Effects of evisceration and storage temperature on changes in meat quality of traditional farm‐fresh Turkeys

1. Conditions affecting the keeping quality of traditional farm‐fresh turkeys were investigated.

2. Storage of uneviscerated Wrolstad turkeys at 4 °C for 10 days caused no statistically significant changes in meat flavour or texture.

3. During further storage at —2 °C, however, there was a slight but significant change in flavour, which became more marked with time in birds which had been eviscerated after the initial period at 4 °C.

4. Both eviscerated and uneviscerated birds became slightly tougher during storage.

5. Initial holding at 4 °C increased the numbers of psychrotrophic bacteria on the skin by about 10³ but subsequent changes at — 2 °C were slight for uneviscerated birds.

6. Eviscerated carcases had higher counts than uneviscerated birds after storage at — 2 °C and, although ‘off’ odours were not detected, spoilage appeared to be imminent at the end of the 20‐d period.     

The spoilage flora and shelf‐life of duck carcasses stored at 2 or ‐ 1°c in oxygen‐permeable or oxygen‐impermeable film

1. A comparison was made of” oven ready “ duck carcasses stored at 2 or — 1 °C and wrapped in either a low‐density oxygen‐permeable polyethylene film or a heat‐shrunk oxygen‐impermeable film.

2. At spoilage the main organisms at 2 and — 1 °C on the carcasses wrapped in the oxygen‐permeable film were pseudomonads, producing unacceptable “off odours” when their numbers were >10⁸/cm². This occurred in about 10 d at 2 °C but in about 19 d at ‐ 1° C.

3. The effect of wrapping in the heat‐shrunk oxygen‐impermeable film was to delay or inhibit the growth of pseudomonads and thus extend the shelf‐life by more than 50% at either temperature. The predominant organisms isolated from the spoiling carcasses were atypical lactobacilli and enterobacteria.

4. Sensory assessment of the carcasses stored at — 1 °C by a trained panel indicated that, although less obvious “ off odours “ were produced by the micro‐organisms growing on the carcasses wrapped in the impermeable film, differences were detected at 33 d when the numbers of bacteria reached about 10⁷/cm² whilst at 41 d the meat was described as rancid.     

Sensory evaluation of pheasants hung at 10 °g for up to 15 days

1. Pheasants hung at 10 °G were found to become increasingly “gamey” in flavour and more tender in texture with length of hanging.

2. After 13 d they were strongly gamey and very tender.     

Effects of area and isolation of woodland patches on herbaceous plant species richness across Great Britain

Richness of Ancient Woodland Indicator plant species was analysed in 308 woodland patches that were surveyed during the Countryside Survey of Great Britain carried out in 1998. The Countryside Survey recorded vegetation plots and landscape structure in 569 stratified 1 km sample squares and developed a remotely-sensed land cover map of the UK. Using these datasets, we tested the hypothesis that Ancient Woodland Indicator species richness in woodland fragments was limited by patch area, shape and spatial isolation and that woodland patches located in the lowland region of Great Britain would respond differently than those in the upland region. The variation in Ancient Woodland Indicator species richness in the British lowlands (n = 218) was mainly explained by patch area and two measures of connectivity, the length of hedgerows and lines of trees in the 1 km square and the area of woodland within 500 m of the vegetation plot. By contrast, variation in Ancient Woodland Indicator species richness in the British uplands (n = 90) was related to Ellenberg scores of the vegetation communities sampled – a surrogate for habitat quality – and no significant effect of spatial structure was detected. It therefore appears that the degree of fragmentation of woodland in the British lowlands limits the distribution of Ancient Woodland Indicator species, while in the uplands, failed colonisation is a matter of habitat quality rather than a result of landscape structure.This revised version was published online in May 2005 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The impact of truncating data on the predictive ability for single‐step genomic best linear unbiased prediction

