Valentino Bontempo

• DVM, Ph.D
• University of Milan

The post-weaning phase is one of the most critical periods in pig production due to many stress factors that may negatively affect the response of the immune system and lead to intestinal gut dysfunction in pigs. The use of products of natural or synthetic origin could support the animals’ health in this stressful situation. The aim of this study w...

This study evaluated the effects of dietary gallic acid (GA) on growth performance, diarrhea incidence and plasma antioxidant status of weaned piglets regardless of whether weaning weight was high or low. A total of 120 weaned piglets were randomly allocated to four treatments in a 42-day experiment with a 2 × 2 factorial treatment arrangement comp...

The present review aims toward a better understanding of the nutrition of newborn puppies and kittens. The post-natal period is very sensitive in dogs and cats, as in other animal species. During the first two weeks of life, puppies and kittens are at high risk of dehydration, hypothermia, and hypoglycemia, as well as infectious diseases as they st...

Reducing the use of antibiotics is one of the largest challenges for pig production. The scientific community has investigated numerous alternative substances to antibiotics, including medium-chain fatty acids, due to their antimicrobial and protective effects on the gut health of piglets. The present study investigated the effect of lauric acid sa...

The aim of this study was to assess the effect of nucleotides administration on growth performance and immune response in post-weaning piglets. Twenty-eight male weaned piglets, homogeneous for age and weight were randomly allocated to two experimental treatments. Treated group (T) was daily orally administered 0.8 g/head of a mixture of nucleotide...

This study aimed at assessing the effect of low versus high ratios of ω6:ω3 fatty acids in the gestation and lactation sow diets on their piglets. Sixteen multiparous sows were randomly allocated to two diets with ω-6:ω-3 ratios of 13:1 (C) and 4:1 (T) from d 28 of gestation onwards. Their post-weaning piglets were divided into four groups (10 pigl...

Dietary ω-6 and ω-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) influence animal health and performance because they regulate inflammatory and immunomodulatory processes. We tested the hypothesis that decreasing the dietary ω6:ω3 ratio during gestation and lactation sows will improve reproductive performance and the FA profile in colostrum and milk. Sixtee...

The ratio of omega-6 (ω6) to omega-3 (ω3) polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) in the diet contributes to animal health and performance modulations because they have mostly opposite physiological functions. Increasing ω3 PUFAs content in the maternal diet can stimulate antioxidative capacity in sow and piglets; however, the optimal ratio of ω6 and ω...

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of mannan oligosaccharides (MOS) on gut health and performance in post-weaning piglets. In total, 40 piglets were divided into two experimental groups and fed a basal diet with (TRT) or without (CON) 0.2% mannan oligosaccharides for 35 days. Growth performance was determined weekly and faecal microb...

Phytobiotics are usually tested in feed and throughout the production cycle. However, it could be beneficial to evaluate their effects when administered only during critical moments, such as changes in feeding phases. The aim of the trial was to investigate the effect of a commercial plant extract (PE; IQV-10-P01, InQpharm Animal Health, Kuala Lump...

Piglets can often suffer impaired antioxidant status and poor immune response during post-weaning, especially when chronic inflammation takes place, leading to lower growth rates than expected. Oral administration of dietary antioxidant compounds during this period could be a feasible way to balance oxidation processes and increase health and growt...

The digestive physiology of young chickens is characterized by inefficient digestion and absorption of fat due to a low level of natural endogenous lipase production. These evidences have increased the interest on the use of emulsifiers to improve utilization of fats in young chickens and growth performance of broiler. The effect of a synthetic emu...

The aim of the present study was to test infrared thermography (IRT), under field conditions, as a possible tool for the evaluation of cow udder health status. Thermographic images (n. 310) from different farms (n. 3) were collected and evaluated using a dedicated software application to calculate automatically and in a standardized way, thermograp...

Free range systems can improve the welfare of laying hens. However, the access to environmental resources can be partially limited by social interactions, feeding of hens, and productivity, can be not stable and damaging behaviors, or negative events, can be observed more frequently than in conventional housing systems. In order to reach a real imp...

Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) is a mixture of geometrical and positional isomers of linoleic acid. Health-promoting properties of CLA, which include antioxidant, anti-obesity and anticarcinogenic activities, have been demonstrated in a wide range of animal models (Pariza et al., 2001). Recent studies indicated the CLA has a favorable effect on imm...

The development of new approaches for organ transplantation has become crucial in the last years. In particular, organ engineering, involving the preparation of acellular matrices that provide a natural habitat for reseeding with an appropriate population of cells, is an attractive although technically demanding approach. We here describe a method...

In Italy, organic egg production farms use free-range housing systems with a big outdoor area and a flock of no more than 500 hens. With additional devices and/or farming procedures, the whole flock could be forced to stay in the outdoor area for a limited time of the day. As a consequence, ozone treatments of housing areas could be performed in or...

This study evaluated the effect of diet supplementation with an essential oil blend (13.5% thymol and 4.5% cinnamaldehyde, EO) on growth performance and selected parameters of oxidative stress and antioxidant defence in Escherichia coli challenged piglets. Ninety-six weaned piglets were allocated into 4 experimental treatments (6 replicates per tre...

A 6-week experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of dietary oregano powder (OP) supplementation on the growth performance, antioxidant status and meat quality of broiler chicks. A total of 180 one day-old Arbour Acres broilers were randomly divided into 3 treatments with 6 replicates and 10 chicks per replicate. The chicks were fed with ba...

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of dried tangerine peel extract (DTPE) supplementation on the growth performance and immune and antioxidant status of broiler chicks. A total of 525 day-old, male, Arbour Acres (AA) broiler chicks were fed a basal diet (CTR) either with or without 80, 160, 240 and 480 mg DTPE/kg diet. The chicks wer...

Branched chain amino acids (BCAA), have been shown to affect human gene expression, protein metabolism, apoptosis, and regeneration of hepatocytes. Furthermore, they have been demonstrated to inhibit proliferation of liver cancer cells in vitro, and to be essential for lymphocyte proliferation. In veterinary medicine, the use of BCAAs as integratio...

Two experiments were conducted to evaluate the effects of a novel synthetic emulsifier product (AVI-MUL TOP) on the growth performance of chickens for fattening and weaned piglets. The emulsifier product consists of 50% vegetal bi-distillated oleic acid emulsified with 50% glyceryl polyethyleneglycol ricinoleate. In experiment 1, 480 1-day-old fema...

Foetal energy demands are greatly increased during late gestation and catabolism of maternal reserves occurs if dietary energy supply is insufficient to meet requirements. Fats and oils are traditionally introduced into late gestation and lactation diets as a high-energy supply to improve neonatal survival and milk yield, and to reduce mobilization...

This study evaluated the effects of nutritional supplementation with a blend of essential oils (EO, thymol and cinnamaldehyde) and an enzyme combination (XB, xylanase and β-glucanase), given alone or together, on growth performance, microbial counts, ileum microscopic anatomy and the expression of inflammatory mediators in weaned piglets challenged...

Our study is focused on evaluation and use of the most effective and correct nutrients. In particular, our attention is directed to the role of certain amino acids in cachectic patients.During parenteral nutrition in humans, physician already associates in the PN-bags different formulations including amino acids, lipids and glucose solutions or ess...

This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of supplemental phytase in broiler chicks fed different low levels of total phosphorus (P) on the apparent phosphorus digestibility (APD) and phosphorus output (PO) in the faeces and ileal digesta. After fed a standard broiler starter diet from day 0 to 14 post-hatch, a total of 144 male broiler chick...

The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis of an improved gut environment of post-weaning piglets when administered a blend of essential oils (EO; thymol and cinnamaldehyde) and an enzyme combination (xylanase and β-glucanase (XB)) either alone or in combination. To assess the effect of dietary treatments, faecal nutrient digestibility and mi...

Description of the subject. The growth of new antibiotic-resistant strains of pathogens represents a huge problem in poultry rearing. There is evidence that dietary yeast could be effective in the protection against a variety of pathogens that can affect poultry health and cause foodborne diseases in humans. Since still few or contradictory informa...

