Effects of gentling on behavior and meat quality of lambs

Within few hours after parturition lambs develop a strong and selective relationship with their mothers (Poindron and Le Neindre, 1980). In order to increase the amount of milk available for transformation, lambs often are prematurely separated from the ewes, thus inducing an early disruption of the mother-young relationship. A number of authors demonstrated that the lack of the maternal bond can inhibit the welfare state of the lambs (Sevi et al., 2001) and reduced animal welfare can have detrimental effects on meat quality in many animals species (Gregory, 1998) as well as in sheep (Napolitano et al., 2002a). A possible recover from conditions of poor animal welfare may be attained through the administration of gentle contacts by humans (Boivin et al., 2000) which may supply an additional social bond with members of a different animal species. The present study aims to verify the effect of artificial rearing on lamb welfare and meat quality, and assess the possibility to increase both by means of gentling

Effects of gentling on behavior and meat quality of lambs

Within few hours after parturition lambs develop a strong and selective relationship with their mothers (Poindron and Le Neindre, 1980). In order to increase the amount of milk available for transformation, lambs often are prematurely separated from the ewes, thus inducing an early disruption of the mother-young relationship. A number of authors demonstrated that the lack of the maternal bond can inhibit the welfare state of the lambs (Sevi et al., 2001) and reduced animal welfare can have detrimental effects on meat quality in many animals species (Gregory, 1998) as well as in sheep (Napolitano et al., 2002a). A possible recover from conditions of poor animal welfare may be attained through the administration of gentle contacts by humans (Boivin et al., 2000) which may supply an additional social bond with members of a different animal species. The present study aims to verify the effect of artificial rearing on lamb welfare and meat quality, and assess the possibility to increase both by means of gentling

Anthocyanin profile and antioxidant capacity in coloured barley

The grain of 17 coloured barley F8 recombinant inbred lines from three backcross programs using three barley parental lines were studied. The main objectives were to characterise the anthocyanin profiles and antioxidant activities of these different lines of coloured barley grain when grown in southern Italy. HPLC and spectrophotometric analyses were performed. The overall profile of anthocyanins across the grain of these genotypes comprised 51.8% malvidin 3-glucoside, 12.7% delphinidin 3-glucoside, 5.0% cyanidin, ~2.5% both petunidin and peonidin 3-glucoside, and ~1.4% both delphinidin 3-rutinoside anthocyanidin 3-glucoside, with the remaining 23% as unidentified anthocyanins. Principal component analysis showed that the antioxidant activities of the barley grain were significantly correlated with the levels of phenolic compounds. Furthermore, the grain of some of these coloured barley RILs had the highest radical scavenging activities, which indicated their potential use in preparation of both food and nutraceuticals, for protective effects on human health, and in breeding programs