Poultry is reared in open side houses in most of the tropical countries, which results in huge temperature variation in shed causing stress resulting in increased demand of antioxidant supplementation. Since cooling of poultry houses or environment control is very expensive, thus methods focused on nutritional modifications appears to be the much logical approach. Stress increases mineral and vitamin mobilization from tissues and their excretion. Effect of some minerals and vitamin supplements such as chromium (Cr) and ascorbic acid to elevate the negative effects of environmental stress is well documented. Cr functions as an antioxidant and its deficiency are said to disrupt carbohydrate and protein metabolism. Cr has been utilized for weight gain, to improve feed conversion ratio, increase relative organ weight, muscle development, decrease cholesterol, increase high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and improve nutrient digestion. Therefore, the present review discusses the beneficial aspects of Cr with its effect in different doses and antioxidant combinations to explore and promote its optimum utilization in poultry nutrition and production.

Proper development of the rumen is an imperative chore that can be controlled to benefit both the calf and producer. The process of rumen development can be enhanced with right nutrition and management that can reduce the cost of raising a calf. Important considerations in regard to nutrition at the time of rumen growth (birth to approximately three months) can lead to faster rumen development and better growth rate of neonatal calves. Additionally, calves with well developed rumen at weaning are less susceptible to diseases and gain more body weight with lower management and labor costs. Therefore present review discusses the different nutritional factors affecting earlier rumen development.

Study was conducted to formulate the paddy straw based complete feed blocks containing kinnow-mandarin waste (KMW) in a manual densification machine and to evaluate its effect on the nutrient intake and digestibility of goats. Block was formulated utilizing paddy straw, KMW, wheat flour, molasses, wheat bran, urea, mineral mixture, common salt and water. Bulk density of prepared blocks was 0.21 g/cm 3 whereas durability was 17.36%. An in vivo feeding trial was conducted for 30 days duration along with a digestibility trial during last week of feeding trial. Twelve local adult male goats were randomly allotted as per randomized block design to two equal groups designated Control and Treatment. All the animals were kept on complete feed feeding regimen with either conventional concentrate mixture with paddy straw in 40:60 proportion or KMW-Paddy straw based feed block on ad libitum basis. Feed intake and nutrient digestibility was similar (P>0.05) in experimental animals, irrespective of the dietary treatment. The cost of feed for treatment group was about 12 per cent lower over the cost of conventional complete feed. It may be concluded that KMW may be utilized as a part of paddy straw based complete feed without affecting nutrient intake and digestibility. However, the binding and durability of blocks achieved in the present study was not satisfactory and this formulation therefore is not recommended to be densified in a manual block making machine.

| The present study was conducted to evaluate the impacts of dietary supplementation of chromium yeast alone and in combination with antioxidants on growth, feed conversion and nitrogen retention in broilers during winter season. A total of 180, Cob-400 straight run broiler chicks at one day-old, were randomly distributed into four equal groups replicated three times with 15 birds per replicate. The treatments consisted of 4 experimental groups as follows: T 0 , T 1 , T 2 and T 3 . Chicks were fed corn-soya based broiler mash (basal diet) maintained as control (T 0 ), the basal diet supplemented with chromium (Cr)at 0.5 mg Cr/kg diet from chromium yeast (T 1 ), the basal diet + 0.5 mg Cr /kg diet from chromium yeast + 250 mg of ascorbic acid /kg of diet (T 2 ), and the basal diet + 0.5 mg Cr /kg diet from chromium yeast + 250 mg vitamin E /kg of diet (T 3 ). Body weight and feed consumption were recorded to evaluate the growth performance and feed conversion ratio (FCR). Nitrogen retention was observed by conducting metabolic trial during 6 th week. The climatic data revealed that there were huge variations in house air temperatures within a day. In house relative humidity ranged from 29.01% to 44.21% during the experimental period. The average weight gains were numerically higher and FCR values were lower in supplemented groups particularly in T 2 group than T 0 group. The significantly higher (p< 0.05) nitrogen retention values were recorded in T 2 group followed by T 1 than T 0 group. It was concluded that Cr in combination with ascorbic acid yielded better results in terms of performance in broilers, thus suggesting some synergetic action of both Cr and ascorbic acid that need to investigate further with specially designed projects.

Mentha essential oil is one of the most utilized essential oil in the food and pharmaceutical industries. The present study reports the chemical composition and antibacterial properties of leaf essential oils of Mentha species. Further, the effect of the harvesting period on essential oil yield was also investigated. Firstly, the cultivated Mentha piperita and wild Mentha longifolia, revealed significant differences in their chemical profile. M. longifolia essential oil was characterized with endo-borneol (1.12-6.2%), caryophyllene (2.72-7.03%), isopipertenone (0.07-0.36%), germacrene D (0.98-3.22%), 3-cyclopentene-1-one,2-hydroxy-3-(3-methyl-2-butenyl)- (21.91-56.72%) and piperitone oxide (8.96-39.31%), whereas, M. piperita leaves essential oil was found rich in isomenthone (5.97-6.75%), 1-menthone (7.32-18.32%) and menthol (18.03-58.53%), etc. The essential oils of both Mentha species exhibited strong antimicrobial activity as evaluated using poisoned food technique, dry weight method, and disc diffusion method against Candida albicans, Fusarium oxysporum, Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Escherichia coli. Secondly, the maximum essential oil yield was observed in July month, 0.63±0.01 and 0.56±0.01%, respectively for M. piperita and M. longifolia.