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PubMed2002

Recovery and utilization of useful by-products from egg processing wastewater by electrocoagulation.

The efficacy of a laboratory electrocoagulation (EC) system for treating egg processing plant waste-water (WW) is reported. For simulated and industrial egg processing WW, chemical oxygen demand, turbidity, and total suspended solids (TSS) were reduced 92 to 97%, 97%, and 99%, respectively, after treatment with EC. The final TSS concentration and turbidity values were 30 mg/L and 5 formazin turbidity units (FTU), respectively, similar to that of potable water standards. The recovered by-product solids had a similar pattern of essential amino acids compared to that of liquid whole egg and were comparable to the Food Agriculture Organization's essential amino acid profile for an ideal protein. The relative protein digestibilities of the recovered solids and a commercial corn meal averaged 130 and 56%, respectively, compared to liquid whole egg (set at 100%). An economic analysis of EC indicated that this treatment is economically feasible in that a savings of approximately $425,000 per year is possible in addition to recovering the capital equipment costs after about 14 mo of operation. These findings demonstrate that EC can be successfully applied to treat egg processing plant WW, yielding a high quality water suitable for recycling and valuable by-products having a highly digestible protein and fat value.

Agriculture↗
PubMed1979

The nutritional value and quality of squid (Illex illecebrosus) meal as source of dietary protein for broiler chicken.

1. Squid meal (SqM), produced by grinding and drying the whole squid (Illex illecebrosus) common to the northeast Atlantic and Mediterranean, contained 645 g protein/kg and appeared limiting with respect to lysine, methionine and cystine. 2. Although a comparison of the essential amino acid profiles of SqM with other protein concentrates indicated that SqM was higher than fish meal and soya-bean meal but lower than casein or whole-egg protein, these teported for evaluating protein quality of SqM. It was based on the direct chromatographic determination, of its collagen content, from the amounts of 5-hydroxylysine or 5-hydroxyproline present, and elastin, from the amounts of desmosine or iso-desmosine present. This method can also be routinely used to assess the connective tissue content and protein quality of animal protein supplements such as fish, meat-and-bone meals. 4. A nutritional evaluation of SqM as a source of protein for poultry was carried out using 320 male and 320 female Cobb chicks fed from 1-d-old to 48 d, a control diet containing 50 g/kg fish meal or test diets containing 50 g, 100 g or 150 g SqM/kg. 5. Feeding of SqM at a rate of up to 100 g/kg diet resulted in optimum biological response and monetary returns.

Amino Acids↗
PubMed2006

Microscopic and flow cytometric semen assessment of Dutch AI-bucks: effect of semen processing procedures and their correlation to fertility.

This study was done to determine the effects of processing techniques on the quality of semen from Dutch AI-bucks with the view on improving pregnancy rates after artificial insemination (AI) with liquid or frozen-thawed semen. Motility of spermatozoa was estimated under a microscope whereas the percentage live spermatozoa and the percentage live spermatozoa with intact acrosomes were determined by means of flow cytometry. Aspects of semen processing that were investigated are storage temperature of liquid semen (i), the effect of glycerol on liquid-stored semen (ii), removal of seminal plasma (iii) and type of extender (iv). The correlation between semen quality and fertility rates in inseminated does was also investigated. The percentage motile spermatozoa in semen stored in liquid form for 72 h progressively declined over time, irrespective of whether storage occurred at 4 or 18 degrees C. The percentage motile spermatozoa in semen stored at 18 degrees C was similar to that in semen stored at 4 degrees C if stored for 24 h but lower if stored for 48 h. Goats differ in the sensitivity of their spermatozoa to the deleterious effects of glycerol. Neither the removal of seminal plasma nor the type of extender had any effect on semen quality before freezing but semen frozen in a Tris-citric acid-glucose (TCG) buffer with egg yolk without removal of the seminal plasma had better quality after thawing than semen frozen in another diluent or after removal of seminal plasma. Remarkably no significant correlation between fertility and membrane integrity of spermatozoa could be found. Thus, although integrity assays for spermatozoa are useful to asses resistance to semen handling, the validity of these assays for predicting fertility is questioned.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Measurement of ileal protein digestibility using 15N-labeled rats].

