Researchers from University of Copenhagen have discovered big differences in the variability of eating habits among pigs.
The newly published study--led by professor Haja Kadarmideen--is the first in the world looking at pig to human comparative genetic mapping to reveal key genes on the human genome that are known to be involved in obesity.
With 30 million pigs produced in Denmark each year genomics scientist at University of Copenhagen Haja Kadarmideen decided to turn this to his advantage with his latest research on people's eating habits surrounding obesity and diabetes.
Realizing it would be impossible to monitor the eating behaviour of 1200 humans every single hour of every day he turned to Danish pigs to find out why do humans pig out Indian-born Australian Haja Kadarmideen who is a professor
First kind of study in the worldas pigs are a well-known animal model for studying human obesity because of similar genomes
and digestive systems over a period of four years nearly 1200 pigs were given unlimited access to food.
With the help of the Pig Research Centre from the Danish Agriculture and Food Council each day the pigs were monitored for how often they would eat how much time they spent visiting the feeder how much they had eaten and
Each of the 1200 pig's DNA was assessed using a genomic chip technology that simultaneously created a genetic profile at 60000 locations across the entire DNA of each pig.
and eating behaviour observations on all pigs via genome wide association studies to detect eating behaviour genes--a big task equivalent to finding polar bears in a snowstorm says Kadarmideen.
They discovered big differences in the variability of the pigs eating habits. The research was clearly able to show that for some (pigs with certain genetic variants) overeating was normal behaviour.
That for a particular group of pigs there was clear evidence they were programmed genetically to eat more food than others.
This is the first study in the world looking at pig to human comparative genetic mapping to reveal key genes on the human genome (e g. on chromosomes 6 and 17) that are known to be involved in human obesity and some new genes;
together they may explain why we crave for (more and sometimes unhealthy) food and why some of us overeat so consequently developing obesity and diabetes both
Our pig model research indicates that eating behaviours runs in families. If a mother or father or both had unhealthy eating habits they are likely to pass on some part of their habits to their children through their DNA.
#Caribou may be affected indirectly by sea-ice loss in the Arcticmelting sea ice in the Arctic may be leading indirectly to fewer caribou calf births and higher calf mortality in Greenland according to scientists at Penn State university.
which in turn is associated with lower production of calves by caribou in the area. The results of the study will be published in the journal Nature Communications on 1 october 2013.
In addition to analyzing their own data Post and Kerby also used information from a 1970s study of caribou calving and calf survival at the same site by Danish biologists Henning Thing and Bjarne Clausen.
As a result the data from the late 1970s indicate very high calf production in this population at that time.
#African breed of cattle harbors potential defense against life-threatening parasiteevery year millions of cattle die of trypanosomosis.
The UN and the International Livestock Research Institute list trypanosomosis among the ten diseases of cattle with the greatest impact on the poor.
Surprisingly one West-african dwarf cattle breed the Baoul seems less affected by trypanosomosis than others.
When they are infected Baoul cattle develop fever and lose weight but do not necessarily die. Their immune system is
In other words the cattle seem to have a natural tolerance against the parasite. A method to detect different trypanosomeskatja Silbermayr from the Institute of Parasitology of the University of Veterinary medicine Vienna (Vetmeduni) together with an international research team collected blood samples from three cattle types.
The scientists have developed a method that can identify the parasites responsible for trypanosomosis the trypanosomes and can even detect three different forms of the parasite in a single step.
Zebu cattle are infected twice as oftenthe researchers used their new method to examine samples of blood from apparently healthy Baoul cattle Indian Zebu cattle and crosses between the two breeds.
Zebus produce more meat and milk than Baoul but fall severely ill when infected with trypanosomes.
Zebus were infected twice as often as Baoul s or hybrid cattle. Nevertheless the highest amounts of the parasite were found in some Baoul s. Baoul s are infected less often than Zebus
and seem able to tolerate higher amounts of the parasite. We only studied healthy animals
and Zebus with such high parasite levels would have been too ill to be included in our study says Silbermayr.
