Protein Nutrition in Red Deer (Cervus elaphus)

Red deer can adjust to seasonal change of forage quality to maintain a relatively constant crude protein level (21. 1±4.0, 14.7± 1 .0, 11. 1± 1. 1 and 6.5 ±0.8 in spring. summer. fall and winter. respectively). Apparent protein digestibility is variable from -99.9% to 97.5%, depending upon season and forage type. True protein digestibility is 99%. Digestion of protein is significantly influenced by phenolics in diets.Minimumm digestible energy intase of 153.5kcal/kg0.75/day is necessary to maintain a positive nitrogen balance. Red deer recycles 18-85% of the urea produced and urea kinetic parameters (urea pool size, urea entry rate and urea excretion rate) are correlated to plasma urea conccntration. Rumen NH3-N production changes with season, but seasonal changcs in other NH3-N kinetic parameters (NH3-N concentration, NH3-N pool size and NH3-N outflow rate) are in dispute. Protein metabolism may be promoted in response to cold strcss. Endogenous urinary nitrogen is 0.09 (red deer) and 0. 16 g N/kg0.75day (elk), and metabolic frcal nitrogen is 5.58 g N/kg dry-matter intake. Protein requirements ranges from 100 g/kg DM to 170 g/kg DM for red deer of various ages and physiological stages. In conclusion.the knowledge of protein nutrition of red deer is limite.Much work is urgently needed in metabolism and requirements of protein before the appropriate feeding standard of red deer is coming.

Comparison of Structure and Biological Activity of Natural Polypeptide from Velvet Antlers of Cervus elaphus with Those of Synthesized Polypeptide

Biochemical techniques including ion-exchange chromatography, gel filtration chromatography and re- versed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography（RP-HPLC） were used to isolate and purify the natural poly- peptide from velvet antler（nVAP） of Cervus elaphus（C, elaphus）, which has a molecular weight of 3215.8 and the primary structure of VLSAADKSNVKAAWGKVGGNAPAFGAEALLRM. The homology of the protein sequence in nVAP with known protein sequence is less than 50%, suggesting that nVAP appears to be a new bioactive substance. At a level of 0.4--50 gg/mL, nVAP promotes mitosis in epidermal ceils, chondrocytes and NIH3T3 fibroblasts pri- marily cultured in a significant way. Given that a yield of high-purity nVAP isolated from C. elaphus is 0.001%, nVAP is artificially synthesized to prepare synthetic velvet antler polypeptide（sVAP） according to its primary struc- ture. Sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis（SDS-PAGE） of sVAP shows a single band, and its HPLC spectrum displays a single peak. The matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectro- metry（MALDI-TOF-MS） was used to identify sVAP to be of a molecular weight of 3200 and the consistency between primary structures of sVAP and nVAE Bioactivity test shows that at a dose of 5--40 μg/mL, sVAP promotes the pro- liferation of primarily cultured epidermal cells and NIH3T3 cell line. From the traditional Chinese medicine theory, velvet antler from Cervus nippon（C, nippon） and velvet antler from C. elaphus are considered as the same medicine, but differences between biochemical base and pharmacological effect of these two velvet antlers have been observed. We compared the total polypeptide mapping of the two velvet antlers, discovering that nVAP is active polypeptide and only exists in the velvet antler of C. elaphus, sVAP is similar to nVAP in physicochemical property and biological activity. These studies extend the possible utility of sVAP to be the promising compound to prepare velvet antler polypeptide of C. elaphus.

Identification of sika deer and red deer using partial cytochrome b and 12s ribosomal RNA genes

A study was conducted on the identifications of the degraded samples of sika deer （Cervus nippon） and red deer （Cervus elaphus） by phylogenetic and nucleotide distance analysis of partial Cytb and 12s rRNA genes sequences. 402 bp Cytb genes were achieved by PCR-sequencing using DNA extracted from 8 case samples, and contrasted with 27 sequences of Cytb gene downloaded from GenBank database. The values of three nucleotide distance between three suspected samples and sika deer were identical （0.026±0.006）, which was smaller than the smallest nucleotide distance between eastern red deer and sika deer （0.036）. Furthermore, phylogenetic analysis of sika deer and red deer indicated that the evidences located within the same cluster as sika deer. The evidences were sika deer materials. As the same way, other three suspected samples were derived from red deer. The results were further confirmed by phylogenetic and nucleotide distance analysis of 387 bp 12s rRNA gene. The method was powerful and less time-consuming and helpful to reduce the related cases with wildlife.

Digestive Rate of Dongtian F_1 Red Dear in Weaning Period and Growth Period

in this paper, 4N-HCLAIA method was adopted to conduct digestive tests in young female and male Dongtian F1 red deer (Cervus elaphus) of rearing seperatefy in growth period and mixed raising in weaning period in Harbin Specialty Research Institute. Results indicated that digestive rate of crude protein and crude fiber were 95.35% and 73.68% respectively when rational protein content was 26.8% in growth period. Digestive rate was not significantly different between female and male(P>0.05)i During weaning period, When rational crude protein content is 22.06%, digestive rate of crude protein and crude fiber were 93.05% and 63.96%, respectively. The tests suggest that higher rational protein can be effective in accelerating groWth of young Dongtian F1 red deer during growth period and weaning period(before 10 months old).