No abstract

No abstract

1. Guinea fowl hens were inseminated weekly once with two doses of spermatozoa (75 million and 100 million) in two different diluents, Beltsville poultry semen extender (BPSE), and Instruments for Veterinary Medicine (IMV), each with and without pre-insemination vaginal douching. Per cent fertility, hatchability, dead germ, dead in shells along with data on sperm egg interaction and vaginal microbial counts were recorded. 2. Artificial insemination had significantly improved the per cent fertility and hatchability compared to natural mating. Dose dependent improvement in fertility was noticed with both diluents. 3. There was a beneficial effect of vaginal douching, which was more pronounced at lower insemination doses. 4. For optimum fertility and hatchability in guinea fowl, insemination of 75 million spermatozoa diluted in BPSE once in 4 d and 100 million spermatozoa diluted in BPSE or IMV once in 5 d coupled with vaginal douching is recommended.

The new frontier in the food research is the role of non nutritive components in human health. In the recent past, the importance of dietary fibre in the diet has been increased as a functional ingredient which has opened up a potential market for fibre rich products. The by products available during processing of plant foods are considered as promising source of functional fibres. The aim of the present study was to develop fibre rich products using the natural fibre such as ashgourd (Benincasa hispida) fibre, with high soluble fibre fraction. Ready-to-eat fibre rich Bisi bele bath and vegetable pulav were developed with the optimization of fibre using statistical design software. Fibre, fat and spice mixtures were independent variables with the other components as fixed factors. Since the product acceptance is more dependent on volatile compound form intern the flavour, as well as depends on the test, appearance, colour, texture which are the sensory attributes, total volatiles and sensory attributes were selected as responses. While in the fibre rich vegetable pulav water, fibre and spice mixtures were the independent variables. Both the products were showing good acceptability i.e. in the case of bisi bele bhath 7.1 and in the case of vegetable pulav 6.5 on a 9 point hedonic scale after 6 months of storage at room temperature. The dietary fibre profile of bisi bele bhath was 1.1% soluble fibre and 4.4% insoluble fibre while vegetable pulav had 6.2% insoluble and 1.54% soluble fibre fraction. The products were safe and had an established shelf life of 6 months.

A total of 7452 hatching eggs collected from 29 to 72 weeks of age of turkey breeders were analyzed. Parental age exhibited a highly significant (p<0.01) influence on mean per cent total hatchability, fertile hatchability and total embryonic mortality and non significant (p≥0.05) influence on per cent fertility. Significantly (p<0.01) higher per cent total hatchability, fertile hatchability and lower mean per cent total embryonic mortality were observed as the age of the bird advanced from 29 to 52 and 65 to 72 weeks except during 53-64 weeks. It can be concluded that significantly better hatching performance were recorded from the eggs laid by turkey breeder hen during 29 to 52 and 65 to 72 weeks of age and hence, it is advisable to collect hatching eggs from 29 weeks to 52 weeks of age of turkey breeders to obtain higher hatchability performance.