The findings are published in Springer's journal Animal Cognition. The research was conducted on dogs that would willingly eat cheese
The above story is provided based on materials by Springer. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
This would be the case of snail Xerocrassa montserratensis and Red-legged partridge Alectoris rufa two interesting species
trade of crops livestock and feed. The effects were analyzed with high resolution on a subnational level to account for large countries like India
But scarcity is exacerbated by exports in parts of Turkey Spain Portugal Afghanistan and the US Biewald says.
Trade reduces global crop production and area due to regionally different livestock production efficiencies: one kilo of beef for instance can be produced with much less input feed in the US than in Africa
#Study fingers chickens, quail in spread of H7n9 influenza virusamong the copious species of poultry in China quail and chickens are the likely sources of infection of H7n9 influenza virus
Knowing the likely poultry species lets us target our interventions better to prevent human infections says corresponding author David Suarez of the United states Department of agriculture.
According to the World health organization most known human infections have resulted from direct or indirect contact with poultry.
Most of the genes had come from a poultry virus that had existed in china for many years
We felt a major knowledge gap in the outbreak was that we didn't know which poultry species was maintaining the virus
and his collaborators first infected seven species of poultry with a human isolate of the Chinese H7n9 virus. The virus replicated well in quail
The virus replicated less well in other poultry species and did not transmit efficiently. Pigeons were notably resistant to becoming infected.
None of the poultry species became sick when infected with H7n9 making detection of the virus that much more difficult in the birds says Suarez.
The silent carriage also creates a conflict between poultry producers who want to preserve their flocks
This work supports the field epidemiology studies that had identified live poultry markets as the likely source of the outbreak says Suarez.
These original lineages could be of considerable importance to the poultry industry which is concerned about the lack of genetic diversity in commercial stocks.
or up their trunks whilst calves could potentially be killed by a swarm of stinging bees as they have yet to develop a thick protective skin.
Cows for example would be threatened by heat stress and the dryness would be a problem for the forests.
and an extraordinary bird called the maleo. On February 23 on Sulawesiâ##s Binerean Cape conservation managers released two newly hatched maleo chicks
which quickly flew into the forest and 34 newly hatched olive ridley sea turtles which crawled into the sea.
â#oethe joint release of maleos and olive ridleys on the same day is a boost to the conservation of both species in Sulawesiâ#said Noviar Andayani Country Director for WCSÂ##s Indonesia Program
and participant in the Maleo Conservation Project. â#oethe protection of the beachfront lands which are critical nesting grounds for both species will help safeguard this part of Indonesiaâ##s natural heritage. â#The hatchling
and even former maleo hunters to guard nests from egg poachers. The most threatened of the beach nestersâ#he maleoâ#s a chicken-sized bird with a black helmet (or casque) yellow facial skin a red-orange beak
or in some instances volcanically heated soil the maleo parents abandon their nest. After an incubation period of approximately 70 days the chicks emerge fully feathered able to fly
and fend for themselves. The maleoâ##s entire range is limited to the islands of Sulawesi and Buton and the estimated population numbers 8000-14000 mature individual birds (4000-7000 breeding pairs.
and direct hunting. â#oethe round-the-clock monitoring of maleo and sea turtle nests on this protected beach prevents the exploitation of these species a threat that still frequently occurs at other sitesâ#said Dr. Peter Clyne Deputy
#In addition to conservation efforts in the field WCS also works to conserve maleos at its Bronx Zoo headquarters where curators have reared successfully maleo chicks by recreating the specialized conditions needed for successful reproduction and incubation.
#Africans ability to digest milk linked to spread of cattle raisingbabies are born with the ability to digest lactose the sugar found in milk
which raised cattle and consumed the animals'fresh milk. The research was led by Alessia Ranciaro a postdoctoral fellow in Penn's Department of Genetics in the Perelman School of medicine
It requires participants to fast overnight have measured their blood sugar then drink a sweet beverage containing the equivalent lactose of one to two liters of cow's milk
The distinct geographic patterns in which these variants were present correlate in many cases with historic human migrations mixing between populations as well as the spread of cattle camels or sheep.
