry by product meal can be used in poultry ration up to 6% of total feed if sanitary operations is observed. High levels of fat, moisture and feather contents are main drawbacks of PBM in the poultry rations. However, if PBM mixed with CM that has low levels of fat and moisture, a proteinous mixture will result with similar CP level to SBM and longer storage potential. Both CM and PBM have lower nutrient digestibility as crude protein, fats and trace minerals because of phytate and NSP and dietary exogenous enzymes may improve digestibility of nutrients. The results of some researches showed that Kemin multi-enzyme supplementation improved broiler performance or carcass characters. This research is carried out for study effect of different substitution of a proteinous mixture composed of CM and PBM (65%:35%) with SBM with Kemin WP multi-enzyme supplementation on production and economic performances of broiler chickens.      

 This experiment was conducted in a factorial arrangement 4×2 (4 levels of proteinous mixture replaced with SBM: 0, 25, 50 and 75%×2 levels of Kemin WP multi-enzyme supplementation: 0 and 250mg/kg diet) with 8 treatments, 4 replicates of 12 pieces of Ross308 strain broiler chicks of either sex reared on 1×1.25m floor pens in a completely randomized design. Proteinous mixture was made by proper mixing of CM and PBM (65%:35). During experimental period chickens were received mash diet according to Ross308 feed specification booklet (2014) for as hatched broilers. Feed and water were prepared for broilers ad-libitum. Body weight, feed intake, feed conversion ratio (FCR), production index, feed cost to gain (Rials/kg), and monetary returns (Rials/bird) were measured or calculated at different phases of growth period. At the end of growth period (42 days of age) one bird similar in body weight to average weight of each replicate was selected and sacrificed for carcass character measurements. Collected data were subjected to analysis of variance by ANOVA procedure of SAS2003Software. Treatment means were separated using Duncan multiple range test at 0.05 significant level.

At shorter growth period of 1-24 days, there was a significant interaction between dietary multi-enzyme supplementation and different substitution levels of protein mixture and SBM on body weight and FCR. As, in diets without multi-enzyme supplement,75% substitution of protein mixture with SBM significantly resulted in the most decrease in body weight and increase in FCR however, in diets with enzyme supplement 50 and 75% substitution levels of protein mixture with SBM resulted in a non-significant difference in body weight and FCR of chickens. It is reported that commercial multi-enzymes in broiler diets resulted in an increase in body weight and decrease in FCR. Also, there are some evidences that the mean retention time of digesta in different parts as well as whole digestive tracts of broilers in diets with CM was significantly less than SBM diets and this may be the cause of decrease in digestion and absorption of nutrients in diets with CM. It is reported that the use of more than 6% poultry offal meal in broiler diet resulted in a lower production performance and higher FCR and the causes of these phenomena should be searched in lower quality and palatability of poultry offal meal with higher level usage in the diet. Protein mixture substituted with SBM resulted in the lower feed cost to gain. However, diets with 50 and 75% substitution levels resulted in a significant decrease in MR compared with 0 and 25% substitution levels. Different substitution levels of protein mixture with SBM had no significant effect on carcass characters, however, dietary multi-enzyme supplementation resulted in a significant higher abdominal fat percentage. Similar to these results, it is reported that multi-enzyme supplementation resulted in higher abdominal fat percentages in broiler chickens. The lipase content in multi-enzyme may cause increase in digestion, absorption and deposition of fat in the body.   

 This study results showed that 25% dietary protein mixture substitution with SBM in the broiler diet did not show significant negative impact on economic performance of broiler chickens and could potentially be used as a substitute for more expensive soybean meal protein. Also, the use of multi-enzyme supplementation in the diet restricted to the age of chickens and the quality of protein source. As considering lower growth period of 24 days and 75% substitution levels of protein mixture with SBM multi enzyme supplement may result in a better FCR. However, for production of broilers with 42 days of age multi-enzyme supplementation in the diet had no significant positive effect on broiler performance and its economic traits.

