The occurrence of late blowing defects in cheese produces negative effects on the quality and commercial value of the product. In this work, we verified whether the addition of raw jenny milk to bulk cow milk reduced the late blowing defects in semihard cheeses. During cheesemaking, different aliquots of jenny milk were poured into 2 groups of 4 vats, each containing a fixed amount of cow milk. A group of cheeses was created by deliberately contaminating the 4 vats with approximately 3 log10 cfu/mL milk of Clostridium tyrobutyricum CLST01. The other 4 vats, which were not contaminated, were used for a second group of cheeses. After 120 d of ripening, some physical, chemical, and microbiological parameters were evaluated on the obtained semihard cheeses. Differences in sensory properties among cheeses belonging to the uncontaminated group were evaluated by 80 regular consumers of cheese. Our results showed that the increasing addition of jenny milk to cow milk led to a reduction of pH and total bacterial count in both cheese groups, as well as C. tyrobutyricum spores that either grew naturally or artificially inoculated. We observed a progressive reduction of the occurrence of late blowing defects in cheese as consequence of the increasing addition of jenny milk during cheese making. Moreover, the addition of jenny milk did not affect the acceptability of the product, as consumers found no difference among cheeses concerning sensorial aspects. In conclusion, the important antimicrobial activity of lysozyme contained in jenny milk has been confirmed in the current research. It is recommend for use as a possible and viable alternative to egg lysozyme for controlling late blowing defects in cheese.

Thermal treatments are used to improve milk microbial safety, shelf life, and biological activity of some of its components. However, thermal treatments can reduce the nutritional quality of milk, affecting the molecular structure of milk proteins, such as lysozyme, which is a very important milk component due to its antimicrobial effect against gram-positive bacteria. Jenny milk is characterized by high lysozyme content. For this reason, in the last few years, it has been used as an antimicrobial additive in dairy products as an alternative to hen egg white lysozyme, which can cause allergic reactions. This study aimed to investigate the effect of pasteurization and condensation on the concentration and antimicrobial activity of lysozyme in jenny milk. Furthermore, lysozyme quantity and activity were tested in raw and pasteurized milk after condensation at 40 and 20% of the initial volume. Reversed-phase HPLC was performed under fluorescence detection to monitor lysozyme in milk samples. We evaluated the antimicrobial activity of the tested milk against Bacillus megaterium, Bacillus mojavensis, Clavibacter michiganensis, Clostridium tyrobutyricum, Xanthomonas campestris, and Escherichia coli. Condensation and pasteurization did not affect the concentration or antimicrobial activity of lysozyme in jenny milk, except for B. mojaventis, which showed resistance to lysozyme in milk samples subjected to heat treatments. Moreover, lysozyme in jenny milk showed antimicrobial activity similar to synthetic antibiotics versus some gram-positive strains and also versus the gram-negative strain X. campestris.

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In this study, we examined the annual diet composition\ud of Lepus corsicanus in two different sites within a\ud southern Italy Regional Park. Vegetation of site 1 was composed\ud of a mixed scrub forest (Viburno–Quercetum ilicis s.l.),\ud a ripisilva (Roso sempervirentis–Populetum nigrae), some\ud thermophilous scrubs (Pruno–Rhamnetalia alaterni), and a\ud Pinus halepensis reforested area. Site 2 comprised a mixedoak\ud forest (Centaureo–Quercetum pubescentis s.l.) with\ud meadows and arable lands. Micro-histological analysis of\ud faecal samples revealed that hares utilised 70 different species\ud of plants during the year, indicating the capability of the\ud Apennine hare of exploiting a wide variety of vegetation.\ud Herbaceous plants (Hemicryptophytes, particularly graminoid\ud grasses, and Geophytes) predominated in the diet.\ud Brachypodium sylvaticum (9.44 %) and Allium subhirsutum\ud (8.28 %) were the major contributors to the diet in sites 2 and\ud 1, respectively. Other taxa found most often in the diet were\ud Trifolium pratense (site 1: 8.19 %; site 2: 5.80 %) and Prunus\ud spinosa (site 1: 7.03 %; site 2: 4.10 %). Significant differences\ud were found between sites in terms of diet richness, diversity,\ud and evenness. Nevertheless, both the similarity indices\ud (Morisita–Horn: 0.79; Sørensen: 0.87) showed that the food\ud composition of the hare’s diet was broadly the same in both\ud sites. Some qualitative and quantitative differences between\ud sites were due to the availability or consumption of some plant\ud species and evidenced that the Apennine hare can modify its\ud trophic niche in order to adapt its dietary requirements to the\ud availability of food

Given the increasing importance of exploring consumers' concerns about the welfare of farmed animals, a survey questionnaire was designed to investigate the role of cognitive styles along with sociodemographic characteristics in consumers' perceptions about nonhuman animal welfare (AW) and their willingness to pay for animal-friendly products. The results revealed that the survey respondents were concerned about AW and had negative perceptions of the way animals were treated. They showed positive attitudes toward some actions to be taken for improving AW and strongly agreed to pay more for animal-friendly products. Consistent with previous studies, results revealed significant associations between sociodemographics and concern toward AW. However, some observed differences were highlighted by cognitive styles rather than by sociodemographic characteristics. These results indicate a significant link between cognitive styles and perceptions and attitudes toward AW, which may outweigh previously found sociodemographic differences and fuel the contemporary debate on AW.