After 15N-labelling over 7 days male albino rats (92-95 g live weight) received either a wheat or whole egg diet (10 animals each) for 4 days. On the following day of the experiment 5 animals each continued to receive their diets as their morning meal (group 1 whole egg, group 3 wheat) and 5 animals each after the previous feeding of a wheat diet received a 2.9 g whole egg diet (group 2) and after the previous feeding of a whole egg diet a 2.85 g wheat diet (group 4) resp. This morning meal was supplemented with chromium(III)oxide. The rats consumed their meals within 20 minutes. The animals were killed 3.5 hours after the beginning of feed intake. At that time the following relative amounts (in % of the intake) could be detected in the stomach in the sequence of groups 1 to 4: Cr2O3 = 22.5; 26.5; 57.5 and 64.2; dry matter = 25.4; 22.1; 43.2 and 38.5. The better agreement between the whole egg diet and Cr2O3 can be explained with the hydrophobic qualities of Cr2O3 and the small disposition of the Cr2O3 to decompose in combination with the whole egg diet. In the first third of the small intestines less than 1% of the intake of Cr2O3 and a maximum of 3.5% of the DM could be detected. Between 20 and 36% of the Cr2O3 and between 15 and 20% of the dry matter intake were ascertained in the small intestines as a whole; in the large intestines the values were 12-20% of the Cr2O3 and 16-23% of the DM. Endogenous 15N-secretion could be ascertained in all parts of the digestive tract. According to the method suggested by U. Bergner and H. Bergner (1982), protein digestibility in the last third of the small intestines was calculated as follows: (formula; see text) The following ileal digestibility values were calculated for crude protein: whole egg = 95.6%; whole egg (wheat previously) = 95.5%; wheat = 94.1%; wheat (whole egg previously) = 85.1%. It is a precondition for the application of this method that at the time of killing representative quotas of the diet sample to be tested can be detected both in the stomach and the large intestine so that the decrease of 15N-labelling in the ileum is actually caused by the test protein.

Animals↗
PubMed1999

Identifying potentially subfertile toms via a sperm-binding assay.

We evaluated the utility of the commercial version of a new sperm-egg binding assay for detection of differences in sperm quality in samples of turkey semen from individual toms. Each sample had a swirl of 2 or more on a scale of 0 to 4. For assays conducted with fresh semen at 4 x 10(6) sperm per well, values ranged from 0.11 to 12% sperm bound to an extract of perivitelline membrane. Within-male variation averaged 0.17 percentage units, based on three ejaculates per male evaluated. Two experiments compared fertility and hatch for hens after weekly insemination with pooled semen from subpopulations of toms classified as having sperm with LOW or HIGH binding. Average fertility and hatch were lower (P < 0.05) for eggs laid by hens inseminated with semen from LOW toms in one experiment. In another experiment, hen fertility was not different between treatments after insemination during Weeks 32 to 39; however, a sharp decline in hatch was observed only for hens inseminated with semen from LOW toms after 40 wk of age. With semen from HIGH toms, hatch remained at > or = 80%. For these experiments, approximately 7% more poults were obtained from hens inseminated with semen from HIGH toms. We demonstrated that the sperm-egg binding assay detects differences in sperm quality between individuals, and these differences influence fertility.

Animals↗
PubMed2006

Investigations on the effects of rape oil quality, choline and methionine concentration in diets for laying hens on the trimethylamine content of the eggs, on trimethylamine metabolism and on laying performance.

