Potential biomarkers for chronic seasonal heat stress in Kagoshima Berkshire pigs reared in the subtropical region were investigated by comparing the biomarker changes in the summer (a period of chronic heat stress) and winter (a thermoneutral period) seasons.

The aim of this study was to determine the effects of severe extreme thermal stress on the respiratory rate (panting) of unsheared and sheared rams in standing and lying position, and to analyse two temperature-humidity indices (THIs). Six mature Australian Merino rams from Northern Patagonia, three unshorn and three shorn, were subjected to 40 hours (8 hours each day for five days) of gradual increase in temperature from 25°C to 40°C, guaranteeing 4h daily at 40°C in a heat chamber. Respiratory rate (RR) was registered continuously by counting flank movements, and the ambient air temperature and relative humidity were recorded every five minutes inside the heat chamber. From 1413 RR measurements, descriptive and modelling analyses were performed. Panting as a response variable was distributed into five categories, and fixed effects such as THI, wool (unshorn/shorn), and position (standing/lying) were considered. No significant differences were observed between the panting score in the unshorn (standing or lying) and standing (unshorn or shorn) sheep, but significant differences were observed in shorn and lying rams. The explanations could be that heat production from muscle activity was lower and the transfer and heat lost by conduction to the floor was easier in the rams with shorter fleece (at least 0.7 inches long). However, in the unshorn rams, their wool acted as an insulator, both with air as well as the floor. Australian Merino rams from Northern Patagonia are heat tolerant to an environment between 31.5°C and 42°C, and 32% to 48% humidity for 40 hours over five days. The rams were in the first phase of panting, and the normal rectal temperatures registered daily when leaving the heat chamber confirmed that regulation of body temperature was possible. The LPHSI’s THI was adjusted to improve the analysis of the RR more than the National Research Council’s THI.

Thirty Brangus bulls were used in a 90-d study to assess the effect of artificial shading on the performance and reproductive characteristics of semi-confined cattle. Animals were kept in four one-ha paddocks in two groups of eight for shade treatment (5 m2/animal of 80% solar block shade cloth) and two groups of seven animals in no-shade treatment. Each treatment had two homogeneous groups, each divided into heavy-bulls (351-450 kg) and light-bulls (300-350 kg). Time spent under shade, time standing, average daily gain, testicular development and sperm quality were investigated. Animals spent 24% of the daylight under the shade and no-shaded bulls spent more time standing (P < 0.05). No difference was found in average daily gain (P > 0.05) and testicular development between shaded and no-shaded animals. However, scrotal perimeter was higher for shaded light animals compared to no-shaded light bulls (P < 0.10). Sperm motility increase during the experimental period for shaded animals (P < 0.05) and sperm abnormalities were higher for the shaded ones (P < 0.05). Although the results did not indicate pronounced benefits on cattle performance, this resource was an important alternative because it appears to provide an improvement in some reproductive parameters and ensure a better thermal comfort to the animals.

Indigenous sheep are highly adaptable and widely distributed in different regions of Bangladesh. They are famous for their tolerance to harsh environmental conditions, low demand for feed, and disease resistance with minimum or no housing and management facilities. Ample indiscrimi¬nate research reports and case studies on the native sheep of Bangladesh have been published. Nonetheless, a comprehensive review of reproductive and productive performances, as well as their various morphometric physiognomies and climate resilience capabilities, is lacking. This review was designed to explore and summarize the available research reports on indigenous sheep to highlight the gaps and provide an updated database for the future research plan for sustainable native sheep production in Bangladesh. It covers studies on sheep biodiversity, their adaptabil¬ity to the local environment, morphometric features, feeding and nutrition, reproduction and production performances, diseases and health management, and the problems and prospects of sheep farming in Bangladesh. Due to the increased demand for animal protein, especially red meat, the scope of sheep farming increases along with that of other large and small ruminants. The vital constraints of sheep production in Bangladesh include insufficient feed and fodder sup¬ply with its high prices, higher disease occurrence with low or no management practices, kid mortality, and a poor marketing channel with the lower popularity of sheep meat than goat meat. Future research would be a prerequisite to measuring the impact of native sheep on household economies and food security during the year, evaluating the other challenges, and finding out the possible interventions in the fields of nutrition, reproduction, and health management. [J Adv Vet Anim Res 2022; 9(4.000): 649-662]

