Suchergebnisse

The objective of this study was to determine the effect of pre-slaughter time about some blood constituents used as stress indicators in the evaluation of animal welfare in cattle. In the practice of ethology, animal welfare is assessed through physiological and behavioral indicators. For the determination of serum biomarkers of animal stress, a total of 180 animals was used, divided into two major groups according to the time of pre-slaughter. In the acceptable group, the animals had a pre-slaughter time up to 24 hours and in the not acceptable group the pre-slaughter time was greater than 24 h. These two groups were split up into three animal categories (males, females and castrated males). In this study, 30 samples were collected from each animal category of the two groups, acceptable and not acceptable, totaling 180 samples. Samples were separated for analysis of muscle enzymes creatine kinase and lactate dehydrogenase (CK and LDH), glucose and cortisol. Physiological values, regardless of the animal category and pre-slaughter time, were higher than the normal values of reference, expressing the prior management effect on animal welfare. The data clearly show a need to update and adapt the entire production chain to animal welfare practices, with the objective of producing competitive quality meat in the world market.

This study aimed to analyze the applicability of management tools such as SWOT matrix, GUT matrix, Brainstorming, PDCA, Ishikawa diagram, and 5W2H in improving milk quality in rural properties for family labor. The survey was conducted in 18 properties in the municipality of Senador Guiomard, State of Acre, Brazil, during the period from January to December 2019. The properties were divided into two groups (treatment group-TG and control group-CG) and the data obtained through a form with 255 questions for diagnosis and analysis (LQL-GO) for somatic cell count (SCC) and total bacterial count (TBC) were tabulated in spreadsheets (Excel®) and subjected to statistical analysis by the Wilcoxon test. Nineteen weaknesses were obtained through the GUT matrix. The implementation of milking practices using tools obtained an average reduction of 31.4% for SCC and 63% for TBC in TG and a reduction of 39.3% for SCC and an increase of 33.7% for TBC in CG. Thus, the management tools applied to milk quality are capable of generating positive results (p < 0.05) in microbiological control, facilitating quick decision-making, aiming at the correction of weaknesses, and, consequently, an increase in profitability.

Strategies to improve beef nutritional value, mainly fatty acid composition, have been a major goal for the scientific community. The use of different oil contents, mostly those rich in unsaturated fatty acids, can be interesting for cost reduction, as well as cattle performance and meat quality improvements. This study assessed the influence of diets containing increasing linseed oil levels (1.0, 3.8, and 5.2% DM) on performance, carcass traits, and meat quality of feedlot-finished Nellore x Canchim steers and heifers. The experiment was carried out in a randomized block design and arranged in a mixed 3 x 2 factorial scheme. Increasing oil levels linearly decreased dry matter intake (DMI) (P < 0.05) and hence improved feed efficiency (P < 0.05), regardless of sexual condition. A beneficial effect of increasing the inclusion of linseed oil was the reduction DMI. Steers had a higher weight at slaughter (P < 0.05) and heifers had greater backfat thickness (P < 0.05). The concentrations of most fatty acids were changed by the linseed oil levels studied (P < 0.05). Dietary inclusion of linseed oil improved beef quality by reducing (P < 0.05) the n-6:n-3 ratio by 1.3 points per percentage point increase in linseed oil level in the finishing diet of both sexes.