Appeasing Substance Administration at Feedlot Entry Impacted Temperament, Pen Behavior, Immunocompetence, and Meat Quality of Beef Heifers.

This experiment evaluated the effects of bovine appeasing substance (BAS) administration at feedlot entry on growth, temperament, inflammation, response to vaccination, behavior, carcass characteristics, and meat quality of beef heifers. Thirty heifers were weaned and assigned to (d 0): (1) BAS (n = 15; SecureCattle; IRSEA Group) or (2) Saline (n = 15). On d 0, heifers were also vaccinated against respiratory diseases and slaughtered on d 150.

Mathematical models for predicting protodioscin in tropical forage grasses.

Protodioscin is a saponin present in grasses that can lead to losses in animal production. Our hypothesis was that mathematical models can accurately and precisely predict the protodioscin concentration in tropical grasses. We evaluated the ability of four mathematical models to describe the protodioscin concentration in Brachiaria and Panicum cultivars with different regrowth periods.

Effects of an Appeasing Substance Application at Weaning on Growth, Stress, Behavior, and Response to Vaccination of Calves.

An analog of a bovine-appeasing substance (BAS) was previously demonstrated to have calming effects, and it could be an alternative to alleviate the stress caused by weaning. Thus, the objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of BAS administration at weaning on growth, stress, behavior, and response to vaccination of Nellore calves. Eighty-six Nellore calves (40 females and 46 males) were abruptly weaned and randomly assigned into 1 of 2 treatments: (1) saline solution (0.

The effect of different grazing heights on carcass and meat quality characteristics of Nellore cattle fattened in pastures of Convert grass.

Carcass characteristic and meat quality from bulls and Nellore steers (n = 64 total) subjected to different grazing heights (15, 25, 35, and 45 cm) were evaluated isolatedly, under continuous grazing and variable load, in pastures of Convert grass. The experimental period was from May 2015 to June 2017, in an area of 16 ha, divided into 16 paddocks of 1 ha. The experimental design was randomized blocks with four replications.

Energetic-protein supplementation in the last 60 days of gestation improves performance of beef cows grazing tropical pastures.

Background: Nutrition is one of the most important factors that affect animal performance, and it therefore also impacts on financial results in beef systems. In this way, finding the best strategy for feeding supplements is of paramount importance. Aiming to evaluate the effect of supplement feeding strategies for beef cows in the last third of gestation, two experiments were conducted.

Prevalence of intestinal parasites among inmates in Midwest Brazil.

Background: Intestinal parasitic infections constitute a public health issue in developing countries, with prevalence rates as high as 90%, a figure set to escalate as the socioeconomic status of affected populations deteriorates. Investigating the occurrence of these infections among inmates is critical, since this group is more vulnerable to the spread of a number of infectious illnesses.

Methods: This cross-sectional, analytical, quantitative study was conducted in July 2015 at prison facilities located in Midwest Brazil to estimate the prevalence of parasitic infection among inmates.