Restricted maximum likelihood (REML) estimates of additive and residual variances and covariances for birth weight and adjusted weights at 120, 205, 240, 365, 420 e 550 days of age were used to estimate growth covariance functions (CFs) of Tabapuã beef calves. Data were observed on 41,415 animals born from 1975 to 1997 and raised under pasture conditions. Estimation of CFs is a very useful tool to analyze beef cattle growth. It was possible to estimate covariance between any pair of […]

The aims of this study were evaluate influence of the environmental and genetic effects on the kidding interval, using 486 records of kidding crossbred dairy goats obtained from 1988 to 1996 in Paraiba State. The environmental effects were analyzed by means of the procedure GLM of the SAS with a model that included as fixed factors the contemporary group and kidding type, and covariates age of goat at kidding and lactation length. Buck, goat inside of the buck and error […]

The objective of this study was to estimate the genetic correlations of female body weights at weaning (BWW), 12 (W12) and 18 (W18) months of age with age at first calving (AFC), body weight at first calving (WFC), adult body weight (ABW), and the parameters for mature weight (A) and maturation rate (k) obtained using the Von Bertalanffy model, in a Canchim herd. The restricted maximum likelihood method, with two-trait analyses, was used with models that included the fixed effects […]

66.035 records from Nellore, Hereford, Angus and Nellore x Angus and Nellore x Hereford crossbred calves were analyzed to estimate the influence of cow age, age at weaning and the julian birth date on average daily gain from birth to weaning. The statistical analysis indicated that these three covariates had significant effects on this trait. Furthermore, the linear adjustment for age at weaning was not enough to remove this effect on the average daily gain. These results show that these […]

The objective of this study was to evaluate the caecal microbial activity and caecotrophy nutritional contribution in rabbits fed diets with differents starch levels (22 or 32% on average) from a high or low inclusion of corn grain and differents fiber sources (alfalfa hay or soybean hulls), in a 2×2 factorial design. In the first experiment, 40 rabbits were individually housed in fattening cages within entirely randomized design, and fed ad libitum from 45 to 85 days of age, when […]

The experiment was carried out to evaluate the use of five levels of sugar (0; 4; 8; 16 and 32%) in substitution to the corn in the feed of broilers from 1 to 21 days. Three hundred and twenty day old chicks, half male, half female, were randomly assigned to 20 box, with a total of 16 chicks/box. Water and ration were “ad libitum” fed during all experimental period. The diets were formulated to be isonitrogen and isocaloric. The birds […]

Two experimental assays were carried out to evaluate the effect of the soybean oil and enzymatic complex addition in corn and soybean meal based diets on the broilers performance and nutrients digestibility. In the experiment 1, 960 broiler chickens, unsexed, received the treatments into 4 x 2 factorial scheme (four levels of soybean oil addition, 0; 2.5; 5.0 and 7.5%, with or without addition of a enzymatic complex with amylase, xylanase and protease) in four replicates of 30 chickens each, […]

This experiment aimed to evaluate the effect of environmental temperature upon the morphometric characteristics of the fiber types in the flexor hallucis longus muscle of broilers in pair-feeding, thus isolating the effect of voluntary feed intake. Sixteen male broiler, Ross, were allotted to a completely randomized design with two treatments (heat stress and cold stress), and seven and nine replications, respectively. Forty-three-day-old heat stressed broilers weighed 1.255 g and those in cold stress, pair-fed, weighed 1.086 g. The birds subjected […]

An experiment was conducted with objective to evaluate the effect of the simple and complex diets on the morpho-fisiologycal gastrointestinal of young pigs, on their pre nursery (7th to 21st day) and nursery phases (21st to 35nd of age). Ninety six crossbreed young pigs (male and females) were allotted to a randomized block design with four treatments, six replications and four young pigs for each experimental unit. It were used diets: two simple; a with 16 and the other with […]

Two experiments using New Zealand White x Californian rabbits were carried out with the objective of evaluating the effect of fiber source particle size on digestive traits of growing rabbit and the production, chemical composition and cecotrophes nutritive contribuition on dry matter (DM) and crude protein (CP) base. Four diets were prepared with different particle size of sugar cane bagasse with average geometric diameters of .231, .506, .616 and .833 mm. The productive performance and weight of the full and […]