and dust#a signature of exoplanets--makes it highly likely they all do said Barry Welsh a research astronomer at UC Berkeley's Space sciences Laboratory.
This is sort of the missing link in current planetary formation studies Welsh said. We see dust disks--presumably the primordial planet-forming material--around a whole load of stars
Welsh will present the findings on Monday Jan 7 during a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Long beach Calif. Three of the new exocomets were reported in the Oct. 2012 issue of the journal Publications of the Astronomical Society
of the Pacific by Welsh and colleague Sharon L. Montgomery of the Department of physics at Clarion University.
Three other stars--one discovered by Welsh in 1998--were subsequently found to have comets.
and everybody switched to the more exciting thing exoplanets Welsh said. But I came back to it last year
But Welsh said that once comets are knocked out of their parking orbit in the outer reaches of a stellar system
and November 2012 using the 2. 1-meter telescope of the Mcdonald Observatory in Texas. The telescope's high resolution spectrograph revealed weak absorption features that were found to vary from night to night an outcome that Welsh
which are about 5 million years old because Welsh's detection technique works best with them.
#Food labels can reduce livestock environmental impacts, study showswith global food demand expected to outpace the availability of water by the year 2050 consumers can make a big difference in reducing the water used in livestock production.
It's important to know that small changes on the consumer side can help and in fact may be necessary to achieve big results in a production system said Robin White lead researcher of a Washington state University study appearing in the journal Food Policy.
and retailers can play a key role in creating incentives for water-saving livestock production with labels that appeal to consumer values White said.
White and Brady found that by paying 10 percent more for environmentally labeled meat products consumers could bring about huge water savings in livestock production.
Growing greener grasswhite explained that cow/calf operations represent an opportunity to significantly reduce water use in beef production.
Feeding pregnant cows and suckling calves typically requires pasture or rangeland and represents a substantial maintenance cost.
The livestock industry wants to demonstrate improvements in sustainability White said. To do so growers need consumer cooperation and willingness to pay a little more for products produced with a reduced environmental impact.
of the National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO) Institute of Livestock and Grassland Science (NILGS) Tsukuba Japan.
#New increase in antimicrobial use in animals in Denmarkantimicrobial usage in animals in Denmark continued to increase in 2013--mainly due to an increased use in pigs.
However antimicrobial use in pigs is still 12%lower than in 2009. In general livestock received very little of the critically important antimicrobials
which are used to treat humans. These findings appear in the annual DANMAP report from Statens Serum Institut and the National Food Institute Technical University of Denmark.
In 2013 the total use of antimicrobials in livestock and pets in Denmark was 4%higher than the previous year
The increased consumption is attributed mainly to a 6%increase in the consumption of antimicrobials in pig production
But the consumption in poultry and pets has increased also. Distributed by species pigs account for around 78%of antimicrobial use in 2013 cattle 10%aquaculture 3%poultry 1%fur animals 4
%and pets horses and other companion animals the remaining 3%.Increased use in pigs and poultryantimicrobial consumption in pigs measured in doses has increased in all three age groups:
sows/piglets (9%)weaners (5%)and finishers (5%).This is primarily due to an increased consumption of pleuromutilins and tetracyclines
which are used for group medication. However the consumption in pigs is still 12%lower than in 2009
when the highest consumption was recorded since Danish farmers stopped using antimicrobial growth promoters. It is crucial that we reverse the increase in consumption
if we are to tackle the problem of antimicrobial resistant bacteria senior researcher Yvonne Agersã¸from the National Food Institute says.
In 2013 antimicrobial consumption in poultry increased by 57%compared to the year before. This is partly because of the wet winter
which led to more illness and--as a result--an increased consumption of tetracyclines in turkeys.
Antimicrobial consumption in poultry is generally low compared to other species. It accounts for only 1%of the total use.
For a second consecutive year the use of fluoroquinolones in pigs was very low in 2013 at less than 1 per mille of the total consumption in pigs.
The use of 3 kilos of cephalosporins in pig production is also low. However it does represent a significant increase compared to the year before
There has been a significant drop in consumption in cattle. It remains important that Danish pigs and cattle are treated with critically important antimicrobials only when absolutely necessary to help ensure these agents continue to be effective
when treating seriously ill people Yvonne Agersã¸says. In 2010 Danish pork producers introduced a voluntary ban on the use of cephalosporins where other effective treatment options are available.