 This experiment was performed to evaluate the effects of peppermint extract, vitamins C, vitamin E, probiotics and antibiotics on performance, biochemical parameters and immune system of broilers under heat stress conditions. Peppermint (Mentha piperita) is considered as one of these medical plants and belongs to the Lamiaceae family. The essential oils and extracts of this plant are mainly made up of menthone, menthol and methyl acetate. Peppermint is traditionally used as an antiseptic, antispasmodic, mild tonic, antimicrobial.

 A total of 240 one-day-old broilers (Ross 308) were distributed to 8 treatments with 5 replications/treatment based on a randomized block design. Experimental diets consisted of base diet without feed additive and under standard temperature conditions (negative control), base diet without feed additive and under heat stress conditions (positive control), positive control supplemented with 28 mg/kg virginiamycin, 28 mg/kg probiotic protexin, 1 g/kg vitamin C, 1 g/kg vitamin E, 250 and 500 mg/kg peppermint extract, respectively. House temperature was initially set at 28°C for the second week and then reduced by 0.5°C per day until a temperature of 22°C was achieved at the end of the fourth week and then maintained constant thereafter. To induce heat stress, room temperature was raised to 34◦C during 10 AM to 16 PM from 15 to 42 days of age. A 23:1h light to darkness lightening regimen was followed throughout the experimentation period. Body weight gain and feed intake were recorded for days 10, 24 and 42 of age and data were used to calculate feed conversion ratio (FCR). At the end of the experiment (day 42), two birds from each replication with a body weight close to cage mean were selected and killed. Individual blood samples were collected form the slaughtered birds and centrifuged at 1800× g for 15 min. The collected sera samples stored at -20°C pending biochemical assessments. Concentrations of serum glucose, triglyceride, total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), very- low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (VLDL-C), white blood cells (WBC), red blood cells (RBC), Hematocrit and Hemoglobin were determined by different recommended procedures. To assay the primary and secondary antibody responses against SRBC, 2 birds/replicate were immunized intramuscularly with 0.5 mL 10% SRBC in. Blood samples (1.5 mL/bird) were obtained from the brachial vein at 7d following each injection.

 The results showed that the highest feed intake and feed conversion ratio were observed in chickens fed with negative control diets (P <0.05). The greatest body weight was observed in the birds fed with the negative control and diets supplemented with probiotics and vitamin E (P <0.05). Broilers fed with diets containing antibiotics as same as positive control group could increase abdominal fat percentage and serum triglycerides concentration than other treatments (P <0.05). The broilers fed with diets supplemented with all feed additives decreased the heterophils to lymphocytes ratio compared to the positive control group (P <0.05). The probiotics and 500 mg peppermint extract-supplemented diets improved the antibody titer against Newcastle, Gumburo and influenza diseases, as well as anti-SRBC titer, compared to the positive control group (P <0.05). The results of this study are supported by other studies, indicating that the dietary supplementation of probiotic could improve physiological responses and immune system and thus performance of heat-stressed birds. Dietary supplementation of vitamin C is an effective strategy to reduce the harmful effects of heat stress in poultry. The results of previous studies have demonstrated that the antioxidant and inflammatory properties of peppermint contributes to the prevention and treatment of diseases associated with oxidative stress, through removing free radical. Medicinal plants with secondary metabolites have also reported to possess the positive effects on growth performance and thus increasing the immune function. The positive effects of peppermint could be due to its active ingredients such as carvacrol, flavonoids and menthol. Flavonoids with antioxidant effects have protective properties against free radicals. The mucous membrane of the gastrointestinal tract plays an important role in preventing antigens and harmful microorganisms from entering the organ and eliminating them, while also being effective in selective nutrient absorption. The results of the present experiment and the other reports also indicate that dietary supplementation of probiotic and vitamin E and C and peppermint extract improve the immune response and growth performance of broilers and could be account as an alternative to antibiotics.

