#New global study reveals how diet and digestion in cows, chickens and pigs drives climate change hoofprintthe resources required to raise livestock
and the impacts of farm animals on environments vary dramatically depending on the animal the type of food it provides the kind of feed it consumes
and where it lives according to a new study that offers the most detailed portrait to date of livestock ecosystems in different parts of the world.
what cows sheep pigs poultry and other farm animals are eating in different parts of the world;
The study produced by scientists at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO)
and poultry are being produced far more efficiently than milk and beef and greenhouse gas emissions vary widely depending on the animal involved and the quality of its diet.
There's been focused a lot of research on the challenges livestock present at the global level but if the problems are global the solutions are almost all local
so that the debate over the role of livestock in our diets and our environments and the search for solutions to the challenges they present can be informed by the vastly different ways people around the world raise animals said Herrero.
This very important research should provide a new foundation for addressing the sustainable development of livestock in a very resource-challenged
and hungry world where in many areas livestock can be crucial to food security said Harvard university's William C. Clark editorial board member of the Sustainability Science section at PNAS.
and the liasa in Austria to deconstruct livestock impacts beyond what they view as broad and incomplete representations of the livestock sector.
Their findings--supplemented with 50 illustrative maps and more than 100 pages of additional data--anchor a special edition of PNAS devoted to exploring livestock-related issues and global change.
Scientists say the new data fill a critical gap in research on the interactions between livestock and natural resources region by region.
The initial work was funded by ILRI and the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change Agriculture and Food security (CCAFS.
By the Numbers Livestock production and diets The study breaks down livestock production into nine global regions--the more developed regions of Europe and Russia (1) North america (2) and Oceania
and the Caribbean (7) Sub-saharan africa (8) and the Middle east and North africa (9). The data reveal sharp contrasts in overall livestock production and diets.
Greenhouse gas emissionsscientists also sought to calculate the amount of greenhouse gases livestock are releasing into the atmosphere
and questions emerging from the new data relate to the amount of feed livestock consume to produce a kilo of protein something known as feed efficiency
Meat v. dairy grazing animals v. poultry and porkthe study shows that ruminant animals (cows sheep
and goats) require up to five times more feed to produce a kilo of protein in the form of meat than a kilo of protein in the form of milk.
The large differences in efficiencies in the production of different livestock foods warrant considerable attention the authors note.
The researchers also caution that livestock production in many parts of the developing world must be evaluated in the context of its vital importance for nutritional security and incomes.
The study confirmed that pigs and poultry (monogastrics) are more efficient at converting feed into protein than are cattle sheep
and goats (ruminants) and it further found that this is the case regardless of the product involved
or where the animals are raised. Globally pork produced 24 kilos of carbon per kilo of edible protein
and poultry produced only 3. 7 kilos of carbon per kilo of protein--compared with anywhere from 58 to 1000 kilos of carbon per kilo of protein from ruminant meat.
The authors caution that the lower emission intensities in the pig and poultry sectors are driven largely by industrial systems
which provide high-quality balanced concentrate diets for animals of high genetic potential. But these systems also pose significant public health risks (with the transmission of zoonotic diseases from these animals to people)
and transport services needed for industrial livestock production and the felling of forests to grow crops for animal feed.
In arid regions of Sub-saharan africa for example where the fodder available to grazing animals is of much lower quality than that in many other regions a cow can consume up to ten times more feed--mainly in the form of rangeland grasses--to produce a kilo of protein than a cow
Similarly cattle scrounging for food in the arid lands of Ethiopia Somalia and Sudan can in the worst cases release the equivalent of 1000 kilos of carbon for every kilo of protein they produce.
Our data allow us to see more clearly where we can work with livestock keepers to improve animal diets
Not absolute indicators of sustainabilitywhile the new data will greatly help to assess the sustainability of different livestock production systems the authors cautioned against using any single measurement as an absolute indicator of sustainability.
For example the low livestock feed efficiencies and high greenhouse gas emission intensities in Sub-saharan africa are determined largely by the fact that most animals in this region continue to subsist largely on vegetation inedible by humans especially by grazing on marginal lands
While our measurements may make a certain type of livestock production appear inefficient that production system may be the most environmentally sustainable as well as the most equitable way of using that particular land said Philip Thornton another co-author and an ILRI researcher at CCAFS.
so we can get a fuller picture of how livestock in all these different regions interact with their ecosystems and
what the real trade-offs are in changing these livestock production systems in future. Story Source:
and pigs from the ancient village were eating millet but deer were not. Carbon and nitrogen isotopes show that cats were preying on animals that lived on farmed millet probably rodents.