Objective: The effect of seasonality needs to be considered in designing future studies because global warming has caused a rise in ambient temperatures. The objective of the present study is to investigate the effect of high ambient temperatures on fecal score and fecal microflora in dairy cows during summer. Materials and Methods: During the 7 days before the sampling of feces, the daily mean tempera¬tures were 19.9&#xb0;C in early summer and more than 27.5&#xb0;C in late summer. Fecal samples were collected from the rectum of cows and the fecal score was evaluated on a 4-point scale. The equalized samples were used to extract the genomic deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) of the bacteria (Escherichia coli, Salmonella, Lactobacillus, and Bifidobacterium). Results: There was no significant difference in fecal scores between the sampling times in early and late summer. In the populations of the bacteria, there was no significant difference between sampling days in the DNA level of Salmonella, and E. coli in late summer increased to more than three times the level in early summer. However, both levels of Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium in early summer significantly decreased after 2 months. Conclusion: These data suggest that the increase in temperature in late summer may adversely affect the populations of bacteria in the intestinal environment of dairy cows. In addition, the method used in the present study was sufficient to evaluate the changes in internal and external environmental conditions of dairy cattle. [J Adv Vet Anim Res 2021; 8(2.000): 307-311]

Objective: The purpose of this work was to investigate the combination of early-age acclimation and linseed dietary inclusion in enriching polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) in broilers meat as a strategy to mitigate heat stress. Materials and Methods: A total of 400 broiler chicks were assigned to four experimental groups with four duplicates (25 animals each): C: control (basal diet), AC: early-age acclimated (basal diet), Cl: fed 5% ground linseed, and Acl: early-age acclimated and fed 5% ground linseed. The lipid and fatty acid contents of different parts (breast, thigh, liver, subcutaneous, and abdominal fat) of broilers were determined. Results: Low levels of lipids and unsaturated fatty acids have been found in the meat of accli¬mated broilers. Higher levels of linolenic acids were noted in Cl thigh meat compared to C (6% vs. 2.68%, respectively). The results showed that oleic and linoleic acids constitute a large part of the PUFAs of different meats. The most elevated levels of monounsaturated fatty acids were recorded in the breast meat of AcL animals. The highest content of omega-3 was recorded in the liver of AcL animals compared to that of C (14.98% vs. 7.8%, respectively). Conclusion: We suggest that the combination of treatments during hot conditions has led to the reversion of the environment-affected variables to accepted values, and yields better ther¬moresistance, PUFA-enriched meat, and safeguard animal health which conferred to birds better solutions to reduce fatigue and hypoxic activities, which induces a considerable consumption of oxygen. [J Adv Vet Anim Res 2021; 8(2.000): 237-245]

Objective: The present study aimed to evaluate the impact of dietary turmeric or garlic extract on physiological responses, hematological parameters, antioxidants status, testicular functions, and health indices of heat-stressed rabbit males. Materials and Methods: Seventy bucks were distributed into seven experimental groups (ten/ group). A commercial diet (CD) was fed to rabbit males in the control group, while males in G2, G3, and G4 were fed CD with turmeric at 30, 60, and 90 mg/kg, respectively. Males in G5, G6, and G7 were fed CD with garlic extract at 50, 75, and 100 mg/kg, respectively, for 8 weeks. Results: The results showed that turmeric or garlic extract levels decreased ear temperature, res¬piration rate, germ cell apoptotic number, total cholesterol, triglycerides, malondialdehyde level, libido, and sperm of dead and abnormal tail (p < 0.05). The hemoglobin and red and white blood cells, platelets, total antioxidants capacity, mass motility, mitochondrial potential, normal, acro¬some reacted, normality, and a total functional fraction of spermatozoa and relative of epididymal weight were increased (p < 0.05). The increased packed cell volume percentage and initial semen fructose were significant only when 100 mg per kg garlic extract was supplemented. Conclusion: Phytochemicals extract supplementation can be an effective dietary supplementation to eliminate heat stress and improve health, oxidative capacity, and testicular functions of rabbit males. [J Adv Vet Anim Res 2021; 8(2.000): 256-265]

