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Effect of the dietary inclusion of Spirulina platensis on the nutrient digestibility in the Guinea pig
No full textThis study aimed to study the nutrient digestibility of diets with or without inclusion of Spirulina platensis (a blue-green microalgae containing 65.8% crude protein, with potential antiobesity, hypocholesterolemic and antioxidant actions) in the Guinea pig (Cavia porcellus) by comparing a control diet (diet C) without Spirulina and an experimental diet (diet S) with 3% of Spirulina. The two diets were isoproteic (16.7 vs 16.6%) and isoenergy (16.8 vs 16.9 MJ/kg, for C and S diet, respectively) and were supplemented with 150 mg vitamin C/kg diet. Twenty adult guinea pigs of both sexes were divided into 2 homogeneous groups, individually housed in
digestibility cages, and fed the 2 experimental diets during an
adaptation period of 7 days and then the subsequent digestibility trial lasting 5 days. During the digestibility trial, feed consumption was measured and the faeces were collected individually for chemical analyses. ANOVA tested the effect of the diets, of the sex, and their interaction. Sex did not influence nutrient digestibility. The nutrient and energy digestibility of the 2 experimental diets appeared similar, contrary to the reduction in digestibility of nearly
all nutrients observed in rabbits when fed Spirulina supplement. Spirulina inclusion increased fibre fraction digestibility, particularly haemicelluloses digestibility (49.6 vs 42.6%; P<0.05).
Potassium digestibility was significantly higher in S diet compared to C diet (88.7 vs 81.0%; P<0.001), attributable to the high potassium content of Spirulina. Feed intake during the digestibility trial was slightly higher in the S group (0.23 vs 0.20 g DM/kg LW). The dietary inclusion of Spirulina did not affect nutrient digestibility substantially, and its supplementation in Guinea pig diets seems profitable for the coverage of protein requirements and animal health in general
Effect of dietary supplementation of Spirulina (Arthrospira platensis) and Thyme (Thymus vulgaris) on growth performance, apparent digestibility and health status of companion dwarf rabbits
Get PDFRaising and caring rabbits for purposes of companionship has become more popular within households. This has recently created attention in formulating balanced diets that include raw materials with nutritional characteristics capable of improving animal health status. The aim of this study was to compare, in balanced diets formulated for growing dwarf rabbits, the effect of the dietary inclusion of 3% microalga Spirulina (Arthrospira platensis, S) and/or 2.5% Thyme (Thymus vulgaris, T) leaves on the dietary fatty acid (FA) profile, the coefficients of total tract apparent digestibility (CTTAD), and the nutritive value of such diets on animal growth performance and health status. Four isonitrogenous (161±4 g/kg) and iso-energetic (16.8± 0.1 MJ/kg) diets for growing pet rabbits were formulated: a control diet (C), a diet with 2.5% Thyme (T diet), a diet containing 3% Spirulina (S diet), and a diet with both 2.5% T and 3% S supplementations (TS diet). Diets were fed for 14 weeks to 120 dwarf rabbits (divided in 4 groups of 30 each) initially aged 7 weeks with a mean body weight of 643±4.7 g. Supplementing T and S resulted in diets richer in polyunsaturated FA (PUFA), notably in C18:2n-6 in S, T and TS diets and in C18:3n-3 in S diets, although formulating diets with different proportions of raw materials to obtain equal energy contents may have played a role in the differences in the FA profile. The GLA (C18:3n-6) level was ten-fold higher in the S-enriched diets. The n-6/n-3 ratio was favourably low in all diets (on average 2.6), and the lowest ratio was observed in the S and TS diets (2.12 and 2.53, respectively). At the end of the study females reached a higher body weight (P<0.05) probably due to the higher feed intake during the experimental period. Dietary treatments did not negatively affect the animal growth performance. A decrease (P<0.01) of the CTTAD of ether extract (0.87 vs 0.85 vs 0.85 vs 0.84, in C, T, S, TS, respectively) was observed, which was probably due to the slight decrease of dietary EE content and the increase of PUFA proportion in the diets. The CTTAD of ADF and cellulose increased with TS addition compared to the C diet (0.22 vs 0.17 and 0.28 vs 0.22 for TS and C diets, respectively; P<0.05). Morbidity and mortality were unaffected by the dietary treatment. We conclude that S and/or T can be included at a rate of 3% and 2.5% respectively in the diet of growing dwarf rabbits with no substantial effects on growth performance and energy or nutrients digestibility. At these rates of inclusion, S and T did not prevent animals from getting sick or dying during the 14 weeks of study period. A longer follow-up is necessary in companion dwarf rabbits to investigate whether S and T confer beneficial effects in healthy mature, elderly and debilitated animals
