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Using an array consisting of 10 665 70-mer oligonucleotide probes, the longissimus dorsi muscle tissue expression during growth in nine pigs belonging to Casertana (CT), an autochthonous breed characterized by slow growth and a massive accumulation of backfat, was compared with that of two cosmopolitan breeds, Large White (LW) and a crossbreed (CB; Duroc × Landrace × Large White). The results were validated by real-time PCR. All animals were of the same age and were raised under the same environmental conditions. Muscle tissues were collected at 3, 6, 9 and 11 months of age, and a total of 173 genes showed significant differential expression between CT and the cosmopolitan genetic types at 3 months of age. Time series cluster analysis indicated that the CT breed had a different pattern of gene expression compared with that of the LW and the CB. Four of the eight clusters highlighted the gene differences between CT and the other two breeds, which were further supported by statistical analyses: clusters 4 and 5 contained a total of 71 genes that were underexpressed at 3 months of age, and cluster 3 and cluster 7 included 28 and 42 genes respectively that were overexpressed at 3 months of age. As expected, differentially expressed genes belonged to the category of genes coding for contractile fibres and transcription factors involved in muscle development and differentiation. These findings highlight muscle expression genes during pig growth and are useful to understand the genetic meaning of the different developmental rates.

Skeletal muscle growth represents one of the main economic traits in pig production. To gain a better understanding of expressions profile in pig muscle, serial analysis of gene expression (SAGE) was performed in Longissimus dorsi of two pigs at 3 and 9 months of age. A total of 53,120 long tags were obtained and sequenced from the four muscle SAGE libraries, representing 17,902 different tags, or putative transcripts, 0.64% (+0.09) of which had a relative expression level higher than 1‰. Overall, a total of 218 tags were highly expressed and 31 had a frequency higher than 3‰. Functional characterisation of the expression profiles was performed using Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes metabolic maps and 139 pathways were identified for swine skeletal muscle. Focal adhesion, Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase signalling, oxidative phosphorylation, ribosomal proteins, regulation of actin cytoskeleton and insulin signalling pathways showed an abundance of genes greater than 1.5% of all the expressed transcripts. A comparison with human SAGE library indicated no statistical differences for the frequency of genes involved in these metabolic pathways.

The volatile fractions of milk and their evolution in ripened cheese were studied using purge and trap extraction and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis (GC-MS). Eighteen samples of raw milk and cheese ripened for 70 days were collected in 2 consecutive years from dairy farms located in the border area between Italy and Slovenia. Twenty one volatile compounds not detected in the fresh milk used for cheese manufacturing, belonging mainly to the class of esters and alcohols, were found, while 8 compounds detected in milk were not found in cheese after 70 days of ripening. In cheese the majority of compounds increased significantly, even though the variations differed between the classes of volatile compounds.

Nitrate (NO_ 3) and nitrite (NO_ 2) can be ingested with water and feeds and NO_ 2 can be produced from NO_ 3 by rumen and intestinal microbes. Moreover,NO_ 3 and NO_ 2 are endogenously produced by cells of various tissues from nitric oxide (NO) and arginine (Passi, 2000). Toxicity of NO_ 3 is casued by the reduction to NO_ 2 in the rumen environment. This ion competes with superoxide for hemoglobin (Doyle et al., 1982), producing methemoglobin (MtHb), which does not carry oxygen. The reaction is reversible, but the transient hypoxia can be exacerbated if the amount of ingested nitrates is high, causing fall of blood pressure and increase of heart rate........

La monografia affronta la problematica della definizione dei valori di riferimento dei principali parametri ematochimici degli animali in produzione zootecnica e i criteri interpretativi delle variazioni riferibili al metabolismo energetico, proteico e minerale. Vengono presi in considerazione, inoltre, alcuni aspetti riguardanti le variazioni ematiche delle vitamine, nonché quelle indotte dagli stress od indice della funzionalità digestiva ed epatica o rilevabili in seguito a processi infettivo-infiammatori.