Artificial suckling in Martina Franca donkey foals: effect on in vivo performances and carcass composition.

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest on donkey milk production, on its characteristics, and also on breeding techniques. Donkey milk is characterized by high economic value, although the productive level of jennies is poor. During the milking process, foals are usually separated from their dams, allowing the milk collection in the mammary gland of jennies before milking session.

Is meat quality from Longissimus lumborum samples correlated with other cuts in horse meat?

The present work aims to investigate if the variation of each parameter in Longissimus lumborum muscle could correspond to the same or to a similar variation of the parameter in the other muscles. The work presents results of Pearson's correlations between Longissimus lumborum samples and other muscle samples, such as Biceps femoris, Rectus femoris, Semimembranosus, Supraspinatus and Semitendinosus in horse meat. A total of 27 male IHDH (Italian Heavy Draught Horse) breed foals were employed.

Gas chromatography of safranal as preferable method for the commercial grading of saffron (Crocus sativus L.).

We present a new extraction protocol, using ethyl alcohol as a solvent, to evaluate safranal by gas chromatography (GC). A linear response was obtained with R(2)=0.995 and a reproducibility standard deviation of 4.