In 2003 many villagers kept cows or pigs on their land but after joining the EU it became uneconomical to do so.
or occasional contact with cows in 2003 but this fell to four per cent in 2012.
Thirty-three per cent had contact with pigs in 2003 but only 14 per cent in 2012.
#European springtime temperature benefits Alpine ibex vitalitya study published December 16th 2013 in the journal Ecology Letters provides new evidence for the dependency of local trophic interactions
and ecologists from Switzerland Norway and the US debuts in applying existing methods of tree-ring research (dendrochronology*)to analyze annual horn growth rates of the Alpine ibex (Capra ibex**)
The evaluation of eight ibex populations in the Grison Alps showed that the North Atlantic Oscillation
(i e. air masses originating in the North Atlantic) synchronizes annual horn growth rates of male ibex living in different regions and altitudes.
Over 8. 000 ibex probedthe team analyzed over 42.000 individual horn increments from more than 8. 000 male ibex.
Since the Alpine ibex is protected a highly species it is particularly important to strictly control
since the revival of the ibex hunt in Grison where professional gamekeepers consequently measure and digitize each specimen.
Nevertheless the authors call attention to the complexity of possible correlations between ibex vitality and climate variability and emphasize the importance of other factors.
Further analyses are necessary to fully understand the complete potential of the ibex dataset in Grison.
if and how hunting can affect the age structure of ibex populations and the horn growth of the individuals.
#No fluke as parasites nuked with innovative toolkittyndall National Institute Ireland has announced the development of a new diagnostic toolkit--Flukeless--to help in the fight against liver fluke in cattle and sheep.
and immunity and DNA testing to tackle the common liver fluke parasite--a scourge that causes annual losses of around. 5billion to the livestock and food industries worldwide.
Led by Dr Alan O'Riordan Principal investigator at Tyndall National Institute Flukeless will be developed in collaboration with Teagasc University college Dublin Zoetis The Enfer Group and The irish Cattle Breeding Federation.
Whether from cows goats or sheep raw milk and milk products are a continuing source of bacterial infections that are especially dangerous to pregnant women fetuses the elderly young children
Some advocates of raw-milk consumption argue that cows are healthier now than in the pre-pasteurization era
similar to roosters cresta rare mummified specimen of the duck-billed dinosaur Edmontosauraus regalis described in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on December 12 shows for the first time that those dinosaurs'heads were adorned with a fleshy comb most
similar to the roosters'red crest. The most common dinosaurs in North america between 75 and 65 million years ago duck-billed dinosaurs were gentle giants about 12 meters long
An elephant's trunk or a rooster's crest might never fossilize because there's no bone in them Bell explains.
or Triceratops. Of course it's hard to tell what that cocks comb might have done for the duck-billed dinosaurs.
In roosters and some other birds bright red crests are a way to get the girls.
Hunters could return with two really big peccaries--think wild boar --or they could come back with a squirrel monkey.
#Researchers see added nutritional benefits in organic milka team led by a Washington state University researcher has found that organic milk contains significantly higher concentrations of heart-healthy fatty acids compared to milk from cows on conventionally managed dairy farms.
Enclosures and guard dogs Attacks on livestock and crop raids are more common the closer villages are to the national park. Livestock keepers in the villages located close to the protected areas are on constant guard with arrows
The building of livestock enclosures or bandas to protect livestock at night and the use of guard dogs were preferred more in the villages that were the farthest away from the protected areas.
Disease and loss of livestock due to them is a bigger problem in the villages closest to the national park. Illegal bushmeat markets
The largest migration is of wildebeests but zebras antelopes and other animals may also pass through villages on their way to elsewhere.
It can be very hard to taste the difference between dried meat from different species. One animal in particular the topi a kind of antelope is supposed to taste about the same as normal beef.
