Growth promoters have been widely used as a strategy to improve productivity, and great benefits have been observed throughout the meat production chain. However, the prohibition of growth promoters in several countries, as well as consumer rejection, has led industry and the academy to search for alternatives. For decades, the inclusion of phytochemicals in animal feed has been proposed as a r...

The new European food safety legislative demands a risk-based improvement of the processes of meat production from farm to fork instead of just inspecting the carcasses of each slaughtered pig. One major tool to include the pre-harvest stage of meat production is profiling herds serologically especially for latent zoonotic infections. The paper describes the inclusion of continuously serologica...

Nutrigenomics applies genomic technologies to study how nutrients affect expression of genes. With the advent of the post genomic era and with the use of functional genomic tools, the new strategies for evaluating the effects of nutrition on production efficiency and nutrient utilization are becoming available. Nutrigenomics plays an efficient role in various fields of animal health like nutrit...

The use of antibiotics in food animals is of public health concern, because resistant zoonotic pathogens can be transmitted to humans. Furthermore, global trade with food may rapidly spread multi-resistant pathogens between countries and even continents. The purpose of the study was to investigate whether imported chicken meat and meat from locally reared chicken are potential sources for human...

Over the last centuries, Western diets acquired a dramatic imbalance in the ratio of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) to saturated fatty acids (SFA) with a concomitant reduction in the dietary proportion of n-3 PUFA. Pastures are a good source of n-3 fatty acids, although the effect of forage intake in the fatty acid profile of meat from free-range chicken remains to be evaluated. In addition...

nutrigenomics applies genomic technologies to study how nutrients affect expression of genes. with the advent of the post genomic era and with the use of functional genomic tools, the new strategies for evaluating the effects of nutrition on production efficiency and nutrient utilization are becoming available. nutrigenomics plays an efficient role in various fields of animal health like nutrit...

Linking knowledge to action requires understanding how decision-makers conceptualize sustainability. This paper empirically analyzes farmer "mental models" of sustainability from three winegrape-growing regions of California where local extension programs have focused on sustainable agriculture. The mental models are represented as networks where sustainability concepts are nodes, and links are...

The use of intact male pigs for meat production creates an economic opportunity because they generally have more lean meat per carcass and show better feed conversion ratios than castrates. Furthermore, animal welfare and the environment (due to improved nitrogen retention) benefit from entire male pig production. However, rearing intact male pigs is not used in a large number of countries beca...

IN T RODUC T ION Beta-agonists, or β2-adrenergic agonists are, often used as drugs to treat asthma and other pulmonary diseases. They act on the β2-adrenergic receptor and cause smooth muscle relaxation, resulting in the dilation of bronchial passages and other effects. However, some beta agonists have been used illegally in meat husbandry, since they can also promote muscle growth instead of f...