METHODS: Twelve 3 to 4 months old male goats and sheep were randomly allocated into two dietary treatment groups in a 2 (species)×2 (oil levels) factorial experiment. The treatments were: i) goats fed basal diet, ii) goats fed oil-supplemented diet, iii) sheep fed basal diet, and iv) sheep fed oil-supplemented diet. Each treatment group consisted of six animals. Animals in the basal diet group were fed with 30% alfalfa hay and 70% concentrates at a rate equivalent to 4% of their body weight. For the oil treatment group, linseed oil was added at 4% level (w:w) to the concentrate portion of the basal diet. Growth performance of the animals was determined fortnightly. Digestibility study was conducted during the final week of the feeding trial before the animals were slaughtered to obtain rumen fluid for rumen fermentation characteristics study.
RESULTS: Sheep had higher (p<0.01) average daily weight gain (ADG) and better feed conversion ratio (FCR) than goats. Oil supplementation did not affect rumen fermentation in both species and improved ADG by about 29% and FCR by about 18% in both goats and sheep. The above enhancement is consistent with the higher dry matter and energy digestibility (p<0.05), as well as organic matter and neutral detergent fiber digestibility (p<0.01) in animals fed oil- supplemented diet. Sheep had higher total volatile fatty acid production and acetic acid proportion compared to goat.
CONCLUSION: The findings of this study suggested that sheep performed better than goats when fed a fattening diet and oil supplementation at the inclusion rate of 4% provides a viable option to significantly enhance growth performance and FCR in fattening sheep and goats.
RESULTS: The production medium was first optimized using a statistical optimization approach to increase pectinase production. A maximal enzyme concentration of 76.35 U/mL (a 2.8-fold increase compared with the initial medium) was produced in a medium composed of (g/L): pectin, 32.22; (NH4)2SO4, 4.33; K2HPO4, 1.36; MgSO4.5H2O, 0.05; KCl, 0.05; and FeSO4.5H2O, 0.10. The cultivations were then carried out in a 16-L stirred tank bioreactor in both batch and fed-batch modes to improve enzyme production, which is an important step for bioprocess industrialization. Controlling the pH at 5.5 during cultivation yielded a pectinase production of 109.63 U/mL, which was about 10% higher than the uncontrolled pH culture. Furthermore, fed-batch cultivation using sucrose as a feeding substrate with a rate of 2 g/L/h increased the enzyme production up to 450 U/mL after 126 h.
CONCLUSIONS: Statistical medium optimization improved volumetric pectinase productivity by about 2.8 folds. Scaling-up the production process in 16-L semi-industrial stirred tank bioreactor under controlled pH further enhanced pectinase production by about 4-folds. Finally, bioreactor fed-batch cultivation using constant carbon source feeding increased maximal volumetric enzyme production by about 16.5-folds from the initial starting conditions.
RESULTS: Findings revealed 40 aroma-active compounds with flavor dilution (FD) factor ranges of 2-1024. Of these, 22 compounds (FD ≥ 16) were quantified by stable isotope dilution assays (SIDA). Subsequent analysis of the 22 compounds by odor activity values (OAVs) revealed 14 compounds with OAVs ≥ 1 and the highest concentrations were obtained for 2,3-butanedione, 2-phenylethanol, 3-methylbutanal and acetoin respectively. Two recombination models of the bagels (i.e. 24 h and 48 h bagels) showed similarity to the corresponding bagels. Omission tests confirmed that 2,3-butanedione (buttery), acetoin (buttery), 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (roasty), 5-methyl-2-furanmethanol (bread-like), (Z)-4-heptenal (biscuit-like) and 4-hydroxy-2,5-dimethyl-3(2H)-furanone, were the key aroma compounds. Additionally, acetic acid, butanoic acid, 2-phenylethanol (honey-like), 3-methylbutanoic acid, 2/3-methylbutanal, vanillin, 3-methylbutanol, methional were also important odorants of the bagel.
CONCLUSION: Whilst the long, cold fermented bagels exhibited roasty, malty, buttery, baked potato-like, smoky and biscuit-like notes, the control bagels produced similar but less intense odor notes.
METHODS: Organic acid and antioxidant profiles of Xeniji fermented foods were evaluated. Moreover, oral acute (5 g/kg body weight) and subchronic toxicity (0.1, 1 and 2 g/kg body weight) of Xeniji were tested on mice for 14 days and 30 days, respectively. Mortality, changes of body weight, organ weight and serum liver enzyme level were measured. Liver and spleen of mice from subchronic toxicity study were subjected to antioxidant and immunomodulation quantification.
RESULTS: Xeniji was rich in β-carotene, phytonadione, polyphenol, citric acid and essential amino acids. No mortality and significant changes of body weight and serum liver enzyme level were recorded for both oral acute and subchronic toxicity studies. Antioxidant level in the liver and immunity of Xeniji treated mice were significantly upregulated in dosage dependent manner.
CONCLUSION: Xeniji is a fermented functional food that rich in nutrients that enhanced antioxidant and immunity of mice. Xeniji that rich in β-carotene, phytonadione, polyphenol, citric acid and essential amino acids promote antioxidant and immunity in mice without causing toxic effect.
RESULTS: The amount of α-IFN2b extracted using automated microscale platform (49.2 μg/L) was comparable to manual osmotic shock method (48.8 μg/L), but the standard deviation was 2 times lower as compared to manual osmotic shock method. Fermentation parameters in MTP involving inoculum size, agitation speed, working volume and induction profiling revealed that the fermentation conditions for the highest production of α-IFN2b (85.5 μg/L) was attained at inoculum size of 8%, working volume of 40% and agitation speed of 1000 rpm with induction at 4 h after the inoculation.
CONCLUSION: Although the findings at MTP scale did not show perfect scalable results as compared to shake flask culture, but microscale technique development would serve as a convenient and low-cost solution in process optimization for recombinant protein.
RESULTS: Postbiotic supplementation increased weight gain, feed intake, nutrient intake and nutrient digestibility of the lambs. No effect on ruminal pH and total VFA, whereas butyrate and ruminal ammonia-N concentration were improved. The lambs fed with postbiotics had higher blood total protein, urea nitrogen and glucose. However, no difference was observed in blood triglycerides and cholesterol levels. Postbiotics increased the population of fibre degrading bacteria but decreased total protozoa and methanogens in rumen. Postbiotics increased the mRNA expression of hepatic IGF-1 and ruminal MCT-1.
CONCLUSIONS: The inclusion of postbiotics from L. plantarum RG14 in newly-weaned lambs improved growth performance, nutrient intake and nutrient digestibility reflected from better rumen fermentation and microbial parameters, blood metabolites and upregulation of growth and nutrient intake genes in the post-weaning lambs.
RESULTS: The rumen pH and concentration of propionate were greater (P
RESULTS: Rumen ammonia concentration was higher in CNT group compared to treatment groups receiving dietary oils. The total VFA and acetate concentration were higher in SF and OL groups, which showed that they were significantly affected by the dietary treatments. There were no differences in total microbial population. However, fibre degrading bacteria populations were affected by the interaction between treatment and day of sampling. Significant differences were observed in apparent digestibility of crude protein and ether extract of treatment groups containing dietary oils compared to the control group.
CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrated that supplementation of different dietary oils containing different fatty acid profiles improved rumen fermentation by reducing ammonia concentration and increasing total VFA concentration, altering fibre degrading bacteria population, and improving apparent digestibility of crude protein and ether extract.