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A survey regarding crop enterprise management, forages cost of production, dairy cattle management including reproductive management, housing, heat abatement, body condition scoring, nutrition, grouping strategies, and income over feed cost performance, was carried out from December 2016 to January 2018 on 50 dairy farms by the Department of Animal Science, Food and Nutrition of Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (Piacenza, Italy). A total of 41 herds (82%) completed the survey. Average herd size was 327 ± 162 lactating cows with the average land size of 160 ± 94 ha per farm. Herds were located in the provinces of Cremona (17), Brescia (8), Mantova (7), Piacenza (5), Cuneo (4), Bergamo (3), Lodi (3), Torino (2), and Venezia (1). These farms sold 32.8 ± 2.01 kg of milk/day per cow, had an annual culling rate of 34.0 ± 4.00%, a calving interval of 14.16 ± 0.58 months., and a 21-days pregnancy rate of 17.05 ± 2.58%. Implementing effective management strategies to contrast the damage caused by Ostrinia nubilalis, Diabrotica spp. and Myocastor coypus were identified as the main crop enterprise challenges. Main forages cultivated were alfalfa and corn silage second seeding with a total cost of production of (€/ha) 1968 ± 362 and 2,581 ± 221, with an average yield of 9.61 ± 1.24 and 17.22 ± 2.46 ton of DM per hectare, respectively. Results of this study can provide useful benchmark or reference for dairy management practices, crops and dairy performances, forages production costs on very well-managed North Italian dairy farms at the present time. benchmarks for dairy farms management practices, economic and reproductive performance cost of production of forages in northern Italy [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A study was conducted to evaluate growth performance and blood serum parameters of Japanese quails fed diets containing different supra-nutritional levels of vitamin E and C (600, 800 and 1000 mg/kg). A completely randomised design was adopted and main effects (vitamin E and C) were arranged in a 3 × 3 factorial approach. Throughout the study (1–42 d), the supplementation with 1000 mg/kg vitamin E and C resulted in the highest feed intake, weight gain, and final body weight (p <.01). Serum parameters showed that vitamin E and C at 1000 mg/kg determined the lowest serum concentrations of glucose, uric acid and creatinine (p ≤ 0.01) and the highest of high (HDL, p =.01) and low (LDL, p =.05) density lipoprotein cholesterol and albumin (p <.01). The administering of 1000 mg/kg vitamin E or C reduced triglycerides (p <.01), aspartate amino transferase (E, p <.01; C, p =.02) and alanine amino transferase (E, p <.01; C, p =.01) whereas increased total protein, calcium, phosphorous, thyroid stimulating hormone, red blood cells, mean corpuscular volume, mean corpuscular haemoglobin and mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration (p <.01). Vitamin C at 800 or 1000 mg/kg level decreased serum total cholesterol (p <.01) whereas vitamin E achieved the lowest alkaline phosphatase and the highest haemoglobin serum concentration (p <.01). The findings showed that these vitamins, used together at 1000 mg/kg, can individually or synergistically act promoting quail health, feed intake and growth. The use of vitamin E and C at high doses (1000 mg/kg) in quail diet can promote animal health. The vitamin E and C administration at high levels can be a good management practice in quail nutrition to promote feed intake and growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study investigated in a practical farm condition the response of two commercial maize hybrids (maturity class FAO rating 700) grown for silage production on chemical composition and digestibility of whole maize plant as consequence of a severe water irrigation reduction. Based on different irrigation applications, water restricted (WR) and fully irrigated (FI) plots received 50 and 200 mm of irrigation water, respectively. A split-plot factorial arrangement in a randomised complete block design with two main plots (WR and FI) and two sub-plots (hybrid A and B) with 12 replications/ treatment was performed. Studied parameters were dry matter (DM) yield, harvest index (HI), chemical composition, rumen in situ DM and neutral detergent fibre disappearance (DMD and NDFD, respectively), indigestible NDF (iNDF), 7h in vitro starch degradability (7hIVSD) and net energy (NE) for lactation content. Total DM and grain yields, HI and chemical composition differed (P<0.05) between FI and WR crops and only slight differences were recorded between hybrids. When compared to FI plants, WR had lower starch and higher fibre contents (P<0.05). Higher DMD (59.2 vs 56.4% DM) and NDFD (61.0 vs 58.4% NDFOM) were measured for FI with respect to WR crops, whereas iNDF was about 36% higher (P<0.05) in WR than FI. Lastly, WR plants had a lower NE content than FI plants (P<0.05). Our research showed that a drastic reduction in water irrigation negatively affected whole plant yield, chemical composition and nutrient availability of forage maize. