Evaluation of carcass and meat traits of Muscovy duck fed with black soldier fly partially defatted meal

The aim of this study was to evaluate the carcass characteristics and breast meat quality in Muscovy duck (Cairina moschata domestica) fed different inclusion levels of a partially defatted black soldier fly larva (BSF) meal. A total of 256 Muscovy ducklings (average live weight, LW: 71.32\ub12.70 g) were reared from day 3 to day 48 and randomly allotted in 32 pens (8 replicates/treatment). Four different diets were formulated with increasing substitution level of corn gluten meal with BSF larva meal (0, 3, 6 and 9%; BSF0, BSF3, BSF6 and BSF9, respectively) and divided in 3 feeding phases: starter (1-14 days), grower (14-35 days) and finisher (35-48 days). At day 48, 2 animals/replicate were slaughtered and dissected to determine their carcass yields. The weights of spleen, bursa of Fabricius, liver, heart and abdominal fat were recorded. Breast and thigh muscles were then excised from 16 ducks/treatment and weighted. Ultimate pH (pHu) and L*, a*, b* colour values were then measured on breast muscle. The collected data were tested by means of oneway ANOVA evaluating the effect of dietary BSF inclusion level by polynomial contrasts. Significance was declared at P<0.05. The inclusion of BSF did not affect final LW (2,515.68\ub192.42 g on average). Hot and cold carcass weights showed a quadratic response (P<0.05) to increasing BSF larva meal, with a minimum corresponding to BSF6; however, refrigeration losses were not affected by treatments. Weight of spleen, bursa of Fabricius, liver and heart did not differ among treatments. The weight of abdominal fat showed a quadratic response to increasing BSF meal with a minimum corresponding to BSF6 group (P<0.05). Breast and thigh yields, pHu and L*, a*, b* colour values did not differ among groups. With the exception of BSF6, the inclusion of BSF meal did not affect meat traits and carcass characteristics, confirming the potential use of BSF meal in Muscovy duck diets

Yeast cell wall extracts from Saccharomyces cerevisiae varying in structure and composition differentially shape the innate immunity and mucosal tissue responses of the intestine of zebrafish (Danio rerio)

With the rising awareness of antimicrobial resistance, the development and use of functional feed additives (FFAs) as an alternative prophylactic approach to improve animal health and performance is increasing. Although the FFAs from yeasts are widely used in animal and human pharma applications already, the success of future candidates resides in linking their structural functional properties to their efficacy in vivo. Herein, this study aimed to characterise the biochemical and molecular properties of four proprietary yeast cell wall extracts from S. cerevisiae in relation to their potential effect on the intestinal immune responses when given orally. Dietary supplementation of the YCW fractions identified that the α-mannan content was a potent driver of mucus cell and intraepithelial lymphocyte hyperplasia within the intestinal mucosal tissue. Furthermore, the differences in α-mannan and β-1,3-glucans chain lengths of each YCW fraction affected their capacity to be recognised by different PRRs. As a result, this affected the downstream signalling and shaping of the innate cytokine milieu to elicit the preferential mobilisation of effector T-helper cell subsets namely Th17, Th1, Tr1 and FoxP3+-Tregs. Together these findings demonstrate the importance of characterising the molecular and biochemical properties of YCW fractions when assessing and concluding their immune potential. Additionally, this study offers novel perspectives in the development specific YCW fractions derived from S. cerievisae for use in precision animal feeds

Patient satisfaction and food waste in obstetrics and gynaecology wards

Introduction: Patient satisfaction is an indicator of healthcare quality, and expectation is an important determinant. A component of patient satisfaction is the quality of foodservice. An indicator of this quality is the food wasted by hospitalised patients. In the present study, we investigated patient satisfaction regarding food and foodservice, the expectation on food quality and the amount of food wasted in two obstetrics and gynaecology wards in Northern and Southern Italy. Patients and Methods: A questionnaire, including sociodemographic data, rate of food waste, expectations of food quality and characteristics of food and foodservice, was admini-strated to 550 inpatients in obstetrics and gynaecology wards (275 for each hospital). Univariate analysis was performed to describe the results, and multivariate analysis was carried out to control for sociodemographic data. Results: Northern patients were more satisfied with the quality of food (54.2% vs 36.0%) and foodservice (54.5% vs 38.2%) than southern patients. Northern patients had more positive expectations about the quality of food (69.5% vs 31.6%), whereas southern patients stated that they had no expectations. Southern patients gave more importance to mealtime (72.7% vs 26.2%), and many of them brought food from home to the hospital (30.2% vs 2.2%) through relatives who came to visit them. Southern patients discarded about 41.7% of food served, whereas northern patients discarded only about 15.3%. Discussion: Food waste is a worldwide problem due to its economic, social and environmental effects. Especially in hospitals, food waste could have a negative impact on the overall patient satisfaction

