Because of the well established function of carnitine possible effects of carnitine were studied in poultry. In trial I it was investigated if carnitine and its precursors (lysine, methionine) reduce the formation of abdominal fat in broilers. Chickens (10 groups of 10 chickens each) were fed different diets (control, lysine and methionine in excess and deficient, respectively, with or without 5% fat supplement, L-carnitine and DL-carnitine supplement, respectively). Performance (body weight gain, feed conversion), amount of abdominal fat and carnitine concentration in blood, muscles (M. sartorius, M. pectoralis superficialis, cardiac), liver and kidney were determined. Performance and abdominal fat were influenced by dietary fat, lysine and methionine as expected and were not altered by carnitine. Excess and deficiency of lysine and methionine did not influence, fat supplement reduced and carnitine supplementation significantly increased tissue concentration of carnitine. In trial II it was studied if supplementation of a commercial layers' ration with either 500 mg L-carnitine or 500 mg nicotinic acid or both per kg reduces the cholesterol concentration in yolk. Influence on body weight, feed intake, laying performance, serum and yolk cholesterol concentration could not be observed, but yolk concentration of carnitine was significantly increased in supplemented groups. Trial III should clarify if the L-carnitine content in broiler parent stock ration influences hatchability. Four groups of 1350 hens each were fed a commercial all-mash supplemented with 0, 20, 50 and 100 mg L-carnitine, respectively. Hatching rate was increased from 83% to 87% and from 82.4% to 85.3% in groups supplemented with 50 and 100 mg L-carnitine, respectively, and in randomly sampled eggs of these groups carnitine concentration in yolk was higher.

Six male and six female Alaskan Huskies allocated three by three to two teams fed rations slightly different in protein/fat ratio (A, 29.2: 53.7%; B, 34.1: 48.5% of digestible energy) were studied for hematological and metabolic changes during a complete training and racing season (24 wk). Blood variables [packed cell volume (PCV), red blood cell count (RBC), mean corpuscular volume, hemoglobin, total plasma protein, free fatty acids, cholesterol, lactic acid, creatine phosphokinase (CPK), creatinine, alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST)] and six minerals were determined before (at rest) and immediately after a test run of 9 km and then 10, 20 and 30 min later, at the beginning of training as well as 7, 20 and 24 wk later. Training and exercise both significantly influenced PCV, RBC, creatinine and ALT and exercise influenced CPK. Only negligible differences were found between the diets.

The aim of this study was to determine the contamination of broiler chicken with polychlorinated dibenzodioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs) after feeding either uncontaminated feed or feed contaminated with 1, 2 or 4 ng/kg toxic equivalents (TEQ). The feed was mixed with pure substances of PCDD/Fs to get the intended contamination. Ten groups of seven 1-day-old chickens each were housed in special cages for broiler fattening. The fattening period lasted for 6 weeks. The contaminated feed was given for either 2, 4, or 6 weeks, one group received uncontaminated feed (control group). After slaughtering the edible parts of the chickens breast and leg including the skin were homogenized. Body weight gain and feed conversion (kg feed/kg body weight gain) were in the normal range (final weight 1.98+/-0.07 kg; feed conversion 1.74+/-0.03). One kilogram edible tissue contained an average of 21.2+/-4.1% of the total TEQ-intake in all groups. The PCDD/Fs residues in the edible tissues significantly correlated with the amount of PCDD/Fs-intake (r=0.99; Pearson correlation). There was no decrease in dioxin residues (% of total PCDD/Fs intake) after a 2 or 4 weeks withdrawal period. The results of this trial predict that a threshold value of 2 pg/g chicken fat can be met if the PCDD/Fs content in chicken feed is not higher than 0.4 ng/kg.

No abstract

To study dietary management of chronic renal failure (CRF), 1600 dogs older than 5 y were screened for serum urea and serum creatinine concentration. Three hundred fifty-eight dogs (22.4%) showed values above normal (6.67 mmol/L of serum urea, 88.4 mul/L of serum creatinine). Sixty of these dogs with slight or moderate clinical signs of CRF, at least polyuria, were selected for the study. Thirty-two dogs were fed a commercial canned medium protein diet (MPD) [27% protein, 0.36% phosphorus in dry matter (DM)] and 28 dogs were fed a homemade diet (HMD; 21.5% protein, 0.38% phosphorus in DM). Dogs were reevaluated for clinical status, blood chemistry profile (urea, creatinine, total protein, calcium and phosphorus) and urinalysis at 9 intervals over 28 wk. In general, palatability of both diets was high and dogs maintained their body weight. Nevertheless eight dogs of the MPD and six dogs of the HMD group died or had to be killed during the study. In surviving dogs, serum urea, creatinine, phosphorus and [P x Ca] were significantly reduced nearly to the normal range after 4 wk. A slight increase at the end of the study occurred because clients did not adhere strictly to dietary instruction after recovery of the dogs. These results suggest that elderly dogs frequently show a mild or moderate CRF, and dietary treatment with medium protein and low phosphorus diets is effective in improving blood chemistry data as well as physical condition of those dogs.