The present study aimed to analyze, in Italian children and adolescents, the beliefs about which foods are fattening, the appreciation of fattening foods, and the perception of some socio-cultural attributes of them. 244 children (F: 125, M: 119, aged 8-11) and 305 adolescents (F: 153; M: 152, aged 11-14) from Bologna, Northern Italy, were asked to indicate five fattening foods. For each of the...

Steers and heifers were generated from Angus (A) and Belgian Blue (BB) sires mated to Brahman x Hereford (B x H) F(1) cows to characterize their growth, carcass traits, and LM shear force. A total of 120 B x H cows purchased from 2 herds and 35 bulls (14 A and 21 BB) produced calves during the 5-yr project. After the stocker phase, a representative sample of A- and BB-sired heifers and steers w...

The surface of beef cattle feedlot pens is commonly conceptualized as being packed uncomposted manure. Despite the important role that the feedlot pen may play in the transmission of veterinary and zoonotic pathogens, the bacterial ecology of feedlot surface material is not well understood. Our present study characterized the bacterial communities of the beef cattle feedlot pen surface material...

The present work summarizes research related to the definition of nutrient recommendations for feeds used in the intensive production of rabbit's meat. Fibre is the main chemical constituent of rabbit diets that typically contain 320 to 360 and 50 to 90 g/kg of insoluble and soluble fibre, respectively. Instead, the dietary contents of cereal grains (~120 to 160 g/kg), fat (15 to 25 g/kg) and p...

The objectives of this study were to assess the acute-phase protein response of beef steers following vaccination with two different vaccines, and to determine if this response is additive to weaning. Forty-eight Brahman x Angus steers (average age = 7 mo) were randomly assigned to one of six treatments in a 2 x 3 factorial arrangement, including: weaning vs. non-weaning, and vaccination with O...

Aim of the study was to evaluate, if the mixed breed German Landrace x Turopolje (L x T) was suitable for conventional fattening and the production of high quality palatable meat. Hence, we chose to study the carcass characteristics of three diff erent breeds: true bred Turopolje (T x T) (n=15), an autochthonous Croatian breed, German Landrace x Pietrain (L x P) (n=19), a typical German pig hyb...

Over 2 yr, 45 Angus-sired steer offspring of Angus and Angus crossbred females were used to determine the effects of early weaning on feedlot performance, carcass characteristics, and economic return to the cow-calf enterprise. Steers were assigned by birth date to one of two weaning treatments: 1) weaned at an average age of 100 d (early weaned) or 2) weaned at an average age of 200 d (normall...

Modern dairy beef feeding requires close attention to a host of nutrition and management factors that affect gain, efficiency of gain, carcass traits, and profitability. One tool the nutritionist and feedlot operator has is manipulation of forage:concentrate (F:C) ratios. Initial research and development in F:C ratios was primarily to determine the performance response by dairy beef steers to i...

Two years of data (288 steers/yr) were used to determine if sorting cattle by BW into different production systems would decrease overweight carcasses (>431 kg) and hot carcass weight (HCW) variation. At receiving, steers were assigned randomly into sorted or unsorted groups (n = 144 steers/group). Within a group, steers were assigned to 1 of 3 feeding times: 1) calf-fed (entering the feedlot a...