The goal of this study was to evaluate the effect of an optimized plant polyphenol (PP) mixture consisting of polyphenols extracted from apples, grape seeds, green teas and olive leaves on the systemic antioxidant capacity in piglets orally challenged with Escherichia coli (E. coli). A total of 24 piglets were weaned at 28 days and allocated to 4 g...

This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of plant polyphenols (PP) on antioxidant activity in weaned piglets. First, a uniform design, one optimising an experimental technique that can rationally arrange the concentrations of mixture components, was used to obtain the best PP mixture of apple, grape seed, green tea and olive leaf polyphenols...

The present study evaluated the effects of a novel plant extract (PE) product (GrazixTM) on the performance and gut health of weaned piglets challenged with Escherichia coli. The PE was a standardised mixture of green tea leaves (Camellia sinensis) and pomegranate fruit (Punica granatum) obtained by using the LiveXtractTM process. A total of 144 pi...

A 3×3 factorial arrangement with dietary non-phytate phosphorus (NPP) levels and phytase sources (3- and 6-phytase) was conducted to evaluate the effects of NPP levels, phytase sources and their possible interactions on growth performance, serum biochemical and tibia parameters of broiler chickens from hatch to 42 days of age. A total of 540 1-day-...

The efficacy of the probiotic feed product, Calsporin® (Bacillus subtilis C-3102) in weaned piglets was evaluated by statistical analysis of the combined results from four different experiments. The body weight, average daily gain, feed intake, feed conversion ratio and mortality data from these four experiments were tested for homogeneity before b...

Purpose of this investigation was to determine the nature of a visible spotting defect on the slice of dry-cured ham and assess environmental and genetic causes of this frequent problem. A group of 233 pigs from commercial cross-breeding lines, progeny of ten boars and forty seven sows, was raised in a single herd to obtain the “Italian Heavy Pig”,...

The aim of this study was to investigate the presence of nucleotides in canine colostrum and milk during lactation. Colostrum and milk samples of 10 healthy bitches were collected manually from mammary glands and analysed for total milk solids, crude protein and adenosine 5'-monophosphate (AMP), cytidine 5'-monophosphate (CMP), guanosine 5'-monopho...

Conjugated linoleic acid isomers may affect the onset and severity of several diseases, including tumors, atherogenesis, and obesity. They may also modulate the immune response. However, little information regarding the most advantageous duration of CLA supplementation is available. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the length of d...

Probiotic research has been approached, above all in recent years, by widely differing points of view, both for human and animal uses. Lactic acid bacteria release bacteriocins, and some of them may function as probiotic. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of dietary supplementation with the probiotic Pediococcus acidilacti...

Three hundred and fifty-two piglets were at weaning assigned to two dietary experimental groups, Ctr (control) or Y (yeast-supplemented). The yeast supplement (2g/kg of diet) provided 2×106CFU/g of feed. Piglet growth was monitored from weaning to 4 weeks after weaning. On day 28 post-weaning, 20 female piglets (10 per group) were slaughtered and t...

Maintaining the health of dogs and cats by feeding wholesome nutritional diets is becoming an important component of responsible pet ownership. Pet owners now seek a long and healthy life for their pet and look to nutrition, as well as to veterinary medicine, to provide such support. Quality of life, measured in terms of reduced incidence of diseas...

Scopo del lavoro. Approfondire il ruolo della componente nutrizionale nell’eziologia delle due principali patologie dell’accre- scimento: la displasia dell’anca e del gomito. Il rapporto di proporzionalità diretta che correla l’alimentazione al tasso di accre- scimento fa sì che, agendo sul regime dietetico sia possibile monitorare l’incremento pon...

Scopo del lavoro: Valutare il ruolo svolto dall'alimentazione sullo sviluppo di patologie scheletriche dell'accrescimento e veri-ficare la possibilità che un rallentamento della velocità di crescita ne riduca la prevalenza, senza compromettere il raggiungi-mento di peso ed altezza finali, previsti dagli standard. Metodi: 183 cani di razza Bovaro de...