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) isomers are considered healthy factors due to their anticarcinogenic, anti-atherosclerotic and lipolytic effect. A recommended daily intake from 0.8 to 3 g CLA/day/person has been proposed to obtain biological effects in humans. The aim of this work was to provide data on cis9,trans11 (c9,t11 CLA) and trans10,cis12 (t10,c12 CLA) contents in meats collected from Italian largescale retail trade and completing a food CLA database. In a first trial, beef loin meats were characterised for label information available for consumers: origin (i.e., Ireland, France- Italy, Piedmont) and sex of animals. No differences were observed for c9,t11 and t10,c12 CLA contents (mg/g fat) of loin meat from male or female. Piedmontese meat showed lower (P<0.05) c9,t11 CLA level (mg/g fat) than Irish and French-Italian meats, whereas similar t10,c12 CLA contents were measured in Piedmontese, Irish and French-Italian meats. Successively, meat samples from different animal species (male and female beef, veal, suckling lamb, belly beef, canned beef meat, pork and horse) were characterised for their contents in c9,t11 and t10,c12 CLA. Lamb meat had the highest (P<0.05) c9,t11 CLA content (mg/g fat). The c9,t11 CLA was lower than 2 mg/g fat in veal, pork and horse meats. Low t10,c12 CLA amounts were found in all analysed meat samples. These data provided information to estimate the average daily intake of CLA from meats in an Italian cohort, which can be used in epidemiological studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eight potential aflatoxin-sequestering agents (SAs) were tested for their ability to adsorb aflatoxin B1 (AfB1) and aflatoxin G1 (AfG1) in vitro. They belong to main SA classes: silicate minerals (calcium, magnesium and sodium bentonites, kaolinite, zeolite and clinoptinolite), activated carbon and yeast cell wall-derived. The AfB1 and AfG1 used in present work were extracted from a contaminated corn meal (82.21 mg/kg of AfB1 and 97.20 mg/kg of AfG1). Three single-concentration adsorption tests, consisting of a simply-water (W), a gastro-intestinal simulating monogastric model (MM) and a ruminant model (RM) were used. The methods differed for dilution media, incubation steps and pH condition in which they were conducted. In particular, one step (2h at 39°C) at pH 7 for W; two steps (4h at 39°C) at pH 2 and 7 for MM; and a pre-incubation in rumen fluid (pH 7 for 2h at 39°C) + two steps (4h at 39°C) at pH 2 and 7 for RM, characterized each method. The AfB1:SA ratio (g/g) and dilution factor (ng of incubated AfB1:mL of volume) were chosen (1:500,000 and 4.1, respectively) to reflect field conditions. The AfB1 and AfG1 recovered in controls were 92.3% and 104.9% in W and 89.5% and 101.5% in MM; while in RM were 65.2% and 81.9%; respectively. This supported the idea of intrinsic rumen fluid factors could be involved in sequestering of aflatoxins. In the present study, three SAs (activated carbon, Mg bentonite and Na bentonite) were very efficient to sequester the available AfB1, with a sequestering activity of over 99.0% with each method. The Ca bentonite and clinoptinolite were able to bind available AfB1 in MM and RM methods, while they appeared inefficient (available AfB1 sequestered less than 80%) when W was used. The adsorption ability of zeolite was confirmed only with the W method. Ineffective or limited sequestering activity were obtained with kaolinite and yeast cell wall-derived products with each method. The AfB1 and AfG1 sequestering efficiencies observed in the present work resulted very similar showing strong and positive correlation (P<0.001) within methods (r=0.79, r=0.96 and r=0.99, respectively for W, MM and RM methods). The two simulated gastrointestinal methods (MM and RM, respectively) gave similar results and could be considered useful for in vitro pre-screening of potential sequestering agents. However, the major practical and analytical implications related to rumen fluid method suggested that MM method should be used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]