Increased movement toward alliances and grid pricing in the U.S. has led to an increase interest in genetic values for carcass traits. The literature suggests that carcass genetic values are an effective tool to enhance selection for carcass traits, and that it is possible to select sires within a breed that can increase marbling score without adversely affecting external fat thickness or percent retail product relative to the breed mean. Ultrasound has been investigated as a cheaper means of collecting […]

The project aims at giving a technological upgrade to Brazilian aquaculture to attend the demands of the productive chain. The research focus in obtaining genetically improved fishes; in developing environmental friendly feeds of high zootechnical performance; and in implementing the integrated sanitary control in production systems. The adoption of “Best Management Practices” (BPMs) in aqualcuture systems will assure the production of good quality fishes and shrimps with higher market prices. The AQUABRASIL project involves more than 70 researchers of eleven […]

From the origins the man has looked and selected vegetables with nutritive value for larger productivity. The knowledge of DNA structure allowed genetic engineering to develop and supplying tools for the accomplishment of specific alterations in the genome considerably. The products of these alterations are denominated transgenic or organisms genetically modified (OGM) and they present high application potential in several areas of the human activity as: agriculture, medicine, health, production and processing of foods, biochemical production and control of diseases. […]

One third to one half of each animal produced for meat, milk, eggs, and fiber is not consumed by humans. These raw materials are subjected to rendering processes resulting in many useful products. Meat and bone meal, meat meal, poultry meal, hydrolyzed feather meal, blood meal, fish meal, and animal fats are the primary products resulting from the rendering process. The most important and valuable use for these animal by-products is as feed ingredients for livestock, poultry, aquaculture, and companion […]

Selection of potential ingredients for feed formulation for any fish species requires knowledge of the apparent digestibility coefficients of energy and nutrients. The nutritive value of various ingredients has been investigated in Brazil and alternative source is must support similar fish performance and no adverse effects on fish health and the environment. Several factors can affect nutrient digestibility and the apparent digestibility coefficients of wide range of feed ingredients should be used for more accurate and economical feed formulation.

The title may raise questions about definitions of the terms used. The more obvious ones are: 1) What is transfer? 2) How to define toxic; and 3) How to define feed or food. A more underlying question is how to measure the substances we are interested in. The (often) chemical methods used, are not always sensitive or specific enough. Sometimes, biologically based methods are used which detect a biological response, but seldom identify the compound responsible for that. Transfer is […]

This paper intends to present some of the concepts of coordination of agribusiness systems (AGSs) and of competitiveness between chains, specifically meat chains (beef, pork and chicken meat). Then, some recent examples of different forms of coordination of AGSs are analysed and also how they affect competitiveness between the chains.

The MDA (Master Dairy Administration) system was created as a result of management practices developed by and effectively utilized in the industrial sector since the early 1990’s. It was designed by applying the five basic management principles to reach success in business. These principles, along with survival principles in the activity, delineated the features of the MDA System. It can be characterized as a strategic system which targets the ends from start, that is, the definition, a prior, of targets […]

This paper aims at exploring what is covered by « adapting to last » with a farming systems approach. Long term dynamics can be analysed as adaptive cycles, the system being permanently exposed to disturbances and shocks. Mobilizing the concept of resilience, we analyse the factors that differentiate the principles for long term action the livestock farmers have, principles which give consistency to the family – farms trajectories. With the concept of operational flexibilty, we qualify the sources of flexibility […]

Biological systems are surprising flexible in processing information in the real world. Some biological organisms have a central unit processing named brain. The human’s brain, consisting of 1011 neurons, realizes intelligent information processing based on exact and commonsense reasoning. Artificial intelligence (AI) has been trying to implement biological intelligence in computers in various ways, but is still far from real one. Therefore, there are approaches like Symbolic AI, Artificial Neural Network and Fuzzy system that partially successful in implementing heuristic […]