427 research outputs found
Risk factors and strategies for integrated management of bird pests affecting maize establishment
No full textBird damage to maize crops is an important cause of economic loss for maize growers in Italy. Consequently, the objectives of this study were to identify main species of birds attacking maize in north-eastern Italy and quantify the effects of agronomic characteristics, cultivation practices, landscape variables, and management practices on the incidence of bird damage to maize at establishment. A systematic survey of 5065 ha of maize cultivated land (Zea mays L.) at early plant stages was performed from 1986 to 2020, resulting in a dataset of 1619 records. Corvids (Corvus cornix) were found to be the main culprits of damage to maize fields. A multifactorial model was applied to assess the impact of potential risk factors. The presence of nearby roosting areas, such as hedgerows and woodlands with trees higher than 7 m, was associated with a five-fold increased risk of damage by birds. No-tillage soil management was associated with a higher risk of bird damage when compared with minimum tillage and conventional tillage systems. The probability of damage to a field with no risk factors was always low (<1%). The application of naturally derived bird repellents incorporated in seed coatings (i.e., ScudoSeed® and Eurodif®) decreased the risk of damage to maize by birds below the threshold value of 15%, yet they were slightly outperformed by their synthetic counterparts (i.e., Methiocarb and Ziram). Our results further suggest that it is possible to implement IPM principles for pest birds in maize
Unveiling factors prompting physical engagement with human handlers in trained and untrained Holstein dairy heifers
No full textABSTRACT
Fearful and agitated animals represent a risk in cattle farming, while training techniques have been reported to boost heifers’ confidence making their handling easier and reducing stress. We investigated the impact of training aimed at desensitising animals to handling on heifers’ behaviour, focusing on physical interactions with human handlers, such as rubbing, licking and pushing, which can be considered undesirable by farmers. Sixty Holstein heifers of two age classes and three categories of Responsiveness to Humans (RTH), assessed through an Avoidance Distance Test (ADT) were studied. Half of the animals were trained and half not. Faecal cortisol metabolites, heart rate parameters and behaviour during handling were determined and a Physical Animal-Human Contact Behaviour Test (PAHCBT) was performed to detect behaviours which involve physical contact. The number of approaches and Physical Animal- Human Contact Behaviour events (PACHB) were recorded. During the PAHCBT (11 replicates), individual heifers exhibited an average number of 4.3 approaches (range: 0–18) and 8.2 PAHCBs (0–75). Older class heifers exhibited a higher number of approaches (5.31 vs. 3.22, p=0.04). 13 heifers (21.7%) were considered highly physical contact driven (PCDs) showing more than 5 PAHCBs and more than 1 PAHCB per approach. Among predictors, training (p=0.031) and high initial ADT values (p=0.078) acted as a protective factor against being PCDs, whereas the presence of kicking during handling was a proxy for PCDs (p=0.034). The results show that training, besides facilitating handling, helps preventing heifers from being considered PCDs
Pain in Pig Production: Text Mining Analysis of the Scientific Literature
No full textPublic’s concern about poor animal welfare provided by intensive farming systems has increased over the last decades. This study reviewed the interest of the scientific research on the pain issue in pig production to assess if the societal instances may be a driving force for the research activity. A literature search protocol was set up to identify the peer-reviewed papers published between 1970 and 2017 that covered the topic of ‘pain in pigs’ using Scopus®, database of Elsevier©. One hundred and thirty papers were selected and they were mainly focused on the practice of castration (64%) followed by tail docking (24%). The scientific community first focused on these painful practices as a way to improve production efficiency and quality issues while more recently, due to the increased pressure by the public opinion, turned its interest towards the search of alternative solutions. A text mining analysis on the abstract of the selected papers clearly indicated the effort of the research to explore solutions to alleviate pain. Evocative words of this target were the selected terms ‘pharmacological analgesic’ and ‘anaesthetic treatments’. The text mining highlighted vocalizations as the main pain indicators in pigs as this term was frequently associated to ‘acute stress’. Ethical issues were a minor research topic in the scientific literature on pig breeding but in the short run, they are supposed to become a major subject to justify the acceptance of the modern production systems at the eyes of the consumers
