The efficiency of producing salable products in the pork industry is largely determined by costs associated with feed and by the amount and quality of lean meat produced. The objectives of this paper were 1) to explore heritability and genetic correlations for growth, feed efficiency, and real-time ultrasound traits using both pedigree and marker information and 2) to assess accuracy of genomic...

Ergot contains numerous poisonous substances (alkaloids), which upon ingestion by animals may lead to poor growth rate, decreased feed consumption and poor feed efficiency. The effect will depend on the age or physiological stage of the animal, and the amount consumed. Results obtained in this study indicate that the consumption of diets containing more than 0.10% high alkaloid ergot by weanlin...

Improved feed efficiency is a primary goal in dairy production to reduce feed costs and negative impacts of production on the environment. Estimates for efficiency of feed conversion to milk production based on residual feed intake (RFI) in dairy cattle are limited, primarily due to a lack of individual feed intake measurements for lactating cows. Feed intake was measured in Holstein cows durin...

this investigation aimed to assess genetics of body conformation and feed efficiency traits in a control line of rhode island red (rir) chicken taking single hatched out pedigreed 100 chicks at central avian research institute, izatnagar, india. data was analyzed by least squares analysis of variance. least squares means of chick weight (cw), body weight (bw), shank length (sl), keel length (kl...

Ruminal microbial fermentation plays an essential role in host nutrition, and as a result, the rumen microbiota have been a major focus of research examining bovine feed efficiency. Microbial communities within other sections of the gastrointestinal tract may also be important with regard to feed efficiency, since it is critical to the health and nutrition of the host. The objective of this stu...

Fourteen trials were conducted to evaluate the effects of feeding monensin at 33 ppm alone, tylosin at 11 ppm alone and the two feed additives in combination on the average daily gain, average daily feed intake, feed:gain ratio and the incidence of liver abscesses in feedlot cattle. Monensin reduced feed intake and improved feed efficiency (P less than .05), and had no effect on average daily g...

Experiments were conducted with rats and swine to determine the potential of dietary alfalfa as a t rea tment for zearalenone (Z) toxicosis. Ninety-six female weanling Wistar rats were fed a casein-based semipurified diet containing 0, 15 or 25% alfalfa and 0 or 250 /~g Z/g feed. Exposure to Z for 14 d resulted in reduced growth, feed consumption and feed efficiency as well as kidney and liver ...

A 6-wk growth study was conducted comparing fingerling (mean weight = 24.7 g) USDA103 strain channel catfish Zctulunrspunctatus to Norris strain channel catfish in an effort to determine strain dmerences in growth and nutrient efficiency. Variability within strains also was assessed by randomly selecting four families from each strain for comparison. On average, USDA103 fish gained significantl...