Cows horses and termites can digest the cellulose in grass hay and wood. Most cellulose consists of wood fibers and cell wall remains.
whether the presence of an audience influences the behaviour and the testosterone changes of Japanese quails (Coturnix japonica) after a fight.
i e. cultivation of soybeans and grazing of cattle the study allocates the emissions to countries based on domestic consumption and international trade of Brazilian soybeans and beef.
and 71%were due to cattle ranching. Brazilian consumption is responsible for the largest share of emissions from its own deforestation:
#Feeding corn germ to pigs does not affect growth performanceinclusion of corn germ in swine diets can reduce diet costs depending on the local cost of corn germ and other ingredients.
Recent research conducted at the University of Illinois indicates that corn germ can be included at up to 30 percent in diets fed to growing pigs.
In previous research we had seen that pigs do very well on diets containing 10 percent corn germ
The results of this work demonstrate that pig growth rate will not be changed by the inclusion of up to 30 percent corn germ in the diets
As a result the bellies of pigs fed diets with no DDGS were softer as corn germ levels increased.
There was no effect on belly firmness in pigs fed diets containing DDGS. Stein said that research on
The study Up to 30 percent corn germ may be included in diets fed to growing-finishing pigs without affecting pig growth performance carcass composition
and conflicts with domestic livestock contributed to the bear's local extinction in the Great Basin landscape changes due to clear-cutting of forests throughout western and central Nevada during the mining booms of the late 1800s played an important role as well.
#Poultry probiotic cuts its coat to beat bad bacteriaa strain of probiotic bacteria that can fight harmful bacterial infections in poultry has the ability to change its coat according to new findings from the Institute of Food Research.
The probiotic is currently being taken forward through farm-scale trials to evaluate how well it combats Clostridium perfringens--a cause of necrotic enteritis in poultry and the second most common cause of food poisoning in the UKTHE researchers at IFR
when given to young chicks prevents the colonisation of C. perfringens. Now in research published in the journal PLOS ONE they have found that the probiotic bacteria have the ability to alter their coat.
Understanding the role of the slime capsule coat will inform the commercial development of this strain as a preventative treatment for C. perfringens infection in poultry especially in regard to how the probiotic is stored and produced.
As there is a growing pressure to reduce the use of antibiotics in farming new products are needed to maintain animal welfare standards reduce the huge costs of necrosis in poultry
Their diet should include cereals fruit vegetables dairy products lean meats fish poultry eggs and nuts.
#Decoding the genetic history of the Texas longhornlonghorn cattle have a hybrid global ancestry according to a study by University of Texas at Austin researchers published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The study of the genome of the Longhorn and related breeds tells a fascinating global history of human and cattle migration.
It traces back through Christopher Columbus'second voyage to the New world the Moorish invasion of Spain and the ancient domestication of the aurochs in the middle East and India.
For a long time people thought these New world cattle were domesticated from a pure European lineage. But it turns out they have a more complex more hybrid more global ancestry
To reconstruct the genetic history of Texas longhorns Mctavish Hillis and colleagues from the University of Missouri-Columbia analyzed almost 50000 genetic markers from 58 cattle breeds.
The most comprehensive such analysis to date it was funded in part by the Cattlemen's Texas longhorn Conservancy
which helped the scientists get access to samples used by ranchers. Among the findings was that the Texas longhorn breed are direct descendants of the first cattle in the New world.
The ancestral cattle were brought over by Columbus in 1493 to the island of Hispaniola. They traveled the rest of the way to the continent in 1521 on the ships of later Spanish colonists.
Over the next two centuries the Spanish moved the cattle north arriving in the area that would become Texas near the end of the 17th century.
The cattle escaped or were turned loose on the open range where they remained mostly wild for the next two centuriesit was known on some level that Longhorns are descendants from cattle brought over by early Spanish settlers said Hillis the Alfred W. Roark Centennial Professor
in the College of Natural sciences but they look so different from the cattle you see in Spain and Portugal today.
So there was speculation that there had been interbreeding with later imports from Europe. But their genetic signature is co mpletely consistent with being direct descendants of the cattle Columbus brought over.
The study reveals that being a pure descendant of cattle from the Iberian peninsula indicates a more complicated ancestry than was understood.
Approximately 85 percent of the Longhorn genome is descended taurine from the ancient domestication of the wild aurochs that occurred in the middle East 8000-10000 years ago.
