Effects of season on the quality of Garfagnina goat milk

The Garfagnina goat is an endangered native goat population from Italy. This study aims to give a contribution to the milk quality assessment of the native goat during the two productive seasons, spring and summer, and to verify the relationships between some meteorological data and physiological and milk quality parameters. Individual milk samples were taken in the two seasons. Physiological parameters and meteorological data were also registered. All the milk samples were measured for volume and analyzed for: dry matter, total nitrogen, casein, ash, lactose, fat, milk fatty acid composition, number and diameter of the fat globules, and rheological parameters. There were not differences in the average diameter of the milk fat globules (2.27 ± 0.28 μm) and in milk gross composition between the two seasons, except for lactose which was significantly lower in summer. During summer a significant increase in some long chain fatty acids such as CLA c9,t11, C18:1 t11, C18:0, C18:3 n3, C20:0, C22:0, C22:2 was observed, whereas short chain fatty acids (C6:0, C8:0, C10:0), which are responsible for the development of unpleasant aromas, as well as monounsaturated C16:1, C17:1 c9, C20:1, C22:1 and polyunsaturated fatty acids C20:2, C20:3 n3 decreased. The average PUFA n6/ PUFA n3 ratio was 1.7 and the lowest values were recorded in summer. In summer a worsening of the clot, which was less firm, was found. Environmental parameters were found to be linked to the milk fatty acids, while heart rate and skin temperature were negatively linked to milk yield and lactose respectively

Multivariate characterization of the adaptive profile in Brazilian and Italian goat population

Abstract The aim of this study was to characterize the adaptive profile and identify variables with great discriminatory power of the Brazilian Azul goat population and Italian Garfagnina population, through the use of principal component and canonical discriminant analysis. A total of 110 Garfagnina milking females (60 in winter and 50 in summer) and 80 Brazilian Azul (40 in winter and 40 in summer) were considered. Air temperature (°C), black globe temperature (BGT) and relative humidity (%) were measured with the aid of an automatic weather station. Some physiological parameters (rectal temperature – RT, respiratory rate – RR, skin temperature – ST and heart rate – HR), some anatomical parameters (hair diameter – HD and hair length – HL), some hematological parameters (erythrocyte – RBCs, packed cell volume – PCV and mean corpuscular volume – MCV), some blood biochemical parameters (glucose – GLI, cholesterol – COL, triglycerides – TRI, creatinine – CRE, urea – URE, total protein – PRT, albumin – ALB, globulin – GLO, albumin and globulin ratio – A/G, gamma – glutamyl transferase – GGT and aspartate aminotransferase – AST) and some stressed hormones (thyroxine – T4, triiodothyronine – T3 and cortisol – COR) were measured. The variables with greater discriminant power were T3, ST, COR, T4, GGT, HD, GLO, HL and PCV to Garfagnina population and PRT, MCV, PCV, ALB, T4, ST, HL, RBCs, TRI and GGT in the Azul Brazilian population. Classification of the animals was more accurate when considering morphological, physiological, hematological, biochemical and hormonal variables jointly

Threonine-to-lysine ratio in laying hens: physiological parameters and organ weight

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of threonine:digestible lysine ratio in the diet on the physiological variables and weight of organs of light laying hens. Two hundred and ten 47 week-old Dekalb White laying hens were distributed in a completely randomized design, with five levels of threonine (0.507; 0.552; 0.597; 0.642 and 0.677%) and seven replicates of six birds each. The experimental period was 10 weeks, totaling 62 days and more eight days for the animals to adapt. The physiological parameters of cloacal temperature (CT), respiratory rate (RR) and average surface temperature (AST) were recorded weekly (7:00 am, 10:00 am, 1:00 pm, 4:00 pm, and 7:00 pm); after solid and water fasting, the birds were slaughtered to assess the absolute weight of the organs. The time of day influenced (p < 0.05) the physiological parameters RR and AST, and CT showed a significant effect (p < 0.05) of increasing levels of digestible threonine. The total weight of the pancreas, proventriculus and lung showed a significant effect (p < 0.05) of the increase in the levels of digestible threonine. The respiratory rate is affected by the levels of threonine in the diet. The 0.687% level promoted hypertrophy of the pancreas, proventriculus and lung, promoting more significant activity of these organs

O Marmeleiro (Croton sp.) e os seus arredores: manejo e oportunidades de utilização na produção florestal / The Croton sp. quince and their surroundings: management and opportunities for use in production forest