An experiment was conducted to study the effects of graded levels of choline addition (0, 500, 1000 and 4000 mg/kg diet) in laying hen diets prepared either with degummed or refined rape oil on the performance, sensory properties and trimethylamine (TMA) contents of the eggs. Furthermore, the diets containing no supplemented choline or 4000mg choline/kg diet were tested with adequate or inadequate methionine supply (4.2 vs. 2.8 g methionine/kg diet). TMA metabolism and N-balance were measured for the latter diet types, but only with the diets containing refined rape oil. Therefore, a total of 12 and 4 diets were tested in the feeding (n = 60) and balance study (n = 9). Laying performance (23 -75 weeks of age) was not significantly influenced by increasing choline additions with the exception of feed-to-egg mass ratio which decreased significantly linearly (P(linear) = 0.003). However, a significant interaction between choline addition and laying month was detected which was caused by a depression of performance of the unsupplemented control group occurring from the sixth laying month. The most obvious effect of an inadequate methionine supply was a temporary drop in performance between the third and sixth laying months. The mean TMA-concentration in pooled egg yolks [microg/g] increased with dietary choline concentration [mg/kg] in an exponentially related fashion (y = 1.14 + 4E(-10) x x(2.71), r2 = 0.962) and suggested only a minor influence of total dietary choline on TMA content up to approximately 2000mg choline/kg. Individual TMA-concentrations varied greatly from 0.4 - 1.5 microg/g, from 2.2 - 34 microg/g and from 18.4 - 75 microg/g for eggs with a normal, aberrant and heavily aberrant odour, respectively. It is concluded that a total choline concentration of at least approximately 1500 mg/kg is necessary to maintain a maximal laying performance. An inadequate methionine supply cannot be compensated by an increased addition of choline. Neither degummed nor refined rape oil influenced the TMA content of eggs.

Analysis of Variance↗
PubMed1997

[Electrogastrography. Evolution and clinical applications].

Electrogastrography (EGG) is a non invasive technique of recording gastric myoelectrical activity by cutaneous electrodes. Although first reported about 70 years ago, the development of this methodology has been very slow, mainly because of several shortcomings in data acquisition, interpretation of EGG data and poor correlation with the antral contractile activity. Recently, EGG has received increasing interest and technical improvements. The better quality of the signal obtained and the applications with automated signal processing, have improved the interpretation of the EGG. For this reasons, the number of EGG applications, both experimental and clinical, has rapidly increased. However, the lack of invasivity of this methodology has suggested some clinical applications which probably exceeded the specific possibility of the EGG. We aimed in this study at analysing several parameters, whose clinical relevance is not clearly understood, obtained by the automatic analysis, to identify patients with gastric electrical abnormalities between 10 patients with abnormal gastric emptying and 10 healthy controls. The best separation between these two groups was obtained by combining both mean dominant frequency and power.

English Abstract↗
PubMed1991

Effects of egg yolk-citrate and milk extenders on chromatin structure and viability of cryopreserved bull sperm.

Semen from four Holstein bulls was evaluated to compare effects of four extender treatments on postthaw semen quality. Extender fractions A and B, either heated whole milk or 20% egg yolk-citrate, were combined to yield the extender treatments 1) milk and milk, 2) milk and egg yolk-citrate, 3) egg yolk-citrate and milk, and 4) egg yolk-citrate and egg yolk-citrate. Semen was evaluated at thawing and after 30, 60, 120, and 180 min of incubation at 38.5 degrees C. Flow cytometry showed that acridine orange-stained sperm were most susceptible to in situ DNA denaturation when fraction A was milk. For sperm stained with rhodamine 123, flow cytometry showed that the proportion with intact mitochondrial membrane potential was lowest of all treatments at thawing but greatest at 180-min incubation with milk and milk extender. Flow cytometry of propidium iodine-stained sperm showed greatest proportion of cell membrane intact sperm when fraction A was egg yolk-citrate. Light microscopy showed the lowest proportion of cell membrane intact sperm with milk and milk extender after eosin-aniline blue vital staining. Postthaw motility scores tended to be reduced when both extender fractions were egg yolk-citrate. Results demonstrate differential extender effects on postthaw semen quality and indicate that altering extender composition or sequence of adding extender components may improve postthaw quality of cryopreserved sperm.

Analysis of Variance↗
PubMed2002

Early maternal effects mediated by immunity depend on sexual ornamentation of the male partner.

Vertebrates have an immature immune system soon after birth, and parasites can therefore be particularly virulent to young hosts. Transfer of immune factors via the egg can give rise to early maternal effects with important consequences for offspring fitness, as maternally derived immunity confers anti-parasite protection. Mothers are expected to allocate immunity differentially to the eggs according to the reproductive value of their offspring as influenced by the quality of their father. In this study, we analysed transmission to the yolk of antibodies specific to an antigen (Newcastle disease virus vaccine, NDV) by vaccinated female barn swallows (Hirundo rustica) mated to males whose secondary sexual characteristics had been manipulated. Concentration of anti-NDV antibodies in the yolk positively covaried with that in maternal plasma. Anti-NDV antibodies were more concentrated in the first but not the fourth eggs laid by females mated with tail-elongated males compared with those mated with tail-shortened and control males. This experiment shows that allocation of maternal immune factors to the eggs is affected by quality of the male, as signalled by its secondary sexual characteristic. Thus, early maternal effects are influenced by sexual attractiveness of male mates and are mediated by immunity.

