The aims of this study were to evaluate four preventive measures and two curative treatments of tail biting. The preventive measures were: chain, rubber hose, straw rack (5 g/pig/day) and the provision of straw on the floor twice daily by hand (2 10 g/pig/day). The two curative treatments, which were applied following the onset of tail biting in a pen were: straw twice daily (as in the fourth p...

Fertilizer N applied at ever-increasing rates sometimes accumulates in the soil. The practice of fertilizing grain straw with N to stimulate decomposition is questionable, but decomposition of straw immobilizes N that must be compensated for in fertilizing the succeeding crop. Too much N decreases the sucrose content of sugarbeets and decreases sucrose recovery. Experiments were conducted to de...

Molecular-bred Coprinus cinereus monokaryotic strains with high lignin- and xylan-degrading activities were mixed-cultured at 27 degrees C in the liquid medium containing 0.5% (w/v) cut rice straw and 0.025% MnCl2. After 3 weeks, the culture supernatant was extensively treated with crude cellulase, showing the presence in it of 9.3% of the total cellulose of rice straw. When rice straw treated ...

Campylobacter and Salmonella are the most commonly reported pathogens causing foodborne illness in the United States. In turkeys, the potential that semen used for artificial insemination is contaminated with these foodborne pathogens has not been investigated. Because semen on turkey farms is pooled and then used to inseminate multiple hens, contaminated semen could easily spread these bacteri...

Semen is a major vector for HIV transmission, but the semen HIV RNA viral load (VL) only correlates moderately with the blood VL. Viral shedding can be enhanced by genital infections and associated inflammation, but it can also occur in the absence of classical pathogens. Thus, we hypothesized that a dysregulated semen microbiome correlates with local HIV shedding. We analyzed semen samples fro...

Grifola frondosa is an economically important edible and medicinal mushroom usually produced on substrate consisting of sawdust supplemented with wheat bran. Cultivation of G. frondosa on crop straw (corn cob, corn straw, rice straw, and soybean straw) as a substrate was optimized by using the D-optimum method of the simplex-lattice design, and the alternative of crop straw as a substitute for ...

Agriculture straw is considered a renewable resource that has the potential to contribute greatly to bioenergy supplies. Chemical pretreatment prior to anaerobic digestion can increase the anaerobic digestibility of agriculture straw. The present study investigated the effects of seven chemical pretreatments on the composition and methane yield of corn straw to assess their effectiveness of dig...

Integration of wheat straw for a biorefinery-based energy generation process by producing ethanol and biogas together with the production of high-protein fungal biomass (suitable for feed application) was the main focus of the present study. An edible ascomycete fungal strain Neurospora intermedia was used for the ethanol fermentation and subsequent biomass production from dilute phosphoric aci...

rams fed, during 3 successive periods, the following 3 isoenergetic, isonitrogenous diets. I: control straw + 150 g of grain corn and 135 g of soya cake per kg of straw; 11: NaOH-treated straw + 155 g of soya cake per kg of straw; III: urea-treated straw + 70 g of soya cake per kg of straw; with 20 g of 9/15 CM daily and water ad libitum. After a 20 d adaptation period during which the animals ...