 In conclusion, a high dose of peppermint (500 mg/kg) was as effective as probiotic, vitamin E and C in alleviating the negative effects of heat stress on growth performance, health and immune function.

This research was undertaken to evaluate the effects of different levels of dietary fiber and fat on the growth performance of broiler chicks using the central composite design and response surface methodology at 1-7 d and 7-14 d of age. The response surface methodology is a set of statistical and mathematical methods that help the researcher in design of experiment within the incomplete factorial designs. In this method, the obtained data is converted into a mathematical model and the obtained model is optimized to determine the values of the input variables in order to achieve the best output.

This study was carried out at the Research Farm, Faculty of Agriculture, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran. A total of 420 one-day-old Ross 308 male broiler chicks with average weights of 46.90 ± 1.03 g were randomly distributed into 60 battery brooder cages. According to the scheme produced by 3-levels, 3-factors central composite design (CCD), 60 cages of 7 birds each were assigned to 15 experimental diets containing 3 levels of sugar beet pulp (SBP; 0.00, 1.75 and 3.5%), tallow (T; 0.00, 0.50 and 1.00%), and soybean oil (SO; 0.00, 0.50 and 1.00%), from 1 to 7 d and 7 to 14 d of age. Diet samples were analyzed for neutral detergent fiber, acid detergent fiber and insoluble fiber. Soluble fiber was calculated from the difference of total crude fiber from its insoluble fraction. Fatty acids profiles of tallow and soybean oil were determined using gas chromatography. The average daily body weight gain (ADG) was calculated from the weight gain of birds in each cage. Feed conversion ratio (FCR) was corrected for mortality and represented as grams of feed consumed by all birds divided by grams of body weight gain. The experimental data (60 data lines) obtained by CCD were fitted to the second-order polynomial equation by Minitab 2017.

The polynomial equation from raw experimental data for ADG (R2 = 0.79; root MSE = 1.65) and FCR (R2 = 0.88; root MSE = 0.14) at 7d of age was generated as follows: ADG (g/bird) = 27.54 – 1.07 × SBP – 5.57 × T – 1.99 × SO – 0.17 × SBP × SBP + 1.95 × T × T + 1.77 × SO × SO – 0.45 × SBP × T – 0.05 × SBP × SO – 0.71 × T × SO FCR= 0.87 – 0.03 × SBP + 0.38 × T – 0.08 × SO + 0.05 × SBP × SBP – 0.29 × T × T + 0.13 × SO × SO + 0.15 × SBP × T + 0.04 × SBP × SO + 0.002 × T × SOThe estimated parameters for SBP and T terms in the ADG model, and SBP, T, SO, SBP×SBP and SBP×T terms in the FCR model were significant. In the ADG and FCR models the linear terms had higher contribution to explain existing variation in the response of the chicks. Maximum ADG was observed with diet containing 0.15% SBP, 0.00% T and 0.00% SO and minimum FCR was observed with diet containing 0.07% SBP, 0.00% T and 0.28% SO. The predicted ADG and FCR at the optimal points were 27.54 g/bird per day and 0.96, respectively. The coefficient estimates for ADG and FCR models and the corresponding absolute t-values showed that among the investigating nutrients and their interactions, the linear effect of dietary SBP the largest effect on ADG and FCR of chicks. Lack of fit for both ADG and FCR models was insignificant, showing that the observed data are in good agreement with the model. The polynomial equation from raw experimental data for ADG (R2 = 0.78; root MSE = 3.60) and FCR (R2 = 0.80; root MSE = 0.14) at 14d of age was generated as follows:ADG (g/bird) = 52.50 – 7.81 × SBP – 26.01 × T + 14.37 × SO + 0.66 × SBP × SBP + 11.22 × T × T – 14.17 × SO × SO + 3.58 × SBP × T + 0.27 × SBP × SO – 3.46 × T × SOFCR = 1.01 + 0.07 × SBP + 0.35 × T – 0.26 × SO + 0.02 × SBP × SBP – 0.10 × T × T + 0.26 × SO × SO + 0.03 × SBP × T + 0.03 × SBP × SO + 0.14 × T × SOThe estimated parameters for SBP, T, T×T, SO×SO and SBP×T terms in the ADG model, and SBP, T and SO terms in the FCR model were significant. In the ADG and FCR models the linear terms had higher contribution to explain existing variation in the response of the chicks. Maximum ADG and minimum FCR were observed with diet containing 0.30% SBP, 0.00% T and 0.50% SO. The predicted ADG and FCR at the optimal points were 56.65 g/bird per day and 0.95, respectively. The coefficient estimates for ADG and FCR models and the corresponding absolute t-values show that among the investigating nutrients and their interactions, the linear effect of dietary SBP the largest effect on ADG and FCR of chicks. Lack of fit for both ADG and FCR models was significant, showing that a more complicated modeling method or other testing with extra variables should be made.

