Publications by authors named "Roberta Maria D'Alessio"
Article Synopsis
- * Assessments showed high rates of slatted flooring, mixed-sex populations, and tail docking; however, no significant links were found between visible injuries or behaviors and tail-biting risk.
- * While the assessment tool identified areas for improvement in farm management, such as better stocking density and enrichment, it highlighted the need for better training for assessors and the difficulty in correlating practices with tail-biting occurrences.
Background: Tail inspection in the abattoir is a tool to help determine the welfare status of pigs. However, methodologies vary widely. Moreover, meat inspection is moving from palpation and incision towards visual-only (VIS) examination.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis work compared the behavior and performance of 24 groups of 12 pigs kept in pens with either a DOUBLE [one feed space aligned with the front wall of the pen (WALL), and one immediately adjacent (IN)] or SINGLE (WALL only) spaced feeder, from weaning until slaughter. Pens were equipped with a rack of fresh grass and a rubber toy (weaning phase) or a wooden board (finishing phase). Every 2 weeks, interaction with the enrichment, aggressive, harmful, and play behaviors were recorded for 5 min, four times a day.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- Thymidine phosphorylase (TP) plays a crucial role in pyrimidine metabolism and is linked to DNA replication, angiogenesis, and endothelial cell activity.
- This study explored the relationship between TP expression and microvascular density (MVD) in canine mammary tumors, involving 68 samples categorized by cancer severity (G1-G3) through immunohistochemical analysis.
- Results showed a significant correlation between TP expression and MVD in the more severe tumor grades (G2 and G3), indicating TP's potential as a prognostic factor in canine breast cancer.