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In practice cattle may be slaughtered at different combinations of age and weight. As each of these factors could affect meat quality traits, the present work aimed to identify which combination can be expected to increase overall meat quality of m. rectus abdominis of Charolais heifers. Totally, 40 heifers were slaughtered either at 26±1 or at 36±1 months of age. Young heifers were sampled at two different carcass weights (349±12 and 394±8 kg). Old heifers were also sampled at two different carcass weights (397±6 and 451±9 kg). The m. rectus abdominis was excised 24 h postmortem to determine metabolic enzyme activities, myosin heavy-chain isoform proportions, lipid contents, collagen content and collagen solubility. Shear force measurements were evaluated on raw and broiled meat after 14 days of ageing. Meat quality traits scored between 0 and 10 by sensory analysis. Increasing slaughter age from 26 to 36 months had no impact on either raw/broiled shear force (0.31⩽P⩽0.47) and/or meat quality traits (0.62⩽P⩽0.91) or on physicochemical properties of heifer’s meat samples. Increasing carcass weight for a similar slaughter age of 26 months had also impact neither on meat quality traits (0.52⩽P⩽0.91) nor on muscular properties. On the contrary, increasing carcass weight for a similar slaughter age of 36 months had induced a decrease of muscular shear force (raw muscle; P=0.009) and a concomitant decrease of total collagen content (P=0.03). Nevertheless, no significant impact on meat quality traits was revealed by the sensorial panel (0.13⩽P⩽0.49). Metabolic enzyme activities (0.13⩽P⩽0.86) and myosin heavy-chain proportions (0.13⩽P⩽0.96) were not significantly impacted by slaughter age and carcass weight. Thus, the impact of increasing carcass weight and/or slaughter age in young Charolais heifers has a limited impact on meat quality traits and associated muscular characteristics. Modulating heifer’s cycles (age and/or carcass weight in the studied range) appears to be a way to answer to the numerous marketing chains, without penalising meat quality traits. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The selection of more efficient animals for breeding is of both economic and environmental interest to the industry. The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of the animals' residual feed intake (RFI) ranking in interaction with the type of diet on the meat quality of Charolais beef cattle. Indeed, several biological mechanisms are associated with RFI, especially when animals are fed high starch-diets. It is therefore possible that quality parameters may show greater changes due to RFI in the context of high starch diets compared to high forage diets. An 84-day feed efficiency trial followed immediately by a second 112-day feed efficiency trial was conducted with a total of 100 animals fed either maize- or grass-diets for 196-days. At the end of the 84-day period, the 32 most divergent RFI animals (16 extreme RFI animals per diet, 8 RFI+ and 8 RFI-) were identified. They were slaughtered after 112-days of finishing. The Longissimus thoracis was characterised in terms of nutritional and sensory quality. RFI had no effect on lab colour, muscle shear force, total fat, fatty acid ratios and most of the total fatty acid content (especially n-3) irrespective of the diet. However, more efficient animals (RFI-) showed higher CLA contents compared to less efficient animals (RFI+) regardless of the diet and also a lower n6/n3 ratio only in animals fed the maize diets. Diet also had a significant effect on lipid and FA content as well as on FA composition., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest None., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Objective: The potential impact of sex on cognitive performance in normal aging and participants with Alzheimer's disease (AD) has been outlined previously. Nevertheless, differences in neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS) have been also outlined. We aimed to study a potential association between NPS and cognitive performances according to sex, in older individuals with and without cognitive impairment., Methods: Demographic, neuropsychiatric and neuropsychological data from the ADNI and NACC databases were merged into a dataset of 506 participants with healthy cognitive performance, 467 patients with mild cognitive impairment, and 238 patients with AD. Cognitive performance in each group was evaluated according to sex and the presence of NPS., Results: Based on sex, cognitive performance differed according to clinical stage: in the healthy controls and AD groups, women had better fluency performance, while in the mild cognitive impairment group, women had better working memory and men better oral naming. Regardless of sex, depression showed a negative effect on processing speed in AD. Finally, there was an interaction between sex and NPS in mild cognitive impairment, where women with apathy had better working memory performance, and in AD, women with depression had better fluency performance. The opposite pattern being was observed in men, where men with depression have worse focused attention., Conclusion: Cognitive performance is influenced by sex, yet this influence has different manifestations at normal cognition, MCI or AD. Furthermore, apathy and depression seem to influence differently women and men at different types of cognitive decline., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