It seems that the Baoul's immune system can tolerate higher levels of the blood parasite The Baoul gene pool should be preserveda number of international research projects are attempting to breed trypanosome-tolerant cattle
Crossing large breeds of cattle that produce a lot of meat and milk such as the Zebu with the smaller but immunologically stronger Baoul could be very beneficial for farming in Africa.
and Zebus and hope that in future it will be possible to determine the optimal degree of mixing to offer protection against trypanosomes explains Silbermayr.
and increase feeding efficiency in cattle. In lab tests followed by field experiments the researchers found that trenbolone does not fully break down in water as believed retaining enough of a chemical residue to regenerate itself in the environment under certain conditions to an extent that the drugs'lives may be prolonged even in trace amounts.
Trenbolone acetate is implanted in the ears of more than 20 million cattle in the United states according to studies cited by the researchers in their paper.
and then excreted by livestock and makes its way into waterways mainly through runoff. The steroid has been considered safe due to its rapid degradation with studies pointing to an environmental half-life of less than a day.
and the other from samples taken from a collection pond at a cattle rangeland and research operation run by the University of California.
Yingchun Guan from the A*STAR Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology (SIMTECH) and her co-workers have shown how different laser-processing methods improve metal surfaces
Guan and co-workers investigated how different degrees of overlap between the tracks affect the surface properties of AZ91D--a common magnesium alloy.
and telecommunications industries Guan explains. By examining cross-sections of AZ91D samples post-melt the researchers found that the greater the degree of overlap between the tracks the fewer the number of small cracks that developed during solidification (see image.
According to Guan this finding should be considered when processing metals destined for exposure to fluids such as those that will be used in bio-implants.
Theoretical calculations by Guan and her co-workers described these kinetics accurately. According to the team's model a greater level of overlap provided a greater amount of heat
The team's approach particularly the theoretical model is applicable to assess laser processing of other alloys and compounds Guan notes.
and Molecular Medicine Laboratory developed a pig model that closely mimics the human gastric environment.
When pigs were infected with H. pylori the researchers observed an increase in another type of immune cells called pro-inflammatory CD4+T helper cells followed by an increase in CD8+cytotoxic T cells according to the study.
However the rise of the cells in pigs mirrors the recent findings in human clinical studies.#
The results from our new pig model closely mimic what has been reported in clinical settings which will allow us to comprehensively
Researchers within the Center for Modeling Immunity to Enteric Pathogens are using results from the pig model and other experimental data to develop a computational model of H. pylori infection.
#Sustainable livestock production is possibleconsumers are increasingly demanding higher standards for how their meat is sourced with animal welfare and the impact on the environment factoring in many purchases.
Unfortunately many widely-used livestock production methods are currently unsustainable. However new research out today from the University of Cambridge has identified
what may be the future of sustainable livestock production: silvopastoral systems which include shrubs and trees with edible leaves or fruits as well as herbage.
Current cattle production mostly occurs on cleared pastures with only herbaceous plants such as grasses grown as food for the cows.
which is used now widely for cattle feed in Australia. Another success has been in Colombia where a mixed planting of the shrub Leucaena with a common pasture grass resulted in a 27%increase in dry matter for food and 64%increase of protein production.
When ruminants such as cows goats and sheep are consuming the plants from a silvopastoral system researchers have seen an increase in growth and milk production.
and the main culprit is farming--33%of the total land surface of the world is used for livestock production.
If farmers were to switch to sustainable livestock production methods such as the silvopastoral system the result would be much greater biodiversity with no increase in land use.
The paper'Sustainable efficient livestock production with high biodiversity and good welfare for animals'will be published in the 25 september edition of Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Story Source:
It's the IBEX satellite that's the hawk mapping the whole of space from its Earth orbit based on energetic neutral particles that stream in to it from outer space.
IBEX data indicate that there exists in space a very narrow ENA ribbon two or three times the brightness of anything else that may help us diagnose the structure of the heliosphere.
because according to our simulations in order for us to simulate the IBEX ribbon we have had to assume a quite specific direction and strength of the magnetic field.
Zirnstein's work sheds a great deal of light on the IBEX measurements said Dr. Zank. Tying together the IBEX global view with the extremely microscopic view of Voyager is very important.
