Ahmed Sami

Effectiveness of zinc in modulating perinatal effects of arsenic on the teratological effects in mice offspring

Exposure to arsenic via drinking water is considered as a worldwide problem. Studies have shown that arsenic exposure during pregnancy affects embryogenesis and offspring development in rats and mice. Zinc as a micronutrient regulates many physiological functions, including an antioxidative role under various toxic conditions. However, studies on the perinatal protective effect of zinc on offspring need further attention. The present study was designed to evaluate the potential protective role of zinc in mitigating the adverse effects in the offspring of arsenic exposure during pregnancy. The arsenic (40mg/kg body weight) and zinc (4% w/v) doses formed the only drinking fluid source for the experimental groups of dams during the perinatal period of the experiment. The early development of sensory motor coordination reflexes together with morphological development in the male pups was measured during the weaning period. In adolescence, the offspring were tested for their motor behavior. The enzyme γ-glutamyl transferase (γ-GT) and the oxidative stress indices like reduced glutathione (GSH) and lipid peroxidation (TBARS) were also estimated in the serum of the young adult male mice. Perinatal arsenic exposure caused depletion in body weight gain, delay in morphological development and retardation in the development of all sensory motor reflexes of the pups. In young adults, significant decrease in motor behavior with significant decrease in GSH level in the serum was observed. On the other hand, γ-GT and TBARS were significantly increased in the serum due to arsenic treatment. However, animals exposed to arsenic in the presence of zinc showed a remarkable ameliorating effect of zinc on all observed teratological and biochemical arsenic toxicity in male offspring. It was observed that zinc has an antioxidative role in the perinatal toxicity of arsenic. It is concluded from the present study that zinc consumed during the perinatal period of pregnancy can ameliorate the possible toxicities of arsenic exposure in the offspring by acting as an ameliorative supplement.

Chemical composition and structural characteristics of Arabian camel (Camelus dromedarius) m. longissimus thoracis

Saudi Arabian camels of four breeds (6 animals per breed) were used to evaluate characteristics and quality of their meat. Chemical composition, fibre cross sectional area, collagen content, muscle metabolism, cooking loss, pH at 24 h post mortem, colour values (except redness) and shear force of Longissimus thoracis (LT) muscle did not differ between the breeds. Elevated pH values and short sarcomeres reduced overall tenderisation, with a difference between myofibril fragmentation index (P<0.001) and sarcomere length (P<0.05) between breeds. A positive correlation was observed between the activities of the mitochondrial enzymes (r>0.49), between the glycolytic activities (PFK and LDH) (r=0.61) and between Myosin Heavy Chain IIa and LDH activity. The intramuscular fat content was positively associated with redness and muscle oxidative metabolism, whereas shear force had a slight positive association with collagen content and muscle glycolytic metabolism and a negative association with muscle oxidative metabolism and muscle fibre area.

EFFECT OF FEEDING DIFFERENT LEVELS OF DATE PITS WITH GROWTH PROMOTERS ON CARCASS CHARACTERISTICS AND MEAT QUALITY MERITS OF NAIMI LAMBS

0.40 were used to test the effects of partially replacing + Twenty five three months old Naimi lambs initially weighed 24.53 barely with 30% or 50% crushed date pits (CDP) supplemented with or without a commercial enzyme mixture (CEM) as a natural growth promoter on carcass characteristics, fat deposition and meat quality merits of Naimi lambs. The lambs were randomly divided equally into five groups; control (0% CDP); T1 (30% CDP); T2 (30% CDP plus CEM); T3 (50% CDP); and 1.69 kg. The + lus CEM). The lambs were slaughtered after three months with final average weight 51.13 T4 (50% of CDP p carcass characteristics and fat measurements were not significantly different except for liver, body fat and body wall thickness. Liver weights of 50% CDP (T3) group were significantly (P<0.05) higher than those of (T2) and (T4) groups. The results showed non-significant differences among the five experimental groups in meat quality merits, but it was noticeable that the control group had lost more liquids on cooking (35.68%) compared to the other four treatment groups. Significant red color was measured for the (T2) group after 1 hour (18.65) but the (T3) group had the highest red color value (21.63) after 24 hours. It is concluded that replacing barely by CDP as a very cheap energy source up to 50% fortified with CEM as a growth promoter in Naimi growing lambs diets resulted in acceptable carcass characteristics and meat quality merits.

