Using Duddingtonia flagrans in calves under an organic milk farm production system in the Mexican tropics.

The reduction of the gastrointestinal nematode (GIN) larvae population in faeces of cattle treated with Duddingtonia flagrans chlamydospores on a farm under an organic production system in Chiapas, Mexico, was assessed. Seventeen Cebu/Swiss crossbreed grazing calves naturally infected with GIN, were randomly distributed into two groups and treated as follows: Group 1, an oral administration of 2 × 106D. flagrans chlamydospores/kg BW, every two days for 30 days; group 2, Control, without any treatment. Results indicated that the epg values in both groups remained similar (p > 0.05). The average number of (L3) from coprocultures from the group treated with D. flagrans had an important reduction (53.8%) with respect to the control group and it reached 75.3% maximum larval reduction at the 14th sampling; although, no statistic significance was observed (p > 0.05). Likewise, the average of larvae (L3) recovered from grass corresponding to the animals treated with D. flagrans diminished at 25.1% with respect to the control group (p > 0.05). A mixture of GIN genera including Strongyloides sp., Haemonchus sp., Cooperia sp., Trichostrongylus sp., Oesophagostomum sp. and Mecistocirrus sp., were identified from coprocultures. It was concluded that treatment with D. flagrans chlamydospores reduces the GIN larvae population in grass and in faeces of calves maintained under an organic milk production system.

Fatty acid content, health and risk indices, physicochemical composition, and somatic cell counts of milk from organic and conventional farming systems in tropical south-eastern Mexico.

Organic agriculture and livestock farming is claimed to promote animal welfare and can offer animal products with better hygienic-sanitary quality, based on principles of health, ecology, fairness, and care. However, no clear advantages of organic milk (OM) versus conventional milk (CM) from tropical conditions are available. The aims of the study were to determine fatty acid profile, health-promoting (HPI) and thrombogenic (TI) indices, physicochemical composition, and somatic cell counts (SCC) of OM and CM in tropical south-eastern Mexico. Female cross-breed cows (400-600 kg) were employed. CM had larger values of saturated fatty acids (SFA) and polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) (63.6 %; 4.57 %) than OM (61.48 %; 4.22 %), while OM resulted in a larger value of monounsaturated fatty acid (MUFA) (34.3 %) than CM (31.7 %). HPI and TI showed that OM was more favorable than CM. Milk production and physicochemical composition (PC) as well as density had no significant difference, while SCC was significantly lower in OM than in CM on a monthly basis. These results showed that OM promotes a healthful and balanced diet, and is already produced by sustainable ecologic technologies employing traditional agrosilvopastoral management, which is more environmentally friendly and promotes ecological resilience.