In order to achieve animal health, production efficiency of livestock and strengthening of environmental preservation, the authors have studied the application of electron-charging system (JEM system) of feed and water for livestock production. The electron-charging of feed and water have shown the favorable effects on feed efficiency, blood chemical components and enzyme activity of sheep during growth. We investigated the effects of electron-charging of feed and water on the blood acid-base balance of growing sheep. The 3 to 5 months old castrated male sheep were allocated to 3 groups of the reference, the electron-charged feed (ECF), and the electron-charged feed & water (ECFW) with 5 head each. The animals were fed on 70 ％ formula feed and 30 ％ Bermuda hay on dry matter basis at the rate of 2.2 to 3.0％ of body weight. Feed and water were charged more than 15 h by the electron-charging system developed by JEM Co., Japan. The experiment period was 44 days and blood samples were collected from the jugular vein before morning feeding 2 days before and 4 h after feeding on the last day. The venous blood pH and pCO₂ showed the effect of electron-charging of feed and water (P < 0.05). The pH of ECF and ECFW groups tended to be higher than that of the reference group both before and after feeding. On the other hand, the pCO₂ for the treated groups showed the lower tendency compared to the reference group. The relatively higher pH of ECF and ECFW groups attributed to the lower pCO₂ values which might be caused by the modified binding capacity of hemoglobin with CO₂ through the manipulation of chloride shift in red blood cell. The pO₂ , Na⁺, Cl^- and AG of treated groups might be affected by electron charging, showing the different tendency of correlation coefficient with pCO₂ compared to reference group. The HCO₃^- (P < 0.05), stHCO₃^- (P < 0.01), tCO₂ (P <0.05), BE (P < 0.01), Cl^- (P < 0.001) were affected by feeding time. As a result of multiple regression analysis, the pH as a dependent variable was greatly influenced by pCO₂ and HCO₃^- with 0.96 of adjusted R². Therefore it was concluded that the electron-charging of feed and water contributes to the maintenance of blood pH through the manipulation of pCO₂ and HCO₃^-, and has a favorable effect on livestock health, and eventually livestock productivity.

The objective of the present study was to clarify the effects of later period feeding of rubbed bamboo silage (RBS) as roughage for fattening beef cattle. Eight Japanese Black steers (19 months old) were divided into two groups, i.e., one was fed with rice straw as roughage (control group) and the other was fed with the RBS as roughage (experimental group). Both groups were slaughtered at 28 months of age. Body weight gain of the experimental group decreased at 23 to 26 months of age, and the feed efficiency was below zero at 26 months of age (P<0.05). The body weight gain and the feed efficiency of the experimental group were subsequently recovered after 27 months of age. There were no significant differences in ruminal pH between treatments throughout the fattening period, though the percentage of the rumination behavior of the experimental group was significantly lower than that of the control group at 20 and 24 months of age (P<0.05). The RVI of the experimental group was less than half of the control group at 20 months of age. The similar carcass characteristics were shared in both groups. In conclusion, the transient decrease in the DG at 23 to 26 months of age followed by spontaneous recovery, was observed when the RBS was fed as roughage for fattening beef cattle at 19 to 28 months of age. Therefore, the RBS can be used as alternative to rice straw from the viewpoint of meat productivity.

The objective of this study was to investigate the improvement of production efficiency in Japanese Black cattle by determining its metabolic profiles during a shortened fattening period and by revealing the correlations among the profiles and carcass traits. Data were collected from 172 Japanese Black steers that were part of the progeny testing scheme at the Livestock Improvement Association of Miyazaki. A significant increase was observed in the α-tocopherol, glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase, total cholesterol and blood urea nitrogen levels, from 8 to 18 months of age, the finishing period. On the other hand, at 18 months of age, creatine phosphokinase showed a significant negative correlation with rib thickness and negative correlations with other carcass traits except for beef marbling score, although not significant. The least square mean of the sire candidates for creatinine activity at 11 months of age had a positive correlation with longissimus muscle area and carcass yield estimate. In our study, metabolic profiles of the Japanese Black steers during the short fattening period, which has not been reported so far, have been determined. Our results suggest that there is a genetic association between plasma α-tocopherol or creatinine levels and the increase in muscle or meat.