The aim of this study was to evaluate the intake, digestibility, growth performance, and enteric methane emissions of Brazilian semiarid non-descript breed goats (NDG) fed diets with different forage:concentrate ratios (100:0, 80:20, 60:40, 40:60, and 20:80) on a dry matter basis. Forty uncastrated male NDG with an average initial body weight of 13.3 kg ± 4.7 kg were distributed in a completely randomized design, with five treatments and eight replications. Ground Tifton-85 hay was used as forage and ground corn and soybean meal were used as concentrate. The sulfur hexafluoride tracer technique was used to measure methane emissions. The intake of dry matter, organic matter, crude protein, and ether extract increased linearly while the intake of neutral detergent fiber decreased linearly as the concentrate proportion increased (P < 0.05). The digestibility of dry matter and organic matter increased while the digestibility of neutral detergent fiber decreased as the concentrate level increased (P < 0.05). There were linear increases in final body weight, total weight gain, average daily gain, and feed efficiency (P < 0.0001). Methane emissions per unit of body weight (ranging from 1.9 to 0.5 g/kg), metabolic body weight (ranging from 3.9 to 1.2 g/kg), and dry matter intake (ranging from 58.8 to 21.9 g/kg) reduced linearly as the concentrate proportion increased (P < 0.01). Decreasing the forage to concentrate ratio in the diet decreased methane emission and increased growth performance of NDG. The 80:20 ratio could be considered more appropriate to reduce methane emissions from NDG, which did not change much at higher levels of concentrate.

Passion fruit (Passiflora cincinnata Mast.) is a native fruit from the Caatinga, a typical ecoregion in northeastern Brazil, and it has potential for use by the food and pharmaceutical industries. In this study, we characterized the antimicrobial activity of P. cincinnata and its application in the production of coalho cheese, a traditional Brazilian product. Aqueous extract of P. cincinnata exhibited high inhibitory activity against Listeria spp. (n = 4, reference strains), Staphylococcus aureus (n = 3, reference strains), and multidrug-resistant Staph. aureus (n = 8), and low inhibitory activity against lactic acid bacteria (LAB, n = 3, reference strains). Based on these results, we produced coalho cheese using goat milk with and without (control) passion fruit. Cheeses were stored at 10°C for 14 d and populations of mesophilic aerobes, Staph. aureus, and presumptive LAB were monitored at d 1, 7 and 14. The passion fruit cheese had lower counts of mesophilic aerobes, Staph. aureus (after 7 and 14 d), and presumptive LAB (after 14 d) than the control cheese. Adding ground passion fruit contributed to a reduction of Staph. aureus counts in goat cheese, although these differences were not significant. These results indicated the inhibitory potential of passion fruit and its potential use for controlling microbial populations in a cheese model; further studies are needed to characterize the active molecules that are responsible for such activity.

Avaliou-se o fracionamento dos carboidratos e das proteínas das gramíneas tropicais tifton 85 (Cynodon dactylon cv Tiffon 85), braquiária (Brachiaria brizantha cv Marandu) e tanzânia (Panicum maximum Jacq. cv Tanzânia), cortadas aos 28, 35 e 54 dias de idade. Determinaram-se os teores de matéria seca (MS), matéria orgânica (MO), proteína bruta (PB), extrato etéreo (EE), fibra em detergente neutro corrigida para cinzas e proteína (FDN CP), fibra em detergente ácido (FDA), lignina (LIG), nitrogênio insolúvel em detergente neutro (NIDN) e nitrogênio insolúvel em detergente ácido (NIDA). Para PB determinaram-se as frações A, B1+B2, B3 e C, e para os carboidratos as frações A+B1, B2 e C. Foi utilizado o delineamento inteiramente ao acaso, em arranjo em parcelas (gramíneas) subdivididas (idades de corte). Houve efeito significativo (P<0,05) da idade de corte sobre os teores de MS, FDN CP, NIDN e NIDA. Os teores de PB apresentaram declínio com o avanço da idade. O capim-marandu apresentou teores elevados para as frações A+B1 e B2 dos carboidratos (25,5 e 34,8% dos carboidratos totais, respectivamente) e para as frações A e B1+B2 das proteínas (28,1% aos 35 dias e 53,8% da PB aos 28 dias, respectivamente).