Drago Kompan

Importance of increased intestinal permeability after multiple injuries.

OBJECTIVE To find out if there was a relationship between increased intestinal permeability and the development of multiple organ failure (MOF) after multiple injuries, we correlated the extent of injury and MOF with intestinal permeability on the second and fourth day after injury. DESIGN Prospective open study. SETTING University hospital, Slovenia. PATIENTS 29 multiply injured patients, injury severity score (ISS) over 25, admitted shocked. INTERVENTION Intestinal permeability measured by giving lactulose and mannitol solution enterally on days 2 and 4. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES The lactulose: mannitol ratio calculated from the urinary portion of the probe molecules. ISS and the acute physiology and chronic health evaluation (APACHE II) calculated on admission. RESULTS The median lactulose: mannitol ratio for five volunteers was 0.014 (range 0.008-0.017) and that for 29 patients was 0.03 (0.01-0.1). On day 2 it was 0.03 (0.02-0.1), on day 4 0.02 (0.01-0.2). The ratio calculated on day 2 correlated with average and late MOF scores (r = 0.41 R2 = 0.1681, p <0.03 and r = 0.38, R2 = 0.1444, p <0.04) and that measured on day 4 correlated with overall, early, and late MOF scores (r = 0.47, R2 = 0.2209, p <0.01; r = 0.51, R2 = 0.2601, p <0.005; r = 0.39, R = 0.1512, p <0.04). No correlation was found between ISS, transport time, shock index, APACHE II, and days in intensive care. CONCLUSIONS Even if intestinal permeability is invariably increased after injury, it seems to have some predictive value for MOF in multiply injured patients because it correlates with its development.

Effect of α-linoleic acid supplementation in goat's diet on milk yield, quality and somatic cell count

Abstract Investigation of the effect of α-linoleic acid (ALA) on goat’s milk production (daily milk yield, fat and protein content) and somatic cell count (SSC) and the persistence of this effect after supplement termination was conducted on 32 Alpine breed goats kept on an indoor Alpine farm. After adaptation period the animals were randomly allocated according to treatment into control group (G0) with no added supplement and test group (G1) where supplement containing ALA was added over a period of five days. Measurements of milk yield and sampling for analysis of milk composition in adaptation period, treatment period and first five days of period after treatment occurred every day at each milking (morning and evening). From the 5th to the 50th day of the after treatment period, measurements and sampling occurred every fifth day. Based on the conducted research it could be concluded that supplementation had no effect on milk yield; it had low effect on milk components and significant effect on SSC. This could be used as a method of choice for reduction of SCC in goat’s milk.

Fatty acid composition of lamb meat from the autochthonous Jezersko-Solčava breed reared in different production systems.

Thirty two autochthonous Jezersko-Solčava lambs were used to investigate the effect of production (pasture vs. stable) and weaning system (suckling vs. weaned) on fatty acid composition of Longissimus dorsi intramuscular fat in a 2 × 2 factorial design. Pasture lambs had lower intramuscular fat concentration (P<0.0001) more PUFA and trans C18:1, more ALA (P=0.0322), ARA (<0.0001) and EPA (0.0149) but less SFA (P<0.0001) than stable lambs. Weaning system affected PUFA (P=0.0040) and MUFA (P=0.0070) but not SFA and trans C18:1 fatty acids. The interaction of production system and weaning system was significant mainly for trans C18:1 and trans C18:2 fatty acids. Finally, lamb meat from all four treatments which are traditionally used in rearing of Jezersko-Solčava lambs are favourable from the nutritive point of view, due to their low n-6/n-3 ratio.

