A feeding trial was carried out to determine the effects of chromium methionine (Cr-Met) chelate and forage level over two years, 1st fattening and 2nd fattening period on growth parameters, carcass characteristics and blood metabolites of 46 Korean native (Hanwoo, Bos Taurus, BW = 183 ± 44 kg) steers. Treatments were: 1) Steers in the low forage (LF) group were fed diets that consisted of 60% concentrate and 40% forage; 2) Steers in the high forage (HF) group were fed diets that consisted of 40% concentrate and 60% forage. Following the 1st fattening period, steers (BW = 480 ± 37.6 kg) were randomly assigned to four treatment groups: LF (40 F plus no Cr-Met supplementation in the 2nd fattening period), LFCM (40LF plus added 400 ppb of Cr-Met during the 2nd fattening period), HF (60 F plus no added Cr-Met during the 2nd fattening period) and HFCM (60 F plus added 400 ppb of Cr-Met in the 2nd fattening period). Dry matter intake of the treatment diets did not differ during the raising and 1th fattening period (P > 0.05). The ADG in the raising period showed no difference between the 40 F and 60 F groups (P > 0.05). Carcass characteristics including rib-eye area and meat yield index were higher in HF than the other treatment groups (P < 0.05). The HF group tended to show a higher (P = 0.08) marbling score than the LF group whereas the HFCM group showed a higher marbling score than the LFCM group (P < 0.05). HDL was higher and LDL lower in groups fed with Cr-Met than in other groups whereas glucose showed the lowest value in HF group (P < 0.05). Triglyceride (TG), Cholesterol, PUN and total protein (TP) were the same among all treatment groups (P > 0.05). The Insulin concentration in the blood was significantly higher for the HFCM group than for the LF, LFCM and HF groups (P < 0.05). It is concluded that supplementation of chromium-methionine chelate could improve meat quality in beef steers.

A total of 800 one-day-old chickens (Cobb 500) were obtained from a local hatchery and allocated randomly to five dietary treatments. This study conducted for 42 d. Treatment groups included 1) CON (control), 2) T0.3 (0.3% of thyme extract), 3) T0.6 (0.6% of thyme extract), 4) G0.3 (0.3% of garlic extract) and 5) G0.6 (0.6% of garlic extract). Thyme extract included 90 μg/ml Carvacrol and 400 mg/ml thymol while garlic extract included 100 mg/ml elastin. There were no significant effects among the treatments on weight gain, feed intake and feed conversion ratio over the entire trial. Also, no significant differences were observed between CON group and other treatments in plasma parameters (cholesterol, triglyceride and HDL) and hematocrit. Sex of chickens had no effect on blood parameters. Supplementation of herb extracts did not affect carcass characteristics including carcass yield, breast, thigh and abdominal fat. There were no significant differences observed in carcass characteristics between males and females fed with different levels of herb extracts. In conclusion, supplementation of garlic and thyme extracts as feed additives at two levels of 3 and 6% in the present study did not improve performance and carcass traits of broiler chicks.

This study was conducted to investigate the behavioral and physiological changes of heat stressed Corriedale ewes exposed to water deprivation. Nine Corriedale ewes (average BW = 45 ± 3.7 kg) were individually fed diets based on maintenance requirements in metabolic crates. Ewes were assigned into three groups (9 sheep per treatment) according to a 3 × 3 Latin square design for 3 periods with 21-d duration for each period. The control (CON) group was given free access to water, 2 h water deprivation (2hWD), and 3 h water deprivation (3hWD) following feeding. No differences were found in fecal excretion frequency, standing frequency (number/d), and sitting frequency among the groups (p > 0.05). Measurements of standing duration (min/d) and urine excretion frequency (number/d) showed a significant decrease whereas sitting duration (min/d) showed a significant increase in the 2hWD and 3hWD groups when compared with the CON group (p < 0.05). Fecal score and heart rate (number/min) were not different among the groups (p > 0.05). However, respiratory rate (number/min) and panting score were found to be significantly higher in the 2hWD and 3hWD groups than in the CON group (p < 0.05). It is concluded that water deprivation following feeding intensifies physiological heat stress related indicators such as respiratory rate and panting score and changes behavioral parameters such as water intake and urine excretion frequency in heat stressed ewes. Daily adaptation to the extreme environmental conditions may occur actively in ewes.

The purpose of this research is to identify the significance of climate factors related to the significance of change of dry matter yield (DMY) of whole crop maize (WCM) by year through the exploratory data analysis. The data (124 varieties; n=993 in 7 provinces) was prepared after deletion and modification of the insufficient and repetitive data from the results (124 varieties; n=1027 in 7 provinces) of import adaptation experiment done by National Agricultural Cooperation Federation. WCM was classified into early-maturity (25 varieties, n=200), mid-maturity (40 varieties, n=409), late-maturity (27 varieties, n=234) and others (32 varieties, n=150) based on relative maturity and days to silking. For determining climate factors, 6 weather variables were generated using weather data. For detecting DMY and climate factors, SPSS21.0 was used for operating descriptive statistics and Shapiro-Wilk test. Mean DMY by year was classified into upper and lower groups, and a statistically significant difference in DMY was found between two groups (p<0.05). To find the reasons of significant difference between two groups, after statistics analysis of the climate variables, it was found that Seeding-Harvesting Accumulated Growing Degree Days (SHAGDD), Seeding-Harvesting Precipitation (SHP) and Seeding-Harvesting Hour of sunshine (SHH) were significantly different between two groups (p<0.05), whereas Seeding-Harvesting number of Days with Precipitation (SHDP) had no significant effects on DMY (p>0.05). These results indicate that the SHAGDD, SHP and SHH are related to DMY of WCM, but the comparison of R 2 among three variables (SHAGDD, SHP and SHH) couldn't be obtained which is needed to be done by regression analysis as well as the prediction model of DMY in the future study.

Current methods for measuring cortisol levels can be challenging due to the need to take multiple urine, saliva or serum samples. Therefore, it seems necessary to find alternative matrices which can be used as stress indicators in which sample collection methods are non-invasive. Two experiments were conducted to first to test the feasibility of cortisol levels in facial hair and second to find a correlation among facial hair cortisol and cortisol levels in nails. In the first experiment, facial hair from five subjects was analyzed to confirm the presence of cortisol. The results of the assessment of facial hair showed that facial hair may be used to measure cortisol levels over a short period of time. In the second experiment, nineteen university students (males who regularly partake in martial arts-aged: 22 ± 3.15) provided fingernail, toenail and facial hair samples at set intervals throughout the school year; 1) The Study Periodduring the student's everyday life (minimal stress conditions, baseline), 2) The Exam Period-following student's final exams (mental stress), and 3) The Fighting Period-following intensive martial arts training (physical stress). Cortisol in facial hair, toenails, and fingernails showed higher levels during both the Exam Period and the Fighting Period when compared to the baseline Study Period (p<0.05). However, no differences in cortisol levels were observed among the indices during the Exam Period and Fighting Period (p>0.05). A higher correlation in cortisol levels was observed between facial hair samples and toenails (r=0.73) than between fingernails and toenails (r=0.61). Overall, cortisol levels showed significant correlations between fingernails and toenails (p=0.001, r=0.61), fingernails and facial hair (p=0.01, r=0.54), and toenails and facial hair (p=0.001, r=0.73). Further research is needed to understand the relationship between facial hair and nail cortisol and their possible relationship with health disorders.