Nuclear and mitochondrial DNA markers in traceability of retail beef samples

Several characteristics are important in a traceability system of animal products, such as age at slaughter, breed composition, besides information of the productive chain. In general, the certification agent records information about the animals and the system which it came from, although cannot guarantee that the slaughtering, meat processing and distribution are error proof. Besides, there is a differential price, at least at the international market, based on sex and breed composition of the animals. Genetic markers allow identification of characteristics controlled in the beef cattle traceability program, as sex and breed composition, in order to correctly identify and appraise the final product for the consumer. The hypothesis of this study was that the majority beef samples retailed in the local market originate from female with a great participation of zebu breeds. Therefore, the objective of this work was to characterize retail beef samples with DNA markers that identify cattle sex and breed composition. Within 10 beef shops localized in Pirassununga, SP, Brazil, 61 samples were collected, all were genotyped as harboring Bos taurus mitochondrial DNA and 18 were positive for the Y chromosome amplification (male). For the marker sat1711b-Msp I the frequency of the allele A was 0.278 and for the marker Lhr-Hha I the frequency of the allele T was 0.417. The results of sat1711b-Msp I and Lhr-Hha I allelic frequencies are suggestive that the proportion of indicus genome compared with the taurine genome in the market meat is smaller than the observed in the Nellore breed. The procedure described in this study identified sex and subspecies characteristics of beef meat samples, with potential application in meat products certification in special as an auxiliary tool in beef cattle traceability programs.

MODELING OF AN INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR WINE TRACEABILITY BASED ON A SERVICE ORIENTED ARCHITECTURE

The purpose is to present a scientific research that led to the modeling of an information system which aimed at the maintenance of traceability data in the Brazilian wine industry, according to the principles of a service-oriented architecture (SOA). Since 2005, traceability data maintenance is an obligation for all producers that intend to export to any European Union country. Also, final customers, including the Brazilian ones, have been asking for information about food products. A solution that collectively contemplated the industry was sought in order to permit that producer consortiums of associations could share the costs and benefits of such a solution. Following an extensive bibliographic review, a series of interviews conducted with Brazilian researchers and wine producers in Bento Goncalves - RS, Brazil, elucidated many aspects associated with the wine production process. Information technology issues related to the theme were also researched. The software was modeled with the Unified Modeling Language (UML) and uses web services for data exchange. A model for the wine production process was also proposed. A functional prototype showed that the adopted model is able to fulfill the demands of wine producers. The good results obtained lead us to consider the use of this model in other domains.

Traceability system in cod fishing

The objective of this research was to examine how various factors in Icelandic cod fishing can influence the quality of the raw material, using traceability systems to link these factors, and how transfer that knowledge and techniques to the Brazilian seafood industry. Data were collected in 2007 and analysed, to find a functional relationship between various quality factors. The analysis, showed, that there is a correlation between the number of parasites in the fillets and location of the fishing ground. It also showed that fishing ground and volume in haul can influence gaping, and that fillet yield differs between fishing grounds. These conclusions could only be drawn because of the ability to trace the fish from catch and all the way through processing. Recommendations drawn from this research to the Brazilian Competent Authority are to revise the countries fisheries legislation in order to enable the implementation of a traceability system that could be used as a tool to improve the quality of the raw material. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Traceability-based access recommendation