O marmeleiro (Croton sp.) é planta que compõe a florística da vegetação de caatinga denunciando áreas antropizadas, promovendo assim a instalação de um espaço ideal para que outras espécies mais sensíveis e exigentes possam se situar. Através de uma atuação de Pesquisa-Ação pretendeu-se verificar a partir de marmelerais espontâneos qual o potencial dos mesmos em produzir produtos e subprodutos florestais e qual a resposta das plantas a algumas iniciativas de manejo. A Pesquisa-Ação foi desenvolvida na Fazenda São Benedito do Amorim, Distrito de Galante, município de Campina Grande, Paraíba - Brasil. Foram instaladas cinco parcelas de amostragem 20 m x 20 m, (Setembro e Novembro de 2009 e Abril, Maio e Julho de 2010). Nas parcelas 1 e 2, foram amostradas as plantas com diâmetro igual ou superior a 3,0 cm na altura de 0,30 m consideradas plantas comerciais. As consideradas não comerciais foram apenas numeradas e etiquetadas. Os dados obtidos permitem inferir que o número total de plantas por hectare pode variar de 10.400 exemplares a 14.450 exemplares, as plantas de marmeleiro perfazem de 98,07% a 99,30% do total de plantas. O marmeleiro apresentou exemplares com critérios comerciais que podem variar de 8,33% a 11,49% (850 a 1.650 plantas/ha), para as parcelas amostradas os maiores valores qualitativos se referiram a lenha (58,82% a 72,72%), seguidos da produção de varas (27,27% a 41,18%) onde 8,33% (850 plantas) a 11,49% (1.650 plantas), podem ser enquadradas como comerciais, destas 58,82 % a 72,72% servirão para a produção de lenha e de 27,27% a 41,18% servirão para a produção de varas. Quanto a altura de plantas em marmeleirais espontâneos estas variaram de 1,80 a 4,00 m, verificou-se que a maioria das plantas que geraram varas apresentaram diâmetros de 3,32 cm a 3,47 cm as alturas comercias 1,98 m a 2,10 m respectivamente. O volume cilíndrico médio vaiou de 0,0020 m3 a 0,0021 m3/planta para lenha e de 0,0017 m³ a 0,0020 m³/planta para varas. O manejo dos marmeleirais, (corte raso) apresentou valores médios de 10,88 a 14,04 brotações com valor médio total de 12,67 brotações/planta. Por ocasião do corte raso na parcela 1, o material herbáceo na forma de folhas originado foi o equivalente a 595,0 kg de folhas verdes/ha, para garranchos os valores podem variar de 8.400 kg/ha a 12.980 kg/ha demonstrando a força de produção de biomassa do marmeleiro mesmo nas condições mais adversa

Performance and ruminal and intestinal morphometry of Santa Inês sheep submitted to feed restriction and refeeding

A study was carried out to evaluate the performance and ruminal and intestinal morphology of Santa Inês sheep subjected to feed restriction followed by refeeding. A total of 40 uncastrated lambs with an approximate age of 120 ± 15 days and mean body weight (BW) of 17.04 ± 1.18 kg were randomly divided into two groups of BW (20 and 25 kg of BW), which were subjected to different levels of feed restriction (0%, 25%, and 40% of feed restriction). For performance variables, six treatments were considered (0, 25%, and 40% of feed restriction for both groups (20 and 25 kg of BW)) and five treatments for morphometric variables (ad libitum, 25% and 40% for both groups (20 and 25 kg of BW)). All animals were slaughtered with 14 weeks of experimentation. During the feed restriction phase, the dry matter intake (DMI), feed efficiency (FE), and average daily gain (ADG) decreased (P < 0.05) as the level of restriction increased. During the refeeding phase, lambs with 20 kg of body weight subjected to restriction presented lower (P < 0.05) DMI in the ad libitum treatment. However, lambs with 25 kg of body weight under feed restriction presented DMI, FE, and ADG similar (P > 0.05) to the group ad libitum. The final body weight of restricted lambs after refeeding (both groups 20 and 25 kg of body weight) was lower (P < 0.05) than lambs feed ad libitum. In relation to morphology, restricted lambs showed greater height ruminal papillae and larger (P < 0.05) area of ruminal absorption and intestinal absorption, especially the lambs under treatment 40% of feed restriction. The feed restriction followed by refeeding in sheep provided partial compensatory gain, in addition, caused morphological changes in the rumen and intestine that allowed greater absorption and possibly compensatory gain in periods of greater refeeding.The authors would like to thank the Federal University of Campina Grande and Federal University of Paraíba for their technical assistance. This study was supported by CNPq and CAPESinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Modelos de predição da cinética de secagem dos grãos da algaroba / Models of prediction of drying kinetics of algaroba grains

