growth performance and behaviour of finishing beef cattle illegally treated with growth promoters

The study aimed at evaluating growth performance, feeding and social behaviour of finishing beef cattle treated with Dexamethasone per os alone or in association with Estradiol. Twenty-four French cross-bred beef bulls were allotted to 3 balanced treatment groups: Control (C); Dexamethasone (D) and Dexamethasone + Estradiol (D+E). All the bulls received the same diet and the experimental period lasted 43 days. All the productive traits and eating behaviour were similar among treatments. Bulls provided with D+E showed a prolonged rumination during the 8 h following diet distribution but this behaviour was partially performed in standing position, since lying was significantly reduced in both treated groups as compared to Control. However, difference in behaviour were too limited to be considered a reliable indicator of these illegal treatments

Automatic detection of cow/calf vocalizations in free-stall barn

Precision livestock farming dictates the use of advanced technologies to understand, analyze, assess and finally optimize a farm\u2019s production collectively as well as the contribution of each single animal. This work is part of a research project wishing to steer the dairy farms\u2019 producers to more ethical rearing systems. To study cow\u2019s welfare, we focus on reciprocal vocalizations including mother-offspring contact calls. We show the set-up of a suitable audio capturing system composed of automated recording units and propose an algorithm to automatically detect cow vocalizations in an indoor farm setting. More specifically, the algorithm has a two-level structure: a) first, the Hilbert follower is applied to segment the raw audio signals, and b) second the detected blocks of acoustic activity are refined via a classification scheme based on hidden Markov models. After thorough evaluation, we demonstrate excellent detection results in terms of false positives, false negatives and confusion matrix

Do dairy farming systems differ in antimicrobial use?

The quantitative assessment of antimicrobial use (AMU) in food-producing animals contributes to the provision of essential information for developing relevant and effective policies to reduce use and to control antimicrobial resistance. Information on AMU is available mainly for intensive dairy farming systems and specialized high-yielding breeds. The aim of this study is to investigate AMU in different dairy farming systems by comparing the treatment incidence in mountain farms with specialized high-yield dairy breeds or with dual-purpose breeds raised for milk production to the treatment incidence in lowland farms with specialized high-yield dairy breeds or with dual-purpose breeds raised for milk production. Significant differences were found only between the overall treatment incidence, as well as the treatment incidence of highest-priority critically important antimicrobials for human medicine, in lowland farms with high-yielding breeds and mountain farms with dual-purpose breeds. Mountain farms have a generally lower milk production and smaller herd size than lowland farms, provide cows with access to pasture, and limit concentrates in the diet. These management practices and the use of local/dual-purpose breeds could reduce the risk of production diseases and the consequent need for AMU

BEHAVIOURAL RESPONSE TO DIFFERENT CLIMATIC CONDITIONS OF BEEF CATTLE IN INTENSIVE REARING SYSTEMS

The study aimed to evaluate the behaviour of beef cattle reared in intensive systems in northern Italy under different climatic conditions. In particular, it considered 3 levels of THI (Temperature-Humidity-Index) in order to evaluate the coping response to heat stress conditions regarding changes of beef cattle nutritional and social behaviours, drinking frequency and resting time. Behavioural observations were carried out from July to October 2005, during hot (THI above 78), mild (THI 76) and cool (THI below 72) conditions, on 24 finishing French crossbred bulls. The animals were housed in 6 fully slatted floor group pens of 4 bulls each. Within each class of THI, behaviours were recorded in two sessions of 24 hours using a 5 minute interval scan sampling technique. A focal animal was chosen in order to count the number of visits at the waterer. Results showed that eating behaviour was maximum during the first 8 hours after fresh feed delivery. However, in the same interval, when THI was above 78, eating activity was penalized while an increase of ruminating was observed. The overall number of visits at the waterer was increased by the heat stress condition and they were mainly concentrated in the hottest hours of the day. Hot environment also affected beef cattle social behaviour increasing agonistic interactions and mounts among penmates. Since heat stress affected bulls behaviour impairing their welfare, the adoption of cooling devices should be recommended

Administration of dexamethasone per os in finishing bulls. II. Effects on blood parameters used as indicators of animal welfare.

A set of hormonal, haematological and biochemical parameters was used to evaluate the physiological response and welfare status of 14 finishing Marchigiana bulls treated for 49 days with a low daily dosage (0.75 mg/head per day) of dexamethasone per os. Compared to the Control group, dexamethasone decreased cortisol concentrations (42.3 v. 5.7 nmol/l; s.e.d. = 4.17; P < 0.001), and led to the reversal of the leukocyte formula in the animals treated (P < 0.05). Total serum proteins (70.2 v. 73.9 g/l; s.e.d. = 1.55; P < 0.05), in particular β1 globulins (7.5 v. 9.1 g/l; s.e.d. = 0.24; P < 0.01) and fibrinogen (199 v. 258 mg/dl; s.e.d. = 32.70; P < 0.05), increased as a consequence of treatment. Prolonged dexamethasone administration led the bulls to an apparently chronic stress condition. Moreover, the study indicated various blood parameters that might be used by health officials as effective tools in identifying beef cattle suspected of being illegally treated with dexamethasone

