Animal Science

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Playtime is purr-fect for your cat’s welfare

Play is often considered an indicator and promotor of animal welfare. Playing with your cat may also nurture closer cat-human bonds. In a new study, scientists have investigated these links by applying in-depth empirical methods to analyse data gathered from around the world.

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The Rumen: Fantastic bugs and where to find them

The animal article of the month for September is 'Invited review: Application of meta-omics to understand the dynamic nature of the rumen microbiome and how it responds to diet in ruminants' Demand for meat and milk is predicted to double by 2050 and meeting this increased demand represents a “grand challenge for humanity”. Ruminants are among the most widely adapted livestock on earth, inhabiting outdoor environments from the arctic to the tropics.

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Chick embryo can discriminate different light wavelengths

The animal article of the month for August is ‘The effect of different wavelengths of light during incubation on the development of rhythmic pineal melatonin biosynthesis in chick embryos’ Melatonin is a neurohormone, which is involved in the control of day/night rhythms in a number of biochemical, physiological and behavioural processes.…

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Deep learning for automating pig tail scoring

The animal article of the month for May is ‘Tailception’: using neural networks for assessing tail lesions on pictures of pig carcasses’ Injuries caused by one pig biting the tail of another pig are a big welfare problem in pigs reared for slaughter.…

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How to increase litter size in rabbits?

The animal article of the month for March is ‘Correlated responses on litter size traits and survival traits after two-stage selection for ovulation rate and litter size in rabbits’ Litter size is the most important economic trait in prolific species and the only selection criteria for maternal rabbit commercial lines.…

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Improving dairy herd health management programs

The animal article of the month for February is ‘Effects of a participatory approach, with systematic impact matrix analysis in herd health planning in organic dairy cattle herds‘ There is a strong focus on animal health and welfare in organic farming, and herd health and production management services are therefore important.…

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Fish welfare in research and aquaculture

The animal article of the month for January is ‘Review: Assessing fish welfare in research and aquaculture, with a focus on European directives‘ In recent years, teleost fish have been increasingly exploited as animal models for scientific research in both the biomedical and ecological fields by using various ‘omics’ approaches, as they offer several practical advantages compared with mammals or other vertebrates.…

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A promising approach to optimize pig genomics

The animal article of the month for November is ‘Genotype imputation from various low-density SNP panels and its impact on accuracy of genomic breeding values in pigs‘ The rapid increase in the world population, which is expected to reach 9.8 billion in 2050, needs to be accompanied by a substantial increase in food production.…

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Towards an improved estimation of animal feed efficiency

The animal article of the month for July is ‘Isolating the cow-specific part of residual energy intake in lactating dairy cows using random regressions ‘ Improving feed efficiency is essential for sustainable livestock farming: it is expected to reduce feed resources use and to decrease waste and environmental impacts.…

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Managing egg incubation to benefit chicken bone strength

The animal article of the month for April is ‘Incubation and hatch management: consequences for bone mineralization in Cobb 500 meat chickens‘ Following two field observations of newly hatched chicks that had soft bones and were having difficulty standing,  we wanted to find out what causes soft bones and, what could be done to prevent this from occurring in the future.   …

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The Global Livestock Environmental Assessment Model (GLEAM)

The animal article of the month for February is ‘Invited review: a position on The Global Livestock Environmental Assessment Model (GLEAM)‘ The livestock sector is one of the fastest growing subsectors of the agricultural economy and it makes a major contribution to global food supply and economic development.…

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Improving the palatability of meat: A review

The palatability of meat is mainly determined by marbling and tenderness. Tender meat, which contains more intramuscular fat and less connective tissue, is demanded by consumers and the presence and cross-linking of intramuscular connective tissue reduces meat tenderness and is mainly synthesized by fibroblasts.

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New method of predicting feed digestibility

The valorization of a feed resource within an animal species depends on its intrinsic physico-chemical characteristics, but also on its actual utilization by the animal to which it is offered. However, the characterization of feeds is often done through their potential value (e.g. digestibility of nutrients) without considering the variability of animal responses.

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Feeding Cows Efficiently: A review

Because the cost of feeding animals is one of the greatest expenses in dairy production (40-60% of production costs), research focused on ways to identify and select for animals that are the most efficient at converting feed into milk has greatly expanded during the last decade. The animal Article of the Month is a review of current methodologies, advances, and future challenges for improving feed efficiency in growing dairy heifers and lactating cows

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Advances in proteomics for animal and food sciences

Proteomic analysis has developed rapidly over the last decade but applications of this technology in animal science have been notably absent, which is surprising considering that the main objective of livestock farming is the production of edible protein whether from poultry, beef, swine, dairy products or aquaculture.

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Reducing rumen protozoa mitigates methane emission

Livestock farming is responsible for 14.5% of total anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, with half of them represented by methane emissions, mostly produced by ruminants. In addition, enteric methane production by ruminants represents up to 6% of energy loss for the animal. Reduction of methanogenesis is then important to limit the negative environmental impacts of ruminants and to improve their feed efficiency.

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The effect of heat damaged feed on pigs

Many of the feed ingredients that are used in formulating diets for pigs have gone through heating or drying to make the ingredient stable for conservation. However, every time heat is applied to a feed ingredient, there is a risk that the ingredient can be overheated, which will result in the Maillard reaction that induces heat damage to the ingredient.

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Land Use vs. Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Localising Livestock Feed Production

Soya beans is an important protein feedstuff for livestock. It is common practice that farmers would produce grains for livestock and import soya beans from other farms (mainly from South America). But this practice, which disconnects the production of grains and protein crops, reduces the effectiveness of some ecological functions (e.g. nutrient cycling and pest control) that could mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from livestock production. Moreover, soya bean production and expansion in South America is linked to GHG emissions resulting from deforestation in that region.

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Mixed crop-livestock farming systems: a sustainable way to produce beef?

Mixed crop–livestock farming has gained broad consensus as an economically and environmentally sustainable farming system. But while such a farming system could ideally reduce both the inputs needed for production as well as fluxes of nutrients towards the atmosphere and hydrosphere, there seems to be a gap between the conceptual model and observations in commercial farms

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