Productive performances of Maremmana young bulls reared following organic rules and slaughtered at 18 and 24 months of age

Fourteen Maremmana young bulls fed on pastures supplemented with mixed hay and concentrates, according to an organic method, were slaughtered at 18 and 24 months of age to evaluate in vita and post-mortem performances. At slaughter, carcass yield was determined and carcass evaluation according to EU rules wasmade. Physico-chemical characteristics of Longissimus thoracis (LT) and Caput longum triceps brachii (TB) muscles were determined. No differences for both carcass yield and quality were found between the two age groups. Animals of 24 months of age presented lighter and more yellow meat as well as higher hue angle and drip loss. TB muscle showed lower protein content and higher shear force, moisture, total lipids and ash than LT. The latter presented a higher percentage of C15iso, whereas TB showed higher values of C18:2n6, C20:3n6, C20:4n6, C18:3n3 and C22:5n3. Maremmana animals, irrespective of age, showed a low percentage of saturated fatty acids, good PUFA/SFA ratio and a great amount of unsaturated fatty acids of the n3 and n6 series, as well as a favorable atherogenicity and thrombogenicity indexes

Efficiency and costs of the health management in an organic dairy farm where we use unconventional medicines

The EU organic regulation explicitly promote the use of unconventional therapies, like homoeopathy and phytotherapy. The aim of the present study was to investigate the efficiency and the costs of these treatment methods. From December 2006 to September 2008, we analyzed the data recorded in an organic dairy farm where the animals are normally treated by classical unicistic homeopathy and phytotherapy, and only when indispensable, by allophaty, antiparasitic drugs, surgery and vaccines. The use of homeopathy resulted to be predominant in comparison with the others treatments. Besides, our trial showed that homeopathy and phytotherapy could be used to treat, with good outcomes, the majority of diseases that occur in a dairy cattle farm, even if, sometimes, conventional medicines have to be used. The costs for unconventional treatments are very low in comparison with conventional ones. This will allow the spreading of unconventional medicines in the Italian organic farms

An integrated Italian research project on organic animal husbandry

In 2005, huge project of integrated re-search on organic animal husbandry was initiated in Italy. This research combines, for the first time in Italy, various disciplines in order to affront existing problems in the animal organic sector. The research will be conducted on 19 farms, located across South-ern, Central and Northern Italy, in order to fully rep-resent the climatic environments of the Italian penin-sula. The topics investigated range from a complete substitution of soy in animal feed to avoid GMOs, to the reduction of micotoxin contamination risks, to pasture improvement and to the use of animal breeds more adapted to organic production. The project duration will be 3 years, and is expected to provide Italian organic farm breeders the long-awaited an-swers to various questions