Simulated and swine industry data sets were utilized to assess the impact of removing older data on the predictive ability of selection candidate estimated breeding values (EBV) when using single‐step genomic best linear unbiased prediction (ssGBLUP). Simulated data included thirty replicates designed to mimic the structure of swine data sets. For the simulated data, varying amounts of data were truncated based on the number of ancestral generations back from the selection candidates. The swine data sets consisted of phenotypic and genotypic records for three traits across two breeds on animals born from 2003 to 2017. Phenotypes and genotypes were iteratively removed 1 year at a time based on the year an animal was born. For the swine data sets, correlations between corrected phenotypes (Cp) and EBV were used to evaluate the predictive ability on young animals born in 2016–2017. In the simulated data set, keeping data two generations back or greater resulted in no statistical difference (p‐value > 0.05) in the reduction in the true breeding value at generation 15 compared to utilizing all available data. Across swine data sets, removing phenotypes from animals born prior to 2011 resulted in a negligible or a slight numerical increase in the correlation between Cp and EBV. Truncating data is a method to alleviate computational issues without negatively impacting the predictive ability of selection candidate EBV.     

Isolating the effect of soil properties on agricultural soil greenhouse gas emissions under controlled conditions

Agricultural soils are important sources of greenhouse gases (GHGs). Soil properties and environmental factors have complex interactions which influence the dynamics of these GHG fluxes. Four arable and five grassland soils which represent the range of soil textures and climatic conditions of the main agricultural areas in the UK were incubated at two different moisture contents (50 or 80% water holding capacity) and with or without inorganic fertiliser application (70 kg N ha⁻¹ ammonium nitrate) over 22 days. Emissions of N₂O, CO₂ and CH₄ were measured twice per week by headspace gas sampling, and cumulative fluxes were calculated. Multiple regression modelling was carried out to determine which factors (soil mineral N, organic carbon and total nitrogen contents, C:N ratios, clay contents and pH) that best explained the variation in GHG fluxes. Clay, mineral N and soil C contents were found to be the most important explanatory variables controlling GHG fluxes in this study. However, none of the measured variables explained a significant amount of variation in CO₂ fluxes from the arable soils. The results were generally consistent with previously published work. However, N₂O emissions from the two Scottish soils were substantially more sensitive to inorganic N fertiliser application at 80% water holding capacity than the other soils, with the N₂O emissions being up to 107 times higher than the other studied soils.     

基于稳健统计学确定高潜在污染土壤Cu、Pb基线值

土壤重金属基线值的确定对于评价重金属积累现状具有重要意义。在存在人为污染的情况下,土壤重金属数据经常强烈地偏离正态分布和对数正态分布,影响统计分析结果的可信度,而稳健统计方法可以降低离群值对统计分析结果的影响。本研究以张家港为研究区域,采用稳健回归方法,建立表层和底层土壤Cu、Pb的回归关系,通过底层土壤Cu、Pb含量计算表层土壤Cu、Pb基线值,并对土壤Cu、Pb积累状况进行评价。结果表明,稳健回归方法确定的表层土壤Cu、Pb基线值可以反映出不同样点间,土壤Cu、Pb背景含量的自然变异。与稳健统计学方法相比,使用国家土壤环境质量标准值,或大区域(江苏省)的土壤背景值,评价自然背景本身存在变异区域的土壤重金属积累状况时,可能会产生较大的误差。     

基于稳健统计学确定高潜在污染土壤Cu、Pb基线值

土壤重金属基线值的确定对于评价重金属积累现状具有重要意义。在存在人为污染的情况下,土壤重金属数据经常强烈地偏离正态分布和对数正态分布,影响统计分析结果的可信度,而稳健统计方法可以降低离群值对统计分析结果的影响。本研究以张家港为研究区域,采用稳健回归方法,建立表层和底层土壤Cu、Pb的回归关系,通过底层土壤Cu、Pb含量计算表层土壤Cu、Pb基线值,并对土壤Cu、Pb积累状况进行评价。结果表明,稳健回归方法确定的表层土壤Cu、Pb基线值可以反映出不同样点间,土壤Cu、Pb背景含量的自然变异。与稳健统计学方法相比,使用国家土壤环境质量标准值,或大区域（江苏省）的土壤背景值,评价自然背景本身存在变异区域的土壤重金属积累状况时,可能会产生较大的误差。