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Although B. decumbens is abundant in the tropics, the utilization of this grass is limited due to the presence of steroidal saponins. Therefore, the main objective of this study was to determine the effects of different levels of B. decumbens diets on the in vitro gas production and ruminal fermentation characteristics. Graded levels of B. decumbens were mixed with P. purpureum, where 10% was identified as the low-level B. decumbens diet (T2) and, 60% was identified as the high-level B. decumbens diet (T3) based on the concentration of saponins. Meanwhile, 100% P. purpureum was used as the basal diet, which served as control (T1). Rumen fluid was then collected from six young male Dorper cross sheep for the analyses of gas production, pH, in vitro organic matter digestibility, ammonia nitrogen, and volatile fatty acids (VFA). All analyses were conducted according to established methods and data collected were subjected to one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Duncan’s Multiple Range Test to determine the level of significance among treatments. The net gas production and gas production kinetics demonstrated notable changes (P < 0.05) among treatments. Besides, only the acetic acid and total VFA showed significant differences (P < 0.05) for the rumen fermentation characteristics. Generally, the T3 diet consisted of 60% B. decumbens diet demonstrated the lowest gas production, gas production parameters, acetic acid, and total VFA concentrations as compared to the other treatments. In conclusion, 10% of B. decumbens mixture displayed minimal effects in the in vitro assessment, while 60% of B. decumbens mixture showed the most significant results out of all three treatments indicating the presence of saponins did influence negatively on the gas production and ruminal fermentation characteristics.

Understanding the nature of ruminant nutrition and digestion is essential to improve feeding management and animal production. Among many approaches, manipulating ruminant nutrition and fermentation through feed supplementation is being practised and researched. Over the last decade, the utilization of vegetable oils in feed formulation and their efects on various aspects of ruminants have been reported by many researchers. It is important to understand the lipid metabolism in ruminants by microorganisms because it afects the quality of ruminant-derived products such as meat and milk. Majority of vegetable oil supplementation could reduce rumen protozoa population in ruminants due to the efects of medium-chain fatty acids (FAs). However, vegetable oil also contains unsaturated FAs that are known to have a negative efect on cellulolytic bacteria which could show inhibitory efects of the fbre digestion. In this paper, the physiology of nutrient digestion of ruminants is described. This paper also provides a current review of studies done on improvement and modifcation of rumen fermentation and microbial population through vegetable oil supplementation.

This study was conducted to explore the effect of the zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnONPs) supplement on the regulatory appetite and heat stress (HS) genes in broiler chickens raised under high or normal ambient temperatures. In this study, 240 one-day-old male broiler chicks (Cobb 500) were randomly assigned to 48 battery cages. From day 1, these 48 cages were randomly subjected to four different treatment strategies: Control (wherein, their basal diet included 60 mg/kg of ZnO), ZNONPs 40 (wherein basal diet included 40 mg/kg of ZnONPs), ZnONPs 60 (basal diet included 60 mg/kg of ZnONPs), and ZnONPs 100 (basal diet included 100 mg/kg of ZnONPs). Thereafter, from day 22 to 42, the chickens from each dietary treatment group were subjected to different temperature stresses either normal (23 ± 1 °C constant) or HS (34 ± 1 °C for 6 h/d), which divided them into eight different treatment groups. Our findings revealed that dietary ZnONPs altered the gene expression of cholecystokinin (ileum), heat stress proteins (HSP) 70 (jejunum and ileum), and HSP 90 (duodenum, jejunum, and ileum). The gene expression of ghrelin was affected by the interaction between the ZnONPs concentration and temperature in the duodenum and stomach. More studies are required to elucidate its complex physiological and biochemical functions of the regulation of gene expression within the intestine in heat-stressed broiler chickens.

