[in Japanese]

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Data on sex ratio in swine were obtained from the National Institute of Animal Husbandry (NI), Kagoshima Swine Experiment Station (Ks), and Tochigi Experiment Station of Animal Husbandry (To), and compared with those obtained at Takikawa (Ta) mentioned in the preceding report (1). The animals used in the present study numbered 13, 085 at NI, 4, 538 at Ks and 2, 882 at To (Ks and To: artificial insemination only). They consisted of Large White (W), Yorkshire (Y), Landrace (L), Berkshire (B), Chinese Pig (C), Poland China (P), and their hybrids (Hyb) at NI and B, L and Hyb at Ks and Y and L at To. Analysis on sex ratio was performed by the same methods as described in report (1). The results obtained are summarized as follows.
1) Total (Table 1): The sex ratio in all the groups of breed as a whole was high at NI and To. No shift in this ratio was seen at Ks. The sex ratio in each group of breed varied with the station and breed. There were no significant differences in sex ratio among four stations (Ta, NI, Ks, and To) with regard to all the groups of breed. In L and B, however, there were significant differences between Ta and Ks, Ta and NI, and Ta and Ks.
2) Boar and sow (Table 2): In some cases, the sex ratio of offspring originated from an individual boar or sow showed a shift to either sex. These individuals, however, were fewer than those at Ta. The same facts were also seen in respect to each breed. The percentage of these boars was apparently high at Ta. There were no significant differences, however, in the percentage of sows among four stations.
3) Litter series (Table 3): The sex ratio was significantly high in some orders and in some groups of order of parturition in all the groups of breed as a whole at NI and To, as well as at Ta. No significant shift was seen at Ks. The orders showing a shift in Y were more frequent than those in any other breed. Contrary to the results at Ta, B showed a shift to male in one order of parturition at NI. No shift was seen at Ks.
4) Litter size (Table 4): Results varied with station and breed in all the groups of breed as a whole and in grouping of litter size. In the present study, the class numbers of litter size which showed a shift of sex ratio to either sex were smaller than those at Ta. Therefore, only from the results of the present study, the relationship between litter size and sex ratio cannot be explained clearly.
5) Seasonal change (Table 5): The primary and secondary sex ratio varied with station both in all the groups of breed as a whole and in each group of breed. The seasonal difference in sex ratio varied also with station. There was no significant difference in the present study, as shown between B and any other group of breed at Ta. Therefore, no conclusions can be drawn on the relationship between season and sex ratio before any further studies are carried out on this subject.
6) Natural mating and artificial insemination (Table 6): In the present study, the difference in sex ratio between natural mating and artificial insemination was insignificant in all the proups of breed as a whole at NI. Such difference was significant only in the Y and Hyb groups of breed at NI.
7) Age of boar and sow (Table 7 and 8): There were some age groups showing a shift of sex ratio to male, in all the groups of breed as a whole and in each group of breed, at NI and To. There was, however, no shift of sex ratio to either sex at Ks. The number of age groups showing a shift of sex ratio was smaller in boars than in sows.
8) Annual sex ratio (Table 9): A shift of sex ratio was seen in some years at the three stations in the present study. The number of these years was smaller than those at To. In the present study, these years were only one to two at each station. A shift of sex ratio to female was seen only in one year in W at NI. It was relatively frequent in B in these years.

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In former studies, it has been shown that the feeding of cooked barley can promote VFA concentration in the rumen and decreases acetate to propionate ratio when low concentrate ration is used; and it decreases VFA concentration in the rumen and increases acetate to propionate ration when hight concentrate ration is used.
In this experiment, we want to examine the effect of cooking barley and adding urea on VFA production in the rumen of wether which has been fed various amount of barley. Urea was used as nitrogen source. The amount of barley mixed in the ration varied from 20 to 80 percent. Eight wethers were used and divided into 4 uniform lots. The ration fed to all of the wethers consisted of crushed barley and rice straw. Three percets of urea was supplemented to the barley.
Total VFA in the rumen increased as the percentage of the barley increased from 40% to 50% and decreased at the percentage of 60% or more. When the barley was cooked, the total VFA reached the peak at lower barley percentage compared with the case of the uncooked.
By urea addition, the VFA increase in the rumen continued until 60% or 80% of barley feeding.
Acetate to propionate ratio decreased as the percentage of the barley incresed to 60% and increased at the percentage of 70% or more. More remarkable increase and decrease of this ratio were observed when the barley was cooked. In case urea was added this ratio became generally low and not increased even with the high percentage of barley in the ration.
It is clear that the effect of cooking barley is altered by both concentrate vs. roughage ratio and nitrogen content in feed.

