Organic goat production,processing and marketing: Opportunities,challenges and outlook

Organic goat production can be a rewarding livelihood and is gaining popularity. Global organic production has increased significantly annually over the past decade. Industry analysts forecast that demand in many markets will continue to grow at 10–30% per year, with the international organic market expected to grow to a volume of US$ 100 billion in the next decade. Organic dairy has shown stronger growth rates than organic meat production. In certain regions, the rise in organic milk production has increased the range of processed value-added organic milk and dairy products, and demand is out-stripping supply. The basic principles of organic goat production include care, ecology, fairness, and health as stated by the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movement (IFOAM). Organic goat production can improve animal welfare, protect the environment, and sustain rewarding rural live styles. There are challenges when dealing with organic goat production, especially when one hopes to control intestinal parasites and to achieve adequate nutritional management. Exploring nutritional technology and disease prevention and treatment will eventually improve the production efficiency. There are various regulations in different countries that apply to certify organic foods, and the number of regulations is growing. One of the leading federations in international organic farming is IFOAM. The standards can be certified under IFOAM then can be recognized in many counties around the world. These regulations serve as branding effort, not only to protect the “organic” brand but also to promote it. Future of organic goat production will have to rely on continue search for alternatives in nutrition and disease prevention and control that are environmentally friendly, human health conscientious and animal considerate. Understanding organic goat farming from economic, ecological, and animal welfare perspectives will increase the likelihood of success.     

细胞培养肉的生物伦理学思考

近年来,为了解决人类社会发展和环境资源的矛盾日益突出的问题,人造肉越来越多的进入人们的视野。通常所说的人造肉,可以分为植物蛋白肉和细胞培养肉。其中植物蛋白肉已经逐步开始商业化,细胞培养肉采用动物细胞进行培养,与真实肉制品更为接近。文中在分析细胞培养肉本质基础上,探讨细胞培养肉对肉类生产行业、消费者群体以及人类未来可持续发展的积极意义。在生物伦理学的视角下,研发和生产细胞培养肉有助于保障人类社会的可持续发展、提升动物福利、减少资源需求、改善肉制品营养功能,并为其他行业的发展提供新的增长点。此外,对于细胞培养肉生产涉及的食品安全、技术滥用、技术监管层面上的伦理风险提出进行了深入思考,希望能从生物伦理学的层面为人造肉行业的可持续发展提供参考。     

Catabolism of leucine to branched-chain fatty acids in Staphylococcus xylosus

AIMS: Staphylococcus xylosus is an important starter culture in the production of flavours from the branched-chain amino acids leucine, valine and isoleucine in fermented meat products. The sensorially most important flavour compounds are the branched-chain aldehydes and acids derived from the corresponding amino acids and this paper intends to perspectivate these flavour compounds in the context of leucine metabolism. METHODS AND RESULTS: GC and GC/MS analysis combined with stable isotope labelling was used to study leucine catabolism. This amino acid together with valine and isoleucine was used as precursors for the production of branched-chain fatty acids for cell membrane biosynthesis during growth. A 83.3% of the cellular fatty acids were branched. The dominating fatty acid was anteiso-C(15:0) that constituted 55% of the fatty acids. A pyridoxal 5'-phosphate and alpha-ketoacid dependent reaction catalysed the deamination of leucine, valine and isoleucine into their corresponding alpha-ketoacids. As alpha-amino group acceptor alpha-keto-beta-methylvaleric acid and alpha-ketoisovaleric acid was much more efficient than alpha-ketoglutarate. The sensorially and metabolic key intermediate on the pathway to the branched-chain fatty acids, 3-methylbutanoic acid was produced from leucine at the onset of the stationary growth phase and then, when the growth medium became scarce in leucine, from the oxidation of glucose via pyruvate. CONCLUSIONS: This paper demonstrates that the sensorially important branched-chain aldehydes and acids are important intermediates on the metabolic route leading to branched-chain fatty acids for cell membrane biosynthesis. SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY: The metabolic information obtained is extremely important in connection with a future biotechnological design of starter cultures for production of fermented meat.     