The age of this genetic mutation is estimated to be 5000-12300 years old coinciding with the origins of cattle domestication in North africa and the Middle east.
#Project hoping to end alarming decline of bobwhite quailthe iconic bobwhite quail a favorite among hunters and wildlife enthusiasts alike throughout the United states has flown literally the coop â#its numbers have been decreasing alarmingly for decades
but a groundbreaking project led by a team of Texas A&m University researchers could prove to be a big move toward understanding historic and future bobwhite population trends.
Ian Tizard Donald Brightsmith) at Texas A&mâ##s College of Veterinary medicine & Biomedical sciences have completed the first-ever draft genome assembly for a wild bobwhite quail named Pattie-Marie
and assembling the bobwhite quail genome the team produced the most comprehensive resource currently available for cutting-edge interdisciplinary research in the bobwhiteâ#Seabury says.
and a cultural icon among outdoor enthusiasts the bobwhite quail has undergone a mysterious decline that has been documented for more than 50 years.
and Southwest bobwhite numbers are down as much as 80 percent in some areas. In Oklahoma declining bobwhite quail numbers are especially alarming with one study relating that decline to the number of quail hunters
which has dropped from 111000 in 1986 to only 30000 last year. The bird was named recently the No. 1 bird in decline in North america by the Audubon Society.
According to Texas Parks and Wildlife Department figures the bobwhite quail has declined every year since 1981. At present there appears to be no single or specific reason for the decline.
or draw important inferences regarding bobwhite physiological interactions with their environmentâ#Seabury explains. â#oewe now have a formal resource for studying the bird and identifying new or perhaps even more specific reasons for its serious decline.
and even considering genetic similarity in relation to the translocation of wild bobwhites to suitable habitats. â#Story Source:
#Concerns raised about using beta agonists in beef cattleuse of certain animal drugs known as beta agonists in cattle production has received considerable national attention.
although there are significant societal benefits to the practice an increase in death loss of cattle raises questions about welfare implications of its use.
and Drug Administration for use in cattle increase muscle growth and may reduce the amount of fat the cattle accumulates he said.
This means the cattle converts more of the feed it eats into beef and it does this more efficiently.
The article is authored co by Daniel Thomson and Morgan Scott of Kansas State university and is titled Increased mortality in groups of cattle administered the Î-adrenergic agonists ractopamine hydrochloride and zilpaterol hydrochloride.
With the use of beta agonists cattle require less feed and less water to produce the same amount of beef than
if no beta agonists were used. Less land would be used to grow the crops used to feed the animals
However through our extensive analysis we found that the incidence of death among cattle administered beta agonists was 75 to 90 percent greater than cattle not administered the beta agonists Loneragan said.
Grandin generally speaks on issues at the slaughter houses with lame cattle due to beta agonists
and other livestock that gave the Mongols their power. But the tree rings spanning 1112 years from 900 to 2011 also exhibit an ominous modern trend.
or more horses and ever-moving herds of livestock provided nearly all food and other resources.
The heat evaporated water stored in soil lakes and vegetation and in combination with repeated dzuds devastated livestock.
This could further reduce livestock and hurt the few crops the region grows (only 1 percent of Mongolia is arable land).
These can be read somewhat like tree rings to estimate the abundance of livestock over time via layers of fungal spores that live in the dung of animals;
Dr. Hartwell Welsh Jr. research wildlife biologist at the U s. Forest Service's Pacific Southwest Research Station (PSW) helped conduct a study in Northwestern Calif. that examined how woodland salamander
The renowned evolutionary biologist E. O. Wilson once said it is the little things that run the world Dr. Welsh said.
and shrubs with crops and livestock on farms--could be a win-win solution to the seemingly difficult choice between reforestation
As humans burn fossil fuels dose crops with chemical fertilizers and dispose of manure from livestock they introduce extra nitrogen and other nutrients into the soil air and water.
At the same time grasslands worldwide are being converted to pastures for domestic animals with native grazers like elk and antelope giving way to cattle and sheep.
