Biotechnology in Animal Husbandry 

About: Biotechnology in Animal Husbandry is an academic journal published by Faculty of Agronomy in Čačak. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Population & Breed. It has an ISSN identifier of 1450-9156. It is also open access. Over the lifetime, 1227 publications have been published receiving 6300 citations. The journal is also known as: Biotehnologija u stočarstvu.

Alfalfa-most important perennial forage legume in animal husbandry

Abstract: Important role of alfalfa in development of animal husbandry, is based on high potential for production of biomass. Reaching of high green (over 80 t ha-1) and dry matter yield (approx. 20 t ha-1) with low investment during all period of utilization makes alfalfa production very economical. Divergent selection materials were used to create high productive domestic alfalfa cultivars with excellent field persistence, which is important factor for high and stable yield during entire exploitation period. On the other hand, alfalfa is a rich source of crude protein with excellent digestibility. Proteins from alfalfa herbage are the cheapest source of protein in animal feed. Content of crude protein strongly depend on development stage of plant material and can be 200 to 240 g kg-1 DM, while crude protein yield can be over 3.5 t ha-1. Besides that, alfalfa herbage had a high content of macro and micro element, which are so important for animal health. It is usually grown in pure stand, although it's a good component of grass-legumes mixtures. Alfalfa biomass can be used in several ways, usually as hay, but also as high quality silages, haylages, dehydrated in form of briquettes or by grazing. Symbiotic N2 fixation gives alfalfa not just economical, but very high ecological importance, too. It's a reason why alfalfa, besides important role in conventional husbandry is getting great role in sustainable agriculture and organic production. All those characteristics confirm, that alfalfa is a really 'queen' of forages.

Application of alternative growth promoters in broiler production

Abstract: Subsequent to banning of use of antibiotics as growth promoter sin poultry nutrition, numerous studies turned to finding of alternative solutions, i.e. other, natural substances, which would have positive effect on chicken growth and feed conversion. Today, several groups of these additives are in use, and most often probiotics, prebiotics, enzymes, acidifiers, antioxidants and phytogene additives. Considering that each of the stated groups has its own specificities, objective of this work was to present main mechanism of their action and to present their effect on production results in fattening of broiler chickens through review of research published in this field.

Anti-nutritional factors in some grain legumes.

Abstract: Grain legumes, such as soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr.), pea (Pisum sativum L.), faba bean (Vicia faba L.), lupins (Lupinus spp.), common vetch (Vicia sativa L.) and grass pea (Lathyrus sativus L.), represent one of the most quality and least expensive solutions for a long-term demand for plant protein in animal husbandry. One of the limitations to an increased use of grain legumes as feed is the presence of diverse compounds in their grain, commonly referred to as anti-nutritional factors, that both decrease nutritive value of grain legumes and, if taken in larger amounts, cause health problems that may be fatal for both human and the animals. By this reason, breeding programmes of all grain legumes is aimed at decreasing the content of anti-nutritional factors to a safe extent. Breeding of soybean cultivars for reduced amount of antinutritive factors resulted in the development of Kunitz-free soybean cultivars, which are suitable for thermal processing at lower temperatures and during a shorter period of time. This is the way of saving energy and preserving valuable nutritional composition of soybean grain. As for other species, the most significant progress has been made in protein pea, where all modern cultivars have either low or very low content of various anti- nutritional factors. Among the improvements are also 'zero-tannin' cultivars in faba bean, with a wide utilization in both animal feeding and bread industry, low- toxin common vetch cultivars, 'sweet' cultivars in lupins and low-ODAP cultivars in grass pea.

Evaluation of two herbal spices as feed additives for finisher broilers

Abstract: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of two herbal spices as feed additives for finisher broilers. 120 5-week old birds were randomly assigned to four treatments in a completely randomized design. Each group was further subdivided into three replicates of 10 birds per replicate. Four experimental diets were formulated such that diet I (T1) which served as the control contained neither ginger nor garlic. Diets 2 (T2) and 3 (T3) contained 0.25% garlic and ginger respectively. Diet 4 (T4) contained a combination of 0.25% of garlic and ginger. Response parameters evaluated include weight gain, feed intake, feed conversion ratio, blood parameters and carcass characteristics. The experiment lasted for 35 days. Results showed that birds fed supplemented diets had significantly (P 0.05) difference in the feed consumption of the birds among the treatments. The hematological indices, serum biochemistry and carcass characteristics of the birds among the treatment were not significantly (P>0.05) influenced by the dietary treatments. The results of this study suggest that ginger and garlic can be included in broiler finisher diets without adversely affecting the performance of the birds.

Effect of dietary inclusion of probiotic on chickens performance and some blood indices

Abstract: This experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of probiotic supplementation on the performance and some blood constituents in chickens. The probiotic contained Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium strains. Two hundred one-day-old male chickens were allocated in two experimental groups for seven weeks: control group (unsupplemented diet) and treatment group (with probiotic addition). Individual live weight of all birds, feed intake and feed conversion rate per group were determined on a weekly and overall basis. Carcass quality and blood constituents were determined at the end of the experiment. The administration of probiotic affected positively body weight (P 0.05) compared to the control group. Lower concentrations of serum cholesterol and triglycerides were observed in the treatment group. The probiotic addition reduced the fat content of the chicken meat.