1. To improve the accuracy with which true metabolisable energy (TME) values of feedingstuffs are determined, a modification to the assay based on tube-feeding is proposed. 2. To ensure that the gastrointestinal tracts of the experimental birds are as empty as possible at the start of the assay it is recommended that the normal food is withdrawn 48 h before tube-feeding. 3. In order to partly alleviate the effects of starvation, all birds are given two doses of 25 g glucose (as an aqueous solution) about 40 and 16 h before tube-feeding. Birds, from which endogenous energy losses are to be derived, are fed 50 g glucose rather than given no food. 4. All birds are given 50 ml water by tube about 32 h after feeding to overcome any effects induced by low water intake. 5. A comparison of the two procedures with 8 feedingstuffs showed that the mean coefficient of variation was reduced from 5.5% to 1.5% for TME and from 4.7% to 1.8% for TME.

Duddingtonia flagrans is a nematode-trapping fungus that has shown promising results as a tool to combat parasitic nematode infections in livestock. The fungus interrupts the parasitic lifecycle by trapping and killing larval stages on pasture to prevent reinfection of animals. One barrier to the fungus' commercial use is scaling up production of the fungus, and specifically of chlamydospores, which survive the digestive tract to grow in fecal pats on pasture, thus have potential as a feed through anthelmintic. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of dehydration on sporulation of the fungus. Disks of Duddingtonia flagrans type strain (ATCC® 13423™) were grown on 17% cornmeal agar for 26 days at 30°C, then split into three groups; dried quickly at 38°C and 37% humidity over 48 h ("incubated"), dried more slowly at 24°C and 55% humidity over 10 days ("air-dried"), or kept at 30°C and sealed with parafilm to prevent loss of moisture as a control ("wet"). Half of each dried culture was resuspended in water, then heated to liquify and homogenized through vortexing. Spores were then counted in a Neubauer hematocytometer. Both the "air-dried" and "incubated" drying techniques yielded significantly more spores than the "wet" control (Welch's two sample t test p values of .0359 and .0411, respectively). The difference in average chlamydospores per milliliter was insignificant between the two drying techniques, although a visual representation of the data shows less spore count variability in the "air-dried" technique.