Relationships between DNAJA1 expression and beef tenderness: effects of electrical stimulation and post-mortem aging in two muscles

Previous studies have demonstrated that DNAJA1 could be a good indicator of beef toughness in Longissimus thoracis muscle from Charolais young bulls. This study aimed to check if relationship between DNAJA1 expression and beef tenderness is valid in two muscles, which differ in toughness from Angus steers with or without electric stimulation at different times of post-mortem ageing. Electric stimulation did not significantly affect DNAJA1 expression at the time of slaughter. But, RNA degradation soon after slaughter was a major factor, which affected the assessment of DNAJA1 expression, even at 3 h post-mortem. Correlation of DNAJA1 expression at slaughter with shear force values varied according to ageing time (24 h, 3, 7, 14 or 21 days post-mortem) or according to the use of electric stimulation and was not significantly correlated with any of these shear force peak values despite a few high correlation values (-0.60 or +0.34). In conclusion, DNAJA1 is not an omnipotent marker of beef toughness with this particular data set since the correlation of its expression level with shear force values varies according to slaughtering conditions and ageing time.

Performance, Carcass and Meat Quality Traits of Najdi Lambs Fed Saltbush and Date Pits

Abstract Sami, A., Al-Owaimer, A., Zahran, S. and Koohmaraie, M. 2010. Performance, carcass and meat quality traits of Najdi lambs fed saltbush and date pits. J. Appl. Anim. Res., 38: 77–80. To investigate the effect of feeding saltbush and ground date pits on the performance, carcass characteristics and meat quality traits, 60 Najdi lambs (23±0.43 kg, 3 mo) were randomly divided into 5 equal groups and fed on a barley based diet containing alfalfa hay (Control), Atriplex halimus (saltbush) or salt bush with 3 levels (15, 30 or 45%) of ground date pits (GDP) replacing barley. After 84 d, 6 lambs from each group were randomly chosen and slaughtered. Salt bush with 30% date pit group recorded highest daily gain with maximum dressing per cent and back fat thickness, whereas, saltbush alone resulted in poor growth, feed conversion efficiency, dressing per cent and back fat thickness. It is concluded that 20% saltbush, 30% date pit with barley soybean meal based concentrate mixture can be recommended for Najdi lambs.

GROWTH PERFORMANCE AND ECONOMIC EFFICIENCY OF FATTENING NAIMI LAMBS ON UNCONVENTIONAL RATION ENHANCED WITH ENZYME COCKTAIL

Previous studies reported that date excluded from human consumption could be beneficially used as an ingredient in the diets of small ruminants (Al-Dobaib et al., 2009). Date byproducts were used in animal rations to test the growth performance and products quality as meat and milk by Ziaei (2010) and Alhomidy et al. (2011) and reproductive efficiency by Jumah et al. (1983) and antioxidant status by Habib et al. (2011). Due to the extensive work on date palm byproducts, many and varied contradictive results and conclusions were raised.. On the other hand, other studies suggested that the presence of anti-nutritive factors limit the nutritional potential of date palm leaves (Arhab et al., 2006). Feeding low quality date byproducts feeds containing antinutritional factors for relatively long periods might produce negative effects on the physiology and chemistry of the digestive system and blood parameters, which might negatively affect sheep health and make them more susceptible to diseases (Mahgoub et al., 2008). Taking into account that different treatments were applied to make use of date palm byproducts such as sun-dried (Geelen and Udo, 1964), mechanical grinding of date pits (Jumah et al., 1973) urea treated-palm fronds (Mahgoub et al., 2007), pelleting date leaves (Mahgoub et al., 2008) and chopping low quality dates (Ziaei, 2010). Other treatments such as soaking in water, roasting, mashing and screening were also reported (FAO, 2009). Based on previous studies and their recommendations, more research is needed to explore the real potentialities of date byproducts when treated by new and untraditional methods. For ruminants, using enzymes is a new concept and many suggestions and assumptions were made to explain their positive or negative effect on their performance. Since most of the agro byproduct contains high fiber and other antinutrients which reduce their digestion and utilization by ruminants and non-ruminant animals, using fibrolytic enzymes can be one of the most proper solutions for these limitations. Various combinations of enzymes are available in the market and have shown very promising results in hydrolyzing plant fibers and anti-nutrients. The mode of action of enzyme occurs by several pre or post-ingestive process (McAllister et al., 2001). Pre-ingestive process, enzymes hydrolyze glycosidic linkages of the polysaccharides in the cell wall and release monosaccharide. For the post-ingestive process, enzyme play an important role in improving feed palatability as a result of breaking the polysaccharides bonds and release monosaccharide and consequently reduce the viscosity (Rode et al., 1999). Furthermore, it stimulates the microbial activities and increases the synergic effect of microbial fibrolytic enzymes and commercial enzyme complex (Morgavi et al., 2000; Pak. J. Agri. Sci., Vol. 53(2), 467-471; 2016 ISSN (Print) 0552-9034, ISSN (Online) 2076-0906 DOI: 10.21162/PAKJAS/16.4536 http://www.pakjas.com.pk