In August 2014 the Danish Agriculture & Food Council encouraged cattle farmers to only use cephalosporins where this is the only effective treatment option.
Cephalosporins are used not in poultry production. Companion animals and horsesoverall the consumption of antimicrobials in the treatment of companion animals
and horses increased in 2013 compared to the year before. This increase was not due to an increase in the use of critically important antimicrobials as the consumption of both cephalosporins
and wild calves and showed that the EEHV1 strains in India displayed the same genetic diversity as those in Western zoos.
Hayward notes that only one example of a lethal cross-species infection with EEHV3 into an Asian elephant calf has been observed
Close monitoring of Asian elephant calves in zoos has enabled so far lifesaving treatment for at least nine infected Asian calves says Hayward suggesting that such monitoring may ultimately enable determining why some animals become susceptible to severe disease after their primary EEHV1 infections
About 20%of all Asian elephant calves are susceptible to hemorrhagic disease whereas symptomatic disease is extremely rare in African elephant calves under the same zoo conditions says Hayward.
In another paper in the same issue of Journal of Virology Hayward et al. demonstrate that the many highly diverged species
which is common in pig and poultry diets. Furthermore salmon today is fed with fishmeal from wild caught fish
The findings are part of a seven-year study conducted by Prof Dabo Guan of UEA's School of International Development and an international research team.
Prof Guan professor of climate change economics said: Capital investment creates a market demand for the large-scale production expansion of cement steel
Prof Guan said: The efficiency improvements are largely due to diminishing investments in emission-intensive industries
Additionally Prof Guan has published recently research in Environmental science & Technology which shows China's growing economy has caused also serious stresses on the country's freshwater both in terms of consumption and pollution.
Prof Guan and a team of researchers found that 75 per cent of China's lakes
Prof Guan said: Urban household consumption export of goods and services and infrastructure investment are the main factors contributing to accumulated water pollution since 2000.
Cattle genome cracked in detailby creating a global database an international consortium of scientists has increased the detailed knowledge of the variation in the cattle genome by several orders of magnitude.
The first generation of the new data resource which will be open access forms an essential tool for scientists working with cattle genetics and livestock history.
Ancestral bulls The data used in the huge database are derived from key ancestor bulls. These bulls have produced millions of descendants
and have enormous influence on the genetic composition and characteristics of modern cattle breeds. For example Holstein bulls in the database have fathered at least 6. 3 million daughters worldwide.
The data consist of sequenced genomes for a number of bulls and are based on new sequencing techniques.
The article in Nature Genetics describes data from 232 bulls and two cows of the breeds Angus Holstein Jersey and Fleckvieh.
Since these animals are key ancestors they carry most of the genetic variations present in the three races.
Currently the database contains genomes of more than 1200 animals of different cattle breeds but as more scientists from other countries gradually join the project there is a continual inflow of data.
Key ancestor bulls have daughters all around the world so it is a considerable strength of the project that such data are connected into one database.
High level of detail What makes the database so special is the level of detail of the data.
It is a global resource that will be the basis for all bovine genetic studies for many years to come.
and for more information and studies on the history of cattle explains postdoc Rasmus Froberg Brã¸ndum also from the Center for Quantitative Genetics and Genomics.
and effectively focus the breeding work for the benefit of livestock health welfare and production.
which is a major cause of reduced fertility in cattle and milk yield says Bernt Guldbrandtsen.
During a 3-year study researchers found that removing these small animals from the soil of a replicated Scottish sheep meadow altered the plant species that grew in the ecosystem reduced overall productivity
and beef turkey and lamb followed respectively. Goose was the least common meat species detected.
beef goat lamb chicken goose turkey pork and horse. Pet food safety was another area of concern particularly with pet foods that are formulated specifically to address food allergies in both cats and dogs continued Dr. Hellberg.
which was thought to be caused by feral pigs in the growing area. Such opportunistic contamination is hard to guard against as most growing takes place in open outdoor spaces with little opportunity for control.
or pigs to find them. But the distinctive smell of truffles is not only of interest to gourmets.
Dogs and pigs are able to find truffles underground thanks to the slightly sulphuric smell.