Objetivou-se avaliar a cinética de secagem das sementes da algaroba em camada fina e em diferentes temperaturas utilizando os modelos matemáticos semi empíricos de Henderson &amp; Pabis, Lewis, Page, Cavalcanti Mata, Exponencial de Dois Termos e Midilli et al., para ajuste dos dados experimentais. A cinética de secagem foi realizada em triplicata utilizando uma estufa com circulação forçada de ar, com velocidade em torno de 1 m s-1, nas temperaturas de 50, 60 e 70°C e por tempos determinados até massa constante. Em todos os tratamentos, os modelos matemáticos ajustados aos dados experimentais apresentaram R² superior a 95,02% e valores de DQM inferiores a 0,0048. Dentre as equações testadas, as de Cavalcanti Mata, Midilli et al. e Page aproximaram-se mais dos pontos experimentais que os demais modelos utilizados. Os modelos de Cavalcanti Mata, Page e Midilli apresentaram os menores valores de DQM e melhores coeficientes estatísticos para descrever as curvas de secagem. Recomenda-se utilizar o modelo de Page para secagem de grãos de algaroba por possuir o menor número de termos, apresentar excelentes valores de R2 e DQM, representar de forma eficiente as curvas de secagem para as diferentes temperaturas e ser de fácil aplicação

Effects of the dry and the rainy season on endocrine and physiologic profiles of goats in the Brazilian semi-arid region

This study investigated the effect of season on the endocrine and adaptive profiles of a Brazilian Creole goat population in a semi-arid region of Brazil during the dry and the rainy season. We considered physiological, morphological, biochemical, haematological, hormonal and anatomical profiles. The experiment used 80 adult goats (2- to 5-year-old) and lactating (160 ± 14 days of lactation length) goats, with an average daily milk yield of 500.9 ± 13 g. Physiological parameters (rectal temperature, RT; respiratory rate, RR; heart rate, HR; skin temperature, ST) were high (p < .05) in the afternoon in both seasons. There was a significant effect of season (p < .05) on anatomical parameters (hair diameter, HD; hair length, HL; coat thickness, CT). Haematological, biochemical and hormonal parameters were also significantly affected by season (p < .05). We measured the biochemical and hormonal characteristics changes during different seasons; metabolism was reduced during heat stress and accelerated during cold stress. These hormones facilitate the physiological parameters involved in the adaptation process. Our results confirm that the adaptive capacity of the animals cannot be described solely by RT and RR

Effect of the use of tomato pomace on feeding and performance of lactating goats

The aim of this research was to evaluate the effect of including different levels of tomato pomace (TP) on performance, blood biochemical parameters, hormones, production and composition of milk, and economic analysis of Saanen goats reared in confinement. Sixteen multiparous goats (Saanen), 21 days in milk, were randomly distributed in two Latin square 4 × 4 (four periods and four treatments), according to the inclusion levels of dehydrated tomato pomace (0%, 20%, 40%, and 60%) in the diet. This inclusion resulted in differences in the intake of dry and organic matter, as well as ether extract, crude protein, water, neutral detergent fiber, and non-fibrous carbohydrates. The inclusion of 60% TP resulted in a significant decrease of body weight (−4.42 kg) in comparison with initial body weight, while the other three treatments did not affect or increase the animal body weight (between −0.05 and +3.07 kg). The addition of 20% and 40% of TP resulted in higher milk production (around 1.5 kg day−1) than in animals from a control (1.2 kg day−1) and 60% TP (1.04 kg day−1). This increase was approximately 28% in the animals with 40% of TP inclusion. Moreover, the addition of 20% or 40% TP also improved the milk quality, which presented a higher fat amount (4.37% and 4.63% in 20% TP and 40% TP animals, respectively) than in a control (3.7%) and animals feed with 60% TP (4.02%). The feed efficiency and feed conversion did not show differences between diets. Thyroid hormones (T3 and T4) were also significantly affected by the inclusion of TP in the diet. The diet with the highest level of TP (60%) had the lowest cost per kilo among the diets evaluated. However, the use of 40% TP in animal diet presented the highest milk production and intermediate production cost.Axencia Galega de Innovación | Ref. IN607A2019/01CYTED | Ref. 119RT056

Ingestive behavior and efficacy of male sheep housed in different stocking densities

The objective of this study was to analyze the effect of housing density on ingestive behavior of male Santa Inês sheep housed individually and in double. Forty non-castrated males were used with an average initial weight of 21.33±2.62 kg and an average age of 120 days. The males were housed in two types of covered stalls: double stalls (two males/stall) of 3.0 m2 and individual stalls of 1.50 m2 . Animals housed in individual stalls spent more time ruminating and less time eating than those in double stalls. These animals also spent more time in idleness. Sheep idled approximately 11.43 hours/day (47% of the time), which can be explained by the shorter time spent in rumination, considering that the diet used in this experiment had adequate nutritional quality. The animals in double stalls consumed more water, which resulted in increased urination. However, this activity did not interfere with total weight gain. Therefore, experiments testing stall density does not interfere with the performance of the animal