ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: Two ex vivo experiments were conducted to verify the effect of barley grain (Nusrat cultivar) treated with alkaline compounds (AC) including alum, ammonium, and sodium hydroxide or cation-exchanged organic extracts (OE) prepared from alfalfa hay, sugar beet pulp and Ulva Fasciata, on extent and digestion of starch. METHODS: In the first study, the in vitro first order disappearance kinetic parameters of dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP) and starch were estimated using a non-linear model (D(t) = D(i) · e(-kd · time) + I, where: D(t) = potentially digestible residues at any time, D(i) = potentially digestible fraction at any time, kd = fractional rate constant of digestion (/h), I = indigestible fraction at any time). In the second experiment, the ruminal and post-ruminal disappearance of DM, CP, and starch were determined using in situ mobile nylon bag. RESULTS: Barley grains treated with alum and alfalfa extract had a higher constant rate of starch digestion (0.11 and 0.09/h) than others. Barley grain treated with OE had a higher constant rate of CP digestion and that of treated with AC had a higher constant rate of starch digestion (0.08 and 0.11/h) compared with those of the other treatments. The indigestible fraction of starch treated with alum and sugar beet pulp extract was higher than that of the control group (0.24 and 0.25 vs 0.21). Barley grain treated with AC and OE had significant CP disappearance in the rumen, post-rumen and total tract, and also starch disappearance for post-rumen and total tract compared with the untreated (p<0.001). CONCLUSION: This study demonstrated that AC and OE might have positive effects on the starch degradation of the barley grain. In addition, treating barley grain with alum and sugar beet pulp extract could change the site and extend digestion of protein and starch.
ABSTRACT
Flow cytometry is a widely used application for validating the accuracy of sperm sexing. However, this method is relatively expensive and requires considerable technical support. An alternative method employing simpler technology at low cost could be suitable for the evaluation of bovine semen in laboratories with low budgets. We used a SYBR Green Real-Time PCR assay to determinate sex ratio in bovine semen. The PLP and SRY genes were amplified to isolate the specific fragments of X- and Y-chromosome sequences, respectively. Two certified standard curves were obtained using two plasmids containing PLP and SRY amplicons. Our results show no significant difference in semen sex ratio in unsorted semen (54.7±0.52% X and 47.6±0.60% Y). However, significant difference was observed in X/Y-sorted semen (93.3±0.08% X and 91.4±0.06% Y-sperm), as compared to the expected ratio in unsorted semen or the post-sorting reanalysis data. The evolution of X-chromosome bearing sperm content in unsorted samples showed an average of 52.6 for ejaculates and 51.8 for the commercial semen. In order to confirm our results, the accuracy, repeatability and reproducibility of the method were tested resulting in 98.2% accuracy, repeatability of CV=5.59% and reproducibility of CV=5.40%. Thus, this method is demonstrated to be a reliable and inexpensive way to test sexual chromosome content in semen samples.