#No sign of health or nutrition problems from GMO livestock feed, study findsa new scientific review from the University of California Davis reports that the performance
The review led by UC Davis animal scientist Alison Van Eenennaam examined nearly 30 years of livestock-feeding studies that represent more than 100 billion animals.
Titled Prevalence and Impacts of Genetically Engineered Feedstuffs on Livestock Populations the review article is now available online in open-access form through the American Society of Animal Science.
Food-producing animals such as cows pigs goats chickens and other poultry species now consume 70 to 90 percent of all genetically engineered crops according to the new UC Davis review.
In the United states alone 9 billion food-producing animals are produced annually with 95 percent of them consuming feed that contains genetically engineered ingredients.
Therefore proposed labeling of animal products from livestock and poultry that have eaten GE feed would require supply-chain segregation
and traceability as the products themselves would not differ in any way that could be detected.
Now that a second generation of genetically engineered crops that have been optimized for livestock feed is on the horizon there is a pressing need to internationally harmonize the regulatory framework for these products she said.
#Cow behavior changes in response to deterioration in healthwhen a cow develops mastitis her behaviour changes
when the cow is milked but is it possible to recognise the signs of this diseases in other ways and even earlier?
A dairy cow becomes restless four hours after it contracts bacterial mastitis. Simultaneously the other symptoms of a steadily progressing inflammation such as increased body temperature
while changes in a cow's behaviour acted as an indicator for a change in the cow's health says Jutta Kauppi summing up the results of her study.
when a cow has failed to enter the robot for milking or when it has failed several milking attempts in its history.
Kauppi's doctoral dissertation sought to identify critical points in cow behaviour pointing to deterioration in the cow's health.
Changes in cow behaviour including restlessness proved promising indicators for an incipient change in health status. To our surprise changes in milk composition were identifiable before such symptoms were evident
The study also investigated alterations in cow behaviour in relation to successful completion of robotic milking procedure as well as in dairy management practices
Technology provides extra set of eyes for the stockpersonin addition to the stockperson's good eye for cattle technology is used heavily in the modern cowshed in feeding cattle in ensuring a successful completion of milking and in monitoring cows'health and activity levels.
Because some cows are naturally more active than others technology alone is insufficient detect decreasing health status of a cow.
and production technology at our disposal but it is the stockperson who knows its cattle
and a well-functioning interaction between the stockperson the cow and technology become pronounced she continuesresearch on animal welfare
This will enable the launch of preventive measures at an earlier stage than before affecting the process of a cow contracting a disease and shortening the recovery time.
Mastitis is extremely harmful for both the farmer and the cow. When an inflammation has gained a footing the cow is seriously ill.
The milk extracted from the cow is also unsuitable for the food chain causing substantial loss due to treatment with antibiotics
because it goes literally down the drain. With regard to the cow's well-being and the financial impact caused by the disease warning signals should be intercepted as early
and comprehensively as possible Jutta Kauppi concludes. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by MTT Agrifood Research Finland.
#Goats better than chemicals for curbing invasive marsh grassherbivores not herbicides may be the most effective way to combat the spread of one of the most invasive plants now threatening East Coast salt marshes a new Duke university-led
goats. We find that allowing controlled grazing by goats or other livestock in severely affected marshes can reduce the stem density of phragmites cover by about half in around three weeks said Brian R. Silliman lead author of the new study and Rachel Carson associate professor of marine conservation
biology at Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment. The goats are likely to provide an effective sustainable and much more affordable way of mowing down the invasive grass
and helping restore lost ocean views he said. In fenced in test plots at the USDA Beltsville Agricultural Research center in Maryland Silliman
and his colleagues found that a pair of the hungry herbivores could reduce phragmites cover from 94 percent to 21 percent on average by the end of the study.
and cows would also readily eat the invasive grass. In addition to restoring views the controlled grazing allowed native plant species to reestablish themselves in the test plots over time.
In this study we show that sustainable low-cost rotational livestock grazing can suppress the unwanted tall grass
Farmers benefit because they receive payment for providing the livestock and they gain access to free pasture land.
