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This study aimed to produce a low-fat cashew nut meal (CNM) containing less than 6% fat and assess its effect on layer chick growing performance and health status. The experiment used 225 one-day-old layer ISA Brown chicks with an average live weight of 27.38 ± 1.85 g, divided into 15 batches of 15 animals each. Five diets containing 0, 25, 50, 75, and 100% CNM as a replacement for soybean meal were tested. The test included three replicates of 15 chicks for each diet. The CNM was obtained after oil extraction using an automatic press followed by solvent extraction. The CNM contained 40.6% crude protein and 5.38% fat. Except for the chicks fed on the 100% CNM diet that had the worst growth performance parameters, those on the other diets had an average final live weight of 662.13 g and an average feed conversion ratio of 2.76. The highest average daily gain (15,07g/d) was observed in chicks on the 75% CNM diet. Hematological analyses showed no marked difference between the animal groups. Regarding the blood biochemical profile, the total cholesterol levels were similar in the chicks for all diets. High-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels were 1.4 times higher in the chicks fed on CNM-based diets compared to those fed a soybean meal-based diet. It was concluded that low-fat CNM could replace soybean meal by up to 75% in layer chick feed without negative effects on growth performance and health status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study was to investigate the effects on laying performance, egg quality traits, color, and composition of supplementing a white corn-based diet with Desmodium tortuosum leaf flour. Three hundred 32-week-old hens were distributed to 30 pens of 10 hens each and allocated to six dietary treatments (five replicates per treatment) for 13 weeks. Two control groups of 50 hens received one of either diet Y, based on yellow corn, or diet W, based on white corn. The other groups received a diet based on white corn supplemented with Desmodium tortuosum leaf flour at 2.5%, 5%, 7.5%, or 10% (diet D). Diet D improved laying performance and yolk color at a reduced feed cost per egg but had no effect on cholesterol content. In conclusion, the inclusion of Desmodium tortuosum leaf flour, in a white corn-based diet, is effective in lowering feed cost, increasing egg production, and improving yolk color.

Rabbit production is increasing in developing countries and can play a crucial role in the fight against poverty. The current work assessed the effect on rabbit does' reproduction and young kits' growth when either Panicum maximum , common name Guinea grass, or Desmodium tortuosum , common name Beggarweed is included in their diet. Diets ReC and GrC (standard granulated diets) served as control diets, formulated for doe Re production and kit Gr owth respectively. The trial diets were diets RePan/GrPan (diet ReC/GrC supplemented with dry P. maximum ) and diets ReDes/GrDes (diet ReC/GrC supplemented with dry D. tortuosum ). Thirty-six primiparous local breed five-month old rabbit does were randomly allocated to each one of the three dietary treatments. After a 15-day dietary adaptation period, does were each bred to one of 12, related, breeding males. Does were then assigned to individual maternity cages maintaining the same dietary treatment for the ensuing 65 days of the trial (30 days of gestation + 35 days of suckling). Thus, there were a total of 12 replicates per treatment: diet ReC, diet RePan or diet ReDes. At weaning, 72 kits, from the three adult feed treatment groups, were, while maintaining the integrity of the feed group of their individual mothers, divided into 12 blocks with 6 weaned kits per block, with each block allocated one of the three diets. Thus, for each of the three diets there were four separate blocks, i.e., four replicates, each with six group-housed weaned kits that received a growth diet which contained the same supplement or not as their mother diet to which they had access prior to weaning; the control diet GrC (Composition slightly different from Diet ReC composition) and trial diets GrPan and GrDes over a 3-day transition phase were adapted to the weaned kits physiological state and fed for a total of 56 days. The results indicated that the use of D. tortuosum significantly improved ( P < 0.05) litter size, milk quantity, and kit survival rate from birth to weaning as compared with both control and RePan diets. The study showed that after weaning, compared with control and GrPan diets, the use of D. tortuosum increased ( P < 0.05) the growth performance of weaned kits, improved meat nutritional quality by reducing ( P < 0.05) cholesterol concentration and increasing ( P < 0.05) the n-3 fatty acid proportion, and also reduced the individual kit feed cost to slaughter weight., (© The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Society of Animal Science.)

