Effect of seasonality on physico-chemical and microbiological properties of nicastrese milk and artisanal cheese

ABSTRACT Nicastrese is an indigenous Italian goat breed reared in the Calabria region under semi-extensive practices. From January to June, the milk yield of 400 multiparous Nicastrese goats was evaluated. In addition, tank milk and ripened cheese samples were subjected to physico-chemical and microbiological analyses with the aim to assess the effect of the seasonality on quality parameters. The volatile organic compounds profile of the ripened Nicastrese cheese samples was evaluated. Results showed that the seasonality had a significant effect on milk fat, lactose, urea, citric acid contents and acidity. Microbiological analysis of tank milk samples revealed variability among the differen…

Phenotypic and genetic analysis of udder health using SCC in Valle del Belice dairy sheep

Intramammary infections (IMI) are a complex of inflammatory diseases which are defined as an inflammation of the mammary gland resulting from the introduction and multiplication of pathogenic micro-organisms.

Bottleneck detection in Sicilian goat breeds based on molecular information

Genome-wide analyses reveal the regions involved in the phenotypic diversity in Sicilian pigs.

Nero Siciliano (Sicilian Black, SB) is a local pig breed generally of uniform black color. In addition to this officially recognized breed, there are animals showing morphological characteristics resembling the SB but with gray hair (Sicilian Grey, SG). The SG, compared with the SB, also shows a more compact structure with greater transverse diameters, higher average daily gains and lower thickness of the back fat. In this study, using the Illumina PorcineSNP60 BeadChip, we run genome-wide analyses to identify regions that may explain the phenotypic differences between SB (n = 21) and SG (n = 27) individuals. Combining the results of the two case–control approaches (GWAS and FST), we identi…

Survey of milk protein polymorphism in the "Rossa Siciliana" dairy cattle

“Rossa Siciliana” is a dairy cattle population traditionally linked to cheese production protein polymorphisms from 62 individual milk samples from 19 farms were analyzed by isoelectrofocusing. High variability was found at the CNS1S1, CSN2, CSN3, LGB and LALBA loci, while the CNS1S2 locus was monomorphic for the A allele. The casein haplotype frequencies and the occurrence of the linkage disequilibrium, taking into account the association among loci were investigated. The population was not in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (Chi-square=19.0, p-value=0.0407), probably due to genetic drift. Frequencies of the three allele detected at CSN1S1 locus were B (0.734), C (0.258) and D (0.008). high fre…

Genome‐wide survey on three local horse populations with a focus on runs of homozygosity pattern

Purosangue Orientale Siciliano, Sanfratellano and Siciliano represent the Sicilian equine genetic resource. This study aimed to investigate the genetic diversity, population structure and the pattern of autozygosity of Sicilian horse populations using genome-wide single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data generated with the Illumina Equine SNP70 array. The genotyping data of 17 European and Middle East populations were also included in the study. The patterns of genetic differentiation, model-based clustering and Neighbour-Net showed the expected positioning of Sicilian populations within the wide analysed framework and the close connections between the Purosangue Orientale Siciliano and the…