The only drawback he added is that people have to be okay with having goats in their marsh for a few weeks or few months in some years.
because as trees expand into these grassland areas people who are using grassland for cattle production have less grass for animals too Dodds said.
grazers such as bison; and the historical presence of woody vegetation. Their analysis revealed an important finding:
Dodds and Veach also found that bison do not significantly affect woody vegetation expansion along streams.
Previous Konza research has shown that bison do not spend significant time near stream areas so they may not influence the growth of nearby trees
#Captive whooping cranes released into the wildfour whooping crane chicks raised in captivity began their integration into the wild Saturday as part of the continuing effort to increase the wild population of this endangered species. The cranes hatched
The chicks about six-months old are part of an experimental rearing and release method referred to as parent-rearing.
The parent-reared whooping crane chicks were hatched and raised by captive adult whooping cranes. This method relies entirely on the expertise of captive parents who care for exercise
and feed the chicks. These chicks will join a flock of about 95 cranes that inhabit wetlands on the refuge and elsewhere in central Wisconsin during the spring and summer.
The flock is composed of cranes reintroduced into the wild in order to establish a migratory flock of whooping cranes in the eastern United states. The Eastern Migratory Flock flies south to wetlands in the Southeast United states for the winter.
The USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research center also raises chicks for release into a newly established nonmigratory flock in the wetlands of Southwest Louisiana.
Over the past 13 years USGS biologists--dressed in costumes to avoid having the birds imprint on people--have raised between five and 20 whooping crane chicks annually that have been released into the Eastern Migratory Flock said John French leader of the USGS whooping crane
This new method of allowing captive adult cranes rear the chicks prior to release into the wild is intended to evaluate the effects of rearing by humans in costume which is obviously an odd condition.
Parent rearing may result in the chicks learning behavior important to their survival and reproduction.
The parent-reared chicks arrived at Necedah NWR Saturday where they were housed in separate predator resistant enclosures to provide them a safe place for chicks to roost
The pens are located in the vicinity of pairs of adult whooping cranes without chicks of their own. Such pairs have a tendency to adopt other chicks
and when adopted will lead them south during migration which begins at the end of October. In addition to the four parent-reared chicks released at Necedah NWR seven costumed-reared whooping crane chicks will join the eastern migratory flock this year as well.
The chicks were raised in captivity by costumed handlers and have been imprinted on an ultralight aircraft. They will earn the migration route by following the ultralight from White river Marsh in Wisconsin to the Gulf Coast of Florida.
More information on the migration will be available when it begins in October. All of the releases of whooping cranes in Wisconsin add to the Eastern Migratory Flock a reintroduction project undertaken by a broad coalition of Federal state
Now livestock such as sheep offer an intriguing animal to examine adaptation to climate change with a genetic legacy of centuries of selected breeding and a wealth of livestock genome-wide data available.
In a first-of-its kind study that combined molecular and environmental data professor Meng-Hua Li et al. performed a search for genes under environmental selection from domesticated sheep breeds.
The authors used a set of data (the sheep Hapmap project consisting of nearly 50000 unique mutational differences called single nucleotide polymorphisms
or SNPS) that were collected on a sample of 32 different sheep breeds adapted to a number of regional and extreme contrasting climates.
and precipitation are the main factors influencing the local adaptation of sheep by their indirect effects on the amount of grasses and vegetation available.
Their results could have significance for potential applications in functional genomics breeding and adaptation of livestock to climate change.
Cities are serving as bellwethers of society's carbon emission trends. While many are experiencing growth in emissions others are leading the charge to reduce them.
#Search for better biofuels microbes leads to human gutscientists have scoured cow rumens and termite guts for microbes that can efficiently break down plant cell walls for the production of next-generation biofuels
The human microbes appear to be endowed with enzymes that break down a complex plant fiber component more efficiently than the most efficient microbes found in the cow rumen the researchers report.
Their work in cows led the researchers to the human microbes said University of Illinois animal sciences
In looking for biofuels microbes in the cow rumen we found that Prevotella bryantii a bacterium that is known to efficiently break down (the plant fiber) hemicellulose gears up production of one gene more than others
which belong to the same bacterial phylum as Prevotella from the cow. We expressed the human gut bacterial enzymes
and found that for some related enzymes the human ones actually were more active (in breaking down hemicellulose) than the enzymes from the cow Cann said.
In addition to finding microbes in the cow rumen and termite gut it looks like we can actually make some contributions ourselves he said.
