Twelve mature (aged 5-16 years) horses and ponies of mixed breed and type were fed restricted (1.25% BM Dry matter) quantities of one of two fiber based diets formulated to be iso-caloric. Diet 1 comprised of 0.8% body mass (BM) of chaff based complete feed plus 0.45% BM low energy grass hay (the same hay used for both diets). Diet 2 comprised 0.1% BM of a nutrient balancer plus 1.15% BM grass ...

Mass mortality events of benthic invertebrates in the Mediterranean Sea are becoming an increasing concern with catastrophic effects on the coastal marine environment. Sea surface temperature anomalies leading to physiological stress, starvation and microbial infections were identified as major factors triggering animal mortality. However the highest occurrence of mortality episodes in particul...

Faecal samples were collected from seventeen animals, each fed three different diets (high fibre, high fibre with a starch rich supplement and high fibre with an oil rich supplement). DNA was extracted and the V1-V2 regions of 16SrDNA were 454-pyrosequenced to investigate the faecal microbiome of the horse. The effect of age was also considered by comparing mature (8 horses aged 5-12) versus el...

background and objectives: ensiling is a conservation method for forage crops. it is based on the fact that anaerobe lactic acid bacteria (lab) convert water-soluble carbohydrates into organic acids. therefore, ph decreases and the forage is preserved. the aim of this study was to isolate special kinds of lactic acid bacteria from silage and to study the effect of bacteria, inulin and enzymes a...

Marine environmental DNA (eDNA) surveys are becoming a promising approach to monitor biodiversity status and its variation over time. However, monitoring offshore areas could be extremely costly when using dedicated vessels, beside the impossibility sample simultaneously geographically distant (even if adjacent) areas. The unexplored possibility of availing on operating ferries as an opportunis...

conclusions although carbohydrate fermentation patterns specified these three isolates as b. infantis, b. bifidum, and b. longum, the molecular results did not confirm b. longum, which is still also controversial in the literature. overall, our results demonstrated that kashk-e zard is a rich potential source of probiotic bacteria and further investigations should be undertaken. results twelve ...