Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

Dietary avocado meal (AM) may improve growth and muscle fatty acid composition in pigs due to the expression of genes. Transcriptome analysis of Longissimus dorsi muscle and liver and the effect of 0, 5 and 10 % AM in the feed of Landrace-Yorkshire pigs on growth, carcass, muscle fatty acid composition and blood metabolites were evaluated. Twenty-four castrated males with an initial weight of 55 ± 3 kg were distributed under a completely random design. Transcriptome analysis was carried out with massive sequencing, with EdgeR and DESeq2 methods for differentially gene expression (DGE; P ≤ 0.01, log2 fold change ≤ 1.5). We observed higher DGE in both tissues, with down log2 fold change, by including 5 or 10 % AM in the diet against AM0. Genes associated with lipid metabolism (down ANO3; up GOS2, MYLIP, PLIN4), growth (down FOS, MT1A, MT1D, PHGDH; up ARNTL) circadian clock (down DBP, NOCT, PER1, PER2, PER3, SIK1; up ARNTL), immune system (down CD163, CRP, OTUD1; up C1QTNF7, NFIL3) and antioxidative activity (up HP and NCF4) were observed.  The inclusion of AM in the diets increased daily gain, feed intake, slaughtered body weight, carcass weight and ham (P < 0.05). Back fat was greater for AM10 (P < 0.001). AM in the diet decreased intramuscular fat and had less triglycerides in the blood (P < 0.05). AM10 in the diet modified the gene expression and quality of the IMF, had more linoleic acid, total fatty acids Ω6, ∑polyunsaturated fatty acids, PUFA/SFA, and PUFA/MUFA (P < 0.001)

Cats and dogs have a very close relationship with humans. Currently, the overpopulation of these species in various countries worldwide has been identified as a severe public health problem. To establish effective programs for population control, it is necessary to estimate the number of cats and dogs. To our knowledge, there are no studies that assess the number of canine and feline population by state in Mexico. Therefore, this study aimed to estimate the canine and feline population living at homes using official information reported by the National Institute of Statistics, Geography and Informatics [Instituto Nacional de Estadística Geografía e Informática] through a constant-share model, a ratio extrapolation method. The estimated dog population living at homes was 42 625 010 dogs and 7 346 925 cats (at least 5.8 times less than the number of dogs). By 2022, the Mexico's estimated human:dog ratio was 2.4:1, and the human:cat ratio 17.6:1. The Estado de México had more than six million dogs and 962 177 cats. Colima had the smallest estimated dog population (245 489), and Baja California Sur the smallest estimated cat population (slightly over 30 000). Health authorities and veterinary practitioners should promote responsible ownership to increase veterinary care and control the birth of dogs and cats.

Inorganic selenium supplementation in poultry diet has been controversial. It has been linked that the excess and deficiency of this mineral can lead to health problems in these animals. However, this fact is not so evident in quails. In this research 120 female quails (220.6 ± 8.2 g) at 10 weeks of age were allocated to five treatment groups with six replicates of four quails in each. Experimental diets were formed by adding 0, 0.25, 0.50, 0.75 or1.00 mg/kg of inorganic selenium (sodium-selenite) to the diet containing 0.12 mg/kg of selenium. We observed that performance parameters, mortality, egg external, and internal quality of quails were not affected by the supplementation of inorganic selenium to the diet Serum glucose (P = 0.0020) and creatinine (P = 0.0333) levels were affected by inorganic selenium supplementation, but no differences were found for other parameters among those treatments. The addition of 0.50 mg/kg of inorganic selenium to the diet increased serum glucose levels of laying quails compared with the control group. While serum creatinine level was maximized with the addition of 0.25 mg/kg inorganic selenium to the diet, and it was minimized with the addition of 0.50 mg/kg inorganic selenium. Supplementation with inorganic selenium (0 to 1.00 mg/kg) in laying quail diets did not have any adverse effect on performance, mortality, and egg quality during the study. No abnormalities were found in the serum parameters that would lead to the suspicion of metabolic disease in the quails.

Vegetable dietary protein sources are cheaper alternatives to fishmeal in shrimp diets. This study assessed the impact of fermented and non-fermented soybean and canola meals on growth performance, in vivo and in vitro digestibility, digestive enzyme activities and meat quality of Litopenaeus vannamei. A total of 513 shrimps were randomly assigned to treatments (control and two experimental diets). Animals on the control diet (cd) were fed a commercial feed concentrate. For the other treatments, the fishmeal protein source was totally replaced by a mixture of soybean and canola meal (50:50), either unfermented (sc) or fermented (fsc). Results showed that fermentation significantly increased (P < 0.05) the hydrolysis degree (hd) of sc meals by 12 % compared to that of their unfermented counterparts. Also, it was found that canola meal had higher hd compared to soybean meal, both before and after fermentation. The use of sc diet decreased protein digestibility in shrimps (P < 0.05), although there was no significant variation in the activity of total proteases and chymotrypsin. Production performance traits of shrimps fed diets with fsc were comparable to those of shrimps on the control diet. The increase in shear force of shrimps fed fsc was accompanied by an increase in the water holding capacity (whc) by 8-9 % (P < 0.05). Sensory attributes were similar across diets. In summary, this study showed it is possible to fully replace fish meal with fsc in shrimp diets without impairing production performance traits, dietary protein digestibility, and shrimp meat quality.

A trial was conducted with 414 newborn calves randomly divided by risk-blocks of developing omphalitis or omphalophlebitis: low; medium, and high. The treatments were applied by stump-dipping daily for three days, with either iodine-polyvinylpyrrolidone (I-PVP) (η = 205), or with an alginate gel containing 0.5% enrofloxacin hydrochloride dehydrate (enro-C) (enro-C/alginate gel) (η = 209). Results showed that only one death occurred in the enro-C/alginate gel group, and it was attributable to internal hemorrhage not linked with the treatment. On day 4 6 other cases were recorded as stump fibrosis, but regarded as inconsequential. In the I-PVP group, 44 calves developed cord infection and were considered treatment failures (13 high-risk; 11 medium-risk, and 20 low-risk) (P < 0.05 in the three risk grades). The umbilical stump involution was evident in the enro-C-alginate on day one as most stumps were noticeably dried. Stump detachment occurred on day 29.74 ± 0.79 SD and the umbilical scars did not present infection in any case. In contrast, in the remaining calves of the group treated with I-PVP, stump drying was observable after 72 h, and they detached at a mean of 32.9 ± 3.1 SD days (P < 0.05). In stumps treatment with enro-C-alginate, dirt stuck less, and the gel formed an apparently protecting layer around the umbilical scar when stump was wither absent or too short. These results show that calcium alginates as prepared with enro-C is a successful preventive treatment that allowed rapid umbilical stump involution in newborn calves.