Systemic changes in environmental conditions, such as climate, can have a significant impact on both natural and human systems. This paper provides an improved understanding of the spatio-temporal variations in underlying climate processes, and the potential effects climate change may have on Vietnam's agricultural sector. Statistical methods were combined with geostatistical techniques to test the statistical significance of long-term trends in the climatic variables, graphically representing the distribution of climate patterns, identifying variations and trends of changes over time and their likely effects on agricultural production. By using records of monthly precipitation and temperature for a relatively long-term period (1975-2014) over a high density of 112 meteorological stations across the country, robust statistical and visual evidence of climatic change throughout Vietnam are provided. The Mann-Kendall trend test confirms the statistically significant long-term trends of rainfall and temperature in many regions across the country. The visual analysis shows remarkable changes in the spatio-temporal distribution patterns of those variables and most of the 'hotspot' areas identified by geostatistical mapping are in areas with confirmed long-term trends. The long-term significant trends are also concentrated in areas with very high proportion of agricultural land, particularly land used for rice production in the Red River and Mekong River deltas. The findings deliver a better understanding of underlying climate processes and impacts across regions of Vietnam and provide a basis to develop effective climate-related policies for agricultural production in response to changing climatic conditions., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Germ line mutations in the breast cancer susceptibility gene BRCA1 account for the increased risk of early onset of familial breast cancer, whereas overexpression of the ErbB family of receptor tyrosine kinases has been linked to the development of nonfamilial or sporadic breast cancer. To analyze whether there is a link between these two regulatory molecules, we studied the effects of ErbB-2 activation by heregulin (HRG) on BRCA1 function. It was previously demonstrated that HRG induced the phosphorylation of BRCA1, which was mediated by the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt pathway. Since altered interaction between cells and the surrounding extracellular matrix (ECM) is a common feature in a variety of tumors and since ECM modulates intracellular signaling, we hypothesized that ECM may affect the expression and HRG-dependent phosphorylation of BRCA1. Following stimulation by HRG, a strong increase in [(3)H]thymidine incorporation was observed in human T47D breast cancer cells seeded on plastic (PL). When T47D cells were seeded on laminin (LAM) or Matrigel, HRG induced a significantly higher proliferation than it did in cells seeded on PL. T47D cells seeded on poly-L-lysine had an abrogated mitogenic response, indicating the involvement of integrins in this process. HRG treatment induced a transient phosphorylation of BRCA1 that was enhanced in T47D cells grown on LAM. LAM-enhanced BRCA1 phosphorylation was mediated through alpha(6) integrin upon HRG stimulation. Accordingly, T47D cells grown on LAM had the greatest increase in ErbB-2 activation, PI3K activity, and phosphorylation of Akt. A similar pattern of BRCA1 mRNA expression was observed when T47D cells were seeded on PL, LAM, or COL4. There was a significant decrease in the steady state of the BRCA1 mRNA level on both the LAM and COL4 matrices compared to that for cells seeded on PL. In addition, HRG stimulation caused a significant decrease in BRCA1 mRNA expression that was dependent on protein synthesis. Pretreatment with both the calpain inhibitor ALLN (N-acetyl-Leu-Leu-norleucinal) and the proteosome inhibitor lactacystin inhibited the HRG-induced down-regulation of BRCA1 mRNA expression. Likewise, there was a strong decrease in the protein level of BRCA1 in T47D cells 4 h after treatment with HRG compared to its level in control nontreated T47D cells. Pretreatment with the proteosome inhibitors ALLN, lactacystin, and PSI [N-benzyloxycarbonyl-Ile-Glu-(O-t-butyl)-Ala-leucinal] inhibited also the HRG-induced down-regulation of BRCA1 protein in breast cancer cells. Interestingly, BRCA1 mRNA expression in HCC-1937 breast cancer cells, which express C-terminally truncated BRCA1, was not affected by either LAM or CL4. No phosphorylation of BRCA1 from HCC-1937 cells was observed in response to HRG. While Cdk4 phosphorylated wild-type BRCA1 in response to HRG in T47D cells, Cdk4 failed to phosphorylate the truncated form of BRCA1 in HCC-1937 cells. Furthermore, overexpression of wild-type BRCA1 in HCC-1937 cells resulted in the phosphorylation of BRCA1 and decreased BRCA1 expression upon HRG stimulation while overexpression of truncated BRCA1 in T47D cells resulted in a lack of BRCA1 phosphorylation and restoration of BRCA1 expression. These findings suggest that ECM enhances HRG-dependent BRCA1 phosphorylation and that ECM and HRG down-regulate BRCA1 expression in breast cancer cells. Furthermore, ECM suppresses BRCA1 expression through the C terminus of BRCA1.