And our bugs seem to have some enzymes that are even better than those in the cow rumen.
Taking lymphatic fluid from cattle is not easy but it can be performed effortlessly with some practice.
or milkthe scientists tested a total of 86 cows from different farms exhibiting symptoms of diarrhea and weight loss.
In comparison cows with a negative lymph result showed a 27 percent culling rate after one year only.
Members of the team surveyed more than 1000 kilometres of coastline in Turkey and Greece where two species of rabbitfish have become dominant
#Iberian pig genome remains unchanged after five centuriesa team of Spanish researchers have obtained the first partial genome sequence of an ancient pig.
Extracted from a sixteenth century pig found at the site of the Montsoriu Castle in Girona the data obtained indicates that this ancient pig is closely related to today's Iberian pig.
Researchers also discard the hypothesis that Asian pigs were crossed with modern Iberian pigs. The study published in Heredity sheds new light on evolutionary aspects of pig species
and particularly on that of the Iberian breed considered to be representative of original European Mediterranean populations.
and is previous to the introduction of Asian pigs in Europe which were crossed later with local European breeds
which are the origin of today's international pig species. The sample pig is contemporary to the beginning of America's colonisation.
First of all we know it is not a white pig because it is missing a duplicated KIT gene
We were also able to establish that it is very closely related to today's Iberian pig species and specifically to the'Lampiã o del Guadiana'strain.
We could say that the Iberian pig is very similar to the pigs which existed in the sixteenth century
The study indicates that the pig was a domestic pig given that the sequence presents a series of markers typical of domestic pigs and
which are very rare or absent in wild boars (the precursor animals to the domestic pig);
which clearly indicates that pig breeding was an important castle activity. Nevertheless there is also evidence of occasional crossbreeding between wild boars
and ancient pigs as has happened between wild boars and Iberian pigs. This close relation between the Iberian pig the European boar and the ancient pig confirms as stated in previous studies that crossbreeding between the Asian pig
and modern Iberian pigs did not exist or was insignificant Miguel PÃ rez-Enciso points out.
The study also compared the ancient pig sample with the genome of modern pigs of different breeds including'Creole'pigs
which are presumably the descendents of the animals Spanish colonizers brought to America. Researchers demonstrate that this hypothesis is incorrect
and that there is very little remaining of those first Spanish animals in today's creole pigs
which were crossbred mainly with international pig breeds. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Universitat Autã noma de Barcelona.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal Reference n
#Cape cod saltmarsh recovery looks good, falls shortafter decades of decline grasses have returned to some once-denuded patches of Cape cod's saltmarshes.
Tigers can venture out to attack livestock and also can pose a threat to the people who walk through the woods.
#Bluetongue disease overwintering mystery solvedthe bluetongue virus which causes a serious disease that costs the cattle
and sheep industries in the United states an estimated $125 million annually manages to survive the winter by reproducing in the insect that transmits it report veterinary scientists at the University of California Davis. The findings solve a century-old mystery
This discovery has important ramifications for predicting the occurrence of bluetongue in livestock and we hope for eventually developing controls for the disease said co-author James Maclachlan a UC Davis veterinary professor and viral disease expert.
The disease mostly sickens sheep but also infects cattle and goats as well as deer and other wild ruminants.
In the U s. the virus'greatest economic impact is in the cattle industry because it is bigger than the domestic sheep industry
and most adversely impacted by international trade barriers related to bluetongue. The disease does not pose a threat to human health.
The name bluetongue derives from the swollen lips and tongue of affected sheep which may turn blue in the late stages of the disease.
The virus that causes bluetongue was isolated first and identified in the Western hemisphere in the early 1950s at the UC Davis School of veterinary medicine.
when temperatures warm the following season Findings from California dairythe researchers monitored cows and midges on a Northern California dairy farm for more than a year.
The bluetongue virus was widespread in both the dairy cows and the midges from August to November.
There was no sign of infection in the dairy cattle being studied. The researchers concluded that those long-lived female midges had been infected with the bluetongue virus during the previous warm-weather season.
and would later in the season once again transmit it to cows on the dairy. The research team notes that the bluetongue virus may also have additional yet-to-be discovered modes of overwintering in temperate regions.
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