Current results showed that with increasing age and evolution of the birds’ gastrointestinal tract, the negative effects of soluble fibers were decreased and the broilers will be able to digest and absorb fats more efficiently. Central composite design reduces the number of trials and costs. Response surface model can be used to describe the relationship of nutrients to reach the optimum point.

 During development process attention to the improvement of scarcity compensation protein of food regime is necessary and important and due to that, the most of developing countries attempted to compensate scarce protein of increasing population accompany of poultry industry extension. The current study attempted to investigate an economic survey on broiler emphasizing on deduction in production period. After Islamic revolution Iran, had been tried to compensate the shortage of broiler with supply of subsidized poultry. To this context, to increase the domestic production, the government started to pay loan with the lowest interest rate even at zero per cents and in some cases a nonrefundable loan.  The Kurdistan province as no developed area could benefit from the same policy with significant different subject to receive such supports and by this poultry industry in the case of farm number and spread throughout area of it has made rapid growth.   Among 18459 work official document issued in the country at till the year 2018 Kurdistan province with 740 farms stand at 8th rank in the country.  Reverse of before, the problem of the country as well as the study are do not go to the production amount but there some problems such as high FCR, high-cost price, nonstandard of chicken size and supply and value chain management from farm to final consumers.  That’s why the current study tries to investigate on some variables to find the way of improvement of this industry and increase its productivity in all dimensions.

 The statistical population of the study are entire broiler poultry farm in Divandareh, Kamyaran and Sanadaj cities which are about 261 farms. Through the simple random sampling 158 farms as sample for the study were selected. The cross-section data through interview and filling questionnaire for the year 2018-19 were collected and partial budgeting and benefit–cost ratio used to analyze them. The FCR (Food Coefficient Return), production period, waste percentage, net revenue, period gap, average of harvested alive weight, number of weightings, used inputs, production capacity, production costs and demographic characteristics of managers, are studied as research variables.

 The results showed that, the average time period was 55 days, period space average was 31days and FCR average is about 1.94 kg. The results of this part have significant difference with those which Tandoğan and Çiçek found but although compare to the Sahraie et al., we found some differences but it’s showed in both study areas the production and management faces significant challenges. Also, the results showed that, feed cost and one day old chicken with 76 and 14 per cent have the highest share of total cost and this result is same as that Tandoğan and Çiçek found. The benefit-cost ratio is about 1.3 and the best age of harvest with 7 days gap is 42 days. Address to the results, fall from 55 days with 31 days gap to 42 days with 7 days gap we may increase the number of production period from 4.2 to 7.4 and an increase in net gain from 324 to 670 IR million Toman (in case of full capacity used and stability of prices) annually. In case of the results, we found the similarity with Szollosi, et al., results. Address to the above-mentioned results we may say that, the broiler production in the study area needs more attention not only in case of economic issues but in social as well as political one, since there some externalities with high fluctuation of the price and production amount. Address to the Iran’s political situation any problem in people welfare may cost a lot for the decision makers. In other view, since Iran has started her developments programs after revelation with equally distribution of welfare for all citizens without any discrimination theme, therefore any significant gap between what they ask with those are going to happen may impose the highest cost to country management.

