MATERIALS AND METHODS: The in vivo toxicity (acute and subacute toxicity) study was carried out by oral administration of TQNLC and TQ to BALB/c mice. Animal survival, body weight, organ weight-to-body weight ratio, hematological profile, biochemistry profile, and histopathological changes were analyzed.
RESULTS: In acute toxicity, TQ that is loaded in nanostructured lipid carrier (NLC) was found to be less toxic than pure TQ. It can be concluded that encapsulation of TQ in lipid carrier minimizes the toxicity of the compound. In the subacute toxicity study, oral administration of 100 mg/kg of TQNLC and TQ did not cause mortality to either male or female but resulted in toxicity to the liver. It is postulated that long-term consumption of TQNLC and TQ may cause toxicity to the liver but not to the extent of altering the functions of the organ. For both treatments, the no observed adverse effect level (NOAEL) was found to be 10 mg/kg/d for mice in both sexes.
CONCLUSION: For long-term oral consumption, TQ and TQNLC at a dose of 10 mg/kg is safe in mice and does not exert any toxic effect. The results provide safety information of TQNLC, which would further help researchers in clinical use.
RESULTS: Out of 504 animals, 115 were positive for Orf-virus antibodies. An overall prevalence rate of 22.8% indicated a high prevalence of orf disease in this region. It was observed that 25.1% (92/367) of goats were positive and 16.8% (23/137) of sheep sero-converted for Orf virus antibody. Several factors were measured for their possible association with prevalence of Orf virus infection. The prevalence was higher in LY farm, JC breed, kid and female animals, and in the presence of disease lesion. Chi-square analysis showed a significant association of three risk factors which are species, age and sex of the animals (P 0.05). Farms surveyed usually practised intensive management system, keeping animals in the shade at all time, due to limited availability of suitable land as a free-range grazing area. An interview with small holder farmers revealed a lack of awareness of the main goals of herd health programme. An overall compliance level of 42.7% was observed for all HHP parameters. Among the 14 main components of HHP modules, animal identification had recorded highest compliance level (84.62%) while milking management recorded the least compliance (- 82.69%). That explained why there was a high sporadic prevalence of Orf infection in this region.
CONCLUSION: Good herd health supervision is a rehearsal target to prevent an outbreak and the spread of diseases thus reduces economic losses among farmers. Therefore, a good herd health programme should be in place, in order to prevent and control disease transmission as well as to improve herd immunity.
RESULTS: It was found that the susceptible age group were between 3 and 6 months old kids while higher infection rate occurred in those under the free-range rearing system. The clinical signs of pyrexia, anorexia, nasal discharge and lesions of pocks were not restricted to the skin but have extended into the lung and intestine. The pathogen had been confirmed in positive cases via PCR as goat pox with prevalence of 79.69%.
CONCLUSIONS: The epidemiology of the current goat pox outbreak in North Vietnam denotes a significant prevalence which may affect the industry. This signals the importance of identifying the salient clinical signs and post mortem lesions of goat pox at the field level in order to achieve an effective control of the disease.
METHODS: Two physical treatments, namely extrusion (using temperature profiles of 90°C/100°C/100°C, 90°C/100°C/110°C, and 90°C/100°C/120°C) and sieving (to 8 particles sizes ranging from >8.00 to 0.15 mm) were carried out to determine their effects on chemical properties, primarily crude protein (CP) and fiber contents of PKC. Based on the results from the above study, PKC that extruded with temperature profile 90/100/110°C and of sieved size between 1.5 to 0.15 mm (which made up of near 60% of total samples) were used to determine treatments effect on AME and CP and amino acid digestibility. The second stage experiment was conducted using 64 male Cobb 500 chickens randomly assigned to 16 cages (4 cages [or replicates] per treatment) to the following four dietary groups: i) basal (control) diet, ii) basal diet containing 20% untreated PKC, iii) basal diet containing 20% extruded PKC (EPKC), and iv) basal diet containing 20% sieved PKC (SPKC).
RESULTS: Extrusion and sieving had no effect on CP and ash contents of PKC, however, both treatments reduced (p<0.05) crude fiber by 21% and 19%, respectively. Overall, extrusion and sieving reduced content of most of the amino acids except for aspartate, glutamate, alanine and lysine which increased, while serine, cysteine and tryptophan remained unchanged. Extrusion resulted in 6% increase (p<0.05) in AME and enhanced CP digestibility (p<0.05) by 32%, as compared to the untreated PKC while sieving had no effect on AME but improved CP digestibility by 39% which was not significantly different from that by extrusion.
CONCLUSION: Extrusion is more effective than sieving and serves as a practical method to enhance AME and digestibility of CP and several amino acids in broiler chickens.