Animal biotechnology

Biotechnology has taken two directions in efforts to speed up animal production above the rates achievable by selective breeding. Recombinant DNA methods have been used to engineer protein gene products for direct administration to livestock, as in recombinant growth hormone to stimulate lactation in dairy cows or yield faster-growing, leaner carcasses in meat animals. Cloned cellulolytic genes have been inserted into ruminal microorganisms with a view to improving ruminant nutrition. The other direction is to use advanced breeding technologies to enhance performance. These include laboratory culture of large numbers of viable embryos for non-surgical transfer to surrogate mothers, development of methods for sexing sperm and embryos, cloning embryos by nuclear transplantation and gene transfer to create livestock with superior performance traits. In all cases material progress will depend upon a deeper understanding of the underlying physiological and developmental control mechanisms and public confidence that due regard is being paid to animal welfare, and to social and environmental implications.     

A Global Assessment of the Water Footprint of Farm Animal Products

The increase in the consumption of animal products is likely to put further pressure on the world’s freshwater resources. This paper provides a comprehensive account of the water footprint of animal products, considering different production systems and feed composition per animal type and country. Nearly one-third of the total water footprint of agriculture in the world is related to the production of animal products. The water footprint of any animal product is larger than the water footprint of crop products with equivalent nutritional value. The average water footprint per calorie for beef is 20 times larger than for cereals and starchy roots. The water footprint per gram of protein for milk, eggs and chicken meat is 1.5 times larger than for pulses. The unfavorable feed conversion efficiency for animal products is largely responsible for the relatively large water footprint of animal products compared to the crop products. Animal products from industrial systems generally consume and pollute more ground- and surface-water resources than animal products from grazing or mixed systems. The rising global meat consumption and the intensification of animal production systems will put further pressure on the global freshwater resources in the coming decades. The study shows that from a freshwater perspective, animal products from grazing systems have a smaller blue and grey water footprint than products from industrial systems, and that it is more water-efficient to obtain calories, protein and fat through crop products than animal products.     

Gaps in the knowledge of human platelet lysate as a cell culture supplement for cell therapy: a joint publication from the AABB and the International Society for Cell & Gene Therapy

Fetal bovine serum (FBS) is used as a growth supplement in a wide range of cell culture applications for cell-based research and therapy. However, as a xenogenic product, FBS can potentially transmit prions and adventitious viruses as well as induce undesirable immunologic reactions. In addition, the use of bovine fetuses for FBS production raises concerns as society looks for ways to replace animal testing and reduce the use of animal products for scientific purposes, in particular for the manufacture of clinical products intended for human use. Until chemically defined media are available for these purposes, human platelet lysate (hPL) has been introduced as an attractive alternative for replacing FBS as a cell culture supplement. hPL is a human product that can be produced from outdated platelets avoiding ethical, medical and animal welfare concerns. An increasing number of studies demonstrate that hPL can promote cell growth similarly or even better than FBS in specific cell types. Due to increasing interest in hPL, the AABB and the International Society of Cell Therapy (ISCT) established a joint working group to address its potential. With this article, we aim to present an overview of hPL, identifying the gaps in information on how hPL is produced and tested and the barriers to its translational use in the production of clinical-grade cell therapy products.     

Cultivated meat manufacturing: Technology,trends, and challenges

The growing world population, public awareness of animal welfare, environmental impacts and changes in meat consumption leads to the search for novel approaches to food production. Novel foods include products with a new or specifically modified molecular structure, foods made from microorganisms, fungi, algae or insects, as well as from animal cell or tissue cultures. The latter approach is known by various names: “clean meat”, “in vitro meat” and “cell-cultured” or “(cell-)cultivated meat”. Here, cells isolated from agronomically important species are expanded ex vivo to produce cell biomass used in unstructured meat or to grow and differentiate cells on scaffolds to produce structured meat analogues. Despite the fast-growing field and high financial interest from investors and governments, cultivated meat production still faces challenges ranging from cell source choice, affordable expansion, use of cruelty-free and food-grade media, regulatory issues and consumer acceptance. This overview discusses the above challenges and possible solutions and strategies in the production of cultivated meat. The review integrates multifaceted historical, social, and technological insights of the field, and provides both an engaging comprehensive introduction for general interested and a robust perspective for experts.     

