The increasing prevalence of Campylobacter spp. within broiler populations is a major problem for food safety and consumer protection worldwide. In vitro studies could already demonstrate that Campylobacter spp. are susceptible to lauric acid. The purpose of this study was to examine in vivo the influence of lauric acid as a feed additive on slaughter parameters, muscle fatty acid profile, meat...

Even though the concept of residual feed intake (RFI) is well accepted, several questions remain regarding other traits that may be associated with selection for decreased RFI. These include DM digestibility, carcass composition, profitability, and performance. The objective of this study was to investigate the difference in those traits between low- and high-RFI cattle. Sixty Angus x Hereford ...

In the past decade the number of studies investigating temperament in farm animals has increased greatly because temperament has been shown not only to affect handling but also reproduction, health and economically important production traits. However, molecular pathways underlying temperament and molecular pathways linking temperament to production traits, health and reproduction have yet to b...

Regression equations to predict kilograms of fat-free soft tissue (the sum of water and protein from chemical analyses) were developed from data collected on 526 steers and heifers. Straightbred animals representing Angus, Braunvieh, Charolais, Gelbvieh, Hereford, Limousin, Pinzgauer, Red Poll, and Simmental breeds of cattle contributed to the data set. Cattle ranged in slaughter weight and age...

The aim of the present study was to assess the effect of slaughter and carcass weight, age at slaughter and sex on the fatty acid profile of the Greek Boutsiko sheep breed. Twenty lambs (ten females and ten males) were examined. The lambs were slaughtered at the age of 48 days. Carcasses were chopped in nine specific cuts and a random sample of 100 g was taken from each cut, with a total of 180...

The objective of this paper was to derive economic weights for performance and survival traits of growing pigs including feed conversion ratio (FCR), daily feed intake (DFI), ADG, postweaning survival of the growing pig (SG), and carcass fat depth at the P2 site (CFD). An independent model was developed for each trait to derive economic values directly based on a typical Australian production s...

In genetic improvement programmes for beef cattle, the effect of selecting for a given trait or index on other economically important traits, or their predictors, must be quantified to ensure no deleterious consequential effects go unnoticed. The objective was to compare live animal measurements, carcass composition and plasma hormone and metabolite concentrations of male progeny of sires selec...