Devido à grande quantidade de dados disponíveis na Internet, um dos maiores desafios no mundo virtual é recomendar informação aos seus utilizadores. Por outro lado, esta grande quantidade de dados pode ser útil para melhorar recomendações se for anotada e interligada por dados de proveniência. Neste trabalho é abordada a temática de recomendação de (alteração de) permissões acesso sobre recursos ao seu proprietário, ao invés da recomendação do próprio recurso a um potencial consumidor/leitor. Para permitir a recomendação de acessos a um determinado recurso, independentemente do domínio onde o mesmo se encontra alojado, é essencial a utilização de sistemas de controlo de acessos distribuídos, mecanismos de rastreamento de recursos e recomendação independentes do domínio. Assim sendo, o principal objectivo desta tese é utilizar informação de rastreamento de acções realizadas sobre recursos (i.e. informação que relaciona recursos e utilizadores através da Web independentemente do domínio de rede) e utiliza-la para permitir a recomendação de privilégios de acesso a esses recursos por outros utilizadores. Ao longo do desenvolvimento da tese resultaram as seguintes contribuições: A análise do estado da arte de recomendação e de sistemas de recomendação potencialmente utilizáveis na recomendação de privilégios (secção 2.3); A análise do estado da arte de mecanismos de rastreamento e proveniência de informação (secção 2.2); A proposta de um sistema de recomendação de privilégios de acesso independente do domínio e a sua integração no sistema de controlo de acessos proposto anteriormente (secção 3.1); Levantamento, análise e especificação da informação relativa a privilégios de acesso, para ser utilizada no sistema de recomendação (secção 2.1); A especificação da informação resultante do rastreamento de acções para ser utilizada na recomendação de privilégios de acesso (secção 4.1.1); A especificação da informação de feedback resultante do sistema de recomendação de acessos e sua reutilização no sistema de recomendação(secção 4.1.3); A especificação, implementação e integração do sistema de recomendação de privilégios de acesso na plataforma já existente (secção 4.2 e secção 4.3); Realização de experiências de avaliação ao sistema de recomendação de privilégios, bem como a análise dos resultados obtidos (secção 5).

Traceability support in software product lines

Dissertação apresentada na Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade Nova de Lisboa para a obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia Informática.

Achieving Traceability

Tämä diplomityö käsittelee vaatimusmäärittelyä. Erityinen keskittymisalue on vaatimusten jäljitettävyys. Vaatimusmäärittely on osa ohjelmistokehitysprosessia. Insinöörit tietävät, että ymmärtääkseen ongelmaa on sen lähtökohdat ymmärrettävä. Tästä huolimatta määrittelyvaihe epähuomioidaan helposti. Diplomityössä kartoitetaan ensin vaatimusmäärittelyä järjestelmäprojektin osana. Vaatimusmäärittelyn rakennetta tarkennetaan ja sen sisältöä tuodaan esille. Olemassaolevana projektina analysoidaan, kuinka Soneran Mobile Pay osaston suorittama vaatimusmäärittely on toteutunut Mobile Payment Platform projektin alkuvaiheessa. Lähinnä keskitytään näyttämään, kuinka vaatimukset on kirjattu ylös. Tämän jälkeen tarkastellaan jäljitettävyyden olemusta. Työssä kartoitetaan lukijalle, mitä jäljitettävyys tarkoittaa. Kartoituksen jälkeen käydään läpi jäljitettävyyttä tukevia toimenpiteitä Sonera Mobile Payn tuotekehitysprosessissa.

Requirements Traceability

Vaatimusmäärittely on tärkeä osa ohjelmistotuotantoa. Vaatimusten jäljitettävyys on osa vaatimustenhallinta prosessia. Jäljitettävyystieto helpottaa vaatimusten hallintaa läpi koko tuotekehitys projektin. Hyvin usein vaatimusten jäljitettävyyttä ei kuitenkaan ole toteutettu ohjelmistokehitysprojekteissa. Työn tavoitteena oli selvittää vaatimusten jäljitettävyyden tärkeyttä ohjelmistotuotannossa sekä kuinka jäljitettävyys voitaisiin toteuttaa ohjelmistokehitysprojekteissa. Vaatimusten jäljitettävyyttä sekä eri tekniikoita sen toteuttamiseksi on tutkittu kirjallisuuden avulla. Yrityksen vaatimusten jäljitettävyyden nykytilaa on selvitetty tutkimalla olemassa olevaa prosessimallia sekä todellisia tuotekehitysprojekteja. Tuloksena esitettiin perusteluja, miksi jäljitettävyystieto pitäisi sisällyttää ohjelmistokehitysprojekteihin sekä menetelmiä, kuinka jäljitettävyystieto voidaan toteuttaa projekteissa kustannustehokkaasti. Työssä on esitetty strategiavaihtoehto ja menetelmät jäljitettävyyden toteuttamiseksi. Pienillä korjauksilla jäljitettävyys pystytään toteuttamaan kevyellä tasolla. Suurin parannusehdotus prosessimalliin on jäljitettävyysmatriisien luominen. Matriisien avulla pystytään projekteissa toteuttamaan jäljitettävyys sekä eteen- että taaksepäin. Vaatimustenhallintatyökalu helpottaisi jäljitettävyystiedon ylläpitoa.

