RESUMO

This study elucidated the effect of age and diet on carcass characteristics and meat quality parameters of Rambouillet ewes. Forty ewes (n = 20 yearling ewes and n = 20 cull ewes) were fed with alfalfa hay (AH) or a 100 % concentrate diet (CD). Treatments were: a) 10 cull ewes were fed only with AH, b) 10 yearling ewes were fed only with AH, c) 10 cull ewes were fed with CD, d) 10 yearling ewes were fed with CD. Productive performance, carcass and meat quality were analyzed. Animals had ten days for adaptation and 35 days were used to collect data. Dry matter intake was greater (P < 0.05) for CD. Feed conversion rates were not affected by treatments. The pH at 45 min and 24 h, carcass length, leg length, leg width, thorax width, and thorax perimeter were not affected by treatments. Hot carcass weight was heavier (P < 0.05) in cull ewes, cold carcass weight was increased (P < 0.05) with CD. Carcass yield (CY) was heavier in CD (P < 0.05). Cull ewes had greater (P < 0.05) lean CIELAB L*, a*, b*, c*, and h* values compared to yearling ewes. The color changes increased with age at five days (P < 0.05), but a decrease (P < 0.05) with diet was observed at ten days. Cathepsins B, B + L, and Lowry protein content were not affected by treatments. In conclusion, feeding cull ewes with concentrate diets may enhance body weight gain and carcass yield compared to a diet based on 100 % alfalfa hay.

RESUMO

This experiment aimed to evaluate the effects of herbal vitamin C at different levels on tilapia (Oreochromis spp.) growth, potential DNA damage, and the metabolomic profile of water effluent. Forty-five tilapias were housed in separate plastic tanks (80 L), and these were randomly assigned to three treatments: (a) a commercial diet (CD) only; (Nutripec Purina®); (b) the commercial diet plus 250 mg of herbal vitamin C (HVC)/kg (CD250); and (c) the commercial diet plus 500 mg of HVC/kg (CD500). Biometric measurements were taken each week, blood samples were collected from the caudal vein on the final day, and water effluent was taken each week and immediately frozen (-80 °C) until further analysis (gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) systems). Data were completely randomized with a 2 × 2 factorial arrangement of treatments. Upon including herbal vitamin C, the final BW (p = 0.05) and BWG (p = 0.06) increased linearly. Herbal vitamin C decreases DNA damage (p ≥ 0.05). PLS-DA showed a 41.6% variation between treatments in the water samples. Fifteen metabolites had the best association between treatments, with a stronger correlation with CD500. Herbal vitamin C could improve fish performance, prevent DNA damage, and influence changes in the metabolomic profile of the water.

RESUMO

This study was designed to develop predictive equations estimating carcass tissue composition in growing Blackbelly male lambs using as predictor variables for tissue composition of wholesale cuts of low economic value (i.e., neck and shoulder). For that, 40 lambs with 29.9 ± 3.18 kg of body weight were slaughtered and then the left half carcasses were weighed and divided in wholesale cuts, which were dissected to record weights of fat, muscle, and bone from leg, loin, neck, rib, and shoulder. Total weights of muscle (CM), bone (CB) and fat (CF) in carcass were recorded by adding the weights of each tissue from cuts. The CM, CF and CB positively correlated (p < 0.05; 0.36 ≤ r ≤ 0.86), from moderate to high, with most of the shoulder tissue components, but it was less evident (p ≤ 0.05; 0.32≤ r ≤0.63) with the neck tissue composition. In fact, CM did not correlate with neck fat and bone weights. Final models explained (p < 0.01) 94, 92 and 88% of the variation observed for CM, CF and CB, respectively. Overall, results showed that prediction of carcass composition from shoulder (shoulder) tissue composition is a viable option over the more accurate method of analyzing the whole carcass.

RESUMO

The objective of this experiment was to evaluate the effects of feeding different levels concentrations of dietary calcium propionate (CaPr) on lambs' growth performance; ruminal fermentation parameters; glucose-insulin concentration; and hypothalamic mRNA expression for neuropeptide Y (NPY), agouti-related peptide (AgRP), and proopiomelanocortin (POMC). Thirty-two individually fed lambs were randomly assigned to four treatments: (1) control diet (0 g/kg of CaPr), (2) low CaPr, (30 g/kg dry matter (DM)), (3) medium CaPr, (35 g/kg DM), and (4) high CaPr (40 g/kg DM). After 42 days of feeding, lambs were slaughtered for collecting samples of the hypothalamus. Data were analyzed as a complete randomized design, and means were separated using linear and quadratic polynomial contrast. Growth performance was not affected (p ≥ 0.11) by dietary CaPr inclusion. The ruminal concentration of total volatile fatty acids (VFA) increased linearly (p = 0.04) as dietary CaPr increased. Likewise, a linear increase in plasma insulin concentration (p = 0.03) as dietary CaPr concentration increased. The relative mRNA expression of NPY exhibited a quadratic effect (p < 0.01), but there were significant differences in the mRNA expression of AgRP and POMC (p ≥ 0.10). Dietary calcium propionate did not improve lamb growth performance in lambs feed with only forage diets. Intake was not correlated with feed intake with mRNA expression of neuropeptides.