 According to the results, by reduction both in production period and period gap the possibility of improvement of farm space, labor, feed, produced chicken meat and speed of capital return will increase but in the case of high gap between the production period and high production period the supply elasticity decreases and price fluctuation will increase. Therefore, based on the results, reduction of production period maybe recommended to decrease the demand price elasticity, increase supply elasticity, reduction of production cost price, and increase of return and preparation of export issues.

 One of the most important environmental factors affecting the dairy industry is the temperature changes that showed a negative impact on the industry over the past few years. Increasing temperatures have declined the production and reproductive performance of herds in the tropics. Huge losses are caused annually due to heat stress. Heat stress in dairy cows is caused by a combination of environmental factors (temperature, relative humidity, solar radiation and air movement). Continual genetic selection for greater performance results to increased sensitivity to heat stress. It was one of the reasons why lactation curve during summer has decreasing trend compared to spring in which lactation curve maintained within high levels. Dairy cows at the beginning of lactation have small chances to fight off a thermal stress, and thus it has the strongest effect on the production of milk in the first 60 days of lactation. A negative balance of energy in dairy cows at the beginning of lactation is even more increased by creating and emitting of higher quantity of thermal energy in the period when animals consume less food. For this reason, a high-yielding dairy cows are more sensitive to heat stress than cows having a lower genetic potential for milk production. Impacts of heat stress on reproductive efficiency have been well documented and reviewed. Heat stress has been shown to alter the duration of estrus, colostrum quality, conception rate, uterine function, endocrine status, follicular growth and development, luteolytic mechanisms, early embryonic development and fetal growth. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of heat stress on yield of dairy cattle in different months of production and also to estimate genetic parameters of production and reproductive traits under heat stress.

 In this study, 169655 records of 60322 dairy cows in different parity in Isfahan province of Iran were used. The studied traits included productive and reproductive traits. Milk test day and fat percent as productive traits and open days and days to first service were considered as reproductive traits. Climatic records of herds were collected from 7 stations less than 70 km away from herds and temperature-humidity index (THI) was calculated for each month in each herd. Dairy milk production records ranged from 5 kg to 60 kg for milk and milk fat percentage from 1 to 7%. Genetic and phenotypic trends were considered by regression of the estimated breeding values on year of the birth. The model used included the effect of herd-year of calving, calving month, parity and temperature-humidity index. An animal model was used to estimate genetic parameters of reproductive traits and random regression was used for production traits. SAS software was used to investigate the significance level of independent factors and DMU software was used to estimate genetic parameters.

 The results showed that the threshold of temperature-humidity index is 72 and more than it has adverse effects on performance. Average days open and difference to first service in different Parity 112 and 60 days respectively and was estimated the average heritability of days open and difference to first service 0.02 and 0.06, respectively. With increase in temperature- humidity index, mean of production traits decreased and this decrease for milk and fat yield traits occurred at temperature-humidity threshold of 72 and 65, respectively. The average of heritability was calculated as 0.32 for milk yield and 0.24 for milk fat percentage. The results indicated that with increasing temperature humidity index in 72 the genetic variance for both traits was increased. In on other words, the cows after heat stress (THI=72). Genetic differences were significantly increased. The results of this study indicate that the additive genetic variances were higher in early lactation (5 to 100 days of lactation), for both milk yield and fat percentage.

 Genetic variance increased with increasing temperature-humidity index (THI = 72) for the two traits of milk and fat production. Also breeding value of open day correction and difference to first calving under heat stress decreased. In other words, there is a significant genetic difference between animals exposed to heat stress after temperature-humidity index 72. Therefore, it may be possible to genetically identify animals more resistant to heat stress as parents of the next generation.

