Effect of time of second GnRH vaccination on feed intake, carcass quality and fatty acid composition of male fatteners compared to entire boars and barrows.

Objective of the study was to evaluate the influence of time point of second vaccination with the GnRH analogon Improvac on growth performance, carcass quality and fatty acid composition of male fatteners compared to surgically castrated pigs and entire boars. The pigs (Piétrain-crossbreds) were divided into two vaccination groups with first GnRH vaccination at eleven weeks of age and second vaccination at 21 (group IA, n = 84) or 18 weeks (IB, n = 83) of age, one group with surgically castrated males (C, n = 90) and one with entire males (EM, n = 91). Body weight, feed conversion rate, carcass quality and fatty acid composition in back fat were estimated. Feed conversion rate until second vaccination was better (P < 0.05) in the vaccination groups (1:2.39) and in group EM (1:2.34) than in group C (1:2.55). Carcass weight did not differ between the groups. Vaccination groups had significantly (P < 0.01) leaner meat (IA: 58.9%, IB: 58.3%) and less back fat (IA: 14.6 mm, IB: 15.5 mm) than group C (56.5%, 17.1 mm). Fatty acid composition was shifted to polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) in back fat in vaccination groups and EM compared to C. The time lag between second vaccination and slaughter had no influence on growth performance, feed intake and carcass quality. C18:3 and C20:2 were significantly (P < 0.01) higher in group IB than in IA, but PUFA did not differ between vaccination groups. GnRH vaccinated fatteners were economically superior to surgically castrated in this study.

Isotope selective photoionization of NaK by optimal control: theory and experiment.

We present a joint theoretical and experimental study of the maximization of the isotopomer ratio (23)Na(39)K(23)Na(41)K using tailored phase-only as well as amplitude and phase modulated femtosecond laser fields obtained in the framework of optimal control theory and closed loop learning (CLL) technique. A good agreement between theoretically and experimentally optimized pulse shapes is achieved which allows to assign the optimized processes directly to the pulse shapes obtained by the experimental isotopomer selective CLL approach. By analyzing the dynamics induced by the optimized pulses we show that the mechanism involving the dephasing of the wave packets between the isotopomers (23)Na (39)K and (23)Na (41)K on the first excited state is responsible for high isotope selective ionization. Amplitude and phase modulated pulses, moreover, allow to establish the connection between the spectral components of the pulse and corresponding occupied vibronic states. It will be also shown that the leading features of the theoretically shaped pulses are independent from the initial conditions. Since the underlying processes can be assigned to the individual features of the shaped pulses, we show that optimal control can be used as a tool for analysis.