A few years ago the carmine cochineal was introduced in the Northeast of Brazil, and its population slowly expanded across the forage cactus plantations of that region. With the occurrence of suitable growth conditions during the drought of 2012, such scale insect reached the condition of pest, and decimated or compromised the productivity of thousands of hectares of forage cactus. It is interesting to note that the long period without drought influenced farmers to neglect the renovation of thei

Status: Completed     Start date: Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 GMT-03:00 2015

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive degenerative disease of the central nervous system (CNS) that mainly affects people over 65 years of age, resulting in loss of memory and cognitive functions such as language, attention, orientation and reasoning. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 24.3 million people worldwide suffered from AD and other types of dementia in 2007, with a doubling of this number every 20 years. That Organization also stresses that the impact of AD in develo

Status: Completed     Start date: Tue Apr 01 00:00:00 GMT-03:00 2008

Some animal creations require high energy consumption which leads to higher costs of the final products. If less expensive energy sources were used, this could provide significant increases in profits from livestock. In this regard, the use of dairy cattle manure for the generation of biogas is a promising alternative for the treatment of waste and reduction of the pollution potential and health risks of waste, with the additional advantage that the final effluent can be used as bio-fertilizer.

Status: Completed     Start date: Sun May 01 00:00:00 GMT-03:00 2011

Dairy Cattle Farming represents one of the most important alternatives to migrating slash-and-burn agriculture in the Amazon, and lately, has been suffering a process of intensification. This activity has presented in the last years significant growth rates in the northern region, being thus one of the greatest in the country although it remains as the region with the smallest aggregate production. However, this evolution is predominantly a result of the increase in the dairy cattle herd and in

Status: Completed     Start date: Fri Oct 01 00:00:00 GMT-03:00 2010

The conversion, use and access to energy are among the great challenges of our time, including sustainability, environmental quality, safety and quality of life. Cellulose is the most abundant renewable natural biological source on the planet and the use of products and bioenergy based on the lignocellulosic matrix, at low costs, is important for the sustainable development of human beings. Therefore, the biodegradation of cellulose by microrganisms-produced cellulase enzymes or cellulosomes (wh

Status: Completed     Start date: Thu Apr 01 00:00:00 GMT-03:00 2010

The objective of this project is to develop tools and contents for mobile devices, aiming to improve the accessibility of technical content for farmers / workers and support the action of extensionists, promoting innovation in the milk production chain. For this work, the level of literacy, skills and resources available to farmers and extension workers are considered, so that they have access to and can understand the information and technological knowledge, allowing their individual and profes

Status: Completed     Start date: Sat Sep 01 00:00:00 GMT-03:00 2012

Rio Grande do Sul (RS) has the second highest state production of milk in the Brazilian Federation. Such an activity is widespread throughout the state, involving a significant share of farmers, with great economic and social relevance for generating wealth and income and contributing to the maintenance of a significant share of the state's population in the countryside. RS is located in a region with temperate clime, which has peculiar characteristics of climate, soil, vegetation cover, cattle

Status: Completed     Start date: Fri Aug 01 00:00:00 GMT-03:00 2014

raditional breeding has generated significant genetic gain over time. However, this strategy falls short of yielding information on the biological processes involved. Additionally, there are great difficulties for the genetic improvement of characteristics which are measured solely in one gender and/or late in the life span of the animal. With the development of DNA chips it became possible maximizing genetic gain by reducing the generation interval and increasing the intensity of selection. The

Status: Completed     Start date: Wed Sep 01 00:00:00 GMT-03:00 2010