Effects of vitamin B6 and tryptophan on pork quality and amount of lean meat in gilts of 70–100 kg bodyweight

Supplementary tryptophan in pig diets has shown improvement in carcass traits and pork quality by reducing the animals' response to stress at slaughter. Vitamin B6 could enhance this response since it acts as an enzymatic cofactor of many tryptophan pathways. The present experiment was designed to evaluate dietary vitamin B6 supplementation and tryptophan levels on carcass traits, organ weights, abdominal fat, and pork quality of 70–100 kg gilts. Sixty-four crossbred gilts (initial bodyweight (BW) 70.52 ± 2.95 kg) were distributed in a 2 x 4 factorial scheme, consisting of two supplementary vitamin B6 levels (1 and 5 mg kg-1) and four dietary standardized ileal digestible (SID) tryptophan (Trp) levels (0.140%, 0.167%, 0.194%, and 0.221%). No significant interactions between the dietary SID Trp levels and B6 supplementation were observed on these variables. Vitamin B6 supplementation (5 mg kg-1) showed a minor reduction in meat pH measured 24 hours after slaughter and resulted in a ham yield higher than B6 basal level (1 mg kg-1). The lean meat yield increased linearly as the SID Trp levels increased in the diet. These findings suggested that vitamin B6 supplementation enhanced the pork quality and the increasing levels of SID tryptophan enhanced the lean meat yield of 70–100 kg gilts.Keywords: Carcass yield, meat colour, organ weigh

AVALIAÇÃO DE DIFERENTES FONTES E NÍVEIS DE SELÊNIO PARA FRANGOS DE CORTE EM DIFERENTES TEMPERATURAS

Foram avaliados os parâmetros zootécnicos de frangos de corte alimentados com dietas suplementadas com diferentes fontes e níveis de selênio (Se), criados sob diferentes condições de temperatura. Foram utilizados 720 pintainhos, Cobb-500, em um delineamento inteiramente ao acaso em esquema fatorial 3 x 2 x 2 (3 temperaturas ambiente: termoneutra, fria e quente; 2 níveis de suplementação de Se: nível A e B; e 2 fontes de Se: orgânica e inorgânica), com 4 repetições de 15 aves. Os níveis A e B de Se na ração inicial (1 a 21 dias) e de crescimento (22 a 42 dias) foram 0,15 e 0,30 mg/kg e 0,20 e 0,40 mg/kg, respectivamente. Selenometionina foi usada como fonte de Se orgânico e selenito de sódio, inorgânico. Os frangos criados em condições de estresse por calor apresentaram uma redução no consumo de ração e ganho de peso. Não houve influência da suplementação das diferentes fontes ou níveis de Se no ganho de peso, consumo de ração ou conversão alimentar. Os resultados são indicativos de que a suplementação de Se não melhora o desempenho de frangos de corte criados em condições de temperatura adversa. Evaluation of different sources and selenium levels for broilers at different temperatures Abstract This study evaluated the effect of selenium (Se) diet supplementation on productive parameters of broiler chickens raised under different temperatures, in a complete randomized design with 3 x 2 x 2 factorial schedule (3 environmental temperatures: cold, neutral and hot; 2 levels and two Se sources) with 4 repetitions of 15 birds. The levels of Se in rations for initial and growth phases were: 0.15 and 0.30 mg/kg; and 0.20 and 0.40 mg/kg, respectively. The organic and inorganic sources of selenium were selenomethionine and sodium selenite, respectively. There were a reducing in broiler feed intake and weight gain of the broilers housed in the hot temperature. Selenium levels or sources did not affect the weight gain, feed intake or feed conversion. It was concluded that Se supplementation did no affect the broiler performance, housed under adverse environmental temperature

Sustainability of European winter wheat- and maize-based cropping systems: Economic, environmental and social ex-post assessment of conventional and IPM-based systems

In order to ensure higher sustainability of winter wheat and maize production in Europe, cropping systems featuring different levels of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) need to be tested in the field and validated for their sustainability before being adopted by farmers. However, the sustainability evaluation of cropping systems is difficult to perform effectively due to the complex economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainability. Within the EU research project PURE, nine long-term experiments were conducted in various European regions from 2011 to 2014, comparing two IPM levels against the conventional system (CS) in winter wheat- and maize-based cropping systems. IPM1 encompassed some pesticide use in semi-diverse crop rotations while IPM2 favoured reduced- and non-chemical methods in diverse rotations. The modified DEXiPM (DEXi Pest Management) model for arable cropping systems was used for ex-post assessments to compare the economic, environmental and social sustainability of these systems. The assessments showed that in six out of nine trials the CS was overall unsustainable because of low evaluation of the environmental sustainability that was mainly due to high pesticide use and simplified crop rotations where the choice of crops is primarily market-driven. In contrast, six IPM1 and five IPM2 systems could be classified as sustainable, achieving ‘medium’ or ‘high’ scores for all three sustainability dimensions. Differences in the socio-economic conditions across countries and/or climatic and soil conditions across experimental trials highlighted that IPM is based on general principles that must be adapted to address specific local conditions. Overall, IPM systems included more diverse crop rotations and practices compared to the CS, promoting IPM-based strategies with less pesticide use but also a reduced reliance on pesticides that could partially compensate for any yield reductions by the savings on pesticide and application costs. It is recommended that the results of the study should be disseminated to policy-makers, advisors and farmers and that their implementation should be considered on a regional level. Regional policies to encourage the adoption of more sustainable systems based on IPM principles, as well as better support by more closely involving the regional advisory services for the general implementation of IPM is further recommended. Ex-post analysis with DEXiPM also identified the constraints of the IPM1 and IPM2 systems evaluated as not sustainable. These were related to i) environmental issues for those IPM1 systems that still relied mainly on pesticide use and had less diverse crop rotations, and ii) economic issues for IPM2 systems, mainly due to the choice of less profitable crops in the rotation, as well as to yield penalties caused by the very low pesticide use or replacing pesticides with less effective non-chemical methods. The identification of these constraints is a valuable input to the local and regional discussion on how to adopt IPM and develop more sustainable cropping systems