People close to the national park are best at identifying the different types of bushmeat but this is by no means a safe method for identifying a species. Chickens
More education is necessary to keep the number of attacks on livestock down. Story Source:
#Nutritional information on oilseed crop for use in pig dietslong considered a weed in North america Camelina sativa is valued increasingly as an oilseed crop.
when used as part of weanling pigs'diets. When oil is extracted from the camelina seeds using either solvent extraction
and may be fed to livestock but there is very little knowledge about the nutritional value of camelina meal
when fed to pigs said Hans Stein a U of I professor of animal sciences.
Camelina seeds and expellers have been evaluated for use in poultry and dairy cattle diets but to our knowledge the nutritional values of these ingredients have not been studied in pigs he said.
This lack of knowledge limits the use of camelina products in diets fed to pigs
so we wanted to determine the digestibility of amino acids in these ingredients. To determine amino acid digestibility values Stein
and his team fed growing pigs diets containing one of five different camelina products. They tested camelina seeds from two different sources as well as camelina expellers from three different sources.
The camelina products were compared with each other and with canola meal. The digestibility of crude protein and most amino acids in two sources of camelina expellers did not differ from that of canola meal
which indicates that camelina expellers may be included in diets fed to pigs he explained. The camelina expellers studied were pressed cold
and feed companies evaluate camelina expellers for possible inclusion in pig diets. Stein said that the next steps for research would be to determine the digestible
In the Kafue area a high incidence of Mycobacterium bovis in both cattle and the Kafue lechwe antilope has been detected.
Mycobacterium tuberculosis which is the main cause of human tuberculosis has also been detected in cattle in this region.
Sidney Malama's doctoral research shows that Mycobacterium tuberculosis which is the most prevalent tuberculosis bacterium in humans also occurs in cattle in Namwala.
and cattle respectively are related. The fact that this bacterium is found in cattle means that these animals can be a reservoir for human tuberculosis
and that humans can become infected with both M. bovis and M. tuberculosis by drinking unpasteurised milk
and cattle and of M. bovis in humans cattle and Kafue lechwe in Namwala indicate that the same tuberculosis bacteria are circulating between humans and animals.
Health authorities wildlife managers and cattle owners must work together to stop zoonotic tuberculosis in Namwala and the bordering areas in Kafue.
and this may suggest that the bacterium is transmitted between people and not just between cattle and humans.
or undercooked meat poultry or eggs but sometimes results from eating contaminated produce. Symptoms can include abdominal pain fever nausea and vomiting.
but the impact of changing livestock feeding practices is not enough for attaining national abatement targets
which are given to normal livestock during periods of rapid growth or high egg and milk production.
In southwestern Madagascar trees are being harvested for cattle forage construction materials and firewood and the mining of limestone there--used for the production of cement fertilizer
and Distributions The Bubal hartebeest is extinct; the scimitar horned oryx is extinct in the wild;
and the African wild dog and African lion have vanished from the Sahara. Other species have fared only slightly better:
the dama gazelle and addax are gone from 99 percent of their range; the leopard from 97 percent and the Saharan cheetah from 90.
Only the Nubian ibex still inhabits most of its historical range but even this species is classified as vulnerable due to numerous threats including widespread hunting.
which harbors most of the world's 200 or so remaining wild addax and one of a handful of surviving populations of dama gazelle and Saharan cheetah.
There is also hope that the scimitar horned oryx may be reintroduced in the wild in the Ouadi Rim-Ouadi Achim Game Reserve with the support of the Chadian government.
A new study appearing in Springer's Journal of Materials Science may lend credence to that claim.
The above story is provided based on materials by Springer Science+Business Media. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
Vampire bats transmit rabies virus throughout Latin america causing thousands of livestock deaths each year as well as occasional human fatalities.
The critical role of immigration between bat colonies predicted by our analysis indicates that current culling practices often reactive to outbreaks in livestock
Rohani and colleagues say that such a phenomenon has recently been observed in controlled badger culls in the United kingdom where disruption of badger social dynamics and subsequent dispersal led to increased tuberculosis transmission in cattle at neighboring sites.
Continued growth of the livestock industry likely exacerbates rabies outbreaks in the region by providing an almost unlimited food source for the blood-feeding bats fueling population growth and range expansion.