At others they'd been replaced mostly by domestic animals like cattle goats and sheep. And still others were former pastures where livestock had browsed in the past
but were no longer there. In general where fertilizer was added and grazing animals were kept out the variety of plants in the experimental plots decreased.
cattle pronghorn and elk on North america's Great plains; wildebeests and impala on Africa's Serengeti;
and horses sheep and ibex in rural India. In places where the only grazers were small animals like rabbits voles
and gophers the grazers'effect was weak and variable. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by University of Maryland.
and found those that had calves before the age of 19 were almost two times more likely to die before the age of 50 than those that had their first offspring later.
However elephants that entered motherhood at an earlier age had more calves following their teenage years than those that started reproducing after the age of 19.
The team also found elephants that gave birth twice in their teenage years had calves three times more likely to survive to independence than those born to mothers who had their first young after the age of 19.
Therefore although having calves as a teenager reduced a mother's lifespan early reproduction was favoured by natural selection
and wild boar researchers found that those nests in the vicinity of feeding sites were depredated twice more.
and wild boar--the boar is also a nest predator--but also corvids rodents bears and other species of nest predators
The study recommends to avoid ungulate feeding in the breeding areas of bird species of conservation concern such as capercaillie
or black grouse and to stop feeding before the bird nesting season starts. We urge for sensible feeding practices
(when a virus jumps from one species to another) of avian flu can be traced back to human contact with domestic poultry.
Although avian flu strain diversity often originates in wild birds it is the mixing of viruses among poultry pigs
Given that flu viruses can jump from domestic poultry to people ongoing efforts at improving biosecurity at poultry farms
marine turtles fruit bats free-range pigs and chickens rather than primarily relying on growing crops for human food and animal fodder.
in addition to eating pigs and chickens settlers were also foraging for a variety of marine food
Isotopic analysis of the ancient pig bones found at the site also suggests that they were free-ranging rather than penned and given fodder from harvested crops.
and greater access to protein from sources such as tortoises pigs and chicken than women did.
#Livestock can produce food that is better for people, planetwith one in seven humans undernourished and with the challenges of population growth and climate change the need for efficient food production has never been greater.
Eight strategies to cut the environmental and economic costs of keeping livestock such as cows goats
and sheep while boosting the quantity and quality of the food produced have been outlined by an international team of scientists.
The strategies to make ruminant--cud-chewing--livestock a more sustainable part of the food supply led by academics at the University of Bristol's School of Veterinary Sciences are outlined in a Comment piece in Nature this week.
Livestock consume an estimated one-third or more of the world's cereal grain which some advocate would be used better to feed people directly.
European and North american Holstein dairy cows can produce 30 litres of milk a day. Thousands of these animals have been exported to Asia
and sub-optimal housing the cows produce much less milk and the costs of feed and husbandry far exceed those of native breeds.
and improve livestock adapted to local conditions. Human and livestock disease are treated generally as separate problems
but sick animals can make people sick. In low-and middle-income nations 13 livestock-related zoonoses (diseases transferable between animals and humans) cause 2. 4 billion cases of human illness and 2. 2
million deaths each year. Animal management should include measures to control transmissible diseases by improving hygiene quarantining new arrivals on farms
Close to one billion of the world's poorest people rely on livestock for their livelihood. Traditional animal husbandry supplies more than just food.
Despite ruminant livestock's poor image as major greenhouse gas emitters sustainably managed grazing can increase biodiversity maintain ecosystem services
A cow produces up to 70 kg of manure per day providing enough fertilizer in a year for one hectare of wheat equivalent to 128 kg of synthetic nitrogen that might
The quest for'intensification'in livestock farming has thundered ahead with little regard for sustainability and overall efficiency the net amount of food produced in relation to inputs such as land and water.
and figure out how to keep livestock in ways that work best for individuals communities and the planet.
The researchers identified three distinct dietary patterns interpreted as prudent (vegetables fruits oils water as a beverage whole grain cereals poultry fibre rich bread) Western
An important way to create more self-managing ecosystems with a high level of biodiversity is to make room for large herbivores in the European landscape--and possibly reintroduce animals such as wild cattle bison and even elephants.
They are also at great risk due to climate change and other human interference such as mining cattle ranching and agriculture.
when plant extracts fed to sick pigsporcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) is the most expensive and invasive disease for pig producers on a global scale.