Animals↗
PubMed1999

Clinical application of intracytoplasmic sperm injection using in vitro cultured testicular spermatozoa obtained the day before egg retrieval.

OBJECTIVE: To study the effect of in vitro culture on the quality of human testicular sperm and the efficiency of intracytoplasmic sperm injection with in vitro cultured testicular sperm. DESIGN: Clinical study. SETTING: A private IVF center. PATIENT(S): Twenty consecutively seen IVF patients undergoing testicular biopsies for ICSI. INTERVENTION(S): The testicular specimens were cultured in vitro for 24 hours and the isolated spermatozoa were microinjected. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Preincubation and postculture sperm motility, and fertilization, implantation, and pregnancy rates after intracytoplasmic sperm injection. RESULT(S): Motility increased from initial nonmotile or twitching sperm to free motile sperm in 18 of 20 cases. The injection of in vitro cultured testicular sperm resulted in a fertilization rate of 58%, an implantation rate of 20%, and a pregnancy rate of 45%. CONCLUSION(S): A testicular biopsy procedure can be performed the day before egg retrieval. Despite the low initial sperm quality, a high percentage of the prepared testicular sperm showed increased motility after 24 hours of culture. The injection of in vitro cultured testicular sperm into matured oocytes resulted in fertilization, implantation, and pregnancy rates comparable to those obtained with ejaculated sperm.

Adult↗
PubMed1982

Comparison of three cryoprotective solutions for human semen.

Three media for human semen were tested--(1) HAMS F10 supplemented with fructose, glycine and glycerol (MHAMS), (2) another chemically defined medium, but specifically designed for human semen (HSPM) and (3) medium containing egg yolk (EYCM). Twenty ejaculates of donor quality were divided into three aliquots, each aliquot was mixed with a different medium, the solutions were vapour frozen, and stored at -196 degrees C. Motility and quality of motility were measured 0.5 h and 3 h after thawing. Average cryosurvivals 0.5 h after thawing for MHAMS, HSPM and EYCM were 44.1 (s.d. = 17.0)%, 56.0 (s.d. = 15.3)% and 66.0 (s.d. = 10.8)%, respectively; the proportions of ejaculates with cryosurvival below 50% were 11/20, 5/20 and 1/20 respectively. The results indicated that the EYCM medium had clear advantages over other cryoprotective solutions for use in a spermatozoa freezing programme.

Cell Survival↗
PubMed2003

Valine may be the first limiting branched-chain amino acid in egg protein in men.

Recently, we defined an estimate for total branched-chain amino acids (BCAA) using the indicator amino acid oxidation technique in men fed the three BCAA (leucine, isoleucine and valine) in the proportion present in egg protein. Although egg protein is regarded as a high quality dietary protein source, it is not known whether the proportions of the three BCAA are optimal. Five men with known total BCAA requirements were restudied. Each men was studied with isoleucine, leucine or valine held constant at that individual's requirement level while the intake of the other two BCAA was reduced; one BCAA was held constant and the intake of the other two was reduced by 10 and 20% in random order. The label appearance from the oxidation of L-[13C]-phenylalanine to 13CO2 (F13CO2) in breath was monitored in response to the change in amino acid intake. When either isoleucine or leucine was held constant, and the other two BCAA reduced by 20% (valine and leucine, or valine and isoleucine, respectively) F13CO2 increased (P = 0.007, P = 0.038, respectively). We conclude that valine may be the first limiting BCAA in egg protein.

Adult↗
PubMed2004

Commercialization of veterinary viral vaccines.