The combination of large vampire bat populations and frequent contact with livestock contributes to losses of about $30 million annually in Latin american livestock mortality Of more than 1200 species of bats worldwide only three are vampires
and one--the common vampire bat D. rotundus--prefers mammals especially livestock. Common vampire bats hunt only when it is fully dark
#Guard dogs reduce killing of threatened speciesresearch from the University of Kent has revealed that guarding dogs can significantly reduce conflict between livestock
In a paper published in Wildlife Society Bulletin entitled Perceived Efficacy of Livestock-Guarding Dogs in South africa:
The research revealed that livestock guarding dogs eliminated livestock losses from predators on 91%of the farms studied with each farmer saving over $3000 per year due to the reduction in killed livestock.
and other predators on their land compared to farmers that did not have livestock guarding dogs.
'This research has shown for the first time that livestock guarding dogs can successfully be used in South africa to protect livestock from attack by predators as large as leopards or small as jackals.'
'This is a true win-win solution to reduce conflict between livestock and predators because it almost eliminates livestock losses to predators saving the farmer a lot of money
whilst increasing the tolerance of predators from the farmers thereby reducing the chance of using lethal control on threatened carnivores.'
'Retaliatory killing by farmers is a major threat to the survival of many large carnivore species. This study shows that livestock deaths can be avoided through the deployment of highly trained dogs and
So says Diana Reckien of Columbia University in the US in a study published in Springer's journal Climatic Change that analysed the relevant strategic policies and planning documents of 200 urban areas in eleven European countries.
The above story is provided based on materials by Springer Science+Business Media. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
According to research by the National Institute of Forest Agricultural and Livestock Research (INIFAP) not treating the colonies infested by Varroa can lead to a 65 per cent less production in comparison to colonies where the acari is controlled.
and the development of rice agriculture and cattle domestication likely had an influence on methane emissions.
Kantha Shelke Phd CFS a well-known food scientist and spokesperson for the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) deconstructs the turkey-day menu by giving us the low-down on why all the flavors
#¢Roasted turkey and fried turkey have compounds in common with apples chocolate pumpkin pecans molasses honey parsley leaves ham tomatoes and roasted vegetables.
What is the science behind the pop-up thermometer in the turkey how does it work?
#¢Turkey is done when it reaches 165 degrees Fahrenheit.#¢#¢If you don't have a pop-up timer you can use a meat thermometer to figure out the temperature of the meat.
The pop-up timer which often comes with a turkey that you buy at the grocery store tells you
and check the thicker parts of the turkey meat to ensure that it is done indeed.
What is the difference between organic wild free-range and conventional turkeys?#¢#¢An organic turkey simply means that the bird has met the standards for USDA Organic certification including an organic diet
and surroundings including bedding and grazing areas.#¢#¢Wild turkeys are birds that were domesticated not or fed by humans--they're essentially hunted for the meal.
In contrast free range turkeys are birds that are confined not to a cage but were allowed to roam and forage.
Because their diets were augmented with grubs worms and grass the flavor of their meat is distinctly flavorful
#¢Conventional turkeys are the classic turkeys in grocery stores that are available year round called broad breasted white selectively bred to put on maximal breast meat in minimum growing time.
#¢Although the after-dinner stupor associated with Thanksgiving is attributed often to the turkey and its amino acid l-tryptophan
which has documented a sleep effect even those who omit the turkey will also complain about feeling sleepy after the feast.#¢
#New vaccine against lung diseases in goats and sheepan intranasal spray was developed using local isolated bacterium in Malaysia
or pneumonic diseases in goats and sheep that was developed and patented by its scientists. The soft launch of STVAC7 the first intranasal spray vaccine for goats
and sheep was officiated by the Deputy Minister of Science Technology and Innovation Datuk Dr Abu Bakar Mohamad Diah in a brief ceremony on 24.oct 2013.
The vaccine was developed and tested from 1998 to 2005 by UPM scientists led by Prof Dr Mohd Zamri Saad of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine.
since in Malaysia alone there were more than 600000 goats and sheep at present and the figure is expected to increase to 1 million by 2015 a growth rate of 12.1%as projected by the Veterinary Services Department.
The company's collaboration with UPM would ensure that it would produce the STVAC7 vaccines under Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP)
or respiratory diseases of goats and sheep caused by bacteria. It was developed and produced using sophisticated recombinant technology
which unlike the imported vaccines has been demonstrated to provide protection against bacterium infection in the small ruminants like goats and sheep.
and the goats and sheep farmers could benefit from the STVAC7. The product itself is ready for the market
#Cows chomping on fresh grass, red clover produce omega milkfat is an important ingredient that has a material impact on the nutritional value texture taste shelf-life
How should dairy cattle be fed for their milk to contain more unsaturated fatty acids? Only scant research data are available on the effects on the lipid metabolism of ruminants of the forage conventionally used to feed dairy cows.