This paper reviews the current state of knowledge on beef carcass and meat quality, with particular emphasis on on-farm and processing factors associated with its high and inconsistent variability. The diversity of livestock systems comes from the diversity of breeds (dairy or beef), ages and gender (bulls, steers, heifers, cull cows) used to produce either mainly beef or beef and milk. In addition, there are factors linked to farming practices (including diet, especially grazing) which significantly influence the sensory, nutritional, technological and extrinsic (such as image) quality attributes of meat. These can become factors of positive differentiation when controlled by the application and certification of technical specifications. Finally, preslaughter (such as stress), slaughter (such as the chilling and hanging method of carcasses) and postslaughter (such as ageing, packaging and cooking) conditions have a strong influence on the microbiological, sensory, technological and image quality attributes of beef. In this review, potential synergisms or antagonisms between the different quality attributes are highlighted. For example, finishing cattle on grass, compared to indoor fattening on a high concentrate diet, has the advantage of producing leaner meat with a higher proportion of omega-3 fatty acids while exhibiting superior oxidative stability, but with the consequence of a darker meat colour and lower productivity, as well as higher seasonality and land surface requirements. Moreover, the control of on-farm factors is often guided by productivity (growth rate, feed conversion ratio) and carcass quality attributes (weight, conformation and fatness). Genetic selection has often been oriented in this direction, without taking other quality attributes into account. Finally, the interactions between all these factors (and especially between on-farm and slaughter or processing factors) are not considered in the quality grading schemes in European countries. This means that positive efforts at farm level may be mitigated or even eliminated by poor slaughtering or processing conditions. All these considerations explain why between-animal variability in quality can be high, even when animals come from the same farming system. The ability to predict the sensory and nutritional properties of meat according to production factors has become a major objective of the supply chain., (Copyright © 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) dissemination occurred from December 2019 and quickly spread to all countries. Infected patients with COVID-19 have had a wide range of symptoms, ranging from mild to severe illness. The most mortality was observed in patients with underlying disease and over 45 years. World statistics have shown that the COVID-19 outbreak is most expanded in Middle Eastern, West Asian, European, North, and South American countries, and is least expanded in African countries. Therefore, the aim of the paper was the evaluation of six African countries including Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Guinea, Togo, and Djibouti to find why this disease is least expanded in African countries. Study was conducted by Questioner for countries health organizers to define their different aspect exposure and fight with COVID-19 including epidemiology, clinical aspects of the disease, case definitions, diagnosis laboratory confirmation, and referral of cases by the portal of entry, case management, and disease prevention in these countries. According to this opinion review, due to the low international flights and low domestic travel, the spread, and prevalence of COVID-19 was low and the return of the immigrants of these countries has caused the spread of COVID-19 among these countries. Experience, preparation, and impact of previous infections epidemic such as the Ebola virus epidemic would have beneficial, which have promoted certain reflexes among people that cause low dissemination in these countries., (© 2021 The Author(s).)