What is the magnetic field doing? Why did it not change direction as we expected? Eric has sophisticated the most model to address energetic neutral atoms
This freshwater predator is known to be highly adaptive feeding on fish crustaceans and in the case of larger specimens wild pigs.
or working in the pig farms. The pig-related MRSA--also known as CC398--was identified in 232 people (164 in 2011) of
whom 92 had an infection at the time of diagnosis (63 in 2011). The continued increase in the number of cases of MRSA particularly in people who are in contact with pigfarms causes problems both for those affected
Contact to pigs has been included as a risk factor for MRSA and patients are asked about contact to pigs
when admitted to hospital. Follow-up on the effect of treatment on otherwise healthy MRSA carriers has also been tightened up.
Increase of MRSA in pigs In 2012 709 pigs at abattoirs and 219 samples of tank milk from dairy cattle were examined also for MRSA.
Compared to 2011 the number of MRSA-positive pigs for slaughter has increased significantly: From 44%in 2011 to 77%in 2012.
MRSA found in tank milk from dairy cattle Last year was the first year that tank milk was examined for the presence of MRSA.
In all 2%of the samples tested positive for MRSA and two samples were identical with a MRSA type found in pigs--the type known as MRSA CC398.
which may indicate that MRSA in cattle is more transient than in pigs. If MRSA is identified in a herd of pigs it is very difficult to eradicate it from this herd.
Raw milk and dairy products are considered not a source of MRSA as the raw milk is pasteurized and subjected to several other treatments.
It seems that pigs are still the major source of MRSA-CC398 and the occurrence of this MRSA type in tank milk may be attributable to contamination from pig production explains Yvonne Agersã¸Senior Researcher at National Food Institute Technical University of Denmark.
It is important to prevent that occurrence of MRSA in pigs increase and that MRSA spread to other areas of livestock production she adds.
FACTSMRSA bacteria MRSA is short for Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus. When bacteria are exposed to antimicrobial agents they protect themselves by developing resistance.
They do so by altering their DNA--either through mutation or by transferring resistance genes between bacteria.
Community-acquired MRSA was identified in 726 people compared to 596 in 2011 (an increase of 22%)and cases of pig-type MRSA (CC398) rose by 41%from 164 in 2011 to 232 in 2012.
Of those infected with pig-type MRSA 92 (40%)had an infection when the diagnosis was made compared to 62 (38%)in 2011.
Animal and meat production in Denmark A large majority of the meat products produced in Denmark come from pigs.
In 2012 Denmark produced a total of 29047000 pigs corresponding to 1902 million kg of pork
and 539000 cattle corresponding to 138 million kg of beef. In addition there were 580000 dairy cattle in Denmark producing 4928 million kg of milk.
Meat was examined for MRSA in the period 2009-11 but this was done not in 2012.
The genus name for Pygsuia biforma is derived from part of the University of Arkansas Razorbacks sports cheer Wooo Pig Sooie
because it has a row of structures resembling the dorsal bristles of razorbacks which are feral pigs.
Pyg replaces pig as a play on the Latin Pygmae a mythical race of pygmies a reference to their small size
and sui replaces sooie for brevity and a reference to the animal family to which suids the ancient biological family of pigs belong.
Consequently the genus name also means little pig in mock Latin. The species name biforma is derived from the presence two distinct cell forms that are observed in the life cycle.
A culture sample of Pygsuia biforma has been submitted to the Smithsonian Institution. The researchers'work was funded partially by the Arkansas Biosciences Institute.
#Vaccinating cattle against E coli could cut human cases of infection by 85 percentvaccinating cattle against the E coli O157 bacterium could cut the number of human cases of the disease by 85%according to scientists.
and even death in humans are spread by consuming contaminated food and water or by contact with livestock feces in the environment.
Cattle are the main reservoir for the bacterium. The vaccines that are available for cattle are used rarely
but could be significant. The research was lead by a team of researchers at the University of Glasgow in collaboration with the University of Edinburgh the Royal Veterinary College Scotland's Rural College Health Protection Scotland and the Scottish E coli O157/VTEC
and molecular data to examine the risks of E coli O157 transmission from cattle to humans
and to estimate the impact of vaccinating cattle. The risk of E coli O157 infection is particularly significant
when the cattle are'super-shedding'--excreting extremely high numbers of bacteria in their feces for a limited period of time.
