When a mother’s milk is unavailable, the best alternative is donor milk (DM). Milk delivered to Human Milk Banks should be pasteurized in order to inactivate the microbial agents that may be present. Currently, pasteurization, performed at 62.5 °C for 30 min (Holder Pasteurization, HoP), is recommended for this purpose in international guidelines. Several studies have been performed to investigate the effects of HoP on the properties of DM. The present paper has the aim of reviewing the published papers on this topic, and to provide a comparison of the reported variations of biologically-active DM components before and after HoP. This review was performed by searching the MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINHAL and Cochrane Library databases. Studies that clearly identified the HoP parameters and compared the same DM samples, before and after pasteurization, were focused on. A total of 44 articles satisfied the above criteria, and were therefore selected. The findings from the literature report variable results. A possible explanation for this may be the heterogeneity of the test protocols that were applied. Moreover, the present review spans more than five decades, and modern pasteurizers may be able to modify the degradation kinetics for heat-sensitive substances, compared to older ones. Overall, the data indicate that HoP affects several milk components, although it is difficult to quantify the degradation degree. However, clinical practices demonstrate that many beneficial properties of DM still persist after HoP.

This study evaluated the effects of Tenebrio molitor (TM) larvae meal inclusion in diets for broilers. A total of 160 male broiler chicks (Ross 708)

Cecropins are naturally occurring peptides that play an important role in the immune response of insects. Cecropin A-derived and cecropin A-melittin hybrid peptides, all smaller than the natural compound cecropin A, were synthesized and tested for their ability to inhibit growth of several agronomically important fungal pathogens. We found that an 11-amino-acid sequence, corresponding to the N-terminal amphipathic α-helix domain of cecropin A, exhibited antifungal activity. Differences in susceptibility of the various pathogens were observed, Phytophthora infestans being particularly sensitive to the shortened cecropin A peptides (IC₅₀ = 2 × 10⁻⁶ M). Biotoxicity of the shortest cecropin A-derived peptide was variously affected by the presence of proteins extracted from leaves of tobacco and tomato plants, either total extracts or intercellular fluids (ICFs). Overall, there was a greater tolerance to tomato protein extracts than to tobacco extracts. These findings suggest that tobacco should not be used as a model for testing the possible protective effects of transgenically expressed, cecropin-based genes. The feasibility of tailoring cecropin A genes to enhance crop protection in particular plant/fungus combinations is discussed.

Two experiments were conducted on alfalfa to investigate the effects of the addition of commercial chestnut hydrolyzable tannin at ensiling on 1) silage fermentation quality in lab-scale silos and protein degradation in the rumen, and 2) silage fermentation quality and proteolysis in bale silages. Wilted alfalfa was prepared with 4 tannin levels (0, 2, 4, and 6% on a dry matter (DM) basis; T0, T1, T2, T3, respectively) and ensiled in lab-scale silos. Silages (33% DM) were analyzed for fermentation quality, protein rumen degradability in situ, and organic matter digestibility in vitro through gas production after 120 d of conservation. Wilted alfalfa containing 0 and 4% tannin (T0 and T2) was harvested at 40% DM (wilting level I) and 53% DM (wilting level II) for bale (600 mm diameter) silage. Silages were analyzed for fermentation quality after 78 d of conservation. All the silages were well fermented with no butyric acid. Lab-scale silages showed reductions in ammonia, nonprotein nitrogen (NPN) and DM losses in T2 and T3 treatments, while the fermentation acid profiles were unaffected. In experiment 1, the untreated silage (T0) had the highest protein degradability after being incubated in the rumen. The addition of tannin reduced crude protein ruminal disappearance in a dose-dependent manner. However, the tannin reduced the organic matter digestibility by 5.1% for all of the tannin addition levels. The tannin positively affected the silage quality in the round bale silages, in particular reducing ammonia and NPN in the lowest wilting level. In both experiments, T2 treatment reduced proteolysis without any influence of DM on the binding reaction and reduced the NPN by 15% in comparison to the control.