Tag archive: Animal Science

The Rumen: Fantastic bugs and where to find them

Robert J Gruninger | 14 Aug 2019

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.

Chick embryo can discriminate different light wavelengths

Michal Zeman | 14 Jul 2019

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.…

Malacosporean myxozoans exploit a diversity of fish hosts

Edson A. Adriano, Beth Okamura, Juliana Naldoni and Ashlie Hartigan | 19 Jun 2019

The latest Paper of the Month for Parasitology is ‘Malacosporean myxozoans exploit a diversity of fish hosts’ by Juliana Naldoni, Edson A.…

Can we predict breed suitability for different environments?

Maria Lozano Jaramillo | 14 Jun 2019

The animal article of the month for July is ‘Use of Geographic Information System tools to Predict Animal Breed Suitability for Different Agro-Ecological Zones’ Predicting breed suitability is challenging in livestock production.…

Understanding the contribution of ingestion to feed digestion

Elena Minnee | 17 May 2019

The animal article of the month for June is ‘Characteristics of boli formed by dairy cows upon ingestion of fresh ryegrass, lucerne or chicory’ Most measurements of feed in ruminant nutrition studies primarily concern the chemical composition.…

Deep learning for automating pig tail scoring

Sabine Dippel | 29 Apr 2019

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.…

Salivary biomarkers of sexual development for hormone-free pig reproduction

G. Goudet | 19 Mar 2019

The animal article of the month for April is ‘Salivary and urinary metabolome analysis for pre-puberty-related biomarkers identification in porcine’ In pig farms, creation of batches of sows has developed extensively due to advantages for the management of reproductive females and offspring.…

How to increase litter size in rabbits?

M A Santacreu | 15 Feb 2019

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.…

Improving dairy herd health management programs

K. Sjöström | 17 Jan 2019

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.…

Fish welfare in research and aquaculture

M. Toni | 19 Dec 2018

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.…

Livestock (grazing) systems provide a large diversity of ecosystem services

Gregoire Leroy et al | 14 Nov 2018

The animal article of the month for December is ‘Perception of livestock ecosystem services in grazing area‘ The interaction between livestock systems and their respective environments is complex.…

A promising approach to optimize pig genomics

Zeny Feng | 11 Oct 2018

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.…