Suchergebnisse

Este estudo foi desenvolvido em Divino, município da Zona da Mata de Minas Gerais, num bioma de Mata Atlântica. A atividade principal nas unidades familiares é a cafeicultura, mas a pecuária também assume um papel de relevância nos sistemas produtivos, com criação e manejo do rebanho bovino feito basicamente a pasto, na maior parte do tempo. A metodologia utilizada foi a pesquisa-ação e objetivou caracterizar seis unidades familiares e sistematizar o processo de marcação dos piquetes das pastagens, com participação dos/das agricultores/as, técnicos/as e pesquisadores/as, sob a perspectiva da agroecologia, priorizando a conservação do solo e da água, e fomentando a diversidade de plantas. Numa das unidades familiares foram introduzidas 470 mudas de cratília (Cratylia argentea), leguminosa nativa do Brasil, e monitoradas o crescimento na pastagem de Urochloa decumbens e Urochloa brizantha cv marandu para alimentação animal. Na sistematização da participação dos agricultores percebeu-se a intervenção ativa deles através das suas ações para reverter a degradação da pastagem.

During dry seasons, equines are traditionally fed hay. However, if not prepared under favorable climatic conditions and if not properly stored, hay does not preserve its nutritional value. The aim of this research was to evaluate the chemical composition in Stylosanthes guianensis cv. Mineirão and Estilosantes Campo Grande hay varieties, used to feed equines over 225 days of storage. Treatments consisted of Stylosanthes guianensis cv. Mineirão and Estilosantes Campo Grande hay varieties, assessed at six moments of storage: 0, 45, 90, 135, 180, and 225 days. The experiment followed a completely randomized split-plot design. In the comparison between varieties, differences (P0.05) over the 225 days of storage. The storage period had little impact on the nutritional quality of the assessed hays. The Stylosanthes guianensis cv. Mineirão and, mainly, Estilosantes Campo Grande hay varieties have potential to be used in equine diet.

Hay production is the most common form of forage conservation methods for horse feeding. However, haylage can be an alternative to hay. The present research assessed the nutritional value of Tifton-85 haylage by fermentation pattern, bromatological composition, and apparent digestibility compared to hay in the diet of Quarter Horse mares. Haylage was prepared with 700.0 g of dry matter (DM) kg-1 added with a biological inoculum and was assessed at 1, 3, 7, 14, 28, and 56 days of production. At 14 days, the protein content had decreased from 192.0 to 173.2 g kg-1 DM. The opposite was found for ammoniacal nitrogen, which rose from 0.61 to 1.14 g kg-1 DM of total nitrogen. No differences were found for the variables NDF, ADF, hemicellulose, pH, acetic acid, propionic acid and butyric acid, whose values were 734.3, 316.5 and 416.9 g kg-1 DM, pH 5.47 and 0.06, 0.003, 0.03 g kg-1 DM, respectively. Lactic acid contents were higher after 28 days of haylage production, reaching 2.39 g kg-1 DM at the last assessment. The contents of aflatoxins, fumonisin, and zearalenone in the plant were similar to those in the haylage at 0.95 µg kg-1, 0.60 mg kg-1, and 0.71 µg kg-1, respectively. The digestibility assay showed an increase in protein digestibility in the diet with haylage (675.1 g kg-1 DM) compared to hay (579.1 g kg-1 DM) of the same grass. Haylage can potentially be used to feed horses and its use is recommended starting at 28 days of production.

The process of teat disinfection is a widely accepted component of successful mastitis control programs by reducing the number of bacteria on the teat skin and healing teat lesions. For contagious pathogens such as Staphylococcus aureus, post-milking teat disinfection remains a simple, effective and economical practice for prevention of new intramammary infections (IMIs) of lactating dairy cows. Despite the universal acceptance of teat dipping as a method of mastitis control, variations in the susceptibility and resistance profile of mastitis pathogens among antiseptics have been described. Thus, here we sought to explore the in vitro efficacy of the followings antiseptics against S. aureus isolated from IMIs: chlorhexidine (2.0%), chlorine (2.5%), quarternary ammonium (4.0%), lactic acid (2.0%) and iodine (0.6%). We used 50 S. aureus strains isolated from bovine IMIs from 50 dairy herds located at Minas Gerais, São Paulo, Paraná and Rio Grande do Sul States (Brazil). The antiseptics were evaluated at four different specific intervals (15, 30, 60 and 300 s). We found a higher activity for quarternary ammonium and chlorhexidine against S. aureus at all time-points, followed by iodine and then chlorine. Lactic acid treatment produced the worst results for all time-points and strains. Due to variations in the sensitivity and resistance profile of antiseptics against S. aureus isolated from IMIs, the effectiveness of the antiseptics against the major mastitis pathogens should be periodically evaluated in dairy farms in an attempt to reduce the rate of new IMIs in the herd.