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Mold toxicosis widely occurred in Hokkaido, from September 1962 through March 1963, and a number of horses suffered from remarkable damage.
This paper presents a taxonomic study of the molds isolated from 64 samples of feedstuffs, such as oats, hay, corn fodder, rice straw and bean pods, which caused mold toxicosis in horses. The results obtained were as follows:
1. Dominant poisonous molds in feedstuffs were classified into 3 different species, Fusarium graminearum SCHWABE, Alternaria tenuis NEES and Cladosporium herbarum (PERS.) LINK.
2. Fusarium graminearum, imperfect stage of Gibberella saubinetii, was isolated from every poisonous molded feedstuffs. The horses, which ingested feedstuffs heavily infected with the mold, presented a serious toxic symptom, and the degree of symptom was considered to be correlative to the mold growth.
3. Molded feedstuffs, caused serious diarrhoea, were usually damaged by the genus Fusarium. The fodder infected with Cladosporium together with Fusarium, however, caused not only diarrhoea, but also encephalitic symptom. If the poisoning was caused only by the infection with Fusarium, these feedstuffs must have given the similar symptom. From the above mentioned various toxic symptoms, it appeared that the toxic effect of Cladosporium was not negligible. On the other hand, Alternaria was not clear in its poisonous effect on feedstuffs.

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Body weight and weight of testis, hypophysis and adrenal of adult male mouse were investigated under the condition of pile irradiation of 40kW thermal neutron target skin distance of 20cm (No. 7 hole, JRR-1, Japan Research Reactor No. 1 of Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute), and three exposure times of 1 (1H), 2 (2H) and 3.5 (3.5H) hours respectively. The effects of long term raising of the mouse after pile irradiation were presented as the variation of body weight and internal gland weight.
The results obtained were as follows:
1. When we compared the body weight curve (see Fig. 2) of 3.5H group with that of 1H group and control, large difference was not observed, contrary to expectation, but 2H group was diminished than the other groups.
2. In 3.5H group, two mice which were irradiated in the exposed position F died within 30 days after irradiation and from 30th day to 100th day after irradiation no mortality was observed. In 2H group, two mice which were irradiated in the exposed position F were sacrificed at 16th day after irradiation for the aim of histological observation, therefore, if they were not sacrificed, they could survive several days and would have died within 30 days after irradiation as was recognized in Fig. 1. The other two mice which were irradiated in exposed position FM were died between 30th day and 100th day after irradiation. Accordingly, the 2H group was more sensitive than the 3.5H group against lethal effects of irradiation. It was considered that the unexpected results mentioned above were due to different season of the raising after irradiation, that is, season of the raising after irradiation of the 3.5H group were more favourable than that of the 2H group.
3. The time of exposure of total body JRR-1 irradiation required to kill 50 per cent of the adult male mice within 30 days after irradiation was about 2 hours at the exposed position F in the No. 7 hole. The dosage of 2 hours of exposure was presumed to be 7.2-36.0×10¹⁰n/cm² Nutron flux density and 400-800 R γ-ray from Kakei's data.
4. The weight of testis decreased in long term raising after irradiation (see Table 2). The hypophysis showed no change in weight but the adrenal weighed more than the control.

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Transaminase activity in the bovine rumen mucosa was studied. Glutamic-pyruvic transaminase activity per wet weight of tissues was higher in the rumen mucosa than in the heart. When the activity was estimated by per mg protein of tissues, the rumen papillary was more active than the liver. Glutamic-pyruvic transaminase was purified 30-fold from rumen mucosa extracts and enzymatic properties of it was studied. The enzyme activity was linear for the first 60min, and proportinal to the protein concentration of the enzyme preparation. The optimum temperature was 60°C, and even at 70°C much of the activity was retained for one hour. The optimum pH was 8.0 in phosphate buffer. It was shown that p-chloromercuribenzoate and HgCl₂ were potent inhibitors, whereas monoidoacetic acid had no effect on the enzyme activity. Glutathione reversed completely the inhibition by p-chloromercuribenzoate. The enzyme required pyridoxal phosphate as a cofactor.
Rumen mucosa extracts catalized reactions which transaminated some amino acids with α-ketoglutaric acid to form glutamic acid. Amino acids which were available as amino donors were alanine, aspartic acid, isoleucine, leucine, methionine, phenylalanine and valine.

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