Comparative analysis of different meat traceability systems using multiple criteria and a social network approach

The adoption of a proper traceability system is being incorporated into meat production practices as a method of gaining consumer confidence. The various partners operating in the chain of meat production can be considered a social network, and they have the common goal of generating a communication process that can ensure each characteristic of the product, including safety. This study aimed to select the most appropriate meat traceability system “from farm to fork” that could be applied to Brazilian beef and pork production for international trade. The research was done in three steps. The first used the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) for selecting the best on-farm livestock traceability. In the second step, the actors in the meat production chain were identified to build a framework and defined each role in the network. In the third step, the selection of the traceability system was done. Results indicated that with an electronic traceability system, it is possible to acquire better connections between the links in the chain and to provide the means for managing uncertainties by creating structures that facilitate information flow more efficiently.

Nuclear and mitochondrial DNA markers in traceability of retail beef samples

Several characteristics are important in a traceability system of animal products, such as age at slaughter, breed composition, besides information of the productive chain. In general, the certification agent records information about the animals and the system which it came from, although cannot guarantee that the slaughtering, meat processing and distribution are error proof. Besides, there is a differential price, at least at the international market, based on sex and breed composition of the animals. Genetic markers allow identification of characteristics controlled in the beef cattle traceability program, as sex and breed composition, in order to correctly identify and appraise the final product for the consumer. The hypothesis of this study was that the majority beef samples retailed in the local market originate from female with a great participation of zebu breeds. Therefore, the objective of this work was to characterize retail beef samples with DNA markers that identify cattle sex and breed composition. Within 10 beef shops localized in Pirassununga, SP, Brazil, 61 samples were collected, all were genotyped as harboring Bos taurus mitochondrial DNA and 18 were positive for the Y chromosome amplification (male). For the marker sat1711b-Msp I the frequency of the allele A was 0.278 and for the marker Lhr-Hha I the frequency of the allele T was 0.417. The results of sat1711b-Msp I and Lhr-Hha I allelic frequencies are suggestive that the proportion of indicus genome compared with the taurine genome in the market meat is smaller than the observed in the Nellore breed. The procedure described in this study identified sex and subspecies characteristics of beef meat samples, with potential application in meat products certification in special as an auxiliary tool in beef cattle traceability programs.

Meta, tracer - MOF with traceability

The following document proposes a traceability solution for model-driven development. There as been already previous work done in this area, but so far there has not been yet any standardized way for exchanging traceability information, thus the goal of this project developed and documented here is not to automatize the traceability process but to provide an approach to achieve traceability that follows OMG standards, making traceability information exchangeable between tools that follow the same standards. As such, we propose a traceability meta-model as an extension of MetaObject Facility (MOF)1. Using MetaSketch2 modeling language workbench, we present a modeling language for traceability information. This traceability information then can be used for tool cooperation. Using Meta.Tracer (our tool developed for this thesis), we enable the users to establish traceability relationships between different traceability elements and offer a visualization for the traceability information. We then demonstrate the benefits of using a traceability tool on a software development life cycle using a case study. We finalize by commenting on the work developed.

