Search

The world cow milk production will reach between 810 and nearly 1,000 Mt in 2050, implying changes in dairy farm management as well implications in environmental impact, especially as far as greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions, and nitrogen and phosphorus excretions are concerned. The future dairy farms will need to become smarter, profitable, and high yielding to continuously improve the sustainability of milk production. Among western countries, the Italian dairy industry has good performances both for milk yield and quality. Most of its milk is used to produce highly exported PDO cheeses with high added value. It could represent a model to study the impact of accelerated phenotypic trend on technical and environmental challenges. Assuming a constant average increase of milk yield equal to the actual phenotypic trend (+128 kg per cow and per year), the production of the current best cows (20t/head year−1) will become the average herd performance of the intensive dairy farms in 2030. Thus, maintaining the current Italian milk production (equal to 12.1 Mt), the higher milk production per head would cause a reduction of the environmental impact of 11.4% and 60.1% for GHG, 9.1% and 36.0% for N, 15.8% and 52.6% for P considering two scenarios of present phenotypic trend or 20t/head year−1, respectively. To cope with this challenge, technical suggestions for breeding and feeding the 20t dairy cow are given.Highlights Current top Italian cows represent the 2030 average of dairy herds Genomics and management will drive the productivity success Efficiency will reduce dairy environmental impact

While there is increasing evidence of the sustainability benefits of diversified systems in the organic cropping sector, this has been much less investigated with organic livestock farming. To fill this knowledge gap, we surveyed a sample of 128 European organic multi-species livestock farms located across seven countries – Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden and Switzerland – and covering a large range of livestock species combinations. We recorded 1574 variables as raw data out of which we calculated 107 indicators describing farm structure, management and several sustainability dimensions: resource use efficiency and conservation, animal, land and work productivities, animal and human welfare. After technical validation of the data, we withdrew 26 farms and the database covers 102 farms. This database is well suited to unveil relationships between various dimensions of organic multi-species livestock farm sustainability and their structure and management. It can help reveal sustainable strategies for organic multi-species livestock farming systems and understand levers or barriers to their development.

International audience; 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.

Anti-inflammatory effects of conjugated linoleic acid isomers and essential fatty acids in bovine mammary epithelial cells D. Dipasquale1, L. Basiricò1, P. Morera1, R. Primi1, A. Tröscher2 and U. Bernabucci1† 1Dipartimento di Scienze Agrarie e Forestali, Università degli Studi della Tuscia, via San Camillo De Lellis s.n.c., 01100 Viterbo, Italy; 2Animal Nutrition, BASF SE,Chemiestrasse. 22, F 31, 68623 Lampertheim, Germany Animal, vol. 9, p..1 -7. doi:10.1017/S1751731117003676 Fatty acids are important modulators of inflammatory responses, in particular, n-3 and n-6 essential fatty acids and CLA have received particular attention for their ability to modulate inflammation. The objectives of this study were to compare the effects of CLA and essential fatty acids on the expression of pro and anti- inflammatory cytokines and their protective efficacy against inflammatory status in mammary gland by an in vitro model based on bovine mammary epithelial cells (BME-UV1). Bovine mammary epithelial cells were treated with complete medium containing either 50 μM of cis-9, trans-11 CLA (c9,t11 CLA) or trans-10, cis-12 CLA (t10,c12 CLA) or (α)-linolenic acid (aLnA) or (γ)-linolenic acid (gLnA) or linoleic acid (LA). After 48 h by fatty acids administration the cells were treated for 3 h with 20 μM of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) to induce inflammatory stimulus. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) production after treatments was assessed to verify and to compare the potential protection of different fatty acids against LPS-induced oxidative stress. The messenger RNA abundance of bovine pro and anti-inflammatory cytokines (tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-1β (IL-1β),interleukin-6 (IL-6) and interleukine-10 (IL-10)) and peroxisome proliferator receptor-α/γ (PPARγ/α) were determined in BME-UV1 by realtime PCR. The results showed that cells treated with fatty acids and LPS increased ROS production compared with control cells. Among treatments, cells treated with c9,t11 CLA and t10,c12 CLA isomers revealed significant lower levels of ROS production compared with other fatty acids. All fatty acids reduced the gene expression of pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines. Among fatty acids, t10,c12 CLA, LA and gLnA showed an homogeneous reduction of the three pro-inflammatory cytokines and this may correspond to more balanced and efficient physiological activity and may trigger a better protective effect. The PPARγ gene expression was significantly greater in cells treated with t10,c12 CLA, aLnA and LA, whereas the PPARα gene expression levels were significantly lower in cells treated with all different fatty acids, compared with the control. These results suggest that fatty acids inhibited the transcription of pro-inflammatory cytokines by the upregulation of PPARγ expression. The supplementation of CLA and essential fatty acids (EFAs) in bovine mammary epithelial cell line exposed to severe inflammatory conditions, reduced the gene expression of proinflammatory cytokines. This study suggests and strengthen the utilization of these fatty acids as a useful management tool for dairy cattle, their use on high-yielding dairy cow at the time of calving, could act by reducing the development of inflammatory processes related to parturition.

