The nutritional value or quality of dietary proteins used for poultry feed formulation varies: amino acid availability is an important measure of protein quality. Determination of ileal digestibility values has become the preferred method for estimating amino acid availability. This review discusses the different approaches to the expression of digestibility results, including correction for endogenous loss and the derivatisation of standardised values. Sources of variation in values include, the assay protocol, anti-nutritional factors in feedstuffs and feed milling. Feed formulating […]

Long-term selection experiments provide a valuable resource for understanding the genetic changes that take place in animal improvement programs. The Virginia chicken lines have for more than 50 years been subjected to single-trait, bi-directional, divergent selection for high and low juvenile body weight. It is one of the most well studied experimental populations in agricultural animals and has played an instrumental role in the understanding of the genetic basis of complex traits. In this paper, we summarize the findings from […]

This study was developed to evaluate the ingestive behavior of beef cattle finished in feedlots with different concentrate levels in the diet. Sixteen bulls fed 22, 40, 59, or 79% of concentrate in the diet were assigned to a complete randomized design, with four replicates each. The supplied diets were isoproteic and the roughage used was corn silage. Data collection was carried out during the finishing period, with a total of six days. The time given to food intake, rumination, […]

Among warm-water marine fishes, cobia is one of the best aquaculture candidate species in the world. Currently there are commercial culture operations in several Asian countries and the industry has started developing elsewhere, including the Western Central Atlantic region. Significant research has been conducted at the University of Miami’s Aquaculture Program / University of Miami Experimental Hatchery (UMEH) during the last eight years, involving research to develop and optimize advanced technology to demonstrate the viability of raising hatchery-reared cobia in […]

Human activities are contributing to Global Climate Change through the production of Green House Gases (GHG), which result in increased air, land and ocean temperatures and extreme changes in precipitation in regions of low and high rainfall. The most important GHG’s are carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O). It is estimated that 18 % of the annual GHG emissions come from different types of livestock and that 37% of CH4, with higher global warming potential (23) relative […]

This article analyzes the situation of Brazilian agribusiness worldwide, which is characterized primarily by the ascendancy of China and its demand for agricultural commodities, especially the feed chains where the Mercosur, and especially Brazil, becomes the main supplier. There is the threat that in this new dynamics Mercosur falls increasingly on international trade as a mere supplier of raw materials. This scenario is complicated due to the transnationalization of the leading companies in this sector. Against this, the agricultural expansion […]

This work presents strategies that can be implemented in order to minimize the environmental impact of swine slurry on soil, water, and air. This reduction can be achieved through decrease in nitrogen excretion and ammonia emissions. The correct feed formulation according to animal requirements, the increase in diet digestibility and improvement in animal performance can reduce nitrogen excretion. The use of additives either in the diet or in the manure as well as some equipment rearrangements can reduce ammonia emission.

The industry has made available in the market a series of substances (nutraceuticals) which intent would be to optimize the use of nutrients in some metabolic paths, influencing positively reproductive performance in animals. However, the response to the use of nutraceuticals varies according to the animal. As the organism is highly complex and in order to achieve a perfect activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis, an ideal interaction in molecular basis is needed, where the nutraceuticals can have their direct action. […]

Twenty 11/16 Texel x 5/16 Ile de France crossbred lambs were slaughtered at different body weights to evaluate the growth of their non-carcass components. Animals were weaned at 42 days of age (15.9 ± 2.1 kg of body weight), housed in individual stalls, and fed ad libitum. After ten days of an experimental adaptation period, 5 lambs were slaughtered. The remaining lambs were randomly assigned to one of three following slaughter weights: 25, 30 or 35 kg of body weight […]

The purpose of this work was to evaluate three levels of use of glycerol (0, 3, 6 and 9%) a byproduct of biodiesel production, in the diets of growing and finishing swines on performance, on carcass traits and on meat quality. A total of sixty-four Topigs pigs with 33.27 ± 4.66 kg initial body weight were distributed in 32 pens accordingly to the initial weight in a complete random block design with eight replicates (blocks) per level of glycerol. In […]