This text describes a basic approach of systematization with focus on meta-analysis. It is presented the art state of the meta-analysis, recovering information of its evolution and basic methodologies for its accomplishment. In this text are described the historical antecedents of meta-analysis, the limits of the classic approaches of literature review, the conceptual bases and the objectives. It is indicated a general methodology for meta-analysis procedures. The criteria for the definition of the objectives are presented. The procedures of the […]

In certain areas of animal research, such as nutrition, quantitative summarizations of literature data are periodically needed. In such instances, statistical methods dealing with the analysis of summary data (generally from the literature) must be used. These methods are known as meta-analyses. The implementation of a meta-analysis is done in several phases. The first phase defines the study objectives and identifies the criteria for selecting prior publications to be used in the construction of the database. Publications must be scrupulously […]

A mechanistic simulation model of fish larval growth should contribute to a better understanding of growth and metabolism of fish larvae. It should also assist in studying the nutritional requirements and developing feeding strategies. A model was developed that simulates growth and biochemical composition in time. The model is driven by feed intake, with absorbed nutrients being used for energy production and biosynthesis, based on the stoicheometry of intermediary metabolism. Model simulations suggest that imbalanced dietary amino acid (AA) profiles […]

Documenting the presence and abundance of the neotropical mammals is the first step for understanding their population ecology, behavior and genetic dynamics in designing conservation plans. The combination of field research with molecular genetics techniques are new tools that provide valuable biological information avoiding the disturbance in the ecosystems, trying to minimize the human impact in the process to gather biological information. The objective of this paper is to review the available non invasive sampling techniques that have been used […]

Fish farming has been increasing in the last decades. Although the current legislation on animal welfare of animals in production systems is applicable to all vertebrate species, including teleost fish, the knowledge on fish welfare is still very poor. In recent years, the study of animal welfare in other farmed vertebrates (i.e. mammals and birds) allowed a solid knowledge of the state of the animals and the minimal resources they need in production systems, which led to the implementation of […]

This review covers methods that have been applied to study the nutrient value or quality of specific ingredients fed to dogs, cats and comparable species (i.e. foxes, minks, rats, etc.). Typically, the nutritional value or utilization of a specific ingredient is measured by total tract digestibility and has been expanded through the measurement of total nutrient balance (i.e. nitrogen or energy). However, to better understand digestion it is necessary to obtain a more accurate measurement of nutrients entering and leaving […]

The purpose of this study was to evaluate herbal extracts as alternatives to antimicrobial growth promoters for weanling pigs based on growth performance and organ weights. A 35-d randomized complete block design experiment was carried out to compare five treatments: control (C) – basal diet; antimicrobial (A) – basal diet supplemented with colistin + tiamulin (75 ppm of each); herbal extract – basal diet supplemented with 420 ppm of extracts of clove (Ec); oregano (Eo) and clove + oregano (Ec […]

This study evaluated the effects of different dietary ratios of forage sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L) hay (FSH) to silk flower hay (Calotropis procera SW) (SFH) on true, biological, and retail carcass yields, carcass cooling losses, retail cut yields, tissue composition and carcass muscularity of Santa Inês lambs. Twenty-four intact male lambs were assigned to one of the following four treatments: 100:0 FSH:SFH, 66:33 FSH:SFH , 33:66 FSH:SFH, or 0:100 FSH:SFH in a completely randomized design (six animals/treatment). Animals were slaughtered […]

Three experiments were conduced with the purpose of evaluating the effect of the addition of probiotics in the diet of broilers on the characteristics of reused litter and lesions of chest, knee and feet. Eight hundred male chicks, one day old, from Ross Commercial Breeding, were utilized in each experiment. The animals were housed in 20 pens in a populational density of 10 birds/m2. The experimental design was completely randomized and the treatments were organized in a 2 x 2 […]

The objective was to evaluate the effects of the addition of organic chromium in the diet of Japanese quails in the initial fase of laying, under heat stress. Six hundred quails averaging 63 days old and initial body weight of 158.60 g on high temperature environment (32ºC) were used. Diets were based on corn and soybean meal, and supplemented with five levels of chromium (0, 500, 1,000, 1,500, and 2,000 ppb), from chromium-methionine, in replacement with innert material. The experimental […]