IntroductionGrapes (Vitis sp., Vitaceae) are one of the most commonly consumed fruits worldwide. The quantity of grapes processed worldwide is approximately 50.0 million tons (Mt) annually, which represents approximately 5.0-9.0 Mt of grape pomace (GP) production (1). There are many studies investigating how to utilize this byproduct, which is wine industry waste in many cases. Pomace consists of skins, stalks, and seeds. Red GP is rich in phenolic compounds with high antioxidant activity (2). Lafka et al.(3) reported higher antioxidant activity in ethanol extract from winery waste than in other solvent extracts, synthetic food antioxidants, butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), ascorbyl palmitate, and vitamin E, but they did not find a correlation between antioxidant activity and total phenol content. The seeds (38%-52%, on a dry matter basis) also contain high levels of unsaturated fatty acids, mainly linoleic acid (4,5). High levels of proanthocyanidin, which is a type of flavonoid known for its high antioxidant properties, are responsible for the greatest contribution to antioxidant activity (6). There have been a number of studies regarding the use of GP in human nutrition, e.g., the use of pomace as a source of dietary fiber in bread (7) or to improve the nutrition profile of frankfurters (8). There have also been studies regarding the use of GP as animal feed. Abarghuei et al. (9) observed the effect of GP on the ruminal parameters of sheep, and Molina-Alcaide et al. (10) evaluated wine industry byproducts as feed for ruminants. Alipour and Rouzbehan (11) tested the effects of tannins from GP on the intestinal digestibility of soybean meal. The beneficial effects of tannins are associated with their capacity to increase digestive utilization of dietary protein in ruminants by slowing down the microbial degradation of proteins. Brenes et al. (12) tested grape seed extract in broiler diets, and Goni et al. (13) used GP in combination with vitamin E and found no effect of the extract or GP/vitamin E on ileal protein digestibility, amino acid digestibility, or growth performance in broilers (at 42 days old). Rotava et al. (14) reported high antibacterial activity of defatted grape seed extract against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli strains in broilers, and they

No abstract

1. The objective of this study was to determine the coefficient of pre-caecal digestion of P in maize (3.9 g/kg of total P, 0.83 g/kg of phytate P, 138 FTU [phytase units]/kg) and wheat (3.17 g/kg of total P, 1.94 g/kg of phytate P, 666 FTU/kg) in broilers according to the WPSA protocol. 2. For the diets, monosodium phosphate was used as an additional P supplement. Two sets of diets containing 200, 460 and 740 g/kg of wheat or 200, 500 and 740 g/kg of maize were formulated. A total of 288 21-d-old male broilers (Ross 308) were assigned to 24 cages (8 birds per cage) and the 6 test diets were assigned to cages. The coefficient of pre-caecal digestion of P was determined by the indicator method and linear regression. 3. In both ingredients, pre-caecal digestible P increased linearly with increasing inclusion levels of maize or wheat (P < 0.05). The coefficients of digestion of pre-caecal P were estimated to be 0.18 for wheat and 0.33 for maize.

The purpose of this experiment was to investigate the behaviour of fast-and slow growing chickens, when the birds had access to the outdoors. Fifty of both 1-day-old male chicks of a laying hybrid ISA BROWN (IB) and broilers ROSS 308 (RS) were kept in two pens in the same building. In each group ten birds were marked with a colored spray. From three weeks of age the birds had access to the outdoors. From the age of one to seven weeks old, one day a week the marked birds were observed from 8:00 to 18:00 every ten minutes and the activity was noted. At 49 and 90 days old twenty birds were slaughtered and the strength of bones was measured. The behaviour was expressed as percentage of the time spent in activity. The average time that the birds spent eating during the 7 week period was almost the same in IB and RS. On average, IB birds spent significantly higher (P<0.05) an amount of time moving around, but until the fifth week of age there was no significant difference between these genotypes. In IB, movement was the more frequent activity. The resting sitting down was the most frequent activity in RS and since three weeks of age they spent significantly more (P<0.05) time with this activity than IB. On average, the IB birds spent significantly more (P<0.05) time scratching than did the RS. No aggression or pecking was observed in the IB males during the whole test period. The strength of the femur was significantly higher in RS in comparison with IB in both ages (49d -P<0.001, 90d -P<0.05). Although the rules for organic farming dictate that the chickens have to have enough outdoor area to move around in, the fast growing broilers do not use it.

This study was focused on the comparison of the brown and white eggs from two laying hybrids. The objective was to assess basic quality traits of eggs from both groups of hens and compare them. The impact of how age influences the technological value of eggs was also observed. The most important correlations were calculated. Products of Czech original genetic programmes, Dominant Brown D 102 and Dominant Leghorn D 229 hens were included. A total of 1500 eggs were analysed. The egg collection was made for three consecutive days when the hens were at the 28, 35 and 59 weeks of age. The results showed that eggshell weight, yolk weight and yolk share increased with the age, while egg shape index, yolk index and albumen share decreased in both hybrids. Eggshell weight and share fluctuated with the age in both hybrids. Other traits differed within the hybrids. Interactions between age and hybrid were non-significant (P > 0.05) only in eggshell and yolk weight. The heaviest eggs were from 59-week-old Dominant Brown D 102 hens (68.89 g) and the lightest eggs were from 28-week-old Dominant Leghorn D 229 hens (57.76 g). Highly significant (P ≤ 0.001) positive correlations were found between egg weight and all individual egg components weights and between eggshell weight and yolk and albumen weight and eggshell thickness in both laying hybrids.