The objective of this study was to determine the chemical compounds of Iranian propolis (IP) extracts and to show flavonoids and phenol effects on methane production, fermentation characteristics and rumen microbial population (in vitro). In this study two diets with different concentrate: forage ratios as (HC: high concentrate) and (MC: middle concentrate), respectively as non-supplemented or supplemented with different Iranian propolis (IP) extracts were used. The treatments were HC (control), HC + IP 25%, HC + IP 50%, HC + IP 75%, MC (control), MC + IP 25%, MC + IP 50% and MC + IP 75%, which means 25, 50 and 75 g of propolis in 100 mL ethanol 70%, respectively. The results showed that IP significantly increased gas production in IP 75% with different concentrate: forage ratios. Adding IP caused a decrease in pH, however this decrease was not significant in all treatments. There was a significant difference between the effect of HC + IP 50% on NH3-N compared to the HC + IP 25% and HC. Adding IP 75% significantly decreased CH4 production compared to the other treatments. In HC diet, there was no significant difference in total populations of protozoa and Ruminococcus albus between the individual IP 25%, 50%, 75% treatments, however when they were considered as the group, a significant difference was observed between them and the control group. The highest decrease and the highest increase in total populations of Prevotella bryantii was observed in IP 75% and in IP25%, respectively. In MC diet, methanogens were significantly reduced in IP 25%, 50% and 75%, compared to control treatment. The propolis extract caused improvement in fermentation and decreased methane and nitrogen ammonia. This may help the nitrogen retain longer in ruminants. تفاصيل المقالة

Two experiments (Exp.) were conducted to determine the effects of dietary addition of five herbal plants (HP) alone or as herbal plant mixture (HPM) on in vitro gas production and ruminal fermentation patterns. In Exp. 1, five varieties of HP (garlic, eucalyptus, cinnamon, thyme, and peppermint) were added to the diet at 3 different concentrations (5, 10 and 15% of concentrate dry matter). In Exp. 2, the HPM was used at the concentration of 2, 4 and 6%. The results show that most ruminal fermentation parameters were affected by HP and HPM. The addition of HP and HPM to the diet significantly increased total in vitro gas production (b) and the fractional rate constant of gas production (c, P<0.01). Concentrations of NH3 (Exp. 1), CH4 (Exp. 1 and 2), total volatile fatty acids (Exp. 1 and 2), acetate (Exp. 1), propionate (Exp. 1 and 2) and acetate/propionate ratio (Exp. 1) were affected by HP and HPM. Ruminal short-chain fatty acids (SCFA, Pin vivo conditions. تفاصيل المقالة

DVE2010 system was used for model prediction of nutrient supply to ruminants from soy bean meal (SBM), extruded soy bean meal (SBE) and full-fat soybean meal (FSBM). Extruded soy bean meal had the highest truly absorbed rumen undegraded protein in the small intestine (ARUP) followed by SBM and FSBM. There was no significant difference between SBE and FSBM in the case of truly absorbed rumen synthesized microbial protein (AMCP) in the small intestine and largest possible microbial protein synthesis, based on the available amount of energy at rumen level (MCPe) but SBM had a higher AMCP and MCPe compared to the other soy bean meal sources. Endogenous protein loss (ECP) was highest in SBE while there was no significant difference between SBM and FSBM in ECP. Extruded soy bean meal had highest total metabolizable protein(DVE) followed by SBM and FSBM. Modeling nutrient supply to dairy cows using DVE2010 system can offer valuable quantitative data on total amount of true protein digested in the small intestine from different sources which may be used to formulate diets to lower hazardous consequences of nitrogen leakage to environment. تفاصيل المقالة

Two multi-phasic models (logistic (LOG) and Michaelis-Menten (MM)) with three sub-curves were used to describe gas production kinetics of corn (CG), barley (BG), wheat (WG) and triticale (TG) grains. In each model sub curve, 1 describes the gas production caused by fermentation of the soluble fraction, gas production caused by fermentation of the non-soluble fraction is described in sub curve 2 and sub curve 3 represents gas production by microbial turnover. With MM model TG and WG had highest gas production from the soluble fraction followed by BG and CG. With LOG model there was no difference in gas production from the soluble fraction between BG and CG (P>0.05) and TG and WG (P>0.05) but TG and WG had higher gas volume from this fraction comparing to CG and BG (P<0.05). For gas production caused by fermentation of the non-soluble fraction, CG had the highest volume using MM model and CG and BG had higher volume with LOG model comparing to WG and TG (P<0.05). With MM model BG had highest gas production by microbial turnover but with LOG model WG and TG had higher gas production for the third sub curve. The LOG model had a slightly better fitting performance comparing to MM model in the present study but considering the methodology of this trial and the nature of models it does not necessarily represent the superiority of LOG model over MM model. تفاصيل المقالة

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of feeding Iranian propolis extract on perform-ance of Holstein dairy cows. In this study 18 dairy postpartum Holstein cows (120 days in milk (DIM) and body weight of 577±37.54 kg) were used. The experiment was carried out in a period of 29 d (10 d adaptation and 19 d sample collection). The data was analyzed considering a completely randomized design by the GLM procedure of SAS 9.1. In this experiment 3 treatments [A: TMR diet, B: TMR diet + Iranian propolis extract (IPE) 50% (67.50 g/day/animal) and C: TMR diet + IPE 75% (67.50 g/day/animal)] were used. The results of this study showed that adding different concentrations of IPE to dairy cow ration did not have any significant effect (P>0.05) on ruminal pH, but significant de-crease (P0.05) change some the blood parameters while statistically changed (P<0.05) the blood concentrations of aspartate ami-notransferase, albumin, glucose and protein. The phenolic compounds in propolis changed rumen ni-trogen ammonia, rumen short chain fatty acids, rumen microbial population, some blood parameters and fatty acid composition in the milk. These changes improve fermentation process and consequently affect significantly fatty acid composition in milk. تفاصيل المقالة