Sanely Lourenço da Costa

Influence of Insulin-like Growth Factor I (IGF-I) on the survival and the in vitro development of caprine preantral follicles

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of the insulin-like growth factor -I (IGF-I) on survival, activation (transition from primordial to primary follicles) and growth of caprine preantral follicles cultured in vitro. Fragments of ovarian cortex were cultured for one and seven days in the absence or presence of IGF-I (0, 50 and 100ng/ml). The non-cultured and cultured tissues were processed and analyzed by histology and transmission electron microscopy. The culture for one day in a medium with 100ng/ml of IGF-I showed 86.7% of morphologically normal follicles. These results were similar (P>0.05) to the percentage of normal follicles found in the control (96.7%). It was also found that this medium increased the percentage of follicular activation (developing follicles) with one day of culture. The oocyte and follicular diameters remained similar to the control by culturing for one day in a medium containing 100ng/ml of IGF-I. The ultrastructural analysis did not confirm the integrity of the follicular fragments in a medium containing IGF-I (100ng/ml) after one and seven days of culture. In conclusion, this study demonstrated that the addition of 100 ng/ml of IGF-I in the culture medium enables the development of preantral follicles of goats with one day of culture. However, it is not sufficient to maintain the follicular integrity and the follicular survival rate after seven days of culture.

Níveis de sódio na ração de codornas japonesas em postura

The experiment was conducted to estimate the nutritional requirement of sodium (Na) for laying Japanese quails. Were used 245 Japanese quails, with 187 days old, weight of 189.4 + 6.1 g and egg production rate of 91.05 + 5.5%. Birds were distributed in a completely randomized design, consisting of five diets and seven replicates. Five experimental diets were formulated based on corn and soybean meal, with five levels of Na (0.10, 0.15, 0.20, 0.25 and 0.30%). Were examined: feed intake, egg production per bird day, egg production per hen housed, commercial eggs, viable eggs per bird day, egg weight, egg mass, feed conversion by egg mass and per dozen eggs, components eggs (yolk, albumen and shell), body weight variation, viability of birds and specific gravity. There were no differences (P>0.05) for all parameters studied. Symptoms of deficiency as inappetence, reduction in the growth rate and depraved appetite were not observed in this study, demonstrating that the lower level of Na used, 0.10%, was not adverse to birds. Supplementation of 0.10% Na in diet of the birds, corresponding to a daily intake of 26.1 mg / bird was enough to provide good performance and egg quality of Japanese quails.