As a result Longhorns look similar to purer taurine breeds such as Holstein Hereford and Angus
which came to Europe from the Middle east. The other 15 percent of the genome is indicine from the other ancient domestication of the aurochs in India.
These indicine cattle which often have a characteristic hump at the back of the neck spread into Africa
and from there up to the Iberian peninsulait's consistent with the Moorish invasions from the 8th to the 13th centuries said Hillis.
The Moors brought cattle with them and brought these African genes and of course the European cattle were there as well.
All those influences come together in the cattle of the Iberian peninsula which were used to stock the Canary islands
which is stopped where Columbus and picked up cattle on his second voyage and brought them to the New world.
Once in the New world most of the cattle eventually went feral. Under the pressures of natural selection they were able to re-evolve ancient survival traits that had been bred artificially out of their European ancestors.
Selection for longer horns allowed them to defend against wild predators. They became leaner and more able to survive heat and drought.
The Longhorns that were in the area when Anglo settlers arrived almost looked more like the ancestral aurochsen than like modern cattle breeds said Mctavish.
Living wild on the range they had to become very self sufficient. Having that genetic reservoir from those wild ancestors made it possible for a lot of those traits to be selected for once again.
Mctavish said it's possible the indicine heritage in particular helped because the climate in India and Africa tended to be hotter and drier than in Europe.
The Longhorns remained wild on the range or very loosely managed until after the Civil war
Since then the fortunes of the Longhorns have waxed and waned depending on how their unique genetic profile intersects with the changing needs of American consumers.
The Longhorns almost went extinct starting in the late 19th century said Hillis. A lot of the value of cattle at that time had to do with the fat they had
because the primary lighting source people had was made candles of tallow and Texas longhorns have very low fat content.
Ranchers began fencing off the range and importing breeds from Europe that had higher fat content.
That's when Americans began developing their taste for fatty beef so then the other cattle became valuable in that respect as well.
The only reason the Longhorns didn't go extinct was because half a dozen or so ranchers kept herds going
They appreciated that the Longhorns were hardier more self-sufficient. Hillis who raises Longhorns of his own out at the Double Helix Ranch said that the winds of history now seem to be blowing in the Longhorns'direction.
They can survive in hotter drier climates which will become increasingly important as the world warms.
And their genes may prove valuable to ranchers who can use the increasingly sophisticated genetic information to selectively breed the Longhorns'toughness into other breeds of cattle.
#Research documents lesser prairie chickenstexas Tech University scientists have been at the forefront of research on the lesser prairie chicken (LPC) a prairie grouse native to the West Texas landscape for more than three decades.
Additional research out of Oklahoma and Kansas has indicated lesser prairie chickens have an aversion to tall vertical structures such as wind turbines
and the number of lesser prairie chickens has decreased about 90 percent in the past 100 years. The bird is now found only in restricted areas of five states in the southern Great plains:
Hence the prairie chickens tend to stay away from areas where there are tall structures. Blake Grisham a post doctoral research associate working with Boal said in terms of wind farms companies already have been trying to do the right thing by staying away from known habitats.
Those spots do occur where they overlap with the distribution of the lesser prairie chickens; we've been fortunate that the wind energy companies have identified these places as potential problems
Boal said prairie chickens for example are not very likely to use cotton fields to nest in or for lekking (places where males aggregate to try to attract females to mate with).
Prairie chickens have evolved in this landscape Boal said. They have a breeding strategy that is suited to this landscape a boom
If the prairie chicken has a bad year they may have to expand their home range and forage over a greater area.
and the relative risk that a species is facing we need to look at those risks across its distribution not just have a one-size-fits-all for the prairie chicken's entire distribution.
The state of the lesser prairie chicken is an indicator of prairie health he said. A general decline shows that the ecosystem as a whole faces uncertainty
What people need to understand is that it's not just prairie chickens. It's really the inter-connectedness of these biotic communities Boal said.
When we have indicators like a prairie chicken and there's something going wrong that's an indication of that biotic community as a whole.
Prairie chickens are an important component of that land and their future depends on the quality of stewardship they receive.