We studied the effects of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) on metabolic and immunologic variables in lactating sows and piglets. Gestating sows (n = 16) were assigned to 1 of 2 weight- and parity-matched groups supplemented with 0% (C) or 0.5% (T) of a CLA preparation containing 50% CLA isomers. Supplementation started in late pregnancy and continued...

Dietary supplementations with L-glutamine and/or nucleotides were screened for their effects on intestinal mucosa in 16 female weaning piglets. The animals were transported to the university's facilities 24 hours after weaning. They were grouped four to a pen in controlled environmental conditions and fed one of the following four diets for 28 days...

Dietary supplementation with glutamine and nucleotides may be useful during piglets weaning, when a rough passage from milk suckling to a solid feed may cause a strong reduction of the length of intestinal villi height and the depth of the crypts, and consequently of the intestinal digestive and absorptive capacities (Van Beers-Schreurs et al., 199...

The aim of this study was to determine the influence of dietary supplementation of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) on some immune system parameters in piglets. Forty-two weaned piglets, 12.44 ± 1.96 kg live weight, were fed diets containing 1% sunflower oil (control, C), 0.5% CLA plus 0.5% sunflower oil (T1), and 1% CLA (T2). After 28, d serum lysoz...

To assess the kinetic behavior of 3 preparations of alpha-tocopherol (vitamin E) after oral administration to heifers. 8 postpubertal Friesian heifers. A single oral bolus of 5,000 U of alpha-tocopherol in oil or encapsulated in liposomes or cyclodextrin was administered to each cow, using a 4 X 4 design with 8 days between treatments. Blood sample...

Objective —To assess the kinetic behavior of 3 preparations of α-tocopherol (vitamin E) after oral administration to heifers. Animals —8 postpubertal Friesian heifers. Procedure —A single oral bolus of 5,000 U of α-tocopherol in oil or encapsulated in liposomes or cyclodextrin was administered to each cow, using a 4 X 4 design with 8 days between t...

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of Cr supplementation (as Cr-yeast) on growth performance, some blood parameters and neutrophils superoxide anion production, in weaning-stressed piglets. Thirteen crossbred (Landrace × Large White) litters were assigned to Cr-supplemented prestarter diet for 21 d (from 10 d after birth to 7 d post-...

The aim of this study was to determine the effect of Cr-supplementation of lactating sow diet on sow performance, reproduction and immune functions. Sixteen hybrid commercial breed (Goland) sows were assigned to two experimental groups (eight sows/group; average parity = 2.3 +/- 0.4): control (no Cr supplementation) and Cr-supplemented. Supplementa...

DL-alpha-tocopheryl acetate, a synthetic form of vitamin E, is routinely given as a dietary supplement to cattle. In this study we assessed the relative bioavailability of three formulations of DL-alpha-tocopheryl acetate in a kinetic study of plasma alpha-tocopherol in four Italian Friesian dairy cows, following intraruminal administration of a ge...

This experiment was designed to quantify changes in utilization of Gln and Leu by the gut wall as a result of changes in the starch supply to the duodenum. Four dairy cows fitted with cannulas in the rumen and the distal duodenum were adapted for 3 wk to starch infusion, either into the rumen (600 g/d of flaked maize) or into the duodenum (300 g/d...

Two studies were carried out to investigate on the nutritional status of newborn foals also related to some mare milk characteristics. In the first study 5 foals born from Franch Montagnes x Bardigiana mares were muzzled and artificially reared in order to get more information on foals' nutritional status during the first weeks after birth. Mares'...

The aim of this study was to evaluate if metabolic and endocrine adaptive responses to stressful stimuli are influenced by clenbuterol treatment in pigs. Two groups of nine Goland barrows of 167 kg liveweight, fed diets containing 0 (control) or 1 ppm of clenbuterol (clenbuterol‐treated) for 40 days, were used. Blood samples were collected by jugul...

One hundred and sixty pigs (80 barrows and 80 gilts) with an initial liveweight (LW) of 23 kg, were used to evaluate the effects of graded amounts of low glucosinolate rapeseed meal (LG-RSM) on performance and thyroid hormone status of heavy pigs (liveweight at slaughter 144 kg). The pigs were fed ad libitum on pelleted diets containing 0, 5, 10 or...