Pyrrolizidine alkaloids in bee pollen identified by LC-MS/MS analysis and colour parameters using multivariate class modeling
No full textToxic pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs) and their N-oxides (PANOs) can be present in bee pollen depending on the plants visited by bees. A liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method was developed and validated to monitor 17 PAs/PANOs in 44 bee pollens. The CIE-L∗a∗b∗ colour coordinates with the specular component either included or excluded were recorded in pellets and ground aliquots. Lightness (L∗) and yellowness (b∗) of ground bee pollen were significantly correlated to PAs/PANOs content. The L∗ and b∗ cut-offs sorted by a receiver operating characteristic analysis to predict PAs/PANOs presence showed a significant increase in the relative risk to detect amounts higher than 84 μg kg−1. Two supervised canonical discriminant analyses confirmed that pollen without PAs could be distinguished from those containing PAs/PANOs. The data suggest that instrumental colour coupled with supervised models could be used as a screening test for PAs/PANOs in bee pollen, before the confirmatory LC-MS/MS analysis
STIMA DELLA VITA A FATICA BASATA SUL PEAK STRESS METHOD DI GIUNZIONI SALDATE DISSIMILI TESTA-A-TESTA IN AISI 316L TRA PIATTI OTTENUTI DA ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING E LAMINATI
No full textIn this study, the fatigue strength of dissimilar and additive-additive welded joints in austenitic stainless steel was investigated. A reanalysis of data obtained from the literature was conducted using a nominal stress approach. It was found that the existing standards for structural steel joints do not accurately capture the behaviour of these joints. The data were reanalysed using a local approach: the Peak Stress Method (PSM). Since the behaviour of traditional austenitic stainless-steel joints was not adequately represented by the existing PSM band for structural steels, a new band was calibrated specifically for this class of steels. This band was validated with data from dissimilar and additive-additive joints, which demonstrated fatigue strength comparable to that of traditional joints belonging to the same class of steels
Health, behaviour and growth performance of Charolais and Limousin bulls fattened on different types of flooring
No full textWhich ratio should be adopted to evaluate the urinary excretion of testosterone and epitestosterone in veal calves?
No full text- Control of the illicit use of endogenous hormones in meat producing animals requires a detailed knowledge of both the metabolism of endogenous hormones and their physiological profiles in each species. Nowadays current approaches in cattle do not involve the determination of the absolute urinary concentration of endogenous hormones because no validated physiological levels are recognised; the same is true when the ratio between metabolites is considered, as applied for testosterone (T) and epitestosterone (E) in athletes (1). In man, urinary epitestosterone has attracted the attention as a reference substance in the doping control of testosterone abuse. The nearly constant urinary ratio of T to E (T/E) in adults became the basis of the method of detection of exogenously administered testosterone, since in humans epitestosterone does not originate from exogenous testosterone in significant amounts (2). Data from literature (2,3,4) reported that in cattle epitestosterone is a metabolite of testosterone probably produced in liver and blood by hydroxysteroid-oxido-reductase enzymes via androstenedione. Aim of the study was a preliminary approach to assess physiological concentrations of T and E in urine of veal calves, and to evaluate which urinary ratio could be useful to indicate hormone treatments in calves.
- The results reported showed that, despite the large variations of T and E concentrations in urine collected from veal calves, the physiological excretion of E was about ten times greater than T, and E excretion tends to decrease with increased age, as reported in young and adult men (2). Since in men urine concentrations of E and T are quite similar, and the excretion of E remained rather constant when exogenous T was administered; a cut-off value for T/E in urine was established for doping control (5). In a previous paper we applied the T/E ratio approach to urine of veal calves, but the influence of treatment was masked and no significant difference were observed between treated and control calves (6). Now, our recent data, confirmed that repeated treatments with natural hormone could cause a time-course reduction of urinary E as already reported (3, 7); applying the E/T ratio, the reduction of E urinary excretion was confirmed in Testosterone treated (A) but not in Boldenone treated calves (B and C)
Indagine sui fattori influenti la valutazione morfologica lineare di cavalli agricoli italiani da TPR
No full text- …
