Effect of dietary supplementation with malt extracts on milk production

The transition period of a cow is characterized by marked changes in metabolism as the cow prepares for parturition and lactogenesis. Aim of the present study was the evaluation of the effect of feeding dairy cows with malt extracts on milk production. Ten days before calving, 22 multiparous Holstein dairy cows were divided in two groups and received for four months the same base diet added with an experimental concentrate (1.5 kg/cow/day) containing either corn starch and malt extracts (ME) or only corn starch (CS) as the main energy source. Dry matter intake was not influenced by treatment and averaged 21.7 kg of DM/cow/day. The use of malt extracts determined a numerical increase of milk yield (+0.7 kg/cow/day, i.e. +2.5%) but this difference did not reach the significance level. Milk quality parameters were not influenced by treatment. Further studies will be needed to assess if feeding diets rich in very high fermentable carbohydrates to transition dairy cows can be a valuable strateg

Effects of extruded linseed dietary supplementation on milk yield, milk quality and lipid metabolism of dairy cows

Twenty Italian Friesian dairy cows were used in an experimental trial to study the effects of extruded linseed dietary supplementation on milk production, milk quality and fatty acid (FA) percentages of milk fat and total plasma lipids and plasma phospholipids. Control cows were fed a corn silage based total mixed ration (TMR) while treated animals also received 700g/head/d of extruded linseed supplementation. Feed intake was similar between groups. Milk yields was tendentially greater for cows fed extruded linseed. Milk urea content (P<0.05) were reduced by treatment. Results showed a significant increase n-3 FA concentration (particularly alpha linolenic acid) and a significant reduction of n-6/n-3 FA ratio in milk fat, total plasma lipids and plasma phospholipids (P<0.001); moreover a reduction trend (P<0.1) of arachidonic acid concentrations was observed in milk fat, total plasma lipids and plasma phospholipids. At last, treatment enhanced milk fat conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) percentage (P<0.05)

Feeding dehydrated alfalfa increases polyunsaturated fatty acids concentration in Marchigiana beef muscle

Beef meat is a low fat food (<5% fat). However, the fatty acid composition of beef is relatively saturated (approximately 45-50%). The polyunsaturated/saturated fatty acids (P/S) ratio in beef is approximately 0.1, the ideal being about 0.4 (Department of Health, 1994). This can cause critical comments to beef meat related to human health

Local energy transfer rate and kinetic processes: the fate of turbulent energy in two-dimensional Hybrid Vlasov-Maxwell numerical simulations

The nature of the cross-scale connections between the inertial range turbulent energy cascade and the small-scale kinetic processes in collisionless plasmas is explored through the analysis of two-dimensional Hybrid Vlasov-Maxwell numerical simulation (HVM), with α particles, and through a proxy of the turbulent energy transfer rate, namely the Local Energy Transfer rate (LET). Correlations between pairs of variables, including those related to kinetic processes and to deviation from Maxwellian distributions, are first evidenced. Then, the general properties and the statistical scaling laws of the LET are described, confirming its reliability for the description of the turbulent cascade and revealing its textured topology. Finally, the connection between such proxy and the diag- nostic variables is explored using conditional averaging, showing that several quantities are enhanced in the presence of large positive energy flux, and reduced near sites of neg- ative flux. These observations can help determining which processes are involved in the dissipation of energy at small scales, as for example ion-cyclotron or mirror instabilities typically associated with perpendicular anisotropy of temperature

Fourier-Hermite decomposition of the collisional Vlasov-Maxwell system: Implications for the velocity-space cascade

Turbulence at kinetic scales is an unresolved and ubiquitous phenomenon that characterizes both space and laboratory plasmas. Recently, new theories, {\it in-situ} spacecraft observations and numerical simulations suggest a novel scenario for turbulence, characterized by a so-called phase space cascade -- the formation of fine structures, both in physical and velocity space. This new concept is here extended by directly taking into account the role of inter-particle collisions, modeled through the nonlinear Landau operator or the simplified Dougherty operator. The characteristic times, associated with inter-particle correlations, are derived in the above cases. The implications of introducing collisions on the phase space cascade are finally discussed