Feed additives and enrichment materials to reduce chicken stress, maximize productivity, and improve welfare.

Environmental stress poses serious threats to animal welfare and production, particularly in poultry, which are susceptible to such stress. It can increase susceptibility to diseases and infections, reduce growth rates and reproductive performance, and increase behavioral issues. Environmental stress caused by conventional housing conditions can negatively affect well-being and productivity.

Bee Products for Poultry and Rabbits: Current Challenges and Perspectives.

Poultry and rabbit production are important and rapidly growing agricultural subsectors, particularly in several developing countries. To ensure the sustainability of poultry and rabbit production, realistic poultry and rabbit farming practices must be improved. Apitherapy is a traditional alternative medicine that involves the prevention and treatment of some diseases with several bee products including propolis, royal jelly, pollen, and venom.

Description of Twenty-Nine Animal Hoarding Cases in Italy: The Impact on Animal Welfare.

The hoarding of animals is a psychiatric disease, characterized by a compulsive collection of animals, with a relevant impact upon the care and welfare of animals, as well as on human society. In Italy, there are neither substantial reports nor information shared about such a phenomenon, making it difficult to draw a clear picture of the hoarder profile. Therefore, in the present work, we sought to detail 29 cases of animal accumulators in Italy, who lived within two areas of the Lazio region, and accumulated a total of 1080 animals from 2019 to 2022.

Could Insect Products Provide a Safe and Sustainable Feed Alternative for the Poultry Industry? A Comprehensive Review.

The planet is home to more than 2000 species of edible insects, some of which have been consumed as food for many years. Recently, edible insect products have been gradually increasing in several countries, such as Italy and Egypt, as novel feed resources for humans and animals due to their availability, potential economic benefits, and high nutritive value. The insect industry can provide a new solution for livestock nutrition and offer many additional advantages, but there are obstacles to overcome, such as some nutritional organizations that forbid its usage.

Effect of Aqueous Extract of Maca Addition to an Extender for Chilled Canine Semen.

Antioxidant supplementation has been proposed as a new strategy to improve the long-term preservation of semen. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of Maca supplementation of semen extender on quality-related canine semen parameters during cooling. Ejaculates from nine dogs were cooled for 7 days in the absence (control group) or in the presence of 10, 20 and 50 μL/mL of an aqueous extract of Maca.

Effects of Oral Administration of on Morphology of Mice Testis and Motility of Epididymal Sperm Cells After Tetrahydrocannabinol Exposure.

Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) administration is associated with testicular damage and reduced semen quality. Oral administration of (maca) improves spermatogenesis and sperm motility and count and reduces spermatogenic damage. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of administration of THC, maca, and their combination on testicular tissue and semen parameters.

Human-Dog Relationship during the First COVID-19 Lockdown in Italy.

The SARS-CoV2 pandemic forced an abrupt interruption of social contacts and interpersonal affective relationships all over the world, according to national directives. Many considerable inconveniences occurred with important repercussions also on the emotional state of people and their pets. We carried out a national survey to evaluate the human-dog relationship in a social isolation context using an adapted version of Monash Dog Owner Relationship Scale, the perception of the dogs' discomfort by their human owners, and the resilience of the dog through the quantification of symptoms, in time of the first lockdown of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Antioxidants in assisted reproductive technologies: An overview on dog, cat, and horse.

Assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) are widely used as a tool to improve reproductive performance in both humans and animals. In particular, in the veterinary field, ARTs are used to improve animal genetics, recover endangered animals, and produce offspring in the event of subfertility or infertility in males or females. However, the use of ARTs did not improve the fertilization rate in some animals due to various factors such as the difficulty in reproducing an anatomical and humoral substrate typical of the natural condition or due to the increase in catabolites and their difficult elimination.

Cortisol Levels of Shelter Dogs in Animal Assisted Interventions in a Prison: An Exploratory Study.

Previous studies regarding the Animal Assisted Interventions (AAI) have mainly focused on the beneficial effects of human-animal interactions on human health; whereas the impact of such activities on the welfare of the animals involved has received limited attention. So far, few studies have addressed this issue by evaluating the physiological and behavioral reactions of therapy dogs during the interventions. The aim of this study was to evaluate the potential effect of AAI on the cortisol levels of shelter dogs.

DNA fragmentation and morphometric studies in sperm of stallions supplemented with maca ().

The reproductive performances of livestock play an essential role in the economic management of the farm. The improvement of semen quantity and quality through the use of food supplements that lack substances which are forbidden in animal feeding, or that may have detrimental effects, is an important goal. Maca (Lepidium meyenii) is a plant that has been used for centuries in the Andes for nutrition and fertility enhancement in humans and animals.

Do Animals Play a Role in the Transmission of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2)? A Commentary.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) belongs to the Beta-coronavirus genus. It is 96.2% homologous to bat CoV RaTG13 and 88% homologous to two bat SARS-like coronaviruses.

Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Comparison With Canine Mammary Tumors From Light Microscopy to Molecular Pathology.

Many similar characteristics in human and dog cancers including, spontaneous development, clinical presentation, tumor heterogeneity, disease progression, and response to standard therapies have promoted the approval of this comparative model as an alternative to mice. Breast cancer represents the second most frequent neoplasm in humans after lung cancer. Triple-negative breast cancers (TNBC) constitute around 15% of all cases of breast cancer and do not express estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), and do not overexpress human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2).

