Concentrations of some toxic and trace elements in wild boar (<i>Sus scrofa</i>) organs and tissues in different areas of the Province of Viterbo, Central Italy

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Análisis multi-temporal de los cambios de uso de la tierra de las zonas urbanas y periurbanas en ciudades medievales del centro de Italia

Debido a la urbanización irresponsable ocurrida en las últimas décadas, algunas ciudades de origen medieval han visto perder su identidad arquitectónica y social. Con el fin de poner de relieve estas modificaciones, se estudiaron los cambios de uso del suelo en las zonas urbanas y periurbanas de 2 pequeñas ciudades medievales del centro de Italia (provincia de Viterbo, región de Lazio), a través de la realización de una investigación multi-temporal de la restitución fotogramétrica de los vuelos históricos (1934-2010). Los resultados mostraron que en el interior de las murallas de la ciudad un número variable de espacios verdes intersticiales y pequeños patios siguen existiendo en el año 2010 y en las áreas suburbanas perviven actividades agrícolas residuales, principalmente el cultivo de frutas y verduras, probablemente para el mercado local y/o el consumo doméstico. La planificación urbana debería tener en cuenta estos elementos, a fin de mejorar los vínculos funcionales entre las áreas urbanas y agrícolas, como las compensaciones pertinentes para mantener la agricultura urbana y de una economía de subsistencia. El mantenimiento de estos hábitats importantes puede ayudar a preservar las peculiaridades históricas de las ciudades medievales y mejorar la calidad de vida de los habitantes de las ciudades.Due to the reckless urbanization occurred in recent years, some towns of medieval origin risk to loose their architectural and social identity. In order to highlight the modifications occurred in the last 80 years, we studied the land use changes in the urban and peri-urban zones of two small medieval towns of central Italy (Viterbo province, Lazio region), performing a multi-temporal investigation by means of the photogrammetric restitution of historical flights (1934-2010). Results showed that inside the city walls a variable number of green spaces and small backyards remain in 2010 and in the suburban areas residual agricultural activities, mainly the cultivation of fruit and vegetables, probably for local market and/or home consumption. Urban planning should take into account these elements, in order to enhance the functional links among urban and agricultural areas, as relevant trade-offs for maintaining urban gardening and for a subsistence economy. The maintenance of these important habitats can help to preserve the historical peculiarities of medieval towns and to improve the quality of life of urban residents

The dry grasslands of Abruzzo National Park, the oldest protected area in the Apennines (Central Italy): overview of vegetation composition, syntaxonomy, ecology and diversity

The Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise National Park was established in 1923 and is considered a flagship conservation area in Italy. It includes large extensions of semi-natural grasslands, maintained by traditional transhumant grazing for centuries. The patterns and drivers of grassland composition within the Park are still poorly investigated, and the scattered phytosociological data available were often based on relevés with varied and not precisely defined sizes. In order to provide for the first time a general overview of the Park’s dry grasslands, we analysed a dataset of 87 relevés with a fixed size of 2 × 2 m, precisely delimited in the field and GPS-located. Specific research aims were: (1) to classify the vegetation plots into floristic-ecological types, supported by an analysis of mean (Italy-specific) Ellenberg Indicator Values (EIVs); (2) to assign the types to up-to-date phytosociological syntaxa; (3) to identify the main environmental drivers for both composition and richness patterns; (4) to test the degree of correlation between (Italy-specific) EIVs and the measured environmental variables. Environmental predictors included high-resolution climatologies and remote-sensed standing biomass. Main vegetation types were identified using Hierarchical Cluster Analysis (HCA). Distancebased RDA was performed as a constrained ordination method to reveal correlations between floristic composition and environmental variables. Drivers of species richness were explored through partial correlation and Regression Trees. HCA and NMDS revealed four floristically and ecologically well-interpretable groups, in turn well corresponding to the level of phytosociological class (namely Molinio-Arrhenatheretea, Nardetea strictae, Festuco hystricis-Ononidetea striatae and Festuco-Brometea). Constrained ordination showed that most of the floristic variation was explained by biomass, annual precipitation (Pann) and mean annual temperature (Tm). Strong and significant positive correlations were found between biomass and EIV for Nitrogen (EIV-N), and between Tm and EIV for Temperature (EIV-T). Strong and significant negative correlations were found between Pann and EIV-T, EIV for Continentality (EIV-C) and EIV for soil Reaction (EIV-R). Species richness was positively correlated with slope inclination and negatively with elevation; richness was higher in sites with a high rock cover, and on limestone or clayey substrata than on siliceous ones. We conclude that in the study area: a) dry semi-natural grasslands are arranged at least into four distinguishable, high rank floristic-ecological groups; b) a mixture of climatic (especially precipitation) and edaphic (especially bedrock and soil reaction) gradients are the main drivers of such composition patterns; c) species richness is higher in sites more stressed by summer drought and/or nutrient scarcity; d) community-means of Italy’s specific EIVs are well correlated with environmental variables in grasslands, including a good correspondence between EIV-T and mean annual temperature

