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Twenty male Saanen goats were randomly assigned to four levels of lovastatin supplementation and used to determine the optimal dosage and sustainability of naturally produced lovastatin from fermentation of palm kernel cake (PKC) with Aspergillus terreus on enteric methane (CH4) mitigation. The effects on ruminal microbiota, rumen fermentation, feed digestibility and health of animal were determined over three measuring periods (4-, 8- and 12-weeks) and the accumulation of lovastatin in tissues was determined at the end of the experiment. The diets contained 50% rice straw, 22.8% concentrates and 27.2% of various proportions of untreated or treated PKC to achieve the target daily intake level of 0 (Control), 2, 4 or 6 mg lovastatin/kg body weight (BW). Enteric CH4 emissions per dry matter intake (DMI), decreased significantly (P<0.05) and equivalent to 11% and 20.4%, respectively, for the 2 and 4 mg/kg BW groups as compared to the Control. No further decrease in CH4 emission thereafter with higher lovastatin supplementation. Lovastatin had no effect on feed digestibility and minor effect on rumen microbiota, and specifically did not reduce the populations of total methanogens and Methanobacteriales (responsible for CH4 production). Similarly, lovastatin had little effect on rumen fermentation characteristics except that the proportion of propionate increased, which led to a decreasing trend (P<0.08) in acetic: propionate ratio with increasing dosage of lovastatin. This suggests a shift in rumen fermentation pathway to favor propionate production which serves as H+ sink, partly explaining the observed CH4 reduction. No adverse physiological effects were noted in the animals except that treated PKC (containing lovastatin) was less palatable at the highest inclusion level. Lovastatin residues were detected in tissues of goats fed 6 mg lovastatin/kg BW at between 0.01 to 0.03 μg/g, which are very low.

One hundred twenty day-old broiler chicks (Cobb 500) were randomly assigned into 4 treatment groups to investigate the effects of tannic acid supplementation (TA) on fatty acid composition in breast muscle of broilers under chronic heat exposure conditions. Five pen replicates of 6 chicks each were assigned to each of the following 4 dietary treatments: i) basal diet containing no TA at 25°C (CL); ii) basal diet containing no TA at 35°C (CH); iii) basal diet supplemented with 1% TA at 25°C (TL); and iv) basal diet supplemented with 1% TA at 35°C (TH). At the end of the 5-week experiment, breast muscle samples were collected to examine the fatty acid composition. Results showed that temperature, TA and their interaction effect significantly decreased body weight gain and feed intake. In addition, feed conversion ratio (FCR) significantly increased under high temperature, and addition of TA under high temperature did not improve the FCR. The effects of temperature, TA and their interaction on the saturated and unsaturated fatty acids were not significant (P>0.05). However, monounsaturated fatty acids significantly reduced by adding TA to the diet. Generally, TA improved the fatty acid profile of breast muscle of broilers under heat stress in comparison to the heat stressed chickens, which did not receive TA. Hence, it seems that dietary TA supplementation can be applied as a biological antioxidant for poultry nutrition in hot climatic conditions.

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