 Applying the appropriate statistical method to genome wide association studies (GWAS (is one of the major factors influencing the identify chromosome regions effect of quantitative traits. The single-step genomic best linear unbiased prediction (ssGBLUP) approach, a quite common procedure in GWAS, has the advantage of simultaneously using the phenotypes of genotyped and non-genotyped animals, pedigrees, and genotypes; therefore, there is no need to calculate pseudo-phenotypes. It has been reported that the use of ssGBLUP procedure increased the accuracy of genetic evaluation in many contexts and species compared with pedigree-based BLUP. However, the ssGBLUP assumes that all SNPs explain the same amount of genetic variance, which is unlikely in the case of traits whose major genes or QTL are segregating. The weighted single-step genome wide association studies (WssGWAS) approach allows the use of different weights for each SNP according to their trait-relevant importance and improves the accuracy of genetic evaluation and the precision of estimates of SNP effects. Thus, The aim of the present study was to compare the explained genetic variance from multi-step Bayes B (MS-BayesB) method in the different values of π with weighted single-step genome wide association study (WssGWAS (method related to some economically important traits in 920 Japanese quails.

 For each bird, a total of three traits including body weight gain (BWG), feed intake (FI) and feed conversion ratio (FCR) were recorded and by using Illumnia iSelect 4K Japanese quail SNP Bead chip. For associations between traits and effective SNPs using the GenSel and BLUPF90 family software. The effects of markers and the genomic estimated breeding values of the traits were obtained by five iterations of WssGWAS. The proportion of additive genetic variance (agv) for each of 1.5-Mb genomic window (adjacent SNPs) was used to identify informative genomic regions and candidate genes, accounting for more than 1% of the agv. Also, to estimate SNP marker effects, the Bayes-B method was used (Meuwissen et al., 2009) with set π 0.90, 0.95, 0.99 The Bayes-B method assumes that some proportion (π) of SNP markers has zero effects. The posterior distributions of the parameters and effects were obtained using Gibbs sampling. We performed a Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) simulation of 41,000 rounds with Gibbs sampling, of which the first 1000 iterations were discarded as burn-in. To estimate posterior means and variances of marker effects, Metropolis–Hastings samples were run for 10 iterations. The QTL windows were identified and located for candidate genes using the Coturnix_japonica_2.0 assembly. DAVID v6.8 Functional Annotation Tool (Huang et al. 2009) was used for gene ontology (GO) enrichment in order to detect biological terms associated with genomic regions and gene networks identified in the analysis. Enrichment analysis of gene function was performed using implementation of the Bonferroni test of overrepresentation.

These unknown genotype individuals can supply additional information to improve the statistical power of QTL detection. Sample size can influence the power of GWAS. In general, the results showed that the Bayes A method performed better in explained additive genetic variance compared to BayesB method with π=90. A total of 15 significant windows over 1% explained genetic variance on 10 chromosomes were found for the BWG and explained 23.1% of agv. For FI, we identified 14 informative windows across 9 chromosomes, and explained 28.3% of the agv. Also, for the FCR, 12 significant windows were identified on 9 chromosomes and explained 27.4% of agv. The detected candidate genes in genomic regions played an important role in muscle development, feed intake and residual feed intake. Results of this study showed that use single-step Bayesian methods of phenotype, genotype and pedigree information simultaneously, had outperform in comparison than other multi-step BayesB method. Moreover, considering the identification of new genome regions and the key role of the mentioned genes in development of body weight and feed efficiency, the WssGWAS method can be validated for GWAS for economic traits in Japanese quail.

 In the present study, we identified a wide range of genomic regions associated with body weight gain and feed efficiency traits. The findings of this study provide an important foundation for future fine-mapping studies to more precisely elucidate the mutations affecting production traits in Japanese quail. Future studies should establish causative links between candidate variants and economically important phenotypes using functional analyses.

