Agriculture

  2010 MAR 25 - (VerticalNews.com) -- According to a study from Hyderabad, India, "Male broiler chicks (1 225), day-old, were randomly divided into 15 groups consisting of 15 chicks in each group. Group I was maintained as basal diet control and group 2 on chlorpyrifos (CPS) @ 100 ppm in feed throughout 6 weeks as iron toxic control without any treatment."

  "Groups 3 to 15 were maintained on CPS @ 100 ppm in feed for the 4 weeks (28 days) of study and thereafter, administered with different herbs and their combinations for remaining 2 weeks. The blood samples were drawn from wing vein on day 28 and day 42 from the birds in each group for the assay of erythrocytic superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase. Sera samples were separated from the blood for the estimation of alanine transaminase (ALT) and serum creatinine. The birds were sacrificed at the end of 6th week and tissues were collected for the assay of GSH and TBARS in liver and brain homogenates. The activity of SOD, catalase and ALT, and the concentration of TBARS and serum creatinine were increased significantly, while the concentration of total proteins and tissue GSH decreased significantly in all the groups as compared to basal diet control and the values showed significant improvement in groups 3-15 that were treated during the last 2 weeks," wrote P. Bharathi and colleagues ...read more

  2010 MAR 18 - (VerticalNews.com) -- According to a study from Yaan, People's Republic of China, "To gain insights into the effects of tea polyphenols (TP) on growth performance and cell-mediated immune response of piglets under oxidative stress, an oxidative stress model was established by intraperitoneally injecting weaned piglets with diquat. After intake of either basal diet or TP-supplemented diet for 7 d, half of the piglets in each group were challenged with diquat. ...read more

  2010 MAR 11 - (VerticalNews.com) -- "To investigate the transition in concentration of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) and porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) and antibody for these viruses in serum, serum samples were collected from 29 pigs on weaning day and at 7, 14, 21, 28, 53, 84, and 120 days after weaning. The concentration of circulated PRRSV and PCV2 in serum was measured by real-time RT-PCR and real-time PCR, respectively," researchers in Kyoto, Japan report ...read more