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Effetto dell’informazione relativa al sistema produttivo sul gradimento del consumatore. Il caso del Montasio Dop-Pdm monorazza
No full text
Dual Breeding Project – Dual-purpose cattle breeds: an alternative model of eco-sustainable animal husbandry
No full textIn many mountain areas, breeders have wisely preserved the rusticity and adaptability characteristics in their bovine populations. It is not by chance that in these territories there are many dual-purpose breeds well adapted to environment over the centuries. Sustainable production of milk and meat was a priority for farmers and their associations in the past as well as in the future. In fact, sustainable production is synonymous with environmental protection, biodiversity conservation, landscape defense, but also production efficiency. The dual-purpose breeding associations have maintained the selection objectives always oriented not only for dualpurpose but also for resistance to diseases, maintenance of rusticity and longevity. In order to continue on the path taken the national breed associations met to develop for the first time a collective project called "DUAL BREEDING" mainly aimed to the environmental sustainability, animal health and management of inbreeding. “Dual Breeding project - Dual-purpose cattle breeds: an alternative model of eco-sustainable animal husbandry” is funded by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) through the National Rural Development Programme (NRDP) 2014/2020 - Sub-measure 10.2 “Support for conservation and sustainable use and development of genetic resources in agriculture”, and will last for three years. The project involves a total of 16 Italian dual-purpose breeds, from Val d'Aosta to Sicily, with selective stories, consistencies and production attitudes quite different. Among these, many are those closely linked to the Alpine environment (Italian Simmental, Valdostana Pezzata Rossa and Pezzata Nera/Castana, Grey Alpine, Rendena, Pinzgauer, Pezzata Rossa d’Oropa, Pustertaler Sprinzen/Barà, Burlina) and all are however linked to mountain or hilly territories
Effect of climatic conditions on nocturnal behavior of dairy cows grazing on Alpine pasture
No full textFatty acid profile of table eggs from laying hens fed hempseed products: A meta-analysis
No full textAbstract
The type of dietary lipids consumed by laying hens affects the fatty acid (FA) profile of the eggs. This work analyzed the available scientific publications that examined the use of hempseed products (Cannabis sativa L. varieties with low concentration of tetrahydrocannabinol) on the fatty acid profiles of eggs produced by laying hens. The literature search was performed to identify publications that reported experiments, in which laying hens were fed hemp products (seeds, cakes, or oils). Fourteen eligible publications (49 dietary treatments) were identified that were published in international journals from 2005 to 2019. Most of the experimental diets (24 treatments) used whole hempseeds, about one-third of the diets examined low levels of hempseed oils, and 3 studies (7 treatments) examined hempseed cakes and meal. To summarize the results of the different experiments, the inclusions of hempseed products were converted into hempseed equivalents based on total fat concentration. The inclusion of hempseed products in the diet did not affect the total saturated FA concentration of the eggs, but it did decrease the monounsaturated FA content (R2 = 0.47) by about 115 mg/yolk for each 10% inclusion in the diet of hempseed products. Dietary hempseed also increased several polyunsaturated FA (PUFA) content of yolk. A 10% increase in the dietary hempseeds led to eggs that had 46 mg/yolk of α-linolenic acid (ALA, R2 = 0.86), 25% greater than the control diet (36 mg/yolk). The same inclusion rate of dietary hempseeds increased the γ-linolenic acid content by 1.7 mg/yolk (+28% relative to the basal level, R2 = 0.85), and increased the linoleic acid (LA) content by about 6%. The other ω-3 PUFA also increased (docosahexaenoic acid, R2 = 0.62, +33%; docosapentaenoic acid, R2 = 0.81, +51%; eicosapentaenoic acid, R2 = 0.60, +41%). For each 10% increase in the diet of hempseeds, the egg yolks had greater increases of ALA than LA, leading to a reduction in the ω-6:ω-3 (R2 = 0.66). In conclusion, diets for laying hens containing hemp products led to eggs that had increased PUFA and a reduction in the ω-6:ω-3
Animal welfare and ecosystem services in mountain areas
No full textThe ecosystem services framework describes the benefits that natural environments provide to human
populations. Mountain ecosystems are extremely diverse and in fact support about one quarter of terrestrial
bio-
