Summer and winter experiments were carried out to investigate the effects of dietary supplementation with vitamin E and vitamin C of sows in hot environments on reproductive performance, placenta transfer, piglet tissue vitamin E content and some indicators of immune status of sows and their litters. In summer, sows were given the following treatment diets: control, vitamin C 1g/day, vitamin C 10g/day, vitamin E 200 mg/kg feed, vitamin E 400 mg/kg fed, and combined vitamins (vitamin E 200 mg/kg feed + vitamin C 1 g/day). In winter, sows were given the following treatment diets: control, vitamin C 10g/day, vitamin E 500 mg/kg feed, combined vitamins (vitamin E 500 mg/kg/feed + vitamin C 10g/day). Data show that vitamin E had an effect on growth, but not on reproductive performance. Placental vitamin E concentrations were low but increased with dietary vitamin E supplementation. Vitamin E supplementation resulted in an increase in vitamin E content of sow plasma, piglet serum, colostrum and milk and piglet tissues. Supplementation with vitamin E and vitamin C had no consistent effect on parvovirus titer in sows. The relationship between sow plasma vitamin C and vitamin E concentrations and lymphocyte proliferation was not clear. Total Igs and IgG concentrations in piglet serum at weaning were significantly increased by the combined vitamin treatments. However, vitamins supplementation did not appear to have any effect in IgG colostrum. IgA concentration in milk was increased by the high level of vitamin E supplemented in the summer but not in the winter experiment.

Rice bran arises as a by-product from rice milling industry. The anti-nutritional substances such as phytate, non-starch polysaccharides, protease inhibitor and lectin limit the nutritional value of this by-product. This research was directed toward the nutritional improvement of defatted rice bran (DRB) using feed enzymes to degrade these anti-nutritional factors. Three growth experiments and two tube feeding experiments were carried out to investigate the effect of phytase, carbohydrase and protease enzymes (supplied by Finnfeeds International) on broiler performance, mineral retention, nutrient digestibility, digesta viscosity and bone characteristics of chicken fed defatted rice bran based broiler diets. Enzyme supplementation of diets was conducted to assess the effects of individual and a cocktail of enzymes and/or lactobacillus culture. The data showed that inclusion of DRB at more than 150 g/kg without additional inorganic phosphate reduced feed intake, growth, bone mineralisation and produced the symptoms of rickets in broiler chickens. Experimental phytase successfully released phosphorus from DRB which counteracted the symptoms of a phosphorus deficient rickets-producing diet and improved feed intake, growth and bone mineralisation. Data presented in this study indicate that inclusion of DRB in broiler diets did not produce viscous digesta in the gut and carbohydrase supplementation did not improve bird performance, nutrient digestibility and mineral retention. The digesta viscosity was not decreased by carbohydrase; therefore, the non-starch polysaccharide (NSP) content of DRB did not play an important role in production of viscous digesta. Supplementation of DRB based broiler diets with protease improved dry matter (DM) and protein digestibility and P retention; therefore, the improvement in feed conversion ratio (FCR) was a result of better utilisation of nutrients. The data showed that there is a potential to decrease the phytate and lectin content of DRB broiler based diets by supplementing diets with phytase and protease.

A programme of study was undertaken to assess the effect of pretreating raw soya bean and processed full fat soyabean meals with protease enzymes prior to use in liquid feed for grower and finisher pigs. A series of laboratory studies was undertaken to examine the efficacy of three microbial proteases (P2, P3 and P4) in partially hydrolysing soya protein and in reducing the levels of trypsin inhibitors in raw soyabean. Pretreatment consisted of steeping ground soyabean for 24 h at 20° C in the absence (control) or presence of 20 000 units gˉ¹ N of P2, P3 or P4. Pretreating raw soyabean (RSB) with P2, P3 and P4 significantly (P < 0.05) reduced trypsin inhibitor levels from 28.53 to 19.98, 17.17 and 18.35 (s.e.m.1.14) mg trypsin inhibited gˉ¹ soya respectively. Pretreating RSB, micronized (MIC) or autoclaved (AUT) soyabean meal with P2, P3 or P4 resulted in increases in soluble a.-amino nitrogen of 5.22, 7.08, and 6.58 (RSB), 5.11, 5.57 and 4.32 (MIC) and 3.56, 7.03 and 6.18 (s.e.d. 0.06) mg gˉ¹ soya respectively and in vitro digestibility of nitrogen of 7.6 %, 9.9 %and 6.4 % (RSB), 4.9 %, 8.3 % and 2.8 % (MIC) and 11 %, 8 % and 12.2 % (AUT) respectively compared with the appropriate controls. Feeding trials were conducted in which pretreated soya was added to a basal cereal diet. Pretreatment of RSB with P4 resulted in a significant (P < 0.05) increase in ADG of 0.08 kg pigˉ¹ dˉ¹ (s.e.d. 0.04) in grower pigs (33.5 ± 4 kg) over the 6 week duration of the trial but had no significant effect on FCR. Pretreatment of AUT with P4 did not significantly improve performance. In a feeding trial with grower/finisher pigs pretreatment of RSB with P3 resulted in significant (P < 0.05) improvements of 0.10 (s.e.d. 0.04) kg pigˉ¹ dˉ¹ in ADG and 0.476 (s.e.d. 0.19) in FCR. Pretreatment of MIC with P3 resulted in a significant reduction (P < 0.05) of 4 d (s.e.d. 1. 7) in the time taken for pigs to attain slaughter weight.

