The effect of dietary supplement with 17% high-amylose barley (Hordeum vulgare, HAB) 'Karmose' on boar taint was studied on 72 crossbred entire male pigs (Sus scrofa domestica) Swedish Yorkshire dams x Swedish Landrace sires). All pigs were fed the same commercial diet (12.4 MJ metabolised energy (ME) per kg, digestible crude protein (CP) 13.5%) twice a day until the average live weight (LW) in the pen reached 100 +- 11.8 kg. Then, 32 out of 72 pigs received an HAB diet. Half of these pigs received HAB for 14 days and the other half for 28 days. The pigs were slaughtered at an average LW of 122.3 +- 8.6 kg (age 167.2 +- 7.5 days). The HAB diet did not affect performance, carcass and meat quality characteristics, and puberty status, but reduced plasma skatole levels in the pigs (least squares means, 3.6 vs. 2.0 ng mlE-1, P = 0.037). However, this diet failed to reduce skatole, indole and androstenone levels in fat (P is greater than 0.10). Nevertheless, it is desirable to continue investigation of HAB to optimise the feeding procedure to improve efficiency of HAB effect on fat skatole levels. Additionally, validation of a greater amount of HAB in the diet should be performed.

Studies have been conducted to find out the effect of the feeding of calves (Bos Taurus) with Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus) concentrate produced in Latvia containing the prebiotic – inulin. The study was performed on two groups of animals - a control group of 8 animals and test (prebiotic) group of 8 animals in summer (from June to August, 2013), and winter (from December, 2013 to February, 2014) in one of cow farm of Latvia, in the municipality of Bauska. Both groups were fed the whole milk, but the test group received additionally 12 g of Jerusalem artichoke powder (an average of 500 g kgE-1 inulin) per day. The overall health status and physiological parameters (temperature, heartbeat and breathing frequency) of both animal groups before the study were of the normal range. After the experiment, we found out that the calves of the test group during both winter (one case) and summer seasons (seven cases), had fewer cases of diarrhea than the control (winter months four cases and summer months nine cases) group animals, the average daily weight gain (control group 0.53 g, prebiotic group 0.75 g) and the total weight gain (control group 29.42 kg, prebiotic group 42.13 kg) during 56 test days was significantly higher ( p is less than 0.05) than that for the control animals. We concluded that the use of Jerusalem artichoke flour concentrate when fed to the calves generally gives positive impact on the development and growth of the calves, improves the status of the gastrointestinal tract and the morphometric indicators.

This study investigates different environmental effects on birth weight, weaning weight, and pre-weaning daily gain using different statistical models in the Latvian sheep population. The coefficients of determination (R2) were used to estimate the extent of different non-genetic factors influencing birth weight, weaning weight, and pre-weaning daily gain. Data were collected of 4460 lambs born in 36 herds during 2008 to 2010. The birth weight (on average 4.1 ± 0.01 kg), weaning weight (on average 21.0 ± 0.07 kg) and pre-weaning daily gain (on average 242.1 ± 0.93 g) was significantly affected by type of birth and sex, lambing age of dam (covariate) and herd, year, season of birth (p is less than 0.01). Coefficients of determination were estimated from 0.14 to 0.42 for birth weight, from 0.13 to 0.49 for weaning weight, and from 0.10 to 0.46 for pre-weaning daily gain. The results show that when the fixed effects of HYS (interaction between the herd, year, and season of birth) were included it improved the quality of the statistical model most of all, because higher determination coefficients were obtained for all traits: 0.42 for birth weight, 0.49 for weaning weight, and 0.46 for pre-weaning daily gain.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of probiotics, herbals and buckwheat bran (Fagopyrum esculentum L.) on growth, profile of blood, gut microbiota, profile of fatty acid in meat and shedding of resistant Escherichia coli (E. coli) in piglets. A total of 44 piglets (Sus scrofa domesticus) from age of day 14 to 56 were divided into 4 groups. Control received basal diet (group C), basal diet + probiotics (group P), basal diet + 3% buckwheat bran (group PB) and basal diet + 1.5% herbals (group H). No effect was observed in growth in all groups. The count of Lactobacillus spp. increased (p is less than 0.05) in jejunum in group P. In the faeces, Enterobacteriaceae decreased in the group P (p is less than 0.05) of 35 days old piglets, but Enterobacteriaceae and E. coli decreased in the group H (p is less than 0.05) of 56 days old piglets. The prevalence of resistance to at least one antibiotic class was 66.7% before and 50% after the experiment in all groups. Multidrug resistance of E. coli was not observed in 14 days old piglets, but was observed in 50% and more in all of study groups of 56 days old piglets. The fatty acid composition of Longissimus thoracis muscle had higher levels of α-linolenic acid and palmitoleic acid (p is less than 0.05), but lower level of stearic acid (p is less than 0.05) in group P. In conclusion, probiotics and herbals improved gut microbiota, fatty acid profile and affected shedding of resistant E. coli, but not growth performance.