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Background The effects of safflower oil and vitamin C (Vit. C) inclusion in broiler chicken diets on the growth performance, apparent ileal digestibility coefficient “AID%” of amino acids, intestinal histology, behavior, carcass traits, fatty acid composition of the breast muscle, antioxidant and immune status for a 35-day feeding period were evaluated. A total of 300 three-day-old Ross chicks (58.25 g ± 0.19) were randomly allotted in a 2 × 3 factorial design consisting of two levels of vitamin C (0 and 400 mg/kg diet) and three levels of safflower oil (0, 5, and 10 g/kg diet). Results An increase in the final body weight, total body weight gain, total feed intake, and the relative growth rate (P <  0.05) were reported by safflower oil and vitamin C inclusion. Dietary supplementation of safflower oil and vitamin C had a positive effect (P <  0.05) on the ingestive, resting, and feather preening behavior. Vitamin C supplementation increased (P <  0.05) the AID% of lysine, threonine, tryptophan, arginine, and valine. Safflower inclusion (10 g/kg) increased (P <  0.05) the AID% of methionine and isoleucine. Safflower oil inclusion increased (P <  0.05) the levels of stearic acid, linoleic acid, saturated fatty acids, and omega-3 fatty acids (ω-3) in the breast muscle. In contrast, the supplementation of only 10 g of safflower oil/kg diet increased (P = 0.01) the omega-3/omega-6 (ω-3/ω-6) fatty acids ratio. Vit. C supplementation increased (P <  0.05) the CAT serum levels, SOD, and GSH enzymes. Dietary supplementation of safflower oil and vitamin C improved the intestinal histology. They increased the villous height and width, crypt depth, villous height/crypt depth ratio, mucosal thickness, goblet cell count, and intra-epithelium lymphocytic lick cell infiltrations. The serum levels of IgA and complement C3 were increased (P <  0.01) by Vit. C supplementation and prominent in the 400 vit. C +  10 safflower Oil group. Conclusion A dietary combination of safflower oil and vitamin C resulted in improved growth rate, amino acids AID%, intestinal histology, welfare, immune and antioxidant status of birds, and obtaining ω-3 and linoleic acid-enriched breast muscles. The best inclusion level was 400 vit. C +  10 safflower Oil.

The current study was conducted to investigate the effect of graded levels of betaine supplementation to the normal and low energy diets of broiler chickens during summer season on growth performance, tonic immobility (TI), economic value and some blood biochemical parameters. Three hundred one days-old broiler chicks were used. The chicks were divided into 6 groups (each of 50 chicks) and each group was 5 replicated (2x3 factorial design). The first, second and third groups were fed normal energy diet (NED) with 0, 1 and 2g betaine/kg diet (air dry basis) for 35 days, respectively. While, the fourth, fifth and sixth groups were fed low energy diet (LED) with 0, 1 and 2 g betaine/kg diet (air dry basis) for 35 days, respectively. The experiment was carried out during summer season. Birds freely access to water and feed. Results showed no significant difference of growth performance between NED and LED groups. Betaine supplementation (2g/kg diet) to both NED and LED increased significantly (p<0.05) the body weight (BW) (1880.61 and 1787.66g, respectively), body weight gain (BWG) (1822.22 and 1728.77g, respectively), feed intake (FI) (3027.36 and 3136.42g, respectively), relative growth rate (RGR) (187.93 and 187.24, respectively) and TI (92.83 and 71.83s, respectively) with no significant difference in feed conversion (FCR) between the groups fed diet supplemented with or without betaine. Betaine supplementation 2g/kg diet to NED increased the total cost, total return, net profit, economic efficiency and performance index%, moreover improved the pancreatic and thyroid function and return the lipids indices of LED-fed birds to the normal level as in the NED-fed birds. No mortalities occur between the different groups. Therefore, betaine can be included in normal energy diets of broiler chickens by level of 2g/kg diet for improving the growth performance, economic value and welfare during the summer season.

The goal of this study was to examine the influence of feeding different concentrate roughage ratios on growth, reproductive parameters and behavior of sheep. The study design involved the use of a 30 sexually mature ewes assigned to three groups consisting of three ratios of concentrate (C) to roughage (R), Group1. 80%C: 20%R, Group2. 70%C: 30%R and Group3. 60%C: 40%R. The variables of the studies were live weight changes and Body condition score (BCS) of ewes during pregnancy and postpartum till weaning and behavior of ewes in addition to the birth weight and average daily gain of neonatal lambs and subsequent changes till weaning. The conception rate of ewes and their overall reproductive performance are under investigation. The results reveled that, different ratios of concentrate and roughage feeding had no significant effect on body weight, BCS and average dry matter intake of ewes during pregnancy and postpartum till weaning. Lambs birth weight and subsequent weights till weaning and average daily gain were significantly (P≤0.05) increased by feeding on ration contain 80%C: 20% R, followed by those feeding on 70% C: 30% R and lowest in those feeding on 60% C: 40%R. Rumination was significantly increased in Group3 lambs than other groups. Higher concentrate ratios had positive effect on reproductive performance of ewes and body weight, daily body weight gain and neonatal behavior of lambs till weaning.

Due to the high olfaction acuity of dogs, they are used to detect the cryptic or hidden objects like explosives and narcotics. The current study was conducted to evaluate the impact of dog breeds, searching site and previous training experiences on the dogs' detection performance for narcotics. One hundred and sixty-five purebred dogs from four breeds, German shepherd (n=46), Labrador retriever (n=41), Belgin malinois (n=40), and Rotweiller (n=38) were utilized. Dogs have examined shortly before the first certificate for the operational efficiency, during police certification exams and also, during an annual recertification exam assuring proficiency. The obtained results demonstrated that Labrador retriever was the highest in correct alert and the lowest in false alert, miss trails, and passes without indication. Dogs performed better during first police exams for certification than during the final stage of training and annual recertification. A significantly higher proportion of correct alert and a lower false alert were recorded inside the cars in comparison to other searching sites. Conclusively, Labrador retriever breed was the superior breed in narcotics detection and were easily found inside cars, while and best detection performance was for dogs during first police certification exams.

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A total of 135 birds of Japanese quails at 5 th week of age were divided randomly into three groups housed in galvanized metal cages, pens covered with fine and coarse sawdust for the 1 st , 2 nd and 3 rd groups, respectively. The results revealed that egg length, egg shape index, shell weight, shell ratio and egg thickness were significantly affected by housing system. The egg produced in fine sawdust group had the highest egg shape index (82.75 %), shell weight (1.69 g), shell ratio (15.88 %) and shell thickness (0.27 mm) with lowest egg length (29.98 mm) in fine sawdust group when compared with other systems. On the other hand, egg weight (11.99 g), egg surface area (22.91 cm 2 ), egg width (25.86 mm) was higher in the cage system with no significant differences. Moreover, the most of internal egg quality was significantly affected by different housing systems, while there were no significant differences in albumin ratio and width, yolk weight and ratio. Threfore, the egg quality (internal and external traits) was better in cage system and deep litter system with fine sawdust in comparison to the deep litter system with coarse sawdust.