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The aim of this study was to assess the occurrence of white striping (WS), wooden breast (WB), and WS combined with WS/WB muscle abnormalities in broilers (Ross 500) at different slaughter ages (34, 41, and 48 d). In addition, the influence of these muscle abnormalities at different slaughter ages on quality characteristics (physical dimensions, pH, color index, and chemical composition) was studied. Overall occurrence of muscle abnormalities was 45%, 92%, and 100% at slaughter ages of 34, 41, and 48 d, respectively. It was found that about 39% from the occurrence of muscle abnormalities was not similar in the same bird (left and right fillets). Breast fillets affected by muscle abnormalities had significantly (p<0.05) higher weight than normal fillets. At slaughter age of 34 d, normal fillets had significantly higher L* (67.37 vs. 61.73 and 63.05, p<0.05), lower a* (3.25 vs. 4.87 and 5.18, p<0.05) and b* (4.02 vs. 5.20 and 5.99, p<0.05) than WS and WS combined with WB fillets; respectively. The changes in chemical composition due to muscle abnormalities were more significant at high slaughter age than at low slaughter age. In conclusion, the occurrence of muscle abnormalities was strongly influenced by slaughter age. Moreover, breast fillets affected by muscle abnormalities had different quality characteristics (proximate composition, color traits, and dimensions) in comparison to normal fillets.

The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of dietary supplementation with black cumin seed meal (BCSM) and coconut meal (CM) on the performance and cecal microbiota of Cobb 500 hybrid broilers. The study was conducted on 600 chicks on the first day of hatching; the chicks were randomly distributed equally into 12 equal-sized floor pens. Four dietary treatments (C, T1, T2 and T3) were replicated three times (50 chicks/replicate): C was the control group; T1 was supplemented with 10% BCSM; T2 was supplemented with 10% CM; T3 was supplemented with 5% BCSM and 5% CM. At slaughter age on day 35, our findings showed that treatment T2 increased significantly body weight and feed conversion ratio (FCR) compared to C, T1 and T3. In addition, the hot carcass dressing percentages in treatments T1, T2, and T3 were significantly higher than that of the C group. The results of relative normalized comparative gene expression of Clostridioides difficile, Roseburia and Streptococcus were not significantly changed in all treatments (p > 0.05). Treatment T1 resulted in a significant decrease in gene expression of the entire microbiota, while treatment T2 resulted in a significant increase in gene expression of all microbes, leading to an enriched and diverse microbial community. It can be concluded that supplementation with 10% BCSM is beneficial in inhibiting pathogenic microbes during early post-hatch days. In contrast, CM may promote and enhance the diversity of microbial communities during broiler growth. The inclusion of non-conventional feed ingredients in poultry diets may improve growth performance and may reduce the cost of broiler feed.

The nutritive quality of guar (Cyamopsis tetragonoloba) residues (GR) was investigated and the effects of partial replacement of wheat straw by GR on nutrients intake, digestibility, and growth performance. Twenty four male lambs, with average body weight (BW) of 40.3 ± 2.5 kg were divided into three groups. Lambs were fed individually for 104 days with concentrate mixture (18% crude protein) and wheat straw as a total mixed ration. Wheat straw was replaced with 0, 100 and 145 g/kg dry matter guar residues. All rations were isonitrogenous and isocaloric. The fattening trial lasted 104 days. At the end of week 10 of the trail, a digestion trial was performed using six lambs from each group. The composition of nutrients in the GR was 87%, 8.5%, 56.4% and 40.1% for DM, CP, NDF and ADF, respectively. DM and crude protein (CP) intake were not affected by the inclusion of GR. However, neutral detergent fibre (NDF) and acid detergent fibre (ADF) intake were lower in lambs fed GR compared to control lambs. At the end of the experiment, lambs fed 100 and 145 g GR/kg DM diets gained more weight (P < 0.05) than those fed the control diet. The same trend was found for feed conversion (CR). Results from this work suggested that GR had advantages compared to regular roughage (wheat straw) in regard to parameters investigated as well as the significant reduction in fattening diets cost.

The goal of this research was to improve the nutritive value of local wheat straw (WS) through treatment with fungi Pleurotus and to determine the nutrients digestibility using Daisy II technique. Results showed that fungal treated WS had more (P < 0.05) levels of dry matter (DM), ash and phosphorus (P) compared to the untreated WS. Moreover, fungal treatment had significant effect on reduction (P < 0.05) of crude fiber, acid detergent fiber (ADF) and neutral detergent fiber (NDF), and resulted in significant increase (P < 0.05) in crude protein (CP) content. Fungal treatment increased digestibility of DM, CP, NDF, ADF and gross energy (GE) by 12%, 27%, 28%, 2% and 12%, respectively. It can be concluded that fungal treatment has an advantage in upgrading raw WS.

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This study aimed to investigate the impact of feeding by different corn silage (CS) proportions on ewes milk yield and fatty acids composition. Twenty-one lactating Assaf ewes were divided into 3 groups (7 ewes each). The following dietary treatments based on increasing the proportion of CS in the total mixed ratio (TMR) were tested; (1) 47 % AH (0 % CS in the TMR) correspond to 0 % CS, (2) 23.5 % AH (23.5 % CS in the TMR) correspond to 50 % CS, and (3) 0 % AH (47 % CS in the TMR) correspond to 100 % CS. After 8 weeks of feeding, the type of diet had no significant effect on milk yield and solid; however, it significantly affects the milk fat. The levels of C8:0 and C14:0 were not affected by different silage levels. While the C10:0 and C12:0 significantly increased when fed on a 100 % CS diet. However, a significantly lower level of C16:0 (33.22 %) was observed in the 100 % CS compared to feeding on silage at 50 and 0 % (40.66 and 37.98 %, respectively). Similar trend was observed for C18:0, the lowest was in 100 % CS compared with the different feeding diets (7.52, 12.69, 10.61 % for 100, 50, 0 %, respectively). Total USFA in milk were decreased (p < 0.05) by feeding 100 and 50 % CS compared to 0 % CS feeding. It can be concluded that the replacement of alfalfa with CS had some influence on milk composition, especially the fatty acids profile. HIGHLIGHTS Utilization of nonconventional feed ingredients is important to reduced feed cost and improving its nutritive value Milk composition, especially the fatty acids profile when replaced portions of alfalfa can be affected by feeding corn silage More research is needed to confirm our findings