Though it is not occurring on every farm it is the biggest disease problem in the pig industry said a University of Illinois animal sciences researcher.
Even though many management practices have been used in the swine industry these practices cannot guarantee freedom from disease for pigs he said.
Consumer concerns about bacterial resistance to antibiotics have prompted the swine industry to seek additional methods to protect the health of pigs including special feed additives.
The researchers conducted two experiments to test the beneficial effects of adding plant extracts to pig diets to combat PRRS and E coli.
In both experiments researchers used four diets in weanling pigs including a control diet and three additional diets that included garlic botanical extracted from garlic turmeric oleoresin extracted from ginger or capsicum
In both experiments half of the pigs in each dietary treatment were challenged with either E coli
or PRRS virus while the other half of the pigs were challenged non. We've known for a long time that plant extracts also called essential oils
whether we could get a benefit from feeding those products in very low doses to pigs that were challenged with these specific diseases.
E coli is especially dangerous post-weaning as pigs adapt to new feed and new environments Pettigrew said.
The pigs in the study challenged with E coli that had been fed any of the three plant extracts had a lower frequency of diarrhea (20 percent) than the pigs fed the control diet (40 percent.
The pigs fed plant extracts were more efficient (40 percent) in feed use than the pigs fed the control diet in the E coli-challenged group
and challenged pigs fed plant extracts had sounder gut morphology compared with the challenged pigs fed the control diet.
Liu noted that even the pigs in the non-challenged group with a low frequency of mild diarrhea benefited from the plant extracts.
Because there is a relatively high diarrhea rate in post-weaning pigs as they are moved from the mom
The disease can also lead to spontaneous abortions and higher pre-weaning mortality rates in pigs. After feeding the pigs challenged with the PRRS virus the three plant extracts the researchers observed that the pigs were more efficient in week 1 (55 percent)
and week 2 (40 percent) than the pigs fed the control diet. The pigs continued eating
and gaining weight. They found this to be especially true with turmeric Liu said. When they checked blood samples from the pigs with the PRRS virus they found that the pigs fed plant extracts also had a lower blood viral load (13 percent)
and lower concentrations of inflammatory mediators than pigs fed the control diet. These observations also suggest that feeding plant extracts could suppress ongoing inflammation
and prevent secondary infections. The researchers believe the benefits resulted from the effects on the pigs'immune systems
because feeding plant extracts reduced the inflammation caused by E coli and the PRRS virus. In production animals inflammation is costly.
Inflammation reduces feed intake and it diverts nutrients away from growth to the immune system Pettigrew said
Although previous studies have looked at using plant extracts in pig diets Pettigrew said Liu's study which looked at the effects of three different extracts on two different diseases had not been done previously.
and non-challenged pigs Liu said. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by University of Illinois College of Agricultural Consumer and Environmental sciences (ACES.
and livestock production involved all six major species. The authors'estimates also include fish and shellfish.
and potatoes although much of it contributes indirectly by supporting livestock production systems. Griffin and colleagues found regional self-reliance to be highest for animal-based products particularly milk and eggs.
#Bison ready for new pastures? Protocol used to demonstrate brucellosis-free bison from infected herdsa new study from the USDA Animal
and Plant Health Inspection Services (APHIS) and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) demonstrates that it is possible to qualify bison coming from an infected herd as free of brucellosis using quarantine procedures.
These bison can then be used to seed conservation herds in other landscapes without the threat of spreading the disease.
In response to Interagency Bison Management Plan (IBMP) guidelines on federal and state bison management actions the USDA APHIS Brucellosis Eradication:
Uniform Methods and Rules protocol for the quarantine of bison was tested to see if it could successfully be used to qualify the animals as brucellosis-free.
Results of the study indicated that it is feasible to take young bison from an infected population
and using the approved quarantine protocol published as a Federal Uniform Method and Rule (UM &r) qualify them as brucellosis-free in less than three years.
Between 2005 and 2008 more than 200 bison calves of Yellowstone national park origin were transported to a quarantine facility at Corwin Springs Montana just outside Yellowstone national park.
and birthing events all animals testing negative were held until they produced their first calf and showed no evidence of the disease in newborn calves birth fluids or blood.