Beef industry operators often use a "grain of meat" assessment to aid in selecting carcasses according to their tenderness potential. The first aim of this study was to formalise this empirical notion by building a scoring scale for grain of meat. Two experts, regular users of this notion, were called upon to build the assessment grade. A group of 16 criteria was identified on the carcass as being effective in predicting an overall "grain of meat" score. The second aim of this study was to establish the relationship between the meat grain score estimated on the carcass and the tenderness of the longissimus thoracis muscle estimated by sensory evaluations. Some individual criteria such as "nerve presence", "marbling", and "touch of muscles" appeared to be linked to muscular characteristics such as collagen content, lipid content and shear force. No significant relationship was identified between grain of meat and either tenderness (initial: p=0.58; overall: p=0.50), shear force (p=0.33), or collagen content and collagen solubility (p=0.23; p=0.33)., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Ninety-nine Charolais heifers were used to study the variability of meat quality traits in relation to the physicochemical characteristics of M. rectus abdominis. The heifers of the same trade class were slaughtered at 33months of age (±4months) and 381kg carcass weight (±31kg). Muscle and bone development scores were evaluated before slaughter. Carcass weight, slaughter age and life average daily gain were recorded. Shear force measurements and meat quality traits were evaluated after 14days of aging. Some physicochemical characteristics were measured 24h post-slaughter. Tenderness was correlated with slaughter age (r=-0.31), bone development (r=-0.22) and life average daily gain (r=+0.37). Tenderness was significantly related to total collagen content (r=-0.24), lipid content (r=+0.27) and I myosin heavy chain proportion (r=+0.24). Juiciness was positively correlated with lipid content (r=+0.31) and I myosin heavy chain proportion (r=+0.20). Flavor intensity was correlated with lipid content (r=+0.26) and mean fiber area (r=+0.24). Shear force was correlated with total collagen, lipid and 27K proteasome sub-unit contents. Taking animal characteristics and muscle properties together in a multiple regression analysis increased the explained tenderness variability to 33%. The independent variables listed in order of importance were life average daily gain, total collagen content, bone development, lipid content, I myosin heavy chain isoform proportion, shear force of broiled meat and slaughter age.

The authors report 2 cases, in which recurrent and reversible atelectasis of the left lung was the only manifestation leading to a diagnosis of post-traumatic aneurysm of the thoracic aorta at an early stage (D + 5). Other classically described signs were absent. These 2 cases demonstrate the need to seek an aortic aneurysm following any severe trauma. They emphasize the importance of bronchial endoscopy in this type of trauma. They confirm the value of CAT scan investigation.

The authors report two cases of Löfgren's syndrome, preceded by febrile polyarthritis with rise in antistreptolysin titer. The relationship between sarcoidosis and rheumatic fever is discussed. A review of the literature concerning Löfgren's syndrome with joint pain, permitted the authors to follow the course of present pathogenic concepts which haveled to the present opinion of the sarcoidosis nature of Löfgren's syndrome, when the latter is accompanied by erythema nodosum. The prolonged rise in antistreptolysin 0 titer which might suggest rheumatic fever, was not explained, but as the streptococcus was never found in throat swabs, it is probable that this was a non-specific phenomenon. However, certain authors believe that streptococcal infection, where it exists, may play a role, if not in the etiology of the sarcoidosis, at least in the Löfgren's syndrome which may lead to its discovery.

In a retrospective study of 112 observations, the authors studied the sequelae on respiratory function in pulmonary tuberculosis bacteriologically cured. With the help of a standardized clinical enquiry they defined three groups of patients: groupe I, 31 patients with parenchymatous sequelae but free of bronchopathy and parietal sequelae; groupe II, 45 patients presenting besides parenchymatous sequelae signs of chronic bronchopathy; group III, 36 patients with parietal sequelae. Complementary examinations confirmed the frequency and degree of functional respiratory alterations: --ventilatory handicap in 87% of cases; --scintigraphic lacunae much wider than the radiological images, in more than half of the cases; --hematosis disorders in 65% of the 73 patients tested; --pulmonary arterial hypertension, at least in effort, in 62% of the 58 patients examined by microcatheter. The study by groups showed the particular severeness of an association of tuberculosis sequelae with chronic bronchitis. The existence of parietal sequelae is an additional feature of severeness. The presence of functional deficiences, all the more serious that they are evaluated late; suggests a progressive worsening of these patients' respiratory condition.

The measurement of respiratory resistance by forced oscillations, a theory known for over 20 years, has found a practical application by a simplification of the method. The comparison with the plethysmographic measurement of the resistance of airways in 27 healthy children shows a good correlation (r = 0,73), similarly with F.E.V1 (r = 0,78) and peak flow (r = 0,61). This technique does not require the forced expiration demanded by the measurement of F.E.V1 and peak flow and it does not need the costly equipment of body plethysmography. In this technique the causes of error are easy to detect. Its rapid execution and the absence of discomfort should make it a choice method in the functional respiratory tests in the child.