diversity. The provision of ecosystem services in mountain areas depends upon good animal welfare and
vice
versa
. Thus, proper assessment methods are needed to measure and ensure good welfare levels in moun-
tain areas. In this study, we have tested five animal-based measures collected in eight mountain dairy farms
and compared them to data collected in 124 small-scale dairy farms. Despite obtaining better mean results
when looking at selected animal-based indicators in comparison to reference data, great variability was
observed between farms similarly to what reported in other studies. Future research should aim at creating
a reference database of animal-based measure collected in mountain farms only as well as measuring dairy
cow welfare on pasture conditions considering that is a common practice in mountain dairy farms and often
involves an abrupt change in husbandry and management systems
Feeding efficiency and behavior of young Simmental bulls selected for high growth capacity: Comparison of bulls with high vs. low residual feed intake
No full textThex objectives of this study were to evaluate the variability of residual feed intake (RFI) in young Simmental bulls and to study the potential use of certain feeding behavioral traits as indicators of feed efficiency. At an average age of 9 months, multiple groups of 6 young bulls were moved from the same pen to a pen equipped for monitoring of intake and feeding behaviors. For the first part of the study, 272 young bulls subjected to performance tests at the Genetic Center of Italian Simmental were considered. The overall ADG was 1.57 kg/day and the overall dry matter intake (DMI) was 10.35 kg/day. The RFI values ranged from −2.55 to +1.86 kg DM/day. Bulls visited the trough 49.5 times/day and the total feeding time (FT) was 113.1 min/day. There were 8.65 missing events (MEv) per day for a total time of 5.98 min/day. The base model, which considered metabolic body weight and ADG, explained 50.5% of the variability in DMI. Addition of feeding behaviors to the analysis explained an additional 5% of the variation in DMI (P 0.05). This study is the first to evaluate feeding efficiency in an Italian Simmental breed. Although some behavioral traits differed significantly between the Low and High RFI groups, their inclusion in the DMI prediction model only had a small effect
Rumen fermentation parameters and papillae development in Simmental growing bulls with divergent residual feed intake
Full text linkResidual feed intake (RFI), a widespread index used to measure animal feed efficiency, is influenced by various individual biological factors related to inter-animal variation that need to be assessed. Herein, 30 Simmental bulls, raised under the same farm conditions, were divided on the basis of RFI values into a high efficient group (HE, RFI = − 1.18 ± 0.33 kg DM/d, n = 15) and a low efficient group (LE, RFI = 0.92 ± 0.35 kg DM/d, n = 15). Subsequently, bulls were slaughtered at an average BW of 734 ± 39.4 kg. Their ruminal fermentation traits were analysed immediately after slaughtering and after 24 h of in vitro incubation. Furthermore, ruminal micro-biota composition and ruminal papillae morphology were examined. The LE group exhibited a higher propionate concentration as a percentage of total volatile fatty acids (17.3 vs 16.1%, P = 0.04) in the rumen fluid collected during slaughtering, which was also confirmed after in vitro fermentation (16.6 vs 15.4% respectively for LE and HE, P = 0.01). This phenomenon resulted in a significant alteration in the acetate−to−propionate ratio (A:P) with higher values for the HE group, both after slaughter (4.01 vs 3.66, P = 0.02) and after in vitro incubation (3.78 vs 3.66, P = 0.02). Methane production was similar in both groups either as absolute production (227 vs 218 mL for HE and LE, respectively) or expressed as a percentage of total gas (approximately 22%). Even if significant differences (P < 0.20) in the relative abundance of some bacterial genera were observed for the two RFI groups, no significant variations were observed in the alpha (Shannon index) and beta (Bray–Curtis index) diversity. Considering the papillae morphology, the LE subjects have shown higher length values (6.26 vs 4.90 mm, P < 0.01) while HE subjects have demonstrated higher papillae density (46.4 vs 40.5 n/cm2, P = 0.02). Histo-morphometric analysis did not reveal appreciable modifications in the total papilla thickness, boundaries or surface between the experimental groups. In conclusion, our results contribute to efforts to analyse the factors affecting feed efficiency at the ruminal level. Propionate production, papillae morphology and a few bacterial genera certainly play a role in this regard, although not a decisive one
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