EFFECT OF DIETARY SUPPLEMENTATION OF CHESTUNT HYDROLISABLE TANNIN ON DIGESTIVE EFFICIENCY, GROWTH PERFORMANCE AND MEAT QUALITY IN GROWING RABBITS
No full textThe aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of the dietary supplementation of chestnut hydrolysable tannin on the feed digestibility and nutritive value, mortality and growth performance, fatty acid profile and TBARS of cooked Longissimus dorsi (LD) meat. From the age of 18 days the rabbits were fed pellets supplemented with coccidiostat (CC) or with tannin (400 g/100 kg: T400). At weaning (35 d of age) within both groups 5 dietary sub-groups were formed: medicated-free (C0), containing coccidiostatic (CC), or supplemented with increasing levels of chestnut tannin (T200, T400 and T600). Rabbits fed the 5 diets ad libitum until slaughter at 11 weeks of age. The coefficient of total tract apparent digestibility (CTTAD) of nutrients was not affected by the tannin inclusion, substantially, with exception of CTTAD of hemicelluloses, that was lower in T400 and T600 compared to C0 and T200 (P<0.001), the CTTAD of Ca, lower in T400 vs C0 and CC (P<0.05) and CTTAD of DP-to-DE ratio, lowest in CC and T600 (P<0.001). Dietary tannin significantly modified the CTTAD of FA classes. At weaning, the live weight of CC rabbits was significantly higher than that of the T400 rabbits (974 vs 940 g, P<0.05). The other variables related to growth performance, health status and carcass traits were not affected by the tannin supplementation. The T400 diet fed before weaning seemed to be more effective than the 3 tannin levels administered during fattening period on FA profile change in the LD muscle. T400 diet fed before weaning increased SFA and MUFA (P<0.01) and decreased PUFA (P<0.05), decreasing the n-6/n-3 ratio (P<0.01), however. When tannin-supplemented diets were fed during fattening, only T600 diet showed significantly higher (P<0.05) SFA and MUFA contents compared to CC diet. In conclusion, the dietary inclusion of chestnut hydrolysable tannin doesn’t provides improvements in health status, diet nutritive value, growth performance and carcass traits. Dietary hydrolysable tannin supplementation may play a role on lipid metabolism
Effect of the feeding supplementation with chestnut hydrolysabletannin on the colour and oxidative stability of rabbit meat.
No full textThe aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of feeding growing rabbits with pelleted diets medicated-free, or medicated with coccidiostat, or with 3 different chestnut hydrolysable tannin levels, on the oxidative stability of the rabbit meat. From the age of 18 days the rabbits were fed pellets supplemented with coccidiostat (Cc), or with tannin (400g/100 kg: T400). At weaning (35 d of age) within both groups 5 sub-groups were formed: medicated-free (Co), and supplemented pellet containing coccidiost (Cc), or different levels of chestnut tannin (T200, T400 and T600). Rabbits were slaughtered at 11 weeks of age and Biceps femoris muscle was analysed for meat colour, hindleg meat for haem iron concentration, whereas Longissimus dorsi (LD) muscle was dissected and used for fatty acid (FA) profile, TBARS value and conjugated dienes determination. The tannin-supplemented diet T400 fed before weaning seemed to be more effective than the 3 tannin levels administered during fattening period on FA profile change in the LD muscle. T400 diet fed before weaning increased SFA and MUFA (P<0.01) and decreased PUFA (P<0.05), decreasing the n-6/n-3 ratio (P<0.01), however. During fattening, only T600 diet showed significant difference (P<0.05) compared to Cc diet on FA profile, leading to higher SFA and MUFA contents. Meat colour, TBARS value and conjugated dienes were not affected by the tannin supplementation and it can be concluded that dietary chestnut hydrolysable tannins didn’t improve the colour and oxidative stability of the rabhit meat
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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