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Harmful gases, such as ammonia (NH3) and carbon dioxide (CO2), affect both birds and workers involved in broiler production. Five hundred and seventy-six one-day-old ROSS 308 broilers were reared on six types of litter (Treatment 1: chopped wheat straw; treatment 2: wood shavings; treatment 3: mixture of 1/3 chopped wheat straw, 1/3 wood shavings and 1/3 peat; treatment 4: wheat straw pellets; treatment 5: softwood pellets and treatment 6: pellets of 1/3 wheat straw, 1/3 wood shavings and 1/3 peat). Using chamber emission of harmful gases, NH3 and CO2 were measured weekly for each treatment. The results showed that the critical level of NH3 was reached for the first time on day 28. By the end of the rearing period, NH3 concentrations were above the permitted value in all the treatments, with no significant difference between treatments (P > 0.05). The carbon dioxide values did not exceed the critical level during the fattening period. Litter types made no significant difference (P > 0.05) to carbon dioxide concentrations. The type of litter significantly affected the final body weight. This paper describes the influence of different materials and material combinations used as litter in broiler production. As birds are in constant contact with the litter, careful selection, appropriate management and proper storage and use of poultry litter contributes to improving in-house air quality and reducing air emissions from animal production facilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Monitoring antibiotics residues in honey and honey products helps to assess the potential risk of these products to human health. These data provide an insight in the extent of antibiotic treatment that has been used during the beekeeping and enable the evaluation of potential environment pollution with antibiotic residues. This article offers an overview of methods for identification and determination of different antibiotics potentially present in honey, as well as of maximum residue limits for antibiotics in bee products, in particular honey. It is important to stress the importance of strict monitoring system and validation of analytical methods that will enable an accurate, precise and reliable determination of acceptable minimal concentrations of pollutants in honey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the paper was to evaluate the possible interaction between the presence of swine infectious diseases and low levels of mycotoxins in swine feed. The material for this research included the samples from three swine farms, where health disorders in different swine categories were detected. The applied research methods included: epidemiological and clinical evaluation, pathological examination, bacteriological and virological laboratory testing and microbiological feed testing, in order to examine the presence of fungi and mycotoxins by the method of thin layer chromatography. Beside this, the molecular diagnostic method, reverse transcripton-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and viral isolation was included. The obtained results support the existance of positive interaction between the mycotoxins and causative agents of bacterial and viral swine infective diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of organic selenium as feed additive contained in the feed was investigated, applied in concentrations of 0.3 and 0.4 mg Se/kg mixture on production characteristics pheasant. The study was conducted on a total of 45 common pheasant individuals Phasianus colchicus, six weeks old, divided into three equal groups of 15 individuals for 60 days. The control pheasants group was fed with a standard mixture without addition of selenium during the experiment, while the mixture of group I contained 0.15 g/kg and pheasants group II had 0.20 g/kg additives with organic selenium. The results showed that different amounts of organic selenium presence in pheasants' feed had a positive effect on analyzed productivity indicators of pheasants' growth rate, both their final body weight and weight gain (p<0.05). Among examined groups of pheasant, gained differences in average feed conversion and total production index were not statistically significant (p> 0.05). The best production results were achieved by individual II group, which also had the highest selenium content in muscle tissue of the pectoral muscles, drumstick and thigh (p <0.05). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of mannanoligo saccharides (MOS) as a food additive, applied at a concentration of 0.2% (O-I group of fish) and 0.3% (O-II group of fish) on morphometric characteristics and primary production of the Californian trout was investigated. The experiment was conducted on 450 fish divided into three groups with 150 individuals in each group, and lasted 40 days. The analysis of obtained results established the beneficial effect of the applied additives on morphometric parameters of the growth rate of fish, their final mass and final linear dimensions, and their growth, but no statistically significant differences (p> 0,05) were established. The highest body weight and body length of studied groups was achieved by trout of O-II group (118.49 g, 19.59 cm), followed by trout of O-I group (118.04 g, 19.58 cm) and the lowest K-group fish (115.94 g, 19.56 cm). Adding MOS in the feed mixture for trout had a beneficial effect (p> 0.05) in the exercise of lower feed conversion (FC) and better values of main production indicators: condition factor (FC), protein efficiency ratio (PER), the specific rate growth rate (SGR) and production index (PI) compared to the K group of fish that were fed diets without added mannanoligo saccharides. The best results were achieved by O- II fish group, and expressed in relative terms in comparison to the K group of fish: better feed conversion by 5.61%, a better utilization of protein feed value by 5.94%, a higher value of condition factor by 1.73 %, the specific growth rate by 2.26% and a better value of production index by 8.27%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]