If vaccines are to reliably prevent disease, they must be developed, produced and quality-controlled according to very strict regulations and procedures. Veterinary viral vaccine registrations are governed by different rules in different countries, but these rules all emphasize that the quality of the raw materials--the cells, eggs, animals or plants that are used in production--need to be carefully controlled. The veterinary vaccine business is also very cost-conscious. Emphasis over the last 5-10 years has therefore been to develop culture systems that minimize labor and sterility problems and thus provide for reliable and cost-effective production. Implementing these often more complex systems in a production environment takes considerable effort, first in scale-up trials and further down the line in convincing production personnel to change their familiar system for something new and possibly untried. To complete scale-up trials successfully, it is absolutely necessary to understand the biochemistry of the cells and the influence of the virus on the cells under scale-up and later production conditions. Once a viral product can be produced on a large scale, it is imperative that the quality of the end-product is controlled in an intelligent way. One needs to know whether the end-product performs in the animal as was intended during its conception in the research and development department. The development of the appropriate tests to demonstrate this plays an important role in the successful development of a vaccine.

Animals↗
PubMed2002

Intensive genetic assessment of the mating system and reproductive success in a semi-closed population of the mottled sculpin, Cottus bairdi.

Most genetic surveys of parentage in nature sample only a small fraction of the breeding population. Here we apply microsatellite markers to deduce the genetic mating system and assess the reproductive success of females and males in an extensively collected, semi-closed stream population of the mottled sculpin fish, Cottus bairdi. In this species, males guard nest rocks where females deposit the eggs for fertilization. The potential exists for both males and females to mate with multiple partners and for males to provide parental care to genetically unrelated offspring. Four hundred and fifty-five adults and subadults, as well as 1,259 offspring from 23 nests, were genotyped at five polymorphic microsatellite loci. Multilocus maternal genotypes, deduced via genetic analyses of embryos, were reconstructed for more than 90% of the analysed nests, thus allowing both male and female reproductive success to be estimated accurately. There was no genetic evidence for cuckoldry, but one nest probably represents a takeover event. Successful males spawned with a mean of 2.8 partners, whereas each female apparently deposited her entire clutch of eggs in a single nest (mean fecundity = 66 eggs/female). On average, genetically deduced sires and dams were captured 1.6 and 9.3 metres from their respective nests, indicating little movement by breeders during the spawning season. Based on a 'genetic mark-recapture' estimate, the total number of potentially breeding adults (c. 570) was an order-of-magnitude larger than genetically based estimates of the effective number of breeders (c. 54). In addition, significantly fewer eggs per female were deposited in single than in multidam nests. Not only were perceived high-quality males spawning with multiple partners, but they were receiving more eggs from each female.

Animals↗
PubMed2004

Determination of cooling rates and carbon dioxide uptake in commercially processed shell eggs using cryogenic carbon dioxide gas.

The ability to rapidly cool shell eggs to 7 degrees C is important in the prevention of Salmonella Enteritidis (SE) growth. In addition, quality may also be maintained longer from rapid cooling of shell eggs. A commercial cryogenic CO2 egg cooling unit was designed and installed in a commercial egg processing facility. This unit was installed on a packer head to rapidly cool eggs individually prior to packaging. The objective of this study was to determine cooling rates and CO2 gas changes that result from rapidly cooling eggs using this commercial cryogenic egg cooling system and subsequent storage for 15 wk. Results indicated that cryogenic CO2 cooling quickly cooled shell eggs in approximately 45 min, whereas traditional cooling required from 19 to 116 h. CO2 uptake into the albumen was greater in cryogenically cooled eggs (2.11 mg/g) than in traditionally cooled eggs (1.81 mg/g) immediately after processing. No differences were observed in albumen CO2 content after 2 wk of storage; at 10 wk statistically greater CO2 content remained in the cryogenically cooled eggs (1.75 mg/g) compared with the traditionally cooled eggs (1.60 mg/g). These results suggest that a large amount of CO2 enters the egg during the cryogenic cooling process but is quickly lost during storage. Beyond 10 wk of storage, the albumen CO2 content in cryogenically cooled eggs was higher than in the traditionally cooled eggs suggesting chemical changes may have occurred in the albumen.

Animals↗
PubMed1992

Maternal body weight and feed allowance of breeders affect performance of dwarf broiler breeders and tibial ossification of their progeny.

