The Rural Voice, 2006-04, Page 58The leading edge
Plant extracts fortify milk
University of Guelph researchers
think they could be adding an extra
plus to the long List of qualities
attributed to milk by fortifying it with
extracts from the Lunaria annua
plant, commonly known as the money
plant.
The plant, that gets its name from
having seed pods that resemble silver
dollars, is rich in bioactive fatty acids,
such as nervonic acid, that can be
extracted from the plant's oils.
Nervonic acid reportedly encourages
brain development and reduces
neurological disease risks.
Professors Bill Bettger, department
of human biology and nutritional
sciences and Brian McBride,
department of animal and poultry
sciences want to incorporate nervonic
acid into milk. They found they can
do this by providing the money
plant's natural oil as a feed
supplement to dairy cattle.
Bettger hopes this will help dairy
producers add more value to milk
while offering extra health benefits to
consumers.
"By using a plant source of
nervonic acid, we can create a
specialty milk product that's natural
and will have added health benefits
for the consumer," he said.
Nervonic acid is sometimes
recommended for small children,
nursing or pregnant women and the
elderly to improve brain development,
mental focus and nerve transmission.
Nervonic acid consumption can also
reduce the risk of neurological
disorders such as multiple sclerosis
and Alzheimer's and Parkinson's
disease,
Money plant oil extract also
contains erucic acid, a fatty acid
linked to heart inflammation in some
animal models of human disease.
That's where the cows come in.
Bettger and McBride have found
that cattle can safely ingest the plant
oils as a dietary supplement. Their
digestive system naturally converts
erucic acid into nervonic acid. As
well, they discovered that dairy cattle
will absorb nervonic acid during
digestion and incorporate it into their
milk.
The final amount of nervonic acid
in cow's milk can reach similar levels
to those in human breast milk,
McBride says.
In cow's milk, Bettger says, the
nutrient actually becomes part of the
milk protein, not milk fat. Thus, it
would be preserved during milk
processing for use in low-fat dairy
products and whey supplements.
Researchers say the next step is
finding an inexpensive and abundant
source of money plant locally.
Eventually, there could be a great
potential for this process to be made
available to the dairy industry, helping
increase milk's nutritional quality and
marketability.
"This fortified milk will help shape
the next generation of products we
offer to consumers with more
functional and nutritional benefits
they can use to improve their health
and well-being," said McBride.0
— Source: Milk Producer magazine
Scientists discover genes that changed corn
A team of researchers in a collaborative project between York University, the
University of California, Irvine, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, University
of Missouri and the University of Wisconsin has identified the genes that were
preferentially selected by Native Americans 6,000 - 9,000 years ago, during the
course of corn's domestication.
The study revealed that of the 59,000 total genes in the corn genome,
approximately 1,200 were preferentially targeted for selection during its
domestication. The findings, published in the journal Science, estimate that 2 - 4
per cent of the 700 genes they studied contribute to important agricultural traits.
"The identification of these genes will motivate studies that will provide
maize geneticists and breeders with new insights and new tools," says Stephen
Wright , a biology researcher in York's Faculty of Science & Engineering. 0
— Source: York University press release
54 THE RURAL VOICE
Cool pigs grow faster,
earn more
Cooling pigs down by running
ventilation fans longer in summer
can mean extra profits, a
researcher with the Prairie Swine
Centre says.
Bernardo Predicala said tests
have shown that cooler pigs grow
faster than hotter pigs in the
summer and that keeping
ventilation fans running all night
can help achieve those results.
"The slight differences (in
production) are enough to realize
gains if you calculate economic
benefit," Predicala said.
His research found that pigs in
cooler rooms at night had average
daily gains of 2.1 to 5.2 per cent
higher than in rooms that were two
degrees C warmer. He believes the
gains in growth came from the
cooler pigs eating more. Pigs in
the cooler rooms ate an average of
3.2 per cent more than those in
hotter rooms.
The cooling demanded no extra
equipments, Predicala said. The
only difference from normal
practice was leaving the
ventilation fans running all night,
bringing in the maximum amount
of cool air from outside. Usually
fans run only when the preset
temperature threshold is reached.
Many times during the night the
fans will not operate if a high
threshold is set.
Predicala set the ventilation
fans to run in the test rooms until
the temperature fell to six degrees
below the usual nighttime
temperature, a threshold the barns
never reached. That means the
fans kept running.
Predicala said that after the cost
of running the fans was subtracted
from the gain from faster pig
growth, the bottom line was 80
cents per pig net gain for any pig
sold over the summer.
A two -degree temperature
difference may seem small,
Predicala said, but "it is enough to
affect the performance of the pig."0
— Source: The Western Producer