Effect of Feeding Adaptation of Italian Simmental Cows before Summer Grazing on Animal Behavior and Milk Characteristics

Gas Chromatography Combustion Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry to Detect Differences in Four Compartments of Simmental Cows Fed on C3 and C4 Diets

Fatty acids (FAs) metabolism in animals represents an important field of study since they influence the quality and the properties of the meat. The aim of this study is to assess the possibility to discriminate the diets of cows in different animal compartments and to study the fate of dietary FAs in the bovine organism, using carbon isotopic ratios. Five FAs, both essential (linoleic and linolenic) and non-essential (palmitic, stearic, and oleic) in four compartments (feed, rumen, liver, meat) of animals fed two different diets (based on either C3 or C4 plants) were considered. For all compartments, the carbon isotopic ratio (δ13C) of all FAs (with few exceptions) resulted significantly lower in cows fed on C3 than C4 plants, figuring as a powerful tool to discriminate between different diets. Moreover, chemical reactions taking place in each animal compartment result in fraction processes affecting the δ13C values. The δ13CFAs tendentially increase from feed to meat in group C3. On the other hand, the δ13CFAs generally increase from rumen to liver in group C4, while δ13CFAs of rumen and meat are mostly not statistically different. Different trends in the δ13CFAs of the two groups suggested different FAs fates depending on the diet.

Animal Welfare and Farmers' Satisfaction in Small-Scale Dairy Farms in the Eastern Alps: A "One Welfare" Approach

The multidimensional concept of animal welfare includes physical health, good emotional state, and appropriate behavior of the animals. The most recent methods for its assessment are inspired by the Welfare Quality, a project compiling animal-, resource-, and management-based measures. Recently, animal welfare assessment has also considered the human factor in a so-called “One Welfare” approach. The One Welfare framework highlights the interconnections between animal welfare, human well-being, and the environment. The concept seems to fit particularly well to mountain areas where the relationship between human, animals, and the environment is stronger. In such disadvantaged areas, farmers' well-being plays a key role in maintaining livestock farming profitably and sustainably. This study aims to investigate the relationship between farmers' satisfaction, animal welfare outcomes, and overall farm performance in 69 small-scale dairy farms in the Eastern Alps. Animal welfare assessment consisted of animal-based measures and was performed using the methodology proposed by the European Food Safety Authority for this type of farm. Moreover, the farmers were interviewed to retrieve data on farm characteristics and on their level of satisfaction toward workload, land organization, relationship with the agricultural/non-agricultural community, and the future of local agriculture. The results show that good animal welfare can be obtained in a mountain farming system. Clinical indicators show a low prevalence of diseases and of very lean cows as opposed to integument alterations. The workload is not perceived as a problem in traditional farms (i.e., tie-stall and with no participation in quality-certification schemes). Animal welfare is higher in those farms where farmers have a positive engagement with both the agricultural and non-agricultural community and where farmers are satisfied with their land organization. A One Welfare approach could be applied on a larger scale to fully understand the links between animal and human well-being in mountain areas.

Does the 'Mountain Pasture Product' Claim Affect Local Cheese Acceptability?

This paper aims to explore the impact of "mountain pasture product" information on the acceptability of local protected designation of origin (PDO) cheese produced from the raw milk of cows grazing in mountain pastures (P) or reared in valley floor stalls (S). A total of 156 consumers (55% males, mean age 41 years) were asked to evaluate their overall liking on a 9-point hedonic scale of four samples: Cheeses P and S were presented twice with different information about the origin of the milk (cows grazing on mountain pasture or reared in a valley floor stall). Demographics, consumer habits, and opinions on mountain pasture practice (MPP), attitudes towards sustainability, and food-related behaviours (i.e., diet, food waste production, organic food, and zero food miles products purchase) were recorded and used to segment consumers. The cheeses were all considered more than acceptable, even though they were found to be significantly different in colour and texture by instrumental analyses. In the whole consumer panel, the cheese P was preferred, while in consumer segments less attentive to product characteristics, this effect was not significant. External information had a strong effect: Overall liking was significantly higher in cheeses presented as "mountain pasture product", both in the whole panel and in consumer segments with different attitudes (except for those with a low opinion of MPP).