Lactic acid bacteria: starters for flavour

Abstract Changing milk into other organoleptically acceptable products by fermentation requires particular attributes of the bacteria. These include rapid acid production from lactose and development of suitable quantities of the volatile compounds, diacetyl and acetaldehyde. These compounds must not be over-produced nor should they be accompanied by off-flavours. More knowledge has accumulated concerning starter cultures for milk fermentation than for any of the other cultured foods. We are approaching the time when we can tailor-make mixed cultures of known species of bacteria to provide specific flavours because we are becoming more aware of their metabolic activity within a given foodstuff. To provide and keep a good starter for a particular fermented product it is essential to know what is expected of it in terms of flavour and aroma. This knowledge is not always available and many products are poor because of this. Knowledge of the biochemical pathways leading to flavour production can help in making the right choice of starter.     

Castration induced pain in pigs and other livestock

Castration of male livestock being reared for meat has long been practiced, to prevent unwanted breeding, make management and handling easier, and to improve meat quality. However, castration is a painful procedure for the animal and has increasingly come under scrutiny from animal welfare lobbyists. Depending on the species, a number of different methods are available which include surgical removal of the testes following scrotal incision, crushing of the blood and nerve supply using clamps, rubber rings or latex bands, the destruction of testicular tissue using chemicals or vaccination against hormones such as GnRH and LH that control testicular function (immuno-castration). The degree of pain experienced by the animal may depend on the method used and the age at which the procedure is carried out. This is characterized by an activation of the HPA axis, resulting in a large cortisol response, and obvious display of pain-related behaviours including abnormal posture, increased inactivity, and attention directed towards the site of injury. Use of anaesthetics and analgesics impact the degree of pain experienced. As alternatives, such as immuno-castration or the rearing of intact males become more prevalent, the needs for castration will diminish. However, in the meantime, castration will continue to be seen by many producers as a “routine” procedure, subject to varying degrees of recommendation of best practice or legislation depending on country, and subject to attention from animal welfare groups and policy-makers. Further science is needed to best inform all stakeholders as to the longer-term implications of castration methods on pain and welfare of individuals.     

Effects of feeding and rearing systems on growth, carcass composition and meat quality in pigs

Animal growth performance and quality of pork depend on the interactive effects of pig genotype, rearing conditions, pre-slaughter handling, and carcass and meat processing. This paper focuses on the effects of feeding and rearing systems (feeding level and diet composition, housing, production system, etc.) on growth performance, carcass composition, and eating and technological qualities of pork. The feeding level and protein : energy ratio can be used to manipulate growth rate or composition of weight gain. Restricted feed allowance strongly reduces growth rate and carcass fatness and also intramuscular fat (IMF) level, resulting in decreased meat tenderness or juiciness. Expression of compensatory growth due to restricted followed by ad libitum feeding modifies the composition of weight gain at both carcass and muscle levels, and may improve meat tenderness due to higher in vivo protein turnover. Decreasing the protein : energy ratio of the diet actually increases IMF and improves eating quality, but gives fatter carcasses. In contrast, a progressive reduction in the protein : energy ratio leads to similar carcass composition at slaughter but with higher IMF. Technological meat traits (pH1, pHu, colour, drip loss) are generally not affected by the level or protein : energy in feed. Modification of fatty acid composition and antioxidant level in meat can be obtained through diet supplementations (e.g. vegetable sources with high n-3 fatty acids), thereby improving the nutritional quality of pork. Influences of pig rearing system on animal performance, carcass and meat traits result from interactive effects of housing (floor type, space allowance, ambient temperature, physical activity), feeding level and genotype in specific production systems. Indoor enrichment (more space, straw bedding) generally increases growth rate and carcass fatness, and may improve meat juiciness or flavour through higher IMF. Outdoor rearing and organic production system have various effects on growth rate and carcass fatness, depending on climatic conditions and feed allowance. Influence on meat quality is also controversial: higher drip and lower pHu and tenderness have been reported, whereas some studies show improved meat juiciness with outdoor rearing. Discrepancies are likely due to differences between studies in rearing conditions and physiological responses of pigs to pre-slaughter handling. Specific production systems of the Mediterranean area based on local breeds (low growth rate, high adiposity) and free-range finishing (pasture, forests), which allows pig to express their genetic potential for IMF deposition, clearly demonstrate the positive effects of genotype × rearing system interactions on the quality of pork and pork products.     

