The consumption of horse-meat is currently not popular in most countries, but because of its availability and recognized nutritional value consumption is slowly increasing in several western European countries based on claims that it could be an alternative red meat. In this review, horse-meat production, trade and supply values have been summarized. In addition, the advantage of horse producti...

Livestock, particularly ruminants, can eat a wider range of biomass than humans. In the drive for greater efficiency, intensive systems of livestock production have evolved to compete with humans for high-energy crops such as cereals. Feeds consumed by livestock were analysed in terms of the quantities used and efficiency of conversion of grassland, human-edible ('edible') crops and crop by-pro...

Data collected from 690 purebred Duroc pigs from 2009 to 2012 were used to estimate the heritability, and genetic and phenotypic correlations between production and meat quality traits. Variance components were obtained through the restricted maximum likelihood procedure using Wombat and SAS version 9.0. Animals were raised under the same management in five different breeding farms. The average...

Transhumant production system (TPS) is a type of extensive livestock production practiced by transhumant pastoralists in which indigenous livestock breeds are mainly fed a pasture-based diet. The hypothesis tested in this work was whether differences existed between fat samples from the different species in respect to ratios of n-6/n-3, and polyunsaturated fatty acids to saturated fatty acids. ...

Pig breeding is aimed at improving lean meat production ability as well as meat quality, and muscle fibre characteristics may be important for enhancing these traits. Therefore, new molecular markers have been demanded for selecting lean meat production ability and meat quality in live animals. Myogenin belongs to the MyoD gene family, and is a candidate gene responsible for muscle fibre charac...

The recent ban on cow slaughtering in India has brought into debate highly emotive and contentious issues to the forefront The meat industry is characterized by controls across the entire value-chain of production and sale, which not only hampers its efficiency but also exacerbates the. The growth and development in meat industry in particular and the country in general has multiple linkages wi...

In endangered and local pig breeds of small population sizes, production has to focus on alternative niche markets with an emphasis on specific product and meat quality traits to achieve economic competiveness. For designing breeding strategies on meat quality, an adequate performance testing scheme focussing on phenotyped selection candidates is required. For the endangered German pig breed 'B...

From 1997 to 1999, the prevalence of Salmonella was assessed at different stages through the pork, poultry, and beef meat production chains. Different dilutions of the initial sample suspension were analyzed to provide a semiquantitative evaluation of Salmonella contamination and to determine the most representative dilution necessary to detect a reduction in prevalence. An average of 300 sampl...

Foodborne diseases, in particular those related to meat and meat products, have recently become a matter of great public concern. Sheep and goat meat can transmit infections and diseases either through handling during preparation procedures or as a result of ingestion by the consumer. The authors highlight the second route of contamination in relation to meat and meat products from small rumina...

Aims of this study were to assess citizens’ view on the current veal calves’ fattening system in Italy and on animal welfare, and to fi nd relationships with veal meat consumption. Socio-demographic characteristics, veal meat consumption habits, knowledge of veal calves rearing system and animal welfare attitudes of 100 citizens were investigated through a questionnaire submitted on a voluntary...