Ruminants produce a large amount of methane (CH4 ) and carbon dioxide (CO2 ) in their foregut. These gases cause greenhouse effect. There are a lot of studies about different feed additives which can reduce the production of greenhouse gases in ruminants. Prebiotics can also change the amount of bacteria in animal gastrointestinal tract and reduce the occurrence of diarrhoea. The aim of this study was to test whether the prebiotic inulin affects the production of CH4 and CO2 in calves’ rumen and whether it affects the bacteria count in the rumen fluid and bacterial overgrowth in intestines. We used the flour of Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus L.) containing 50% of inulin. Approximately fifty days old, Holstein Friesian crossbreed calves were used in this study. Eight were in the control group, 8 received 12 g of flour and 8 received 24 g per day. On the 28th and 56th day of the research, we measured the amount of CH4 and CO2 in calves’ rumen took rumen fluid samples for bacterial analysis and urine to measure the level of phenol and indican. We concluded that adding the flour of Jerusalem artichoke at doses 12 g and 24 g did not significantly impact the production of CH4 and CO2 in calves’ rumen, the prebiotic inulin may suppress the growth of anaerobic microorganisms in the rumen at concentration 12 g of inulin reaching 56th day of experiment. The amount of phenol and indican in calves’ morning urine did not correlate with the faecal consistency of calves.

The aim of this study was to determine the influence of Jerusalem artichoke flour feeding on the general health status of calves (Bos Taurus), the animal live weight gain and digestive canal morphological development in the first four months of life, as well as to find out the optimal of three inulin doses. Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus) concentrate produced in Latvia contains the prebiotic – inulin. The study was performed on four groups of animals - a control group of 10 animals and three prebiotic groups, 10 animals in each group. All groups were fed the whole milk, but the PreG6 group animals were fed daily with 6 grams of prebiotic, calves PreG12 group were fed with 12g of prebiotic, but each calf in PreG24 group – 24g of prebiotic per day. CoG control animals did not receive feed supplement. Faecal mass consistence of PreG6, PreG12 groups of animals was more stable within the whole research period than CoG. We found that the control group animal weight gain on the 56th research day is statistically significantly (p is less than 0.05) lower than of those calves that received inulin as a food supplement. The highest growth rates have shown PreG12 and PreG24 group of animals, significantly (p is less than 0.05) being ahead of PreG6 group of calves, the highest average daily live weight gain was observed in PreG24 group (0.95 ± 0.093 kg).

More and more people looking for healthy foods. Because researchers in nourishment to look for new possibilities in breadmaking. One of the possibilities is to substitute wheat flour by oat or buckwheat flour in bread products. Bread quality is characterized by sensory properties: taste, smell, flavour and texture. Hardiness, elasticity and gumminess are important indices of bread texture. The purpose of our work is to determine the changes in the bread texture of mix flour sample. Samples were prepared to substitute wheat at 10% and 15% or by at 10% and 25%. The wheat flour was used as a control. The experiments were made in the pilot Laboratory of I.A.T.A. in Spain, using AACC methods. Output data show that substitution buckwheat flour has improved the texture of bread, but substitution of oat flour has impaired the properties of texture.