  Medicinal plants have a long history of treating different diseases. Glaucium flavum (yellow horned poppy) is a summer-flowering plant in the family Papaveracae. It is native to Northern Africa, Macaronesia, temperate zones in Western Asia, and the Caucasus, as well as Europe. It has thick, leathery deeply segmented, wavy, bluish-grey leaves, which are coated in a layer of water-retaining wax. Yellow Horne Puppy (YHP) is an alkaloid medicinal plant with a high content of antioxidants and anti-inflammatory properties. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of hydro-alcoholic extract of Yellow Horne Puppy on some hematological indices in male rats compared with vitamin C. Vitamin C is an electron donor, and this property accounts for all its known functions. As an electron donor, vitamin C is a potent water-soluble antioxidant in humans. 

 In this experimental study, 36 adult male Wistar rats were randomly divided into six groups (six rats in each group): (1) The first group (control) did not receive any dose, and the experimental groups (2) treated with oral administration of 250 mg/kg of yellow horned poppy extract, (3) treated with Intra-peritoneal (IP) administration of 250 mg/kg of the extract and 100 mg/kg of vitamin C, (4) treated with IP administration of 100 mg/kg of vit C, (5) treated with oral administration of 500 mg/kg of extract, (6) treated with oral administration of 200 mg/kg of vit C. Thirty days after administration following induction of anesthesia and taking blood from the heart of rats, blood samples were collected and hematological parameters measurement including red and white blood cells, hemoglobin, hematocrit, mean corpuscular volume, mean corpuscular hemoglobin, mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration, Red blood cell distribution width and platelets measured by a Hematology Auto Analyzer. The obtained data were subjected to the Shapiro-Wilk test for normality. Results were analyzed statistically by SPSS software version 22 and the One-way ANOVA test with Bonferroni post hoc test. Mean ± SD was considered significant if (P<0.05). 

 Medicinal plants have natural ingredients and many of these plants have fewer side effects. Because the most important known factor in yellow horned poppy is its alkaloids. The most important alkaloids of this plant include Glaucine, Berberine, Bolbucapanine, and Protopine. Glaucine is an alkaloid that has been shown to have antioxidant properties and can protect against double bond fatty acids against free radical-mediated peroxidation. Due to our result, the oral consumption of yellow horned poppy significantly increased the number of Neutrophils (76.84±14.02) and, decreased Lymphocytes (18.41±9.58). Elevated blood neutrophils due to the induction of stressful conditions and stimulation of the immune system. In this sense, these factors not only raise white blood cells but also affect other blood parameters but, in this study, Changes in white blood cell counts due to oral administration and injecting vitamin C have been shown to stimulate the immune system. Injection of vitamin C showed a significant increase in monocytes (4.16±0.75). The number of red blood cells among the groups under study showed no decreasing or increasing effect (P>0.05). Hb and MCH increased with both oral and IP administrated extracts. IP administration of YPH+vit C has led to a decrease in MCH and MCHC (17.56±0.66, 33.76±0.80). Platelets were also significantly increased by IP administration of Extract of Glaucium Flavum+ vitamin C (351000±126714). The rate of RDW was reduced by oral administration of YPH and injection (13.01±1.35, 12.73±0.53). Glaucium flavum contains Glaucine, an alkaloid similar in effect to codeine, in that it has cough suppressant activity but without being addictive. Glaucine is an alkaloid found in several different plant species such as Glaucium flavum, Glaucium oxylobum, Croton lechleri, and Corydalis yanhusuo. It has a bronchodilator and anti-inflammatory effects, acting as a PDE4 inhibitor and calcium channel blocker, and is used medically as an antitussive in some countries. Glaucine may produce side effects such as sedation, fatigue, and a hallucinogenic effect characterized by colorful visual images and has recently been detected as a novel recreational drug. 

 The findings of this study reveal that Oral administration of the yellow horned poppy extracts can have a good effect on blood parameters, as same as vit C, due to its antioxidant properties. Therefore, this plant extract can be used in the treatment of many diseases.