Observing genome-wide rapid evolution for both falcons chicken zebra finch and turkey researchers found that the nervous system olfaction
The survey revealed that more than 80%of people in these areas use wetland resources including collecting water catching fish hunting bush meat (Sitatunga a type of antelope
The black stripe across her breast and white patches on her cheeks correlate to a chick's weight at two weeks
and the latter can affect an'adopted'chick's health suggesting nurture is involved. Taking two mothers with different patterning
and swapping their chicks researchers from Palacky University in the Czech republic were able to investigate the growth and health of the infants and the'ornamentation'of their mothers.
and found a correlation between the chick's weight at two weeks and the size of black breast stripe on the genetic mother.
The immaculateness of both genetic and foster mother's white cheek patch was related to the strength of chick's immune response suggesting that this was due to both nurture and genetics.
In contrast the body size of a chick was related only to the body size of its genetic mother and not to ornamentation at all.
Global Change Biology published a study conducted by Warren with Ph d. candidate Lacy Chick of the University of Tennessee-Knoxville.
She points out that meat poultry and seafood are the most expensive items in a food budget especially the recommended lower-fat versions.
Relationships between humans and wolves are linked often to conflicts with livestock breeding activities. Contrary to a widespread belief among western environmentalists these conflicts don't only occur only in western countries
Indeed in many countries livestock breeding activities have been dealing with wolves for centuries and rural societies have developed paths to coexistence through protection of livestock and control of wolf populations.
However the world is changing and rural societies are facing changes that can affect the way they relate to large carnivores like wolves.
and Yugoslavia had a strong impact on livestock breeding and hunting activities which were highly dependent on State support.
In Macedonia livestock breeding is weakened a activity facing economic difficulties. Livestock breeders are tending to reduce the size of their flocks
and they feel socially isolated in rural areas depopulated by rural abandonment. In this context wolves are perceived not as the main threat to their future but as an additional threat
#Putting the clock in cock-a-doodle-dooof course roosters crow with the dawn. But are they simply reacting to the environment
That's because other things--a car's headlights for instance--will set a rooster off too at any time of day.
To find out whether the roosters'crowing is driven by an internal biological clock Yoshimura and his colleague Tsuyoshi Shimmura placed birds under constant light conditions and turned on recorders to listen and watch.
Under round-the-clock dim lighting the roosters kept right on crowing each morning just before dawn proof that the behavior is entrained to a circadian rhythm.
The roosters'reactions to external events also varied over the course of the day. In other words predawn crowing
and the crowing that roosters do in response to other cues both depend on a circadian clock.
The findings are just the start of the team's efforts to unravel the roosters'innate vocalizations
and cattle-grazing help to maintain the grasslands and prevent scrubland from invading. Intensive commercial rice production by private companies involving the construction of huge channels
because most of its milk comes from pregnant cows. Estrogenic hormones reside primarily in fat
--and use the researchers'models to identify other hotspots--for increased monitoring of flu in humans livestock poultry and wild birds.
Swine which are susceptible to both bird and human flu could serve as a mixing vessel for reassortment between the two viruses.
These findings predicting potential outbreak sites can help decision-makers prioritize the most important areas where people poultry
and livestock should be vaccinated and animals should be monitored for novel viruses which could help predict
and swine populations overlapped to predict hotspots where reassortment is more likely using a $1. 3 million grant from the Fogarty International Center at the National institutes of health.
While the World health organization has identified six countries as hosts to ongoing widespread bird flu infections in poultry in 2011--China Egypt India Vietnam Indonesia
The scientists had to identify indicators of flu outbreaks such as dense poultry populations or rain and temperatures that encourage flu transmission.
Even in China and Egypt accurate reporting is hampered by farmers who may conceal flu outbreaks in order to sell their livestock.
Further many stranded calves were found with no mother in evidence. Long-finned pilot whales are the most common species to strand en masse
and calves would be found in close proximity to each other when they end up on the beach during a stranding event explained Marc Oremus of the University of Auckland and first author of the study.
and kinship even when considering only the location of nursing calves and their mothers who were separated often widely
Most surprising was the evidence of missing mothers--that is many of the stranded calves and juveniles had no identifiable mother among the other beached whales.
Often stranded calves are refloated with the nearest mature females under the assumption that this is the mother explained Scott Baker co-author and Associate Director of the Marine Mammal Institute at Oregon State university.
and calf together will prevent re-stranding. Unfortunately the nearest female might not be the mother of the calf.