Quality of Italian Istrian Milk lamb meat. Influence of carcass weight and feeding system

Abstract The Istrian Milk sheep is an endangered breed of the Pramenka group raised in the North-Adriatic Karst region. Carcass and meat characteristics of 46 suckling, 6- to 14- week-old intact male light lambs from two feeding systems were analysed. Thirty-two lambs were raised in a flock fed only with forage (hay supplied in stall during winter or fresh herbage directly grazed during the other seasons). The lambs had free access to the forage supplied to their dams (feeding system: milk and forage; MF). The other fourteen suckling ovine were grown on a farm with a feeding system incorporating a concentrated supply of the forage base. The lambs were stabled and creep fed on a concentrate (20% CP) at a daily rate of 100 g/head, in addition to the suckled milk (feeding system: milk and concentrate; MC). The carcasses were divided into three categories of weight, following the Community scale of light lambs classification: A (≤7 kg, n=17), B (7.1 - 10 kg, n=15) and C (10.1 - 13 kg, n=14). The frequency of 1st quality carcasses increased with carcass weight, reaching 100% in category C. On average, 72% of the carcasses were scored as 1st quality, without significant differences between feeding systems. The lightness of lamb meat from A carcasses was higher than that from the heaviest ones. Cooking losses showed a pattern opposite to that of pH (mean 5.44; SE 0.058), increasing where pH decreased (categories A and B and concentrate-fed lambs). Shear force values were significantly affected by factors linked to the feeding system; in fact, MC lambs provided more tender meat than MF ones (32.6 vs 46.6 N). As carcass weight increased, moisture concentration decreased steadily (from 77.8% to 75.5%), while lipid content increased progressively (from 1.58% to 3.14%). In agreement with these patterns, the contribution of individual fatty acids (FA) to muscle weight generally increased with carcass weight. A similar trend was observed for the relative concentration of saturated FA and monounsaturated FA, while that of polyunsaturated FA (PUFA) showed an opposite evolution. The feeding system modified the relationship between ω3 and ω6 PUFA series: with respect to MC meat, MF meat presented a higher content of linolenic acid and its long chain ω3 derivatives and a lower content of linoleic acid and its major product, arachidonic acid. As a consequence, MF lambs furnished meat with a ω3/ω6 ratio and an index of thrombogenicity more favourable for human health than those from MC lambs.

Influence of conjugated linoleic acid on the porcine immune response and morbidity: a randomized controlled trial

BackgroundConjugated linoleic acid (CLA) has diverse influences on the immune response in different experimental models. In the present study we investigated the effect of CLA feeding on inflammatory and immune responses in a piglet model. We studied the duration of this effect and possible detrimental effects of CLA feeding. After 12 weeks of CLA and control supplementation and washout, animals were sacrificed and parenchymal organs were histologically examined.ResultsIn activated peripheral mononuclear cells interferon-γ was significantly (p = 0.008) lower in the CLA group by the end of the feeding period. This effect disappeared as soon as supplementation was stopped. No differences were found in the tumour necrosis factor-α, interleukin-10 production, serum immunoglobulin-G levels and fat infiltration of the liver, except that fat storage cell infiltration was significantly (p < 0.04) higher in the CLA-fed group. The effect of time for interferon-γ, interleukin-10 and immunoglobulin-G levels was statistically significant.ConclusionAt the end of the feeding period the interferon-γ response was depressed. However, the maturation of the piglet immune system in our young pig model probably outweighs the impact of CLA feeding on the immune response, even though liver fat storage cell infiltration, which plays an important role in liver regeneration, increased during CLA feeding of the piglets.

Growth performance of station tested rams in Slovenia

Abstract In Slovenian sheep breeding programme rams from top flocks are selected for performance test on growth in two test stations with different conditions. The aim of this work was to develop a model that could be used for genetic evaluation using BLUP method. Data on 3,500 rams of several breeds were collected from breeding programme database and analysed with linear mixed model. The selected model accounted for the following fixed effects: breed, station, age at weighing as quadratic polynomial nested within breed and station, parity and the number of liveborn littermates. Additionally, several random effects were included: origin, origin-year interaction, season as day of weighing, and the effect of individual ram. Results showed differences in growth between breeds and stations, higher body weight for rams born as single lambs and lower body weight for rams born in first parity. Variance component ratios are reported for random effects. The analysis did not include pedigree information, but it was shown a considerable variance between rams.