Four hundred and eight dwarf broiler breeder hens were raised collectively in a floor pen to 21 wk of age. At this age they were classified into four groups with reference to their individual BW as heavy (1.95 +/- .1 kg), medium (1.80 +/- .1 kg), light (1.69 +/- .1 kg), and ultralight (1.57 +/- .1 kg). All groups were individually caged at 23 wk of age. During the reproductive period, each group was divided into three subgroups fed on liberal, intermediate, or severe feed restriction (reaching up to 135, 125, and 115 g of daily feed allowance at 29 wk of age, respectively). Intergroup differences in BW were maintained throughout the experiment (21 to 61 wk) but tended to decrease with age. Hen-day egg production was depressed by the lower feed allowance. Fertility and hatchability were impaired when hens received the largest quantities of food. Hen size influenced female breeder performance only slightly. Shell quality and albumen quality were affected by the level of feed consumption. Egg weights as well as BW of the progeny at hatching were enhanced by increased maternal BW and feed allowance. This positive maternal effect was still present at 40 days of age. Despite better overall BW performances of the male versus female broilers, the abdominal fat pad of female broilers was heavier than that of males and tended to increase with breeder size and breeder feed allowance. Accordingly, tibial breaking strength and percentage ash of the progeny at hatching were markedly improved in proportion to the breeders' BW and to their feed allowance. The effect of breeder size on broiler tibial quality was maintained up to 40 days of age but the effect of breeder feed intake tended to disappear with increasing age of the broilers. Tibial strength and mineralization were higher in male than in female broilers at 40 days of age. Dyschondroplasia was higher in broilers hatched from heavier breeder hens, but was not influenced by breeder feed intake. The incidence of varus and valgus in progeny was similar whatever the breeders' treatment. It is concluded that performance of dwarf breeders in a given flock depends mainly upon breeder feed allowance but that broiler performance and, especially, tibial ossification of broilers is greatly influenced by maternal size and, to a lesser extent, by maternal feed intake.

Animals↗
PubMed2000

The effect of oral administration of polyethylene glycol on faecal helminth egg counts in pregnant goats grazed on browse containing condensed tannins.

Thirty yearling F1 Anglo-Nubian x Mubende goats, averaging 21 +/- 0.45 kg, kept on free-range feeding in the Ankole range land, Uganda, were screened for health and nutritional status, effectively treated against helminth parasites, mated, and randomly divided into two equal groups during a 3-month preparatory phase. During the 6 months that followed, the goats in one group received a daily oral dose (50 g/goat) of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG), while the other group acted as the control (no PEG). The goats were monitored for faecal nematode egg counts and body weight gains, along with the quality of their diet, nematode contamination of the pasture, and the prevailing climatic factors in the area. Goats treated with PEG had significantly (p < 0.05) higher faecal helminth egg loads. The mean nematode eggs per gram of faeces (epg) of the PEG group (290 epg) was more than double that of the control group (129 epg). All the PEG-treated goats exhibited moderate to severe infections at the end of the experiment. The gain in body weight during gestation was lower (p < 0.05) in the PEG group (70.4 g per goat per day) than in the control group (91.8 g per goat per day). The PEG group lost 2.3 g per goat per day in the fifth month. PEG deactivates condensed tannins, and it was concluded that condensed tannins play a significant role in reducing the negative effects of gastrointestinal helminth burdens in the natural free-range feeding system of the Ankole range land in Uganda. Selective feeding on such range lands might expose goats to optimal concentrations of dietary condensed tannins with resultant beneficial effects.

Administration, Oral↗
PubMed2004

Variation in temperature increases the cost of living in birds.

The effect of temperature variability on laying birds was studied experimentally, using Japanese quail. Two aspects of temperature variability were investigated: the effects of regular daily variation in temperature, and of a sudden change in temperature. Both of these may become more common as a consequence of climate change. These manipulations were carried out at two levels of food supply. Energy expenditure increased with higher daily temperature variation, and also after a sudden change in temperature, taking several days to settle to a constant level. Manipulating daily temperature variation also resulted in smaller eggs being laid under more variable temperatures, when food quality was also low. The results demonstrate that day-to-day variation in temperature, as well as mean temperature, affects energy expenditure, which can have consequences for egg production.

Animals↗