Anni Halmemies-Beauchet-Filleau who has worked as a researcher at MTT and at the University of Helsinki studied in her doctoral thesis the role of forage species and conservation method in ruminal lipid metabolism and milk fatty acid composition.
Fresh grass increases the share of oleic acidapproximately one half of milk fat is generated in the mammary glands of cows the other half coming from the fats in forage.
Cows fed on fresh grass use more fatty acids originating in adipose tissue to form milk fat than do other cows.
#Poultry probiotics coat clues to ability to battle bugsifr researchers have characterized the coat of a potential poultry probiotic giving the first clues of how it may be used to exclude pathogenic bacteria from chickens.
Lactobacillus johnsonii has previously been shown to exclude Clostridium perfringens from the guts of poultry opening the door to it being developed as a way of reducing necrotic enteritis in poultry and food poisoning in humans.
This strain of Lactobacillus johnsonii is now being taken through farm-scale trials to assess its potential use to combat pathogenic infections of poultry by bacteria such as C. perfringens.
#Combating key viral livestock diseases in Ethiopiagelagay Ayelet Melesse's doctoral research reveals that there are several serotypes of the virus causing foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) and the African horse sickness virus (AHSV
His study also highlights the economic repercussions of these viruses and other viral diseases in domestic livestock.
Livestock play an important role in Ethiopia as a livelihood both for nomads and for farmers cultivating the land.
Indeed products from livestock are the country's second largest export after coffee. However due to a number of diseases affecting domestic animals this resource is not reaching its full potential.
and to the extent livestock is in contact with wild animals. Research on lumpy skin disease and African horse sickness shows that outbreaks of these diseases occur at the end of the rainy season (in November and December.
One such wolf which we call the megafaunal wolf preyed on large game such as horses bison and perhaps very young mammoths.
#Probiotics reduce piglet pathogenspiglets fed probiotic Enterococcus faecium showed reduced numbers of potentially pathogenic Escherichia coli strains in their intestines according to a team of German researchers.
because in 2006 the European union prohibited the feeding of antibiotics to livestock as growth promoters.
Antimicrobials are thought to promote growth in industrially grown livestock because without them the rationale goes in such close quarters a surfeit of pathogens would slow growth.
In previous studies the working groups from the Institute of Microbiology and Epizootics at Freie Universitat Berlin found that feeding E. faecium probiotic did not change the general swine intestinal microbiota
In the study Bednorz and her collaborators compared piglets fed with E. faecium to those in a control group.
They collected more than 1400 samples of E coli from piglets of different ages and from different parts of the intestine.
and will possibly drive dairy and livestock production farther north. Warm weather during winter months reduces yields of blueberry peach
The situation is so serious that the sheep industry could be under threat. It is therefore crucial to identify the causes and implement preventative measures.
The answer may be found somewhere within the genetics of the sheep and the course of the disease assessment and control of tick populations and biological control of ticks.
Weakens the immune systemtick-bites in sheep may result in the disease tick-borne fever (TBF) induced by the bacterium Anaplasma phagocytophilum (A. ph). TBF causes high fever
but makes sheep more susceptible to secondary infections. Arthritis is the most common disease that can arise.
It is recommended therefore to vaccinate sheep against pastuerella in areas where tick-borne fever is prevalent.
There have been attempts to uncover this by using radio transmitters to monitor the sheep. However in practice it has proved difficult to find the mortalities
Breeding resistant animalswork is currently in progress to develop measures that may help sheep tolerate tick bites better.
but as far as we know nobody has died from this says Grã¸va. Sick sheep are slaughtered not.
Some sheep can be healthy carriers where the meat is considered safe. The bacterium is absorbed not through the gut
Grã¸va says it is possible that the research on sheep and ticks could benefit humans.
if fungal spores can have impact on tick populations This could contribute in helping us control tick populations for example in restricted areas such as spring pasture for sheep.
Overtext Web Module V3.0 Alpha
Copyright Semantic-Knowledge, 1994-2011