This study examined whether pre-treating palm kernel expeller (PKE) with exogenous enzyme would degrade its fiber content; thus improving its metabolizable energy (ME), growth performance, villus height and digesta viscosity in broiler chickens fed diets containing PKE. Our results showed that enzyme treatment decreased (p<0.05) hemicellulose and cellulose contents of PKE by 26.26 and 32.62%, r...

The objective of the present study was to identify potential biomarkers for gut barrier failure in chickens. A total of 144 day-of-hatch Ross 308 male broiler chickens were housed in 24 battery cages with six chicks per cage. Cages were randomly assigned to either a control group (CON) or gut barrier failure (GBF) group. During the first 13 days, birds in CON or GBF groups were fed a common cor...

Soluble fermentable dietary fibre elicits gut adaptations, increases satiety and potentially offers a natural sustainable means of body weight regulation. Here we aimed to quantify physiological responses to graded intakes of a specific dietary fibre (pectin) in an animal model. Four isocaloric semi-purified diets containing 0, 3.3%, 6.7% or 10% w/w apple pectin were offered ad libitum for 8 or...

Crypt neurons are a third type of olfactory receptor neurons with a highly unusual "one cell type--one receptor" mode of expression, the same receptor being expressed by the entire population of crypt neurons. Attempts to identify the target region(s) of crypt neurons have been inconclusive so far. We report that TrkA-like immunoreactivity specifically labeled somata, axons, and terminals of ze...

BACKGROUND Breastfeeding is associated with a variety of positive health outcomes in children and is recommended exclusively for the first 6 months of life; however, 50-70 % of infants in the US are formula-fed. To test the hypothesis that immune system development and function in neonates and infants are significantly influenced by diet, 2-day old piglets were fed soy or milk formula (n = 6/gr...

AIMS To study the expression of Ki-67 and cytokeratin 20 (CK20) in a group of hyperplastic polyps (including a group with "atypical" features) with the aim of determining whether upper crypt Ki-67 staining and lower crypt CK20 staining correlated with these atypical features, as assessed by light microscopy. METHODS Fifty seven formalin fixed, paraffin wax embedded hyperplastic colorectal pol...

An experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of molasses distillers condensed soluble (MDCS) on growth performance, carcass characteristics and intestinal morphology of broilers. A total of 400 one day-old, unsexed Ross 308 broiler chicks were randomly allotted to 20 cages. The dietary MDCS levels incorporated 0% and 4% in the starter and 0%, 4% and 8% in grower diet, respectively. The...

Present preliminary scientific trial was designed to investigate of microwave effects on Japanese quails as an animal model. Thirty six three days-old quail chicks were randomly divided into 3 experimental groups and received: A) un-treated tap water, B) tap water boiled by electrical heater and then cooled and C) tap water treated by microwave oven and then cooled. The whole experimental perio...

This experiment aimed to investigate the effects of liquid metabolite (LM) produced by Lactobacillus plantarum and dietary putrescine (PUT) on growth, blood lipids, villus height (VH), crypt depth (CD) and polyamines (PAs) content of intestinal tissue and ileal digesta in chickens. Six treatments, replicated six time each, were factorial arrangements of two levels of LM (0 and 0.3%) and three l...