Potential of multi-species livestock farming to improve the sustainability of livestock farms: A review.

Diversified farming systems are proposed as a major mechanism to address the many sustainability issues of today's agriculture. Multi-species livestock farming, i.e. keeping two or more animal species simultaneously on the same farm, is an option that has received little attention to date. Moreover, most studies of multi-species livestock farming are limited, usually focusing on selected dimensions of farm sustainability and addressing lower organizational levels (i.e. within the farm) and rather limited time horizons (e.g. a few weeks in a grazing season). Thus, a comprehensive assessment of multi-species livestock farming in terms of farm sustainability is lacking. In this context, we outline and discuss potential benefits and limitations of multi-species livestock farming for livestock farm sustainability from existing literature and list issues on multi-species livestock farming requiring further research. We show that multi-species livestock farming has the potential to improve the three dimensions of sustainability reviewed - economic viability for farmers, environmental soundness and social acceptability by being respectful of animals and humans - as long as locally relevant farming practices are implemented, especially an appropriate stocking rate during grazing. If relevant practices are not observed, multi-species livestock farming may produce undesirable effects, such as competition for resource acquisition during grazing, parasitic cross-infection and more intense work peaks. Therefore, we identify four focal research areas for multi-species livestock farming. First, characterizing the management of multi-species livestock farms. To do this, we suggest considering the integration of production enterprises (e.g. cattle and sheep enterprises) within the farm from three perspectives: farming practices (e.g. grazing management), work organization and sales. Second, exploring the complementarity of livestock species on multi-species livestock farms. This is especially true for species combinations that have been largely ignored (e.g. ruminants and monogastrics), even though they may have potential due to complementary diet compositions and resource-acquisition strategies. Third, assessing the sustainability of multi-species livestock farm scenarios (current or alternative) according to the management practices and production conditions, which requires adapting existing methods/models or developing new ones. Fourth, characterizing conditions for success and obstacles for multi-species livestock farming along the value chain from production to consumption, considering stakeholders' objectives, work habits and constraints. Increasing understanding should help prioritize actions and organize them to scale up multi-species livestock farming

Multi-species livestock farming

This CORE Organic Practice Abstract gives practical recommendations for multi-species livestock farming, which has the potential to improve the three dimensions of sustainability – economic viability for farmers, environmental soundness, and social acceptability – by being respectful of animals and humans, as long as locally relevant farming practices are implemented, especially an appropriate stocking rate during grazing

Nutritional composition of traditional grain legumes in ruminant feeding.