The present study was conducted to investigate the effects of boldenone undecylenate (BUL) on carcass traits and blood stress parameters in growing male rabbits. A total of 170 male rabbits comprising of three breeds namely New Zealand White (NZW; n=55), Californian (CAL; n=50), and Rex (RX; n=65) were taken for this study. The rabbits of each breed were divided into three groups viz., D0 (control), D1 provided with normal dose of BUL (at 4.4 mg/kg body weight), and D2 provided with BUL (at 8.8 mg/kg bwt). The rabbits were kept under temperature ranged from 28-32 and deg;C during the experimental period. Carcass traits of the rabbits were studied, and the blood parameters were measured by radioimmunoassay. Most of carcass traits, globulin and cholesterol levels in the serum were significantly improved for the injection of BUL at normal dose. Plasma corticosterone levels in normal dose injected rabbits were lowered by 27.21 and 15.25% as compared to controls and double dose, respectively. The effect of interaction between dose and breed was non-significant (P>0.05) on almost all carcass traits and blood parameters. In conclusion, BUL improves all carcass traits in male growing rabbits when injected with normal dose of BUL, with the exception of dressing-out%, and has a significant lowering effect on stress hormone (i.e., corticosterone), and increasing effect on serum total protein, globulin and cholesterol. [J Adv Vet Anim Res 2015; 2(3.000): 263-270]

This study was designed to evaluate the protective effects of turmeric rhizome powder (TRP) against the harmful effects of heat stress (HS) on some biochemical parameters and antioxidant status. Four groups were formed entirely from 72 one-day-old chicks with an initial body weight average of 45.0±3.0 g, including the basal diet: TNC: no supplements were added to the diet (control group); TN-TRP: 300 g TRP /100 kg of feed was supplemented; HS-control: no supplements were added, and the birds were exposed to heat stress; and HS-TRP: 300 g TRP/100 kg of diet was supplemented and the birds were exposed to heat stress) for 35 days. Heat stress groups were subjected to thermal stress (40.0± 5.0 ˚C) for 8 hours per day from the 21st day to the end of the experiment. At the end of the trial, four healthy birds were randomly selected from each group and slaughtered for sampling and analysis. The serum total protein, albumin, ALT, AST, uric acid, and urea were significantly decreased by the dietary TRP when compared with the HS-control group while creatinine was not affected significantly. The serum total lipid and malondialdehyde (MDA) were significantly dropped but catalase enzyme activity increased. The gene expression levels of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR-α), glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator 1 alpha (PGC-1α), and superoxide dismutase-1 (SOD-1) were significantly increased by TRP addition. The results suggest that a TRP-supplemented diet affected some biochemical parameters and improved the antioxidant status and expression of studied genes.

The current study was designed to investigate the impacts of heat stress (HS) on performance parameters of broiler chicken reared at different stocking densities, also study assessed the effects of anti-stress (vitamin) supplementation in the mitigation of different levels of stress. A total of 720 7th-day-old Cobb ® chicks were randomly distributed into 18 groups, (two replicates within each group). The experiment with a factorial arrangement of treatments (3x3x2), 3 levels of stocking densities (RSD: 10 chicks/m2, MSD: 14 chicks/m2, and HSD: 18 chicks/m2), 2 levels of vitamin supplementation (0 mg/l and combination of 250 mg/l ascorbic acid plus 0.5 ml/l Vit E + Se) and three temperatures (Thermoneutral temperature (TN), sudden chronic heat stress exposure (CHS) and gradual chronic heat stress exposure). Broilers were kept either under thermoneutral conditions (24 ± 1 ºC) during the whole life period or slowly introduced to CHS from 7th to 21st d of age and kept at high temperature thereafter and the third chamber had chicks that were exposed to CHS (32 ± 2 ºC for 8 h/day) during the period from 21st: 42nd day of age. Chicks were reared on a deep litter system and had free access to feed and water. Performance parameters (FI, BW, BWG, and FCR) were determined on the 42nd day of age. The results showed HSD had adverse effects on the growth performance of broilers reared under thermoneutral or CHS conditions where the differences between densities were significant (P<0.05) under TN and sudden CHS conditions and insignificant in case of gradual CHS exposure conditions for most of the performance parameters. Vitamins supplementation had improved growth performance (BW and FCR) of broilers kept under MSD or HSD and exposed to thermoneutral or sudden CHS conditions as compared to corresponding not supplemented birds. While it was effective in combating the adverse effects of gradual HS exposure in RSD and MSD kept broilers only. In addition, there was no significant difference between RSD not supplemented broilers and MSD-supplemented birds under TN conditions; concluding that broilers can be stocked at MSD under thermoneutral conditions if they were supplemented with vitamins.