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The worldwide utilisation of Vicia species as forage and green manure crops is well established. Except for V. faba L., the utilisation of Vicia species as grain legumes is of minor global economic importance and mainly restricted to the Mediterranean region and South - West Asia, where the grain is used primarily as seed and in ruminant diets. In Australia, the comparatively high seed yields and low production costs for genotypes from species such as V. narbonensis L. (narbon bean or moor's pea) and V. sativa L. (common vetch) have provided an attractive alternative grain legume option for dryland farming and have thus stimulated an interest in markets for the grain. Monogastric animals (incl. humans) are the major global end-users for grain legume products. Because of the well known toxicity of Vicia spp. seeds to mono gastric animals in particular, this thesis has focused on those major toxic chemical seed components which are perceived as major constraints to the wider utilisation of these promising crops as grain legumes. A thorough examination of current and past practices of vetch cultivation and utilisation was undertaken to complement this approach. The two major aims were, first to elucidate the nature of the factors responsible for the low palatability of carbon beans to pigs, and second to review the available information about the toxicity of Vicia species and their utilisation as grain legumes. The potent feed inhibitory activity of Namoi vetch (V. villosa Roth cv. Namoi) provided a useful model for the initial age of this study. Its antifeedant activity was shown to he due to the toxic amino acid canavanine. Inclusion of canavanine in pig diets at a concentration equivalent to that found in Namoi vetch seed accounted fully for the feed inhibitory activity of this legume. The novel effect of this well known arginine analogue may well be explicable in terms of the inhibition of the argmine pathway leading to nitric oxide which is now known to be involved in the control of peristalsis. The experience gained with Namoi vetch in the feed-intake bioassay proved to be invaluable for the isolation of the much less potent y- glutamyl-S-ethenyl-cysteine feed inhibitor from the narbon bean. A quantitative assessment of this factor's feed inhibitory activity was not permitted due to the untimely death of our veterinary colleague, Dr. Richard Davies. There is, however, a clear correlation between the total S-ethenyl cysteine content of the tested diets and the negative porcine feed intake responses. An important difference between V. villosa and V. narbonensis was noted, as demonstrated by the rate at which the pigs reduced their feed intake. It is remarkable, that the effect of canavanine - containing diets becomes evident only after the second meal, whereas the pigs immediately restrict their feed intake when presented with diets containing S-ethenyl-cysteine. Such a clear delineation of feed-intake responses provides a simple and general classification for feed-intake inhibitors, and may be worthy of further detailed physiological studies. The antifeedant effects of these compounds suggest that they have evolved as part of the plants' anti-predator defence strategy. Particular attention, including a detailed review of its economic botany, has been given to V. narbonensis, a relatively unknown but promising grain crop for Australia. With the chemical identity of the unpalatability established, the selection of more palatable genotypes is likely to provide access for the grain to monogastric feed markets. The historical evidence suggests that V. narbonensis is a niche crop of particular value for specific agricultural applications, its conversion into a broad acre crop is a challenge for the future. V. sativa was investigated as a direct consequence of a request to chemically examine the toxin content of the cultivar Blanche Fleur. By the time that investigation commenced, Blanche Fleur, which was originally introduced to Australia as a hay, forage and green manure crop, had already been prematurely promoted and exported as a cheap replacement for red lentils (Lens culinaris Med.) in ignorance of this species' well documented content of y- glutamyl-β-cyanoalanine and the favism toxin, vicine. A 1992 commentary article to Nature on our observations led to a ban on its importation by India and Egypt. Subsequent poultry bioassays established that the cyano- alanine content was substantially altered by cooking to produce some as yet un-identified nitrile component, but the feed inhibitory activity of the cooked grain was undiminished. Acid hydrolysis of Blanche Fleur, however, removed both, the readily detectable nitrile absorbance as well as the poultry feed-intake inhibition. This observation could potentially form the basis for a simple post-harvest detoxification process for V. sativa and other feed stuffs containing acid labile antinutritive factors. Unfortunately, cases of poisoning by Vicia species continue to be reported. These can be grouped into those caused by V. sativa and its related species (cyanogenic glycoside Vicianine: HCN poisoning; and anti- nutritional effects of (β- cyanoalanine )and those caused by canavanine containing species ( V. villosa, V. benghalensis, V. ervilia etc.). Farmers need to be made aware of the well documented biochemical distinctions between Vicia cultivars to prevent the accidental intoxication of their livestock with seeds containing high concentrations of canavanine orvicianine. Finally, an overview of the voluminous and widely dispersed vetch literature, coupled with the observations in this thesis, suggest that the utility and value of each of the three Vicia model species examined in this thesis can be markedly enhanced by the following strategies : 1. Provision of sufficient alternative feed sources to allow feed intake to be regulated by palatability, thus rninirnising toxin ingestion. 2. Adaptation to Vicia toxins a) through selection of a digestive flora capable of detoxification (in the case of ruminants) and b) through selection or modification of animal genotypes with improved biochemical tolerance or even resistance to toxicity. 3. Detoxification prior to ingestion (Post - harvest detoxification) 4. Plant selection or genetic modification of specific toxin biosynthetic pathways to provide cultivars with optimum toxin concentration and distribution in strategic tissues (minimisation of toxins in the end product). The inevitable conclusion from this thesis is that by incrementing our current fundamental knowledge of the biological chemistry of their naturally occurring anti-predator metabolites, we will promote the intelligent usage of Vicia species as highly nutritious grains for a sustainable agriculture. This thesis has resulted in 2 publications in referred journals. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Department of Plant Science, 1994.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2007. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on January 16, 2008) Includes bibliographical references.