Experiments were conducted in open field to assess the effect of seeding season and density on the yield, the chemical composition and the accumulation of total tannins in grains of two chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) cultivars (Pascià and Sultano). Environmental conditions and genetic factors considerably affected grain yield, nutrient and total tannins content of chickpea seeds, giving a considerable range in its qualitative characteristics. Results confirmed cultivar selection as a central factor when a late autumn-early winter sowing is performed. In effect, a more marked resistance to Ascochyta blight (AB) of Sultano, allowed better agronomic performances when favourable-to-AB climatic conditions occur. Winter sowing appeared to be the best choice in the Mediterranean environment when cultivating to maximise the grain yield (+19%). Spring sowing improved crude protein (+10%) and crude fibre (+8%) content, whereas it did not significantly affect the accumulation of anti-nutrients compounds such as total tannins. The most appropriate seeding rate was 70 seeds m–2, considering that plant density had relatively little effect on the parameters studied.

The utilization of isotopic signatures in animal tissues provides information about environment and notably on their diet. The stable carbon (13C/12C) and nitrogen (15N/14N) isotopes ratios in hairs and muscles of animals can be useful for such investigations. For these reasons, in this study the isotopic compositions ?13C and ?15N were analysed on wild boars samples from three different areas within the Lazio Region (Italy). The agricultural habits of these areas imply that in the winter period no crops are available for wild boars that mainly fed on acorns and natural feeds (tubers, earthworms etc.). In addition, the areas were interested by oak masting. One of these areas was characterized by spreading maize during the hunting season to attract the animal. For each area, 10 animals were sampled, balanced for gender, aged between 12 and 24 months. The area is the main factor able to discriminate the data. In all the tissues, the depletion of ?13C in the area where maize was used was observed if compared to other areas. The inverse trend was observed for ?15N that showed enrichment in the same area. In details, an enrichment of ?13C was observed for all the tissues. The research demonstrates that the isotopic compositions ?13C and ?15N in free-living wild boar tissues are affected by sampling area. According to feeding habits of the species and management regime of the areas, the observed differences of C and N isotopic compositions are based on the specific feeding regime; in particular the use of maize. Furthermore, the research highlights and discuss diversities and relationships among the isotopic compositions ?13C and ?15N in hair, fat and muscles of free-living wild boar.

vThis study was aimed at analysing the most relevant environmental variables involved in vehicle–wild boar road collisions in a Mediterranean area, starting from a territorial information system implemented in a GIS environment. Landscape structure indices and local qualitative and quantitative variables were correlated to identify the most frequent predisposing factors of collisions. Statistical tests of the considered parameters indicated a higher frequency of collisions in the evening hours of late summer and autumn (P