Condensed tannin (CT) of varying molecular weights (MWs) may affect rumen microbial fermentation by shifting composition of fungal community. In this study the effects of unfractionated CTs (F0) and CT fractions of different MWs (F1 > F2 > F3 > F4 > F5) from Leucaena leucocephala hybrid-Rendang (LLR) on the fungal mass and composition of fungal community were determined using molecular approaches. The results showed that the total fungi biomass decreased (p < .05) with the addition of higher-MWs CT fractions F1, F2 and F3 with values 35.3 µg/mL, 34.6 µg/mL and 39.3µg/mL, respectively, when compared to that of the control sample (without CTs) at 52.1 µg/mL. Sequencing of the polymorphic internal transcribed spacer 1 (ITS-1) by high-throughput sequencer, recovered mean of 109,190 sequences per-sample which comprised of a number of operation taxonomy units (OTUs) ranging from 22 to 38 and were classified into 7 genera. Piromyces 4 was the dominant genus in the control representing ∼70% of the sequences. Relative abundance of the Piromyces 4 increased significantly (p < .05) with increasing MWs of the CT fractions, however the second dominant Neocallimastigaceae was significantly (p < .05) reduced. This study demonstrated that CT fractions of different MWs could decrease the population mass as well as alter the rumen fungal community structure and diversity, and the effect was more pronounced for higher-MWs CTs. Hence, the shift in fungal diversity, accompanied by changes in population mass would influence fibre digestibility in the rumen in the presence of high MW CTs.

The exploration of feed mycotoxin adsorbents to mitigate the adverse effects of mycotoxins on animals has received increasing attention over the last decade. The present study was conducted to assess the efficacy of nano-composite magnetic graphene oxide with chitosan (MGO-CTS) adsorbents against feed contaminated with ~20 ng/g (ppb) aflatoxin (AF). A total of three hundred 1-day-old chicks were randomly distributed into six dietary treatment groups, as follows: basal diet (broilers fed a diet with neither AF nor MGO-CTS added, T1), basal diet + 0.25% MGO-CTS (T2), basal diet + 0.50% MGO-CTS (T3), AF diet + 0.25% MGO-CTS (T4), AF diet + 0.50% MGO-CTS (T5), and AF diet (T6). The two inclusion levels (0.25 and 0.50%) of MGO-CTS significantly (p < 0.05) improved the growth performances and feed conversion ratios of the AF-treated chicks at 1–35 days of age, and the impact was more pronounced for 0.5% MGO-CTS. The AF intake markedly increased the relative weights of the liver and kidney, resulting in significant alterations in the serum biochemical parameters, such as albumins, alkaline phosphatase, and SGPT/alanine (ALT), at 35 days of age. However, the chickens fed 0.5% MGO-CTS with AF diets had apparent recovery or restoration of AF-induced organ lesions and aberrant serum profiles. A significant (p < 0.05) reduction in the total AFs was observed in the gastrointestinal tracts of the chickens fed 0.25% or 0.50% adsorbent in combination with AF feed (T4 and T5), with decreases of 28.9% and 53.5%, respectively, compared with that in the chickens fed an AF-contaminated diet (T6). The results of the study indicated that a higher concentration of MGO-CTS (0.50%) was effective in improving the overall performance of broiler chickens by preventing the adverse effects associated with aflatoxicosis.

Condensed tannins (CTs) form insoluble complexes with proteins and are able to protect them from degradation, which could lead to rumen bypass proteins. Depending on their degrees of polymerization (DP) and molecular weights, CT fractions vary in their capability to bind proteins. In this study, purified condensed tannins (CTs) from a Leucaena leucocephala hybrid were fractionated into five different molecular weight fractions. The structures of the CT fractions were investigated using 13C-NMR. The DP of the CT fractions were determined using a modified vanillin assay and their molecular weights were determined using Q-TOF LC-MS. The protein-binding affinities of the respective CT fractions were determined using a protein precipitation assay. The DP of the five CT fractions (fractions F1–F5) measured by the vanillin assay in acetic acid ranged from 4.86 to 1.56. The 13C-NMR results showed that the CT fractions possessed monomer unit structural heterogeneity. The number-average molecular weights (Mn) of the different fractions were 1265.8, 1028.6, 652.2, 562.2, and 469.6 for fractions F1, F2, F3, F4, and F5, respectively. The b values representing the CT quantities needed to bind half of the maximum precipitable bovine serum albumin increased with decreasing molecular weight—from fraction F1 to fraction F5 with values of 0.216, 0.295, 0.359, 0.425, and 0.460, respectively. This indicated that higher molecular weight fractions of CTs from L. leucocephala have higher protein-binding affinities than those with lower molecular weights.