Acta fytotechn zootechn, 23, 2020(Monothematic Issue :: Future Perspectives in Animal Production), 308-315 http://www.acta.fapz.uniag.sk © Slovak University in Nitra Faculty of Agrobiology and Food Resources 308 https://doi.org/10.15414/afz.2020.23.mi-fpap.308-315 Original Paper Submitted 2020-07-23 | Accepted 2020-08-16 | Available 2020-12-01 Grass intake and meat oxidative status of geese reared in three different agroforestry systems Alice Cartoni Mancinelli ∗ , Simona Mattioli, Alessandro Dal Bosco, Claudia Ciarelli, Cesare Castellini Department of Agricultural, Environmental and Food Science, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International. License The agroforestry system could be considered a dynamic management of the natural resource based on the integration of trees with crops or livestock. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the grass intake and the oxidative status of meat of geese reared in three different agroforestry systems: apple orchard (AO), olives trees (OT) and vineyard (V). Eighty one-day old Romagnola geese of both sexes were divided in four homogeneous groups: control (C), with indoor density of 5 geese/m 2 and without pasture access, and the three agroforestry systems (AO, OT, V), with 1 hectare of pasture each. The geese were reared inside a poultry house until 20 days of age. At 21 days of age the animals belonging to AO, OT and V were allowed to outdoor access (pasture), whereas geese of the C group were kept indoor. At 150 days of age, the geese were slaughtered in a commercial slaughterhouse. After 24 h of storage at +4°C the breast and drumstick muscles were analysed to determine the fatty acid profile, the antioxidants content and the oxidative status. All the data were statistically analysed with ANOVA. The results showed that the grazing activity of geese improved the n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids content, the n-6/n-3 ratio and the antioxidant content, especially in geese kept in the agroforestry systems enriched with trees (AO and OT). Indeed, the presence of trees make animals feel protected and stimulated them to explore the pasture and consequently to consume more grass. However, the best oxidative status was exhibited by the C geese. In the other groups the higher antioxidants intake through grass was not able to counteract the higher oxidative thrust and consequently, the meat of outdoor reared geese was characterized by a worst oxidative status. Further research is needed to identify new possible strategies to increase the antioxidant content in the muscle in order to reduce the lipid oxidation. Keywords: geese, agroforestry system, PUFA, oxidative status 1 Introduction The Global Forest Resources Assessment (FAO, 2016) highlighted a significant reduction of the world forest area with the loss of 129 million of hectares between 1990 and 2015. In particular, in Northern Europe the intensification of agricultural practices caused an important land use change, whereas in most southern European countries the land showed a high risk of abandonment (Plieninger et al., 2016). In Italy, orchards (mainly olive trees) are located on marginal land: the sloping terrain, the altitude and the difficulty of mechanization render about 1 million hectares of olive trees at risk of abandonment (Rosati et al., 2012). Such a state of affairs has caused a degradation of the terrain, which in turn has intensified the hydrogeological instability and has increased the risk of fire episodes, especially in the period between 2008 and 2017 (San-Miguel-Ayanz et al., 2017). In this scenario, it is necessary to minimize the environmental impact on crop and animal productions (De Boer et al., 2011) by improving the agro-food sustainability, recovering and valorising the by- products and wastes (Tinello et al., 2017), preserving biodiversity (Bach et al., 2020), increasing animal welfare (Broom, 2019) and reducing water footprint of agricultural practices (Cosentino et al., 2015). In order to solve these environmental problems, the European Commission has developed ∗ Corresponding Author: Alice Cartoni Mancinelli. Department of Agricultural, Environmental and Food Science, University of Perugia, Borgo XX Giugno 74, 06124 Perugia, Italy. E-mail: acartonimancinelli@gmail.com. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9888-9079