No abstract

One of the most important indicators characterizing the state of animal health is leukogram and cellular immunity. The goal of the work was to establish the effect of cysticercosis invasion on the leukoformula and cellular immunity of rabbits. Rabbits were divided into two groups after visual identification of the presence of the larval cysts: healthy (control) and diseased (experimental). The number of lymphocytes was determined by the method of spontaneous rosetting with sheep erythrocytes. The intensity of invasion in experimental animals ranged from 2 to 10 of the larval cysts. The number of leukocytes in infected animals was higher by 9.64 %, (6.37± 0.25 G/l), than in healthy rabbits (5.81±0.31 G/l). We observed eosinophilia in the leukoformul of diseased rabbits (5.71±0.36 %, p<0.01, compared with the control in 4.08±0.50 %), and a high number of stab neutrophils by 1.55 times (p<0.01), which indicates inflammatory processes as a result of parasitizing the pathogen Cysticercus pisiformis. We found that in the blood of infected animals, the percentage of total T-lymphocytes was significantly higher by 4.07 % (p<0.01) and reached 59.81±0.87 % compared with the control (55.74±1.14 %). B-lymphocytes were high in experimental rabbits, both in percentage (36.10 ± 0.96% against 23.52±1.52 %, p<0.001) and in in absolute value (1.35±0.07 G/l against 0.86±0.09 G/l, p<0.001), that is, 1.53 times and 1.57 times, respectively. The number of T-helper cells in rabbits infected with cysticercosis was greater by 1.42 times (p<0.001) compared with healthy ones. Similar changes in these cells were in percentage terms, T-helper were higher by 13.56 % (p<0.001) than in healthy rabbits. We recorded a low rate of both absolute and percentage number of T-suppressors in the blood of the experimental animals against control. Their values respectively amounted to 0.42±0.04 G/l against 0.67±0.05 G/l (p<0.001) and 11.29±0.96% against 19.17±0.91% (p<0.001). The number of O-lymphocytes in rabbits infected was significantly low by 4.46 times (p<0.001), and the percentageby 5.06 times (p<0.001) than in healthy ones. Thus, such quantitative changes in immune cells indicate activation of the immune system in response to invasion.

Unique properties of Amaranthus hypochondriacus have been extensively utilized in the recent time worldwide both in food technologies and husbandry. An intensive growth of Amaranthus hypochondriacus plants has been made in Ukraine there and, respectively, production of foods based on amaranth is growing, however no research on its use for feeding rabbits is available. Therefore, the study aimed to review the impact of Amaranthus hypochondriacus on slaughter features of rabbits, meat quality including those under storage conditions. The California race rabbits of 60 days age were divided into two groups, 28 animals in each. The rabbits in the study group were fed (by adding to the basal diet) with 20% of amaranth oilcake. The rabbits were slaughtered at age of 120 days. The following key features of meat output and quality performance were determined: pH, moisture content, water-holding capacity, cooking losses, protein and cholesterol content as well as change in pH, microorganisms count, and moisture loss percentage during 9-day storage in chilled state. Amaranthus hypochondriacus effect on the rabbit live weight, hot carcass weight, dressing out percentage, percentage ratio of heart, kidney, liver, lung weight to carcass weight, рН, moisture content, water-holding capacity, and meat morphological structure was determined. Reduction in cholesterol level by 15.07% (р < 0.05) in the meat of rabbits that were fed with Amaranthus hypochondriacus was detected. pH and drip loss percentage were not significantly different among the groups in the shelf-life period. However, it was found out that growth of microorganisms in the meat of rabbits that were fed with Amaranthus hypochondriacus was slowed down: microorganisms count was 1.65 and 1.71 (р < 0.05) times lower than in the control group on the 6th and 9th days of storage, accordingly. The low-cholesterol and bacteriostatic effects of amaranth oilcake in the rabbit nutrition may significantly increase dietary properties of rabbit meat. Use of amaranth oilcake for rabbit fattening has great potential and further studies including the mechanism of antibacterial effect of A. hypochondriacus on the rabbit meat are required

Recently, healthy food products, include rabbit meat, are becoming increasingly popular consumers. Given the large percentage of households producing rabbit meat, as well as the development of relevant enterprises, the issue of quality of rabbit meat obtained under various technological conditions is relevant. The research material was two groups of Californian breed rabbits: the first (I) in the amount of 32 animals from a small rabbit farm city, the second (II) in the amount of 60 animals from a rabbit breeding and processing enterprise in the Dnipro. The experience consisted of determining: technological features of the slaughter and primary processing of rabbits, meat production and quality characteristics of rabbit meat, as well as slaughter veterinary and sanitary examination and histomorphological research. The general patterns of slaughter and primary processing of rabbits of both groups were generally similar and consistent with the requirements. The differences are defined in the methods of stunning, bleeding, toilet carcasses and preparing them for storage. A quick and effective method of bleeding rabbits of group II led to blood contamination of the skins, while in group I the skins remained clean. The dressing out percentage of rabbit backyard slaughter was 6.2 % higher (P < 0.001) than at the enterprise, and, conversely, the loss of carcass meat juice after cooling was 3.24 % less (P < 0.01) in production than in the small farm. The decrease in meat pH at the extreme minimum values per day after slaughter in the 1st group was more intense than in the 2nd group: 5.72 and 5.93 (P <0.001), respectively. The influence of the conditions for the production of rabbit meat on the moisture and protein content in meat was not revealed. The pathological changes common to both groups of rabbits were characterized by the detection of hematomas, subcutaneous abscesses in carcasses (9.4 % and 5.0 % of cases), hepatic coccidiosis (12.5 % and 18.3 %). A significant difference was found in pathological changes in the lungs: the incidence of hemoaspiration of the lungs of rabbit slaughter was 16.5 times higher than that of rabbits slaughtered under production conditions.

The high biological and nutritional value of food chicken eggs, their availability, maintains a constant consumer interest in the food market for this product. Issues of long-term storage of eggs with guaranteed quality and safety characteristics remain relevant. The prolongation of storage periods using various methods of treatment and conditions is studied for many years by scientists all over the world. If technological regimes of storage have long been included in world standards, the issue of sanitary treatment of eggs before storage remains controversial. The national standard for food chicken eggs limits the storage of washed eggs in the refrigerator until 12 days, whereas in the United States, Australia, Japan, chicken eggs are washed as a compulsory procedure before storage. Changes in qualitative characteristics of washed and raw eggs stored at temperatures of 4 0 C and 23 0 C were analyzed. In the study have been used eggs from one manufacturer, one batch. Experimental groups of eggs were formed, half of which was washed in warm water, the rest was not treated. Changes in qualitative parameters of food chicken eggs stored at a temperature of 23 0 C were noted. There is no significant difference in the process of storage between the washed and unwashed eggs in the quality indices. The decrease in the mass and density of eggs during storage at 23 0 C was 4-5.5 and 1.5-1.6 times, respectively, more than that of eggs cooled. The probable difference in the reduction of the values of the mass and density indicators for 10 weeks of observation is established between groups of eggs with different temperature storage conditions (p < 0,05). In the uncooled eggs for the 6th week of monitoring, the values of the Haugh units and the yolk index fell by 70.3% and 71.5% and 49.8% and 48.9% respectively, shifting the lower limit for the second week of storage. It was established that in the cooled eggs, on the 10 th week of observation, Haugh units fell from the initial values by an average of 20%, with the lowest index of 65.2. Reducing the energy value by 13 and 15 kcal at the end of the experiment was established only in groups of eggs, which were stored at a temperature of 23 0 C.