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The first step in ruminal fermentation occurs in the mount with the animal reducing the plant particle size with the molars. In addition, rumination is responsible for further reduction in particle size. These actions serve to increase the surface area of plant particle which allow the bacteria to attach to plant particle.
A symbiotic relationship exists between the host animal and the bacterial species. The host animal supplies a warm, moist environment with substrates introduced and removal of end products of ruminal fermentation. This allows the microbes to break down the fibrous material and produce end products that the animal can utilize.
The microbes will ferment the carbohydrate portion of plants and produce volatile fatty acids (VFAs). The primary VFAs produced include acetate, propionate and butyrate. In addition, gases are produced including carbon dioxide and methane. The animals can utilize VFAs for energy with an estimated 70 – 80% of the caloric requirements met by VFAs. In addition, other components are fermented in the rumen resulting in production of microbial protein and B vitamins.
May 16 2008 | Article | No Comments »
Horses are frequently housed in facilities that are often designed more for the comfort of the horse owner than for the horse. Horse housing is notoriously poorly ventilated to the point of being air-tight in some cases, and the horses are subjected to breathing poor-quality air. Hence, emphases should be placed on high-quality, dust-free, mold-free hay or cubed or pelleted forage or forage/grain combinations. Fear of fecal contamination of hay and/or grain with the causative organism for equine protozoal myelitis has prompted some horse farm managers to feed all forages and concentrates entirely as bagged cubes, pellets or texturized feeds. The fear of feeding hay and grains from bulk storage may decrease as an effective vaccine is developed for this disease.
May 02 2008 | Article | No Comments »
The energy level of the diet indirectly influences feed efficiency via its effect on feed intake. In many locations, classical feed efficiency (feed intake divided by bodyweight gain) is still considered an important management criterion. Certainly, to an integrated operation, classical efficiency assumes less importance, being replaced by such parameters as energy intake: weight gain or feed cost per kilogram of gain or feed cost per kilogram of deboned meat, or production cost per unit of floor space.
Mortality is less of an issue today than occurred just five or six years ago. At that time, it was often necessary to use lower-energy diets and/or reduced day length as a means of controlling growth so as to reduce the incidence of metabolic disorders. Reduced day length slowed growth sufficiently so that incidence of skeletal disorders and sudden death syndrome were reduced 50%, at least in male broilers. With emphasis on genetic selection against these disorders, mortality is now much lower, and in certain instances, it is again possible to grow broilers on longer day lengths, which equates to faster growth rate.
April 20 2008 | Article | No Comments »
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