Human-Animal Relationship Dysfunction: A Case Study of Animal Hoarding in Italy.

"Animal hoarding" or "compulsive hoarding of animals" is a psychiatric disease, which has important social implications and a profound influence on animal welfare. To date, this phenomenon has been little investigated and largely unexplored. The present study aims to systematically describe a case of animal hoarding, which remains unresolved.

Assessment of living conditions in wild boars by analysis of oxidative stress markers.

This study demonstrated that it is possible to differentiate wild boars living in habitats with different animal densities by the measurement of oxidative stress markers. Therefore, reactive oxygen metabolites, the antioxidant barrier, i.e.

Antimicrobial activity of harzianic acid against .

The emerging concern about the increase of antibiotic resistance has encouraged research efforts to develop effective alternatives to counteract bacterial infections. Herein, we studied a new perspective to therapeutic treatment against , an opportunistic pathogen documented as the major cause of skin, ear, and post-operative bacterial infections in dogs and cats. Antimicrobial activity of secondary metabolites produced by selected microbial strains belonging to , , and fungal genera has been tested against .

(Maca) in male reproduction.

(Maca) is an edible root plant that grows in the Andean region of Peru. For centuries, the plant has been used as a dietary supplement for its nutritional and therapeutic properties. Maca are rich in high value nutritional elements and secondary metabolites (macaridine, macamides and glucosinolates) with high biological activity.

Combined addition of superoxide dismutase, catalase and glutathione peroxidase improves quality of cooled stored stallion semen.

During cold storage stallion spermatozoa experience undergo oxidative stress, which can impair sperm function and fertilizing capacity. Superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and glutathione peroxidase (GPX) are the main endogenous enzymatic antioxidants in stallion seminal plasma, and counteract reactive oxygen species. Semen dilution reduces the endogenous antioxidant concentrations.

Chemical Analysis of (Maca) and Its Effects on Redox Status and on Reproductive Biology in Stallions .

The present study was conducted to assess the chemical composition of Yellow Maca () and its biological activity on stallions following oral administration of hypocotyl powder. Maca was subjected to methanolic extraction and the chemical analysis was carried out by LC-MS-QTOF (liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry). Our results showed that Maca contains some effective antioxidants, a high percentage of glucosinolates, and other important components with a high antioxidant capacity.

Effect of superoxide dismutase, catalase, and glutathione peroxidase supplementation in the extender on chilled semen of fertile and hypofertile dogs.

This study investigated the correlation between oxidative stress status and key canine sperm parameters and the effect of addition of a superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) combination in egg yolk tris-citrate glucose (EYT-G) extender on semen during 10 days of storage at 4℃. Ten Boxer dogs were divided into two groups, fertile (F) and hypofertile (H), depending on pregnancy and live birth rate status in the previous year. Semen evaluation was performed on the day of collection (D0) and after 5 (D5) and 10 (D10) days of cooled storage.

Anti-proliferative and pro-apoptotic effects of Uncaria tomentosa aqueous extract in squamous carcinoma cells.

Uncaria tomentosa (Willd.) DC. (Rubiacee), also known as uña de gato, is a plant that grows wild in the upper Amazon region of Peru and has been widely used in folk medicine to treat several health conditions including cancer.

The effects of superoxide dismutase addition to the transport medium on cumulus-oocyte complex apoptosis and IVF outcome in cats (Felis catus).

The aim of the present study was to examine the effects of superoxide dismutase (SOD) addition to the ovary transport medium (4°C, 3-72 h) on ovarian cell viability and apoptosis and in vitro embryo production (IVEP) in domestic cats. The ovaries collected from 76 mixed-breed domestic queens were randomly assigned to the control or SOD-treated groups and incubated for 3, 24, 48 or 72 h. The ovaries were then subjected to the following: (1) fixed in formalin to assess the incidence of apoptosis (fragmented DNA in situ detection kit), (2) stored at -196°C in liquid nitrogen to evaluate the expression of the pro-apoptotic Bax gene and the anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 gene (RT-PCR), and (3) used to obtain the cumulus-oocyte complexes (COCs) in order to test the cell viability (carboxyfluorescein or trypan blue staining) and IVEP.

Sex determining of cat embryo and some feline species.

Sex identification in mammalian preimplantation embryos is a technique that is used currently for development of the embryo transfer industry for zootechnical animals and is, therefore, a resource for biodiversity preservation. The aim of the present study was to establish a rapid and reliable method for the sexing of preimplantation embryos in domestic cats. Here we describe the use of nested PCR identify Y chromosome-linked markers when starting from small amounts of DNA and test the method for the purpose of sexing different species of wild felids.

Chronic administration of bumetanide upregulates calbindin D28k mRNA and protein abundance in rat distal convoluted tubules.

Background/aims: Calbindin D28k has been reported to be involved in transcellular calcium transport along the rat distal convoluted tubule (DCT). It has also been shown that administration of bumetanide is associated with hypercalciuria. The experiments reported here were designed to verify whether chronic infusion of this diuretic affects the gene expression and protein abundance of calbindin D28k along rat kidney DCT.