Isotopic traceability in body tissues and in different breeding periods of broilers

Rastrearam-se a inclusão de farinha de vísceras de aves (FV) em dietas de frangos por ocasião de eventual substituição de dieta contendo FV por dieta estritamente vegetal, e vice-versa, por isótopos estáveis de carbono e de nitrogênio. Foram distribuídos aleatoriamente 192 pintos de um dia de idade, em 12 tratamentos com quatro repetições de quatro aves. Os tratamentos constituíam-se de dieta de vegetais (VG) passando para dietas contendo FV, após certa idade, ou o inverso, em que as aves começaram se alimentando de dieta FV e depois passaram para dieta VG. Aos 42 dias de idade, foram coletadas amostras de músculo peitoral (Pectoralis major), quilha e tíbia, para determinação das razões isotópicas (13C/12C e 15N/14N). A técnica dos isótopos estáveis somente não foi capaz de rastrear a utilização de FV na alimentação de frangos de corte, quando esse ingrediente fez parte da dieta das aves apenas nos primeiros sete, 14 ou 21 dias de idade. Entretanto, há a possibilidade da aplicação dessa técnica em aves mais jovens, amostradas antes de eventual mudança de dieta, pois elas podem ter a assinatura isotópica da alimentação estabilizada em torno de duas semanas de idade.

Poultry offal meal in chicken: Traceability using the technique of carbon (C-13/C-12)- and nitrogen (N-15/N-14)-stable isotopes

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Traceability of bovine meat and bone meal in poultry by stable isotope analysis

Bovine meat and bone meal (MBM) was widely used in animal diets until outbreaks of Bovine Spongiform Encefalopathy (BSE) occurred in some countries. It has not been confirmed yet whether or not BSE may be transmitted to man through chicken meat originated from poultry that had been fed diets containing MBM. Therefore, consumers nowadays express preference for meat originated from birds fed exclusively vegetable diets. This study analyzed samples of major breast muscle (Pectoralis major) using mass spectrometry of stable isotopes (carbon and nitrogen) as a means to assess the presence of MBM in broiler diets, a technique that might be used in the certification of poultry quality. A total of 150 day-old chicks were reared in five randomized treatments with increasing MBM dietary inclusion levels (0, 1, 2, 4 and 8%). on day 42, breast muscle samples were collected from three birds per treatment and used in the determination of 13C/12C and 15N/14N isotope ratios. The breast muscle isotope values were expressed as delta in parts per thousand (delta ). The following carbon isotope values (13C) were found: 18.74 ±0.11, 18.51 ±0.19, 18.24 ±0.10, -17.79 ±0.12, and -17.15 ±0.15 for 0, 1, 2, 4 and 8% MBM dietary levels, respectively. Nitrogen isotope values (15N) were 1.65 ±0.14, 1.65 ±0.28, 1.72 ±0.08, 1.95 ±0.16, and 2.52 ± 0.09 for 0, 1, 2, 4 and 8% MBM dietary levels, respectively. This study showed important differences in delta13C and delta15N values in breast meat, evidencing a simultaneous enrichment of this isotopic pair, which allowed tracing MBM in bird diets. Analysis of carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes may be used to ensure feeding with exclusively vegetable diets, and might also be used as a reliable evaluation tool in broiler meat certification. The diet with 1% inclusion level of MBM and the exclusively vegetable diet showed similar results.

Traceability of animal byproducts in quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica) tissues using carbon (13C/12C) and nitrogen (15N/14N) stable isotopes

Consistent information on meat products consumed by the public is essential. The technique of stable isotopes is a powerful tool to recover consumers' confidence, as it allows the detection of animal byproduct residues in poultry meat, particularly in quail meat. This study aimed at checking the presence of poultry byproduct mixtures in quail diets by applying the technique of carbon (13C/12C) and nitrogen (15N/14N) stable isotopes in quail breast muscle, keel, and tibia. Sixty four one-day-old male quails were obtained from a commercial farm. Birds were housed in an experimental house from one to 42 days of age, and were randomly distributed into 8 experimental treatments, and fed diets containing poultry offal meal (POM), bovine meat and bone meal (MBM) or poultry feather meal (PFM), or their mixtures. Four birds per treatment were slaughtered at 42 days of age, and breast (Pectoralis major), keel, and tibia were collected for analyses. The inclusion of animal byproducts in quail diets was detected by 13C e 15N analyses in the tissues of the birds; however, it was not possible to specify which byproducts were used. It was concluded that quail meat can be certified by the technique of stable isotopes.

The traceability of animal meals in layer diets as detected by stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analyses of eggs

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)