Apparent digestibility of insect protein meals for rainbow trout

Insect meals are considered to be promising future ingredients for aquaculture feeds. In past feeding trials in rainbow trout, insect meals were included in diets only on the basis of their nutrients content and energy density without taking into account their biological availability due to the lack of their digestible values. Apparent digestibility (ADC) provides good indication of the bioavailability of nutrients and energy thus providing rational basis for the correct inclusion of feedstuffs. The aim of this research was to assess, in an in vivo trial on rainbow trout, the ADC of five full fat insect meals: one Tenebrio molitor (TM), two Hermetia illucens obtained through two different process (HI1 and HI2), one Musca domestica (MD), and one Alphitobius diaperinus (AD). Fish were fed a high-quality reference diet (R) and test diets obtained mixing the R diet with each of the test ingredients at a ratio of 70:30. Diets contained 1% celite as inert marker. Fish were fed to visual satiety twice a day and faecal samples collected using a continuous automatic device. Faeces were freeze dried and frozen (-20 \ub0C) until analyses. The ADC of dry matter, crude protein and ether extract of each insect meal diet were calculated. ADC for dry matter varied between 70.07 (HI1) and 80.85 (TM). ADC for protein was above 84% in all treatments and resulted the highest in MD, TM and AD treatments. Ether extract apparent digestibility significantly differed among diets with the highest value reported for TM treatment. All treatments reported values higher than 96%. Observed differences could be due to the insect species and meal treatment but in general, tested insect meals were highly digestible for rainbow trout. The results from this research could be useful to optimize the diet formulation

Minimal inhibitory and Mutant prevention concentrations of enrofloxacin for Pasteurella multocida from rabbits affected by pasteurellosis

Pasteurella multocida is the agent of one of the most significant diseases in rabbits and it is associated with a heterogeneous clinical picture. Drugs belonging to the fluoroquinolones class are useful to control pasteurellosis. Among them, enrofloxacin is one of the most used molecules in rabbit industry and it is the only one fluoroquinolone registered for this species in Italy. Enrofloxacin adopted dosages are currently based on Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC). Nevertheless, MIC is not effective against possible pathogen sub-populations with lower susceptibility that may be selectively amplified, leading to possible problems of antibiotic resistance. Mutant Prevention Concentration (MPC) could represent an approach to minimize the risk of resistance selection in pathogens. The aim of this work was to test the sensitivity to enrofloxacin of P. multocida strains isolated from rabbits affected by pasteurellosis to evaluate if MPC-based dosages can represent a valid option. The study was performed on ten strains of P. multocida isolated from rabbits from two industrial farms of Puglia, South Italy. The sensitivity to enrofloxacin has been evaluated by MIC tests by microdilution method and MPC tests performed according to Marcusson et al. (2005) with minor modifications. The results of MIC and MPC tests have revealed that MPC dosages are on average 8,4 times higher than MIC dosages. This data highlight that, although MPC-based dosages are useful to prevent the selection of potential mutant, they could be higher than MIC-based ones, leading to possible issues related to their application in field, for example the potential risk of possible toxicity for animals and residues in meat

Which factors affect the Italian consumer's intention to insect-eating? An application of an integrated attitude-intention-eating model

This research explored the role of key socio-psychological dimensions on individuals' intention to eat insectbased foods (IEIBF). In particular, the theoretical framework included biospheric values and social norms, whose impact on pro-environmental choices has been largely evidenced, but also those factors related to animal welfare and neophobia/neophilia attitudes. An online survey was carried out in different Italian regions intercepting 1402 individuals to verify the relationships predicted by our proposed model, i.e. the Integrated Sustainable Neophilic Insect-based Eating Model (ISNIEM), for predicting IEIBF. Participants completed a survey containing measures of IEIBF, biospheric values, general pro-environmental beliefs, attitude toward sustainability, food neophilia, concern for insect welfare, and social norms (both injunctive and descriptive). Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) technique was used for testing the ISNIEM. The main findings show that individuals having higher concern about environmental and ethical sustainability are more open to eating insects, especially if the latter are treated ethically. Overall, these results suggest that a typical consumer of insect foods is likely to be driven to their consumption from one side by curiosity (related to the neophilia dimension), and from the other side either by the sense of responsibility towards the environment or by the concern for ethical issues (i.e., animal welfare). The integrated attitude-food-intention model used to explore intention to eat insect foods (IEIBF) with a visual scheme represents an innovative approach in the study of consumer behaviour

Effects of Tenebrio molitor larvae meal inclusion in rainbow trout feed: myogenesis-related gene expression and histomorphological features

The effects of Tenebrio molitor larvae meal (TM) dietary inclusion in rainbow trout diet were evaluated on muscular growth using gene expression and histomorphological features of liver, spleen, kidney, anterior and posterior gut through histopathological analyses. Two hundred fifty-two grow-out rainbow trout were fed four experimental diets containing increasing levels of TM: 0% (TM0), 5% (TM25), 10% (TM50), and 20% (TM100) corresponding to different levels of fish meal replacement (0, 25, 50, and 100%, respectively). Muscular growth was evaluated analysing the expression of various genes involved in different steps of myogenesis. Among the analysed genes, only MyoD expression resulted significantly higher in fish fed TM100 compared to fish fed TM0. The gut histomorphology was not affected by TM dietary inclusion and villus height differs from anterior and posterior segments regardless of the fed diet. Histopathological alterations were observed in all the sampled organs for all the dietary treatments; however, dietary TM inclusion did not influence either development or severity of the observed histopathological changes. The results obtained confirmed the safe utilisation of TM as an alternative protein source in rainbow trout diets and highlighted the necessity to deepen the studies of TM effect on the myogenesis process, especially at a molecular level.Highlights Rainbow trout can effectively be fed with a TM protein source. Total FM substitution by TM (TM100) decreased MyoD gene expression. Increasing TM dietary inclusion did not influence gut histomorphology