Our results caution against making rescue decisions based only on this assumption. The researchers acknowledge an important remaining question:
#Pig brain models provide insights into human cognitive developmenta mutual curiosity about patterns of growth
and development in pig brains has brought two University of Illinois research groups together. Animal scientists Rod Johnson and Ryan Dilger have developed a model of the pig brain that they plan to use to answer important questions about human brain development.
It is important to characterize the normal brain growth trajectory from the neonatal period to sexual maturity said Johnson.
In cooperation with the Beckman Institute they performed MRI scans on the brains of 16 piglets starting at the age of 2 weeks then at 4 weeks and then at 4-week intervals up to 24 weeks.
The software put the information together into a three-dimensional image of the pig brain. This is used to determine the volume of the different structures.
When the piglets were at Beckman for their imaging sessions Dilger performed other tests including diffusion tensor imaging (DTI)
what they call the deformable pig brain atlas. We are taking 16 pigs and averaging them
so it's more representative of all pigs said Dilger. You can then apply it to any individual pig to see how it's different.
It's called a deformable brain atlas because the software takes information from an individual
and deforms it until it fits the template and then you know how much it had to be deformed to fit Johnson explained.
Johnson and Dilger said that the goal is to develop a tool for pigs that is equivalent to
One research direction being pursued in Johnson's lab is to induce viral pneumonia in piglets at the point in the postnatal period
and human and we're developing a pig model to study the direct effects choline deficiency has on brain structure
Corn ethanol's byproduct--called distiller's dried grains--can be used as cattle feed but cellulosic ethanol's byproduct--called high-lignin residue--is perceived often as less valuable.
#Goats milk with antimicrobial lysozyme speeds recovery from diarrheamilk from goats that were modified genetically to produce higher levels of a human antimicrobial protein has proved effective in treating diarrhea in young pigs demonstrating the potential for food products from transgenic animals to one
Many developing parts of the world rely on livestock as a main source of food said James Murray a UC Davis animal science professor and lead researcher on the study.
In this study Murray and colleagues fed young pigs milk from goats that were modified genetically to produce in their milk higher levels of lysozyme a protein that naturally occurs in the tears saliva and milk of all mammals.
Although lysozyme is produced at very high levels in human breast milk the milk of goats
and cows contains very little lysozyme prompting the effort to boost lysozyme levels in the milk of those animals using genetic modification.
Pigs were chosen for this study as a research model because their gastrointestinal physiology is quite similar to humans
and because pigs already produce a moderate amount of lysozyme in their milk. Half of the pigs in the study were fed pasteurized milk that came from the transgenic goats
and carried greater amounts of lysozyme--68 percent of the level found in human breast milk.
The other half of the pigs were fed pasteurized milk that came from nontransgenic goats and thus contained very little lysozyme.
although both groups of pigs recovered from the infection and resulting diarrhea the young pigs fed the lysozyme-rich milk recovered much more quickly than did the young pigs that received goats'milk without enhanced levels of lysozyme.
Overall the pigs fed the lysozyme milk were dehydrated less had less intestinal inflammation suffered less damage to the inner intestines
and regained their energy more quickly than did the pigs in the control group. And the researchers detected no adverse affects associated with the lysozyme-rich milk.
The lysozyme-enhanced milk used in this study came from a transgenic line of dairy goats developed in 1999 by Murray co-author Elizabeth Maga
#Heat-stressed cows spend more time standinga new study by researchers at the University of Arizona
and Northwest Missouri State university shows that standing and lying behavior can predict heat stress in cows.
In a presentation at the 2013 ADSA Midwest Branch/ASAS Midwestern Section Meeting Dr. Jamison Allen explained that predicting heat stress is vital for keeping cows healthy and productive.
Cows will pant eat less and produce less milk when their core body temperature increases. Allen said cows prefer standing to lying on hot days.
Cows stand to allow more of their surface area to disperse heat into the air. Allen and his colleagues were curious to see
if standing behavior could be used to predict core body temperature. The researchers used two tools to study the relationship between behavior and temperature.
and track whether the cow was standing or lying. After comparing data from cows in Arizona California
and Minnesota the researchers concluded that standing behavior and core body temperature are correlated strongly. Allen said cows stood for longer bouts of time as their core body temperatures rose from 101 degrees Fahrenheit to above 102 degrees.