At that point the bison were considered brucellosis-free. The study showed that all bison continued to be brucellosis-free over the course of the seven-year study after the initial screening period and through several calving cycles.
No evidence of brucellosis was found in either newborn calves or their mothers. The results of this study indicate that under the right conditions there is an opportunity to produce live brucellosis-free bison from even a herd with a large number of infected animals like the one in Yellowstone national park said Dr. Jack
Rhyan APHIS Veterinary Officer. Additionally this study was a great example of the benefits to be gained from several agencies pooling resources
and expertise to research the critical issue of brucellosis in wildlife. The authors of the study note that agencies charged with the management of bison agree that capture
and relocation of bison to other suitable habitats would be an appropriate alternative to the lethal removal of bison that exceed population objectives for Yellowstone national park as defined by the IMBP.
The UM &r protocol could facilitate such relocation by demonstrating animals are disease-free and would not transmit brucellosis to cattle or other animals.
At the same time a movement to ecologically restore bison to large landscapes is gaining momentum throughout the United states
and Canada and brucellosis-free bison may be needed to seed those landscapes. In particular the genetics of Yellowstone bison are important
because they are known to be free of cattle genes and represent bison that existed on the Great plains for thousands of years.
WCS Bison Project Coordinator Keith Aune said This study represents an important milestone in bison conservation
and these research findings enable us to practice genetic rescue from brucellosis infected bison herds.
The Yellowstone animals passing through this system of testing are critical to conserving the diversity of the bison genome over the long term.
We've also learned a great deal about brucellosis blood testing and how to better interpret results when screening animals for this disease.
It is our hope that several satellite herds of Yellowstone bison can be assembled from the animals that graduate through this quarantine process.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Wildlife Conservation Society. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
Journal Reference e
#Majority of children unaware of cigarette warning labels, international study showsan international study of children's perceptions of cigarette package warning labels found that the majority of children are unaware
that they exist. Children in countries where larger warning labels are used and which include a compelling graphic image of the negative health impacts of smoking were more likely to be aware of
Large herd animals like bison or mammoths likely lived on the highland steppe tundra because they graze.
#Livestock beating pandas to the bamboo buffetpandas it turns out aren't celebrating the Year of the Horse.
Livestock particularly horses have been identified as a significant threat to panda survival. The reason: They're beating the pandas to the bamboo buffet.
because they competed with cattle so farmers would let them graze unattended in the forests.
Jack Liu (left) and Jindong Zhang talk to a farmer in the Wolong Nature Reserve about the impact livestock can have on panda habitat.
But Hull and Liu note that this work has shed light on how competitive livestock can be in sensitive habitat--an issue that is repeated across the globe.
Livestock affect most of the world's biodiversity hotspots Liu said. They make up 20 percent of all of Earth's land mammals
#Male goat essence really turns the females onanyone who has spent ever time around goats knows they have a certain smell.
By carefully analyzing eau de male goat researchers reporting in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on February 27 have identified now a novel citrus-scented ingredient that speaks directly to the females.
It acts on female goats'brains to turn their reproductive systems on. The study is the first to uncover a pheromone that activates the central reproductive axis according to the researchers.
Although the work was done in goats the researchers say there is reason to think the findings will apply to other livestock and perhaps even to humans too.
In goats the researchers already knew it is the hair of males not the urine that shows male effect pheromone activity.
Organic solvent extracts of male goat hair retain that activity but a specific primer pheromone remained unidentified.
They discovered that male goat pheromone is synthesized primarily in the head skin so the researchers collected the scent they were after using a custom-made head cap.
After collecting volatiles for one week from normal and castrated male goats the researchers chemically analyzed
Those analyses uncovered several chemicals specific to intact male goats including one in particular 4-ethyloctanal with the power to activate the gonadotropin-releasing hormone pulse generator in the female brain
The researchers were able to show the effects of that ingredient using a method they developed for real-time electrophysiological monitoring of a key part of the goats'brains.
We are tempted to speculate that this is a clever reproductive strategy of the male goat to alter behavior
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