Livestock production: recent trends, future prospects

The livestock sector globally is highly dynamic. In developing countries, it is evolving in response to rapidly increasing demand for livestock products. In developed countries, demand for livestock products is stagnating, while many production systems are increasing their efficiency and environmental sustainability. Historical changes in the demand for livestock products have been largely driven by human population growth, income growth and urbanization and the production response in different livestock systems has been associated with science and technology as well as increases in animal numbers. In the future, production will increasingly be affected by competition for natural resources, particularly land and water, competition between food and feed and by the need to operate in a carbon-constrained economy. Developments in breeding, nutrition and animal health will continue to contribute to increasing potential production and further efficiency and genetic gains. Livestock production is likely to be increasingly affected by carbon constraints and environmental and animal welfare legislation. Demand for livestock products in the future could be heavily moderated by socio-economic factors such as human health concerns and changing socio-cultural values. There is considerable uncertainty as to how these factors will play out in different regions of the world in the coming decades.     

Techno-economic modeling and assessment of cultivated meat: Impact of production bioreactor scale

Increases in global meat demands cannot be sustainably met with current methods of livestock farming, which has a substantial impact on greenhouse gas emissions, land use, water consumption, and farm animal welfare. Cultivated meat is a rapidly advancing technology that produces meat products by proliferating and differentiating animal stem cells in large bioreactors, avoiding conventional live-animal farming. While many companies are working in this area, there is a lack of existing infrastructure and experience at commercial scale, resulting in many technical bottlenecks such as scale-up of cell culture and media availability and costs. In this study, we evaluate theoretical cultivated beef production facilities with the goal of envisioning an industry with multiple facilities to produce in total 100,000,000 kg of cultured beef per year or ~0.14% of the annual global beef production. Using the computer-aided process design software, SuperPro Designer®, facilities are modeled to create a comprehensive analysis to highlight improvements that can lower the cost of such a production system and allow cultivated meat products to be competitive. Three facility scenarios are presented with different sized production reactors; ~42,000 L stirred tank bioreactor (STR) with a base case cost of goods sold (COGS) of $35/kg, ~211,000 L STR with a COGS of $25/kg, and ~262,000 L airlift reactor (ALR) with a COGS of $17/kg. This study outlines how advances in scaled up bioreactors, alternative bioreactor designs, and decreased media costs are necessary for commercialization of cultured meat products.     

Main animal welfare problems in ruminant livestock during preslaughter operations: a South American view

Animals destined for meat production are usually exposed to many stressful conditions during production and particularly during preslaughter operations. Handling animals on farm, loading into and unloading from vehicles, transportation, passing through livestock markets, fasting, lairage and stunning can all affect their welfare. How badly welfare can be affected will depend on both the intrinsic factors of the specific type of animal involved and the extrinsic factors of the environment where those animals live or are being handled, including the animal handlers. In South America (SA), it has been part of a strategy for improving animal welfare (AW) to address not only ethical aspects, but to emphasize the close relationship existing between handling ruminants preslaughter and the quantity and quality of the meat they produce. This has resulted not only in improvements in AW, but has also brought economic rewards to producers which in turn can lead to higher incomes for them and hence better human welfare. For producers with a high number of animals, considering AW during production and preslaughter operations can determine the possibility of exporting and/or getting better prices for their products. At smallfarmer level, particularly in some less developed countries, where human welfare is impaired, using this strategy together with education has also been relevant. It is important that education and training in AW are done not only considering global knowledge, but also including specific geographical and climatic characteristics of each country and the cultural, religious and socio-economical characteristics of its people; therefore, research within the context of each country or region becomes relevant. The aim of this review was to show the results of research dealing with AW of ruminant livestock in Chile and some other SA countries. Some of the main problems encountered are related to lack of proper infrastructure to handle animals; long distance transport with high stocking densities in the larger countries; long fasting times due to animals passing through livestock markets and dealers; bad handling of animals by untrained personnel in these and other premises; and finally the lack of knowledge and skills by operators in charge of stunning procedures. Interventions at these stages have considered training animal handlers and transporters by showing them the consequences of bad handling with audiovisual material prepared on site. Research results have helped to improve AW and support the development of new legislation or to make changes in the existent legislation related to AW.     