As a consequence the researchers predict that vaccinating cattle could reduce human cases by nearly 85 percent far higher than the 50 percent predicted by studies simply looking at the efficacy of current vaccines in cattle.
These figures provide strong support for the adoption of vaccines by the livestock industry and work is now underway to establish the economic basis for such a program of vaccination.
Treating cattle in order to reduce the number of human cases certainly makes sense from a human health perspective
This is problematic because E coli O157 does not harm cattle and assessing the impact of treatment involves coordination between human and veterinary health practitioners.
Those following a healthy diet are less at riska healthy diet characterized by vegetables fruits berries whole-grains poultry fish
#Exposure to pig farms and manure fertilizers associated with MRSA infectionsresearchers from Geisinger's Henry Hood Center for Health Research
and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public health have for the first time found an association between living in proximity to high-density livestock production and community-acquired infections with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus commonly known as MRSA.
and soft tissue infections in the study population could be attributed to crop fields fertilized with swine manure.
The study is the first to examine the association between high-density livestock operations and manure-applied crop fields and MRSA infections in the community.
According to the U s. Food and Drug Administration nearly 80 percent of antibiotics in the United states are sold for use in livestock feeds.
The manure produced by these livestock and applied to crop fields contains antibiotic-resistant bacteria resistance genes
Patients received an exposure score based on their distance from the production the number of animals at livestock operations the amount of manure spread on crop fields and the size of the field.
The researchers found a significant association between community-associated MRSA and application of swine manure to crop fields.
A similar but weaker association was found between swine operations and community-associated MRSA. No association was found between dairy farms and MRSA infections.
Farmers are now using faster maturing Gala goats red Maasai sheep and chickens along with improved cassava varieties that resist a deadly virus. They also are growing high-value crops like tomatoes onions and watermelons.
Reconstructions like this are common for livestock infections but this is the first time the method has been applied to bee disease.
#Grassroots action in livestock feeding to help curb global climate changein a series of papers to be presented next week scientists offer new evidence that a potent chemical mechanism operating in the roots of a tropical
grass used for livestock feed has enormous potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Referred to as biological nitrification inhibition
Livestock production provides livelihoods for a billion people but it also contributes about half of agriculture's greenhouse gas emissions Peters explained.
It defies the widespread notion that livestock are necessarily in the minus column of any food security and environmental calculation.
and livestock systems are said very'leaky Subbarao. About 70 percent of the 150 million tons of nitrogen fertilizer applied globally is lost through nitrate leaching and nitrous oxide emissions;
Instead of more monocropping developing countries need to integrate Brachiaria grasses into mixed crop-livestock systems on a massive scale to make them more sustainable.
and other countries and they have recently been taken back to Africa to help ease severe shortages of livestock Feed in a major breakthrough JIRCAS scientists discovered several years ago the chemical substance responsible for BNI
The Livestockplus initiative takes place within the global framework of the CGIAR Research Program on Livestock
and Fish led by the Kenya-based International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI). The program aims to increase the availability
and cattle grazing in the grasslands along with slow growth rates likely explain a large part of it but aren't sure.
In rare cases if introduced from wild birds to poultry some viruses of the H5
People in Europe for centuries preserved fresh fruit with larding a coating of the melted fat from hogs.
and Sustainability worked on the seasonings brewery poultry processing and sugar industries. Ecofys focused on petroleum refining and glass manufacturing.
#Interstellar winds buffeting our solar system have shifted directionscientists including University of New hampshire astrophysicists involved in NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) mission have discovered that the particles streaming into the solar system from interstellar space have changed likely direction over the last 40 years.
The results based on data spanning four decades from 11 different spacecraft including IBEX were published in the journal Science September 5 2013.
because interstellar clouds are astronomically large says Eberhard MÃ bius UNH principal scientist for the IBEX mission
The data from the IBEX spacecraft show that neutral interstellar atoms are flowing into the solar system from a different direction than previously observed.
The latest IBEX measurements of the interstellar wind direction differed from those made by the Ulysses spacecraft in the 1990s.