Comparative one-month safety and effectiveness of five leading new-generation devices for transcatheter aortic valve implantation

Transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) for aortic stenosis is becoming an appealing alternative to surgical aortic valve replacement in high-risk patients and to medical therapy for inoperable ones. Several new-generation TAVI devices have been recently introduced, but comparative analyses are lacking. We aimed to compare 1-month outcomes associated with such five leading new-generation TAVI devices exploiting data collected in the prospective observational RISPEVA (Registro Italiano GISE sull’impianto di Valvola Aortica Percutanea) Study. We queried the dataset of the ongoing RISPEVA study to retrieve baseline, procedural and 1-month outcome details of patients undergoing TAVI with Acurate, Evolut, Portico, Lotus, and Sapien3. Analysis was based on unadjusted and propensity score-adjusted methods. We included 1976 patients, 234 (11.8%) treated with Acurate, 703 (35.6%) with Evolut, 151 (7.6%) with Lotus, 347 (17.6%) with Portico, and 541 (27.4%) with Sapien3. Unadjusted analysis for baseline features highlighted several significant differences, and other discrepancies&nbsp;were found for procedural features. Despite these differences, device and procedural success were similarly high (ranging from 98.0% to 99.4%, p &gt; 0.05). However, procedural valve migration appeared more common with Acurate (p = 0.007), and major bleeding with Sapien3 (p = 0.002). Unadjusted analysis for 1-month outcomes also highlighted significant differences in the composite of death, stroke, myocardial infarction, major vascular complication, major bleeding, or renal failure (favoring Portico, p &lt; 0.001), major vascular complications (favoring Lotus, p &lt; 0.001), renal failure (favoring Portico, p = 0.035), and permanent pacemaker implantation (favoring Acurate, p &lt; 0.001). Propensity score-adjusted analyses showed lower rates of major adverse events with Evolut and Portico (p &lt; 0.05), major vascular complications with Lotus and Portico (p &lt; 0.05), renal failure with Sapien3 (p &lt; 0.05) and permanent pacemaker implantation with Acurate (p &lt; 0.05). In conclusion, new-generation TAVI devices have different profiles of early comparative safety and efficacy. These findings should be taken into account for individualized decision making and patient management

Role of TGF-β1 haplotypes in the occurrence of myocardial infarction in young Italian patients

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Transforming growth factor beta 1 (TGF-β1) gene play an important role in the acute myocardial infarction (AMI), however no investigation has been conducted so far in young AMI patients.</p> <p>In this study, we evaluated the influence of TGF-β1 polymorphisms/haplotypes on the onset and progression of AMI in young Italian population.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>201 cases and 201 controls were genotyped for three TGF-β1 polymorphisms (G-800A, C-509T and Leu10Pro). The main follow-up end-points (mean follow-up, 107 ± 49 months) were death, myocardial infarction or revascularization procedures.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Significant risk factors were smoking (p < 10^-4), family history for coronary artery disease (p < 10^-4), hypercholesterolemia (p = 0.001) and hypertension (p = 0.002). The C-509T and Leu10Pro polymorphisms showed significant differences (p = 0.026 and p = 0.004) between cases and controls.</p> <p>The most common haplotypes revealed a possible protective effect (GCT, OR 0.75, 95% CI 0.57–0.99, p = 0.042) and an increased risk of AMI (GTC, OR 1.51, 95% CI 1.13–2.02, p = 0.005), respectively.</p> <p>No statistical differences were observed in genotype distribution in the follow-up study between the two groups: 61 patients with subsequent events (13 deaths) and 108 without events.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Even though our results need to be further confirmed in larger studies, this is the first study reporting on a possible role of TGFβ1 common haplotypes in the onset of AMI in young patients.</p

DIGE Proteome Analysis Reveals Suitability of Ischemic Cardiac In Vitro Model for Studying Cellular Response to Acute Ischemia and Regeneration

Proteomic analysis of myocardial tissue from patient population is suited to yield insights into cellular and molecular mechanisms taking place in cardiovascular diseases. However, it has been limited by small sized biopsies and complicated by high variances between patients. Therefore, there is a high demand for suitable model systems with the capability to simulate ischemic and cardiotoxic effects in vitro, under defined conditions. In this context, we established an in vitro ischemia/reperfusion cardiac disease model based on the contractile HL-1 cell line. To identify pathways involved in the cellular alterations induced by ischemia and thereby defining disease-specific biomarkers and potential target structures for new drug candidates we used fluorescence 2D-difference gel electrophoresis. By comparing spot density changes in ischemic and reperfusion samples we detected several protein spots that were differentially abundant. Using MALDI-TOF/TOF-MS and ESI-MS the proteins were identified and subsequently grouped by functionality. Most prominent were changes in apoptosis signalling, cell structure and energy-metabolism. Alterations were confirmed by analysis of human biopsies from patients with ischemic cardiomyopathy