RESUMO

The traditions and habits of indigenous communities in México include the use of wood and biomass burning to cook their food, which generates large amounts of smoke and therefore pollution inside the households. This smoke is composed of a complex mixture of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) which at high levels of exposure cause carcinogenic, genotoxic effects and some chronic pulmonary and cardiovascular diseases; however, few studies relate kidney health with exposure to PAHs. Thus, the aim of this study was the evaluation of 10 hydroxylated metabolites of PAHs (OH-PAHs), and their correlation with biomarkers of early kidney damage renal (cystatin-C (Cys-C)), osteopontin (OPN), retinol-binding protein-4 (RPB-4), and neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) in the indigenous population of the Huasteca Potosina in Mexico. The results demonstrate the presence of the OH-PAHs and kidney damage biomarkers in 100% of the study population. The OH-PAHs were shown in the following order of frequency, 1-OH-PYR > 4-OH-PHE > 2-OH-NAP > 1-OH-NAP > 9-OH-FLU > 3-OH-FLU > 2-OH-FLU > 3-OH-PHE and with the following percentages of detection 97.6, 87.8, 78, 73.2, 68.3, 31.7, 14.6, and 12.2%, respectively. NGAL and RBP-4 were present in above 85% of the population, with mean concentrations of 78.5 ± 143.9 and 139.4 ± 131.7 ng/g creatinine, respectively, OPN (64%) with a mean concentration of 642.6 ± 723.3 ng/g g creatinine, and Cys-C with a mean concentration of 33.72 ± 44.96 ng/g creatinine. Correlations were found between 1-OH-NAP, 2-OH-NAP, 9-OH-FLU, and 4-OH-PHE and the four biomarkers of early kidney damage. 3-OH-FLU with OPN and 1-OH-PYR correlated significantly with NGAL, OPN, and RPB-4.

Assuntos

Hidrocarbonetos Policíclicos Aromáticos , Biomarcadores , Humanos , Rim , México , Grupos Populacionais

RESUMO

The aim of the present study was to develop and evaluate an equation to predict body weight (BW) using hip width (HW) in Pelibuey ewe lambs and ewes. Five hundred seventy-seven 2-month-old to 3-year-old, non-pregnant, non-lactating, clinically healthy ewe lambs and adult ewes with a mean BW of 34.7 ± 12.4 kg and HW of 15.6 ± 3.4 cm were considered. Three equations were evaluated: BW (kg): - 19.17 + 3.46 × HW (Eq. 1), BW (kg): - 17.79 + 3.25 × HW + 0.007 × HW2 (Eq. 2) and BW (kg): 0.39 × HW1.63 (Eq. 3). Independent data from 80 animals with similar characteristics (BW of 23.4 ± 10.9 kg and HW of 12 ± 3.1 cm) were also considered to evaluate the developed equations. The evaluation was based on the relationship between the observed and predicted values of BW analysed using a linear regression, the mean squared error of prediction (MSEP), the root MSEP (RMSEP) and the concordance correlation coefficients (CCCs). Additionally, cross-validation analyses were performed using the k-folds validation (k = 10) procedure. The correlation coefficient (r) between BW and HW was 0.94 (P < 0.001). The parameters for precision and accuracy showed that the proposed equations had high precision (R2 > 0.95%), accuracy (Cb > 0.98) and reproducibility (CCC > 0.96) in predicting the BW of ewe lambs and adult ewes. Equation (1) accurately predicted observed BW, with a bias (observed - predicted) of 4.3 kg and RMSEP of 9.68% with respect to the observed BW (random error of 84.23%); it also generated the best prediction according to the residual mean squared prediction error, coefficient of determination and mean absolute error. In conclusion, the highly correlated relationship between BW and HW in Pelibuey ewe lambs and adult ewes under humid tropic conditions enabled the development of mathematical models herein to estimate BW with an adequate goodness of fit. The linear model showed the best performance according to the goodness-of-fit evaluation and internal and external validation; hence, this model is proposed for use in both the experimental and commercial farms.

Assuntos

Peso Corporal , Ovinos/fisiologia , Algoritmos , Animais , Feminino , Modelos Lineares , Modelos Biológicos , Reprodutibilidade dos Testes

RESUMO

Two experiments (Australia and Mexico) tested whether feed intake (FI) and wool production (WP) are affected by pregnancy (PRG), litter size (LZ), or lamb sex (LS) in Merino-type ewes. In Experiment-1, ewes were either not pregnant (NPR; n = 6), or carrying 1 (PR1; n = 7) or 3 (PR3; n = 11) fetuses, were studied in individual pens. NPR ewes had lower (p < 0.02) FI throughout PRG and lactation (LAC), except around lambing (p < 0.001). Following lambing, FI increased in PRG ewes (p < 0.001) to double the values in NPR ewes. PRG reduced WP (p < 0.001); in PR3, WP was lower than for both PR1 and NPR (p < 0.001). WP decreased during LAC and was lower in ewes rearing lambs than in NPR ewes (p < 0.001). Experiment-2 used 48 pregnant ewes (28 bearing singles and 20 bearing twins). Dam and lamb live weights (LW) and body condition (BC) were recorded from birth to weaning at 60 d, and dam fleece weight (DFW) was measured at weaning (12 months growth). WP was higher in ewes bearing and rearing single lambs than in ewes bearing twins (p < 0.001). DFW was positively (p < 0.01) related to LZ, dam LW, and BC, but not to changes in dam LW during LAC, or to lamb weight at birth or weaning, or LW gain, or LS. In conclusion, FI was affected during PRG and by LZ during LAC, whereas WP was influenced by LZ, but not LS, only during pregnancy.