That difference led the IBEX team to compare the IBEX measurements to data gathered by 11 spacecraft between 1972 and 2011.
IBEX and Ulysses directly measured neutral helium atoms as they coursed through the inner solar system.
IBEX's measurements are close to Earth while Ulysses'measurements were taken between 1. 3 and 2 times further from the sun. In the final analysis the direction of the wind obtained most recently by IBEX data differs from the direction obtained from the earlier measurements
which strongly suggests the wind itself has changed over time. Prior to this study we were struggling to understand why our current measurements from IBEX differed from those of the past says co-author Nathan Schwadron lead scientist for the IBEX Science Operations center at UNH.
We are finally able to resolve why these fundamental measurements have been changing with time: we are moving through a changing interstellar medium.
#Overgrazing turning parts of Mongolian Steppe into desertovergrazing by millions of sheep and goats is the primary cause of degraded land in the Mongolian Steppe one of the largest remaining grassland ecosystems in the world Oregon State university researchers say in a new report.
Using a new satellite-based vegetation monitoring system researchers found that about 12 percent of the biomass has disappeared in this country that's more than twice the size of Texas
Since 1990 livestock numbers have doubled almost to 45 million animals caused in part by the socioeconomic changes linked to the breakup of the former Soviet union the report said.
and a huge surge in the number of grazing animals occurred during just the past decade--especially sheep and goats that cause more damage than cattle.
In tests using pig bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells Wilson and lead author Eladio Rivera a former postdoctoral researcher at Rice found that the bismuth-filled nanotubes which they call Bi@US-tubes produce CT images far brighter than those from common
Many breeding programmes for livestock and conservation use artificial insemination. But our research suggests that this may not produce the best quality offspring.
Bovine TB is primarily a disease of cattle caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium bovis. The disease is hugely expensive costing the Government over £91 million in England in 2010/11.
in addition to data on the movement of cattle from farm to farm the researchers were able to build a detailed forensic map of bovine TB spread.
The results showed that even on a scale of few kilometres M. bovis samples from neighbouring farms were more closely genetically related than geographically distant farms that had had moved cattle between them.
while long distance spread via cattle movements plays a role local transmission mechanisms appear to drive the spread of the disease
and local persistence of the pathogen in cattle has a distinct spatial signature--we believe that explaining this signature is the key to quantifying the role that badgers play in the persistence of bovine TB in Britain and Ireland.
Given the extensive collection of samples already collected from cattle and badgers we are optimistic that this approach will help accumulating the right scientific evidence over the coming years to tackle this important problem.
and cereals) and fish with olive oil as the primary source of monounsaturated fat (MUSF) and low to moderate intake of wine as well as low intake of red meat poultry
and colleagues examined the embryos conceived in four groups of female sheep. The first group of sheep was overnourished from four months before conception until one week after conception.
The second group of sheep was overnourished for three months and then placed on a diet for one month before and one week after conception.
The third group of sheep was placed on a normal or control diet from four months before conception until one week after conception.
The fourth group was fed a control diet for three months and then these normal weight sheep were placed on a diet for one month before conception until one week after conception.
One week after conception embryos from all of these sheep were transferred to normal weight normally nourished sheep for the remainder of pregnancy.
Liver samples were taken from the lambs born to these ewes at four months of age to examine their genes and proteins.
This discovery helps us to understand how body weight affects our health and the health of our children--right down to the genetic level said Gerald Weissmann M d. Editor-In-chief of The FASEB Journal.
PSW Research Wildlife Biologist Dr. Hartwell Welsh and Garth Hodgson examined two species of woodland salamanders across four stages of tree development at Mill Creek--a disturbed
#Parasitic worm genome uncovers potential drug targetsresearchers have identified five enzymes that are essential to the survival of a parasitic worm that infects livestock worldwide
or the barber pole worm a well-studied parasitic worm that resides in the gut of sheep and other livestock globally.
and are estimated to cost the UK sheep industry alone more than £80 million pounds each year. H. contortus has become resistant to all major treatments against parasitic worms
#oenot only is this worm closely related to many other parasites of livestock it is also similar to some species of worms in humans.#
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