L’alimentazione proteica risulta di fondamentale importanza per l’ottimizzazione della produttività e per il benessere degli animali di interesse zootecnico. L’identificazione di fonti vegetali alternative e/o complementari a quelle attualmente utilizzate (soia in primis) nel razionamento degli animali si rende necessaria per motivi economici, ambientali e legislativi, cercando di evitare, tuttavia, penalizzazioni sull’appetibilità della razione e sulla risposta produttiva. La ricerca condotta ha riguardato lo studio della composizione nutrizionale di semi di cece (Cicer arietinum) e lupino azzurro (Lupinus angustifolius), con approfondimenti sul contenuto di composti nutrizionalmente attivi e/o antinutrizionali, la valutazione della fermentescibilità ruminale mediante tecniche in vitro, anche alla luce di possibili interazioni genetiche (varietà e linee genetiche) e colturali (epoca e densità di semina). I risultati ottenuti hanno permesso di comprendere eventuali limiti di utilizzo di tali leguminose per l’alimentazione degli animali, in particolar modo dei ruminanti, e di attribuire le fonti di variabilità per la massimizzazione produttiva e qualitativa.Ruminants protein nutrition is an essential item for optimizing the productivity and welfare of animals. The identification of pulses sources as alternative or complementary to those currently used (primarily soya) in the ration of ruminants is necessary for economic, environmental and legislative reasons, trying to avoid, however, penalties on palatability and productive response. The research focused on the study of the nutritional composition of seeds of chickpea (Cicer arietinum) and blue lupine (Lupinus angustifolius), with insights on the content of nutritionally active compounds and / or antinutritionals, the evaluation of the ruminal fermentability using in vitro techniques, also considering possible genetic interactions (varieties and genetic lines) and farming practices (time and density of sowing). The results of the present study suggest that these pulses could be a potentially good feedstuff contributing at the same time to the energy and protein balance of animal diet. Moreover, the presence of active compounds like tannins at levels that should not be regarded as anti-nutritional, can be useful in ruminant feeding due to the moderating activities exerted by those compounds toward the ruminal degradation of proteins

La riscoperta dell’allevamento multispecie

The practice of breeding several animal species at the same time has accompanied the history of humans and is still widespread in many areas of the planet. In recent decades, multi-species livestock farming has attracted the interest of numerous researchers to understand any positive contributions to improve the level of sustainability of agro-zootechnical systems and has fully entered the set of methods suggested for the management of organic farming. The Mix-Enable project (Mixed livestock farming for improved sustainability and robustness of organic livestock), funded by CoreOrganic and for which 10 research institutions are involved (INRAE, BOKU, CRAW, FIBL, Forschungsring eV, IDELE, ITAB, SLU , TI-O and University of Tuscia), explored these characteristics on a sample of 102 organic farms in Europe (Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, and Switzerland), detecting a series of information through a specific questionnaire administered to owners during the period October 2018-July 2019. The data collected (summarized in 1574 variables) were validated and subsequently used to build a set of indicators that could describe the main aspects of multi-species farming. Multi-species husbandry is to be considered a valid "rediscovery" for livestock farming in the next future since is characterized by various positive aspects, in particular for the efficiency in the use of resources, for the conservation of biodiversity, productivity, profitability, and animal health and welfare. The final results of the Mix-Enable project will be illustrated in a webinar on September 28, 2021, starting at 10:00. You can register at this link: http://limesurvey42.idele.fr/index.php/284171?lang=en

La riscoperta dell’allevamento multispecie

The practice of breeding several animal species at the same time has accompanied the history of humans and is still widespread in many areas of the planet. In recent decades, multi-species livestock farming has attracted the interest of numerous researchers to understand any positive contributions to improve the level of sustainability of agro-zootechnical systems and has fully entered the set of methods suggested for the management of organic farming. The Mix-Enable project (Mixed livestock farming for improved sustainability and robustness of organic livestock), funded by CoreOrganic and for which 10 research institutions are involved (INRAE, BOKU, CRAW, FIBL, Forschungsring eV, IDELE, ITAB, SLU , TI-O and University of Tuscia), explored these characteristics on a sample of 102 organic farms in Europe (Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, and Switzerland), detecting a series of information through a specific questionnaire administered to owners during the period October 2018-July 2019. The data collected (summarized in 1574 variables) were validated and subsequently used to build a set of indicators that could describe the main aspects of multi-species farming. Multi-species husbandry is to be considered a valid "rediscovery" for livestock farming in the next future since is characterized by various positive aspects, in particular for the efficiency in the use of resources, for the conservation of biodiversity, productivity, profitability, and animal health and welfare. The final results of the Mix-Enable project will be illustrated in a webinar on September 28, 2021, starting at 10:00. You can register at this link: http://limesurvey42.idele.fr/index.php/284171?lang=en