Animal board invited review: Animal agriculture and alternative meats – learning from past science communication failures

Sustainability discussions bring in multiple competing goals, and the outcomes are often conflicting depending upon which goal is being given credence. The role of livestock in supporting human well-being is especially contentious in discourses around sustainable diets. There is considerable variation in which environmental metrics are measured when describing sustainable diets, although some estimate of the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of different diets based on varying assumptions is commonplace. A market for animal-free and manufactured food items to substitute for animal source food (ASF) has emerged, driven by the high GHG emissions of ASF. Ingredients sourced from plants, and animal cells grown in culture are two approaches employed to produce alternative meats. These can be complemented with ingredients produced using synthetic biology. Alternative meat companies promise to reduce GHG, the land and water used for food production, and reduce or eliminate animal agriculture. Some CEOs have even claimed alternative meats will ‘end world hunger’. Rarely do such self-proclamations emanate from scientists, but rather from companies in their efforts to attract venture capital investment and market share. Such declarations are reminiscent of the early days of the biotechnology industry. At that time, special interest groups employed fear-based tactics to effectively turn public opinion against the use of genetic engineering to introduce sustainability traits, like disease resistance and nutrient fortification, into global genetic improvement programs. These same groups have recently turned their sights on the ‘unnaturalness’ and use of synthetic biology in the production of meat alternatives, leaving agriculturists in a quandary. Much of the rationale behind alternative meats invokes a simplistic narrative, with a primary focus on GHG emissions, ignoring the nutritional attributes and dietary importance of ASF, and livelihoods that are supported by grazing ruminant production systems. Diets with low GHG emissions are often described as sustainable, even though the nutritional, social and economic pillars of sustainability are not considered. Nutritionists, geneticists, and veterinarians have been extremely successful at developing new technologies to reduce the environmental footprint of ASF. Further technological developments are going to be requisite to continuously improve the efficiency of animal source, plant source, and cultured meat production. Perhaps there is an opportunity to collectively communicate how innovations are enabling both alternative- and conventional-meat producers to more sustainably meet future demand. This could counteract the possibility that special interest groups who promulgate misinformation, fear and uncertainty, will hinder the adoption of technological innovations to the ultimate detriment of global food security.     

Potential benefits of gene editing for the future of poultry farming

The chicken is an exemplar of efficient intensive animal agriculture and provides two valuable food products, chicken meat and eggs. Only aquaculture is better, by efficiency, but poultry is still top, by mass of animal protein produced as food in the global context. However this efficiency and intensive production comes with a number of challenges. Though the genetics of selective breeding have led to dramatic improvements in yield, efficiency and product quality, traits that relate to disease and welfare outcomes have not been so tractable. These two issues are major impacts to the industry in terms of production and in terms of public perception. Both transgenic technology and genome editing have clear potential for impact in these two important areas. The reproductive biology of birds requires techniques very specific to birds to achieve heritable (germline) edited traits. These are quite involved and, even though they are now well-defined and reliable, there is room for improvement and advances can be expected in the future. Currently the key targets for this technology are modifying chicken genes involved in virus-receptor interactions and cellular response involved in infection. For the egg industry the technology is being applied to the issue of sex-selection for layer hens (and the removal of males), removal of allergens from egg white and the tailoring of eggs system to enhance the yield of influenza vaccine doses. Regulation and trading of the animals generated, and resulting food products, will significantly impact the value and future development of genome editing for poultry.

     

A Review of Foodborne Bacterial and Parasitic Zoonoses in Vietnam

Vietnam has experienced unprecedented economic and social development in recent years, and the livestock sector is undergoing significant transformations. Although food animal production is still dominated by small-scale ‘backyard’ enterprises with mixed crop–livestock or livestock–aquatic systems, there is a trend towards more intensive and vertically integrated operations. Changes in animal production, processing and distribution networks for meat and animal products, and the shift from wet markets to supermarkets will undoubtedly impact food safety risks in Vietnam in unforeseen and complex ways. Here, we review the available published literature on bacterial and parasitic foodborne zoonoses (FBZ) in Vietnam. We report on clinical disease burden and pathogen prevalence in animal reservoirs for a number of important FBZ, and outline opportunities for future research.     