We can predict the animal's behavior to stand according to their core temperature Allen said.
By encouraging cows to lie down producers will also help their cows conserve energy. Allen recommended future studies to see how cows respond to different cooling systems.
He said researchers could also study cow behavior related to humidity. Allen's abstract was titled Effect of core body temperature or time of day on lying behavior of lactating dairy cows.
The research was presented Mar 12 as part of the Animal Behavior Housing and Well being Oral Session. Story Source:
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#Exercise during gestation might affect future fertilitya short walk around the barn might improve the future fertility of Yorkshire pigs.
According to research presented by Samantha Kaminski a graduate student at North dakota State university swine fetuses showed significant ovarian development after their mothers exercised.
The team selected 15 female pigs and bred them to a boar. They then exercised the pregnant sows between days 40 and 105 of gestation.
For exercise the sows were walked for 30 minutes a day three times a week. The researchers used this exercise regimen with two generations of pigs.
With the first generation Kaminski and fellow researchers studied ovaries from neonate piglets adolescent piglets and gilts at six months of age.
They looked at ovarian weight cell proliferation and types of developing cells to compare how exercise might affect ovarian development.
They found that the effects of exercise seemed to decrease as the female pigs grew.
In an analysis of heavier weight neonates Kaminski saw more cell proliferation in the group from the exercised sows.
The adolescent pigs showed no differences in ovarian weight or overall cell proliferation. Kaminski did find a difference in the types of cells in the ovaries between treatment groups.
The pigs from exercised sows had a greater proliferation of cells in the antral healthy follicles.
The proliferation of antral healthy follicles has been used in previous studies as an indicator of healthy ooyctes and follicles.
With the second generation the researchers studied the ovaries from developing fetuses on day 94 of gestation.
Though she found no difference in fetal ovarian weight Kaminiski did see more cell proliferation in the ovaries of fetuses from the exercised sows.
Kaminski acknowledged that it would be impractical to walk individual sows in a production setting.
what a group house setting would be like for sows said Kaminski. Kaminski recommended future studies to determine
She would also like to know why there were not significant differences in ovarian weight or cell proliferation in neonatal and adolescent pigs.
Kaminski's abstract was titled Impact of maternal exercise on ovarian development in the pig. The presentation was part of the Graduate student Competition at the 2013 American Dairy Science Association Midwest Branch/American Society of Animal Science Midwest Section Meeting.
It is of course feasible for people to diversity their diets to increase the consumption of other selenium-rich foods such as meat poultry fish
The late monsoon in 2005 hindered summer grass development to the point that U s. ranchers had to buy supplemental feed for their cattle Andrea Ray a researcher at the National Oceanic
and the 1882-1905 drought killed more than 50 percent of Arizona's cattle. Co-author Connie A. Woodhouse UA associate head
Several of Africa's most famous wildlife areas involve large-scale migrations of wildebeest and zebra that could never be enclosed within a fenced reserve so the lions'last stand should be thought out carefully in terms of those places that can safely be fenced
and lions into much closer proximity the incidence of lion attacks on humans and livestock has increased substantially.
Not surprisingly villagers retaliate by killing lions to protect their families and their livestock. We must never lose sight of the fact that the costs of lion conservation ultimately derive from the need to protect people from these animals said Packer
The new line of pigs is called the Cassie line and it is known for passing genes on more reliably.
Phosphorus is crucial for healthy growth in pigs. Unfortunately 50 to 70 percent of the phosphorus in grain is in the form of phytic acid a compound indigestible by pigs.
Because of this many farmers have to supplement pig diets with an enzyme called phytase. Phytase breaks down phytic acid and helps pigs digest more of the nutrient.
The phytase enzyme has a hefty price tag for farmers and the enzyme can be damaged accidentally
or destroyed when farmers mix feed. The Enviropig was created to solve this problem. The transgenic pig synthesizes phytase in its salivary glands eliminating the need for additional supplements or enzymes in the feed.
By digesting more phosphorus the Enviropig also produces less phosphorus in its waste. The enzyme is secreted in the saliva
When transgenic food animals are accepted by consumers the Enviropig perhaps would be one of the first innovations to be introduced into swine production said Forsberg.
Furthermore the pigs are healthy. Research on the Cassie line stopped in June 2012 but researchers collected semen from the pigs and they have the option to breed new Enviropigs.
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