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Background: In recent decades, grain amaranths have attracted attention due to their valuable combination of nutritional traits, with higher protein and oil content than conventional cereals. Before they can be proposed as an unconventional ingredient in animal feed, many aspects still need to be investigated from field production to nutritive value. The present research aimed to study the agronomic traits, proximate composition, and digestibility/degradability, fatty acid profile, antioxidant activity, and total phenolic content of two grain amaranth species, Amaranthus cruentus and Amaranthus hypochondriacus (for a total of six accessions), grown in a Mediterranean environment. Results: Both species showed seed yields comparable to or higher than the traditional cereal crops in the same environment. On the whole, A. cruentus resulted in a higher seed production than A. hypochondriacus. Mexico and Montana accessions, both belonging to A. cruentus, showed the highest yield (3.73 t ha-1 , on average). Few differences emerged in nutritive value between species and accessions: the Illinois accession of A. cruentus showed the best performance in terms of in vitro degradability and gas production, but not for volatile fatty acid production; the fermentation kinetics was slowest in the Illinois accession and fastest in the Montana accession of A. cruentus and the India accession of A. hypochondriacus. Conclusion: From a health perspective, the Nebraska accession of A. hypochondriacus represents the best accession, with the lowest saturated fatty acid content and the highest polyunsaturated fatty acid content. © 2022 The Authors. Journal of The Science of Food and Agriculture published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.

Castanea sativa Mill. (Fagaceae) is a deciduous tree grown for its wood and edible fruits. Chestnut processing produces residues (burs, shells, and leaves) exploitable for their diversity in bioactive compounds in animal nutrition. In fact, plant-specialized metabolites likely act as rumen modifiers. Thus, the recovery of residual plant parts as feed ingredients is an evaluable strategy. In this context, European chestnut leaves from northern Germany have been investigated, proving to be a good source of flavonoids as well as gallo- and ellagitannins. To this purpose, an alcoholic extract was obtained and an untargeted profiling carried out, mainly by means of ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography/high-resolution tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-HR MS/MS) techniques. To better unravel the polyphenol constituents, fractionation strategies were employed to obtain a lipophilic fraction and a polar one. This latter was highly responsive to total phenolic and flavonoid content analyses, as well as to antiradical (DPPH● and ABTS+●) and reducing activity (PFRAP) assays. The effect of the alcoholic extract and its fractions on rumen liquor was also evaluated in vitro in terms of fermentative parameter changes and impact on methanogenesis. The data acquired confirm that chestnut leaf extract and the fractions therefrom promote an increase in total volatile fatty acids, while decreasing acetate/propionate ratio and CH4 production.

Given probable the increment in the nutritional needs of both humans and animals, animal production will have increased dramatically by 2050. Insect meals could be an alternative protein source for livestock, and they would also be able to reduce the environmental problems related to intensive animal production system. The aim of this study was to evaluate productive performance, blood analysis, nutrient digestibility, and changes in the internal organs of laying hens fed Hermetia illucens larvae meal (HI) at two different levels in substitution (25 or 50%) of soybean meal (SBM). A total of 162 Hy-line Brown hens (sixteen weeks old) were equally divided into three experimental groups and fed isoprotein and isoenergetic diets. Egg weight, feed intake, and feed conversion rate were not affected by the soybean meal substitution at both inclusion levels of insect meal. Egg mass was positively affected by the insect meal diets, as was the lay percentage, although only at the lowest inclusion level. Dry matter, organic matter, and crude protein digestibility coefficients were lower for the HI50 diet, probably due to the negative effect of chitin. A reduction in serum cholesterol and triglycerides was observed in both insect-meal fed groups, while serum globulin level increased only at the highest level of insect meal inclusion, and, consequently, the albumin to globulin ratio decreased. Overall, a protein replacement of 25% with an insect meal from Hermetia illucens larvae in the diet of laying hens seems to be more suitable and closer to the optimal level.

The aim of the research was to evaluate the effect of three Eucalyptus globulus extracts rich in phenolic compounds, especially flavonoids, on rumen fermentation, methane (CH4) production, organic matter degradability and protozoa population using an in vitro gas production technique. Four concentrations (0, 50, 75 and 100 mg) of three Eucalyptus extracts (ethyl acetate, n-butanol and aqueous) were added to a diet of ruminants (forage: concentrate ratio 60:40) and incubated at 39°C under anaerobiosis with buffered rumen fluid. After 24 h, the fermentation fluid was analysed for ammonia-N and volatile fatty acids (VFA). Organic matter degradability (OMD) and protozoa were also determined; in vitro gas production was also recorded and CH4 concentration was measured. Compared to the control, CH4 production was significantly lower for ethyl acetate extract (P