Composition and fatty acid profile of milk from cows supplemented with pressed oilseed cake

This study compared the productive and nutritional parameters of milk from crossbred lactating cows managed on Panicum maximum Jacq. cv. Tanzania and with a diet supplemented with different pressed oilseed cakes. The supplements used were as follows: peanut cake, sunflower cake and palm kernel cake for replacement of soybean meal. Sixteen cows with an average weight of 544 ± 57 kg and producing 8 ± 1.4 L of milk per day were used in this study. The animals were randomly assigned to the treatments according to a Latin square design repeated over time, with four treatments, 16 animals and four experimental periods. Supplementation of the diet with peanut cake, sunflower cake and palm kernel cake compared with soybean meal in the diet of cows did not affect the average daily production or composition of the milk. The palm kernel cake promoted an increase in lauric fatty acids (C_12:0) and palmitoleic acids (C_16:1) (5.02 and 1.65%, respectively) compared with peanut cake and sunflower cake (4.13 and 4.01%, respectively). The levels of oleic fatty acids (C_18:1) were higher for the sunflower cake and palm kernel cake supplements (26.01 and 25.01%, respectively) compared with peanut cake (23.11%). The replacement of soybean meal with sunflower cake and palm kernel cake improved the nutritional quality of the milk, with lower concentrations of saturated fatty acids and higher concentrations of unsaturated fatty acids, without compromising the production or nutritional composition of the milk. © 2015 Japanese Society of Animal Science     

From killer to carer: steroid hormones and paternal behaviour

Mammalian parental investment (i.e. care of descendant offspring) is largely biased towards maternal contributions due to the specific feeding needs of mammalian offspring; however, varying degrees of paternal investment have been reported in about 10% of all mammalian species. Within the order Carnivora, paternal contribution to rearing offspring is particularly high: an estimated 32% of all studied carnivore species exhibit direct paternal care. Despite the prominence of paternal investment in carnivores, the endocrine basis of this behaviour is not well understood. This review examines the current – highly constrained – state of knowledge about the endocrine basis of carnivore paternal investment. We attempt to link changes in androgen and glucocorticoid levels with variation in direct and indirect paternal care behaviour making specific predictions regarding the way forward. Well-studied species, such as bat-eared foxes (Otocyon megalotis), dwarf mongoose (Helogale parvula) and meerkats (Suricata suricatta), where social dynamics are relatively well understood, can act as ideal model systems through which we may further investigate the endocrine basis of paternal investment in carnivores.