| Current
Progress |
At
the time of preparing this report the project had been underway for one
month. An appointment to the position of research assistant on the project
was made on the 24th April, 2003. All incubation equipment has
been purchased and assembled. Buffers and reagents have been prepared and
all necessary chemicals purchased or ordered. AB Enzymes GmbH, Darmstadt,
Germany has agreed to supply the pure enzymes, polygalacturonase and pectin
methyl esterase, free of charge.
Two applications to the Animal
Ethics and Experimentation Committee have been prepared and submitted for
experiments to commence in the coming six months. The objectives and approach
of these experiments are as follows. The first will investigate whether
a more complete breakdown of the pectins in the cell walls of lupins can
be achieved by incubating them with two enzymes, pectin methyl esterase
and polygalacturonase, instead of polygalacturonase alone. It is believed
that these two enzymes might act synergistically. An in vitro system
has been established to test this hypothesis. This study will require about
four months to run the assay and complete the analysis of viscosity, water-holding
capacity, filtration rate, cell walls, pectin, methyl ester, length of
pectin and molecular weight of pectin.
The second experiment is
aimed at defining the optimal dose of pectinase in lupin-based diets for
egg layers. The benefits and optimal dose of pectinase for broiler chickens
fed dehulled, lupin-based diets has previously been established. This layer
experiment will compare two levels of lupins (10% and 20%), two types of
lupins (whole and dehulled) and four doses of pectinase (0, 0.6, 0.8 and
1.0 g/kg diet). Food and water intake, weight gain, metabolisable energy,
faecal moisture and egg quality (Haugh unit, shell thickness, yolk colour
and soiled eggs) will be measured. It is anticipated that this experiment
will be commenced in September 2003 and be completed by April 2004. |