Review: Optimizing ruminant conversion of feed protein to human food protein

Ruminant livestock have the ability to produce high-quality human food from feedstuffs of little or no value for humans. Balanced essential amino acid composition of meat and milk from ruminants makes those protein sources valuable adjuncts to human diets. It is anticipated that there will be increasing demand for ruminant proteins in the future. Increasing productivity per animal dilutes out the nutritional and environmental costs of maintenance and rearing dairy animals up to production. A number of nutritional strategies improve production per animal such as ration balancing in smallholder operations and small grain supplements to ruminants fed high-forage diets. Greenhouse gas emission intensity is reduced by increased productivity per animal; recent research has developed at least one effective inhibitor of methane production in the rumen. There is widespread over-feeding of protein to dairy cattle; milk and component yields can be maintained, and sometimes even increased, at lower protein intake. Group feeding dairy cows according to production and feeding diets higher in rumen-undegraded protein can improve milk and protein yield. Supplementing rumen-protected essential amino acids will also improve N efficiency in some cases. Better N utilization reduces urinary N, which is the most environmentally unstable form of excretory N. Employing nutritional models to more accurately meet animal requirements improves nutrient efficiency. Although smallholder enterprises, which are concentrated in tropical and semi-tropical regions of developing countries, are subject to different economic pressures, nutritional biology is similar at all production levels. Rather than milk volume, nutritional strategies should maximize milk component yield, which is proportional to market value as well as food value when milk nutrients are consumed directly by farmers and their families. Moving away from Holsteins toward smaller breeds such as Jerseys, Holstein-Jersey crosses or locally adapted breeds (e.g. Vechur) would also reduce lactose production and improve metabolic, environmental and economic efficiencies. Forages containing condensed tannins or polyphenol oxidase enzymes have reduced rumen protein degradation; ruminants capture this protein more efficiently for meat and milk. Although these forages generally have lower yields and persistence, genetic modification would allow insertion of these traits into more widely cultivated forages. Ruminants will retain their niches because of their ability to produce valuable human food from low value feedstuffs. Employing these emerging strategies will allow improved productive efficiency of ruminants in both developing and developed countries.     

Production costs and animal welfare for four stylized hog production systems

Nonhuman animal welfare is arguably the most contentious issue facing the hog industry. Animal advocacy groups influence the regulation of hog farms and induce some consumers to demand more humane pork products. Hog producers are understandably reluctant to improve animal well being unless the premium they extract exceeds the corresponding increase in cost. To better understand the relationship between animal welfare and production costs under different farm systems, this study investigates 4 stylized hog production systems. The results show that increasing animal welfare for all hogs in the United States will increase retail pork prices by a maximum of 2% for a small welfare increase and 5% for a large welfare increase. The cost of banning gestation crates measured by this study is lower than the consumer willingness-to-pay from other studies.     

Cultured meat: creative solutions for a cell biological problem

Cultured meat is an emerging technology that could address environmental, health, and animal welfare concerns associated with meat production. Development of cultured meat represents an exciting challenge for cell biologists and engineers, but it requires effective, open approaches for knowledge sharing to establish a fertile scientific field alongside a competitive industry.     

Role of micro-organisms in biltong flavour development

P rior , B.A. 1984. Role of micro-organisms in biltong flavour development. Journal of Applied Bacteriology 56 , 41–45.
When biltong, a dried salted meat product, is prepared from beef, micro-organisms are able to proliferate freely and counts of 9.8 times 10⁴ to 3.8 times 10⁷/g are observed. Treating the meat with four antibiotics before production of the biltong restricted microbial growth, yet a taste panel was unable to distinguish between biltong containing high and low numbers of micro-organisms. No significant difference in the free amino acid and free fatty acid content of biltong; prepared with and without antibiotics was detected although there were significant increases in these compounds during biltong production. These results suggest that micro-organisms are not involved in the development of biltong flavour and microbial inhibitors may thus be added to the meat as a preservative agent without affecting the development of the biltong flavour, taste and aroma.