#Cows are raised smarter when in pairs: Evidence practice of housing calves alone linked to learning difficultiescows learn better
when housed together which may help them adjust faster to complex new feeding and milking technologies on the modern farm a new University of British columbia study finds.
The research published today in PLOS ONE shows dairy calves become better at learning when a buddy system is in place.
The study also provides the first evidence that the standard practice of individually housing calves is associated with certain learning difficulties.
Pairing calves seems to change the way these animals are able to process information said Dan Weary corresponding author and a professor in UBC's Animal Welfare Program.
We recommend that farmers use some form of social housing for their calves during the milk feeding period.
As farms become increasingly complex with cattle interacting with robotic milkers automated feeding systems and other technologies slow adaptation can be frustrating for cows and farmers alike.
Trouble adjusting to changes in routine and environment can cause problems for farmers and animals Weary says adding that the switch from an individual pen to a paired one is often as simple as removing a partition.
Farmers often keep calves in individual pens believing this helps to reduce the spread of disease.
if cows are housed in small groups. The risk of one animal getting sick and affecting the others is real
and Research Centre in Agassiz B c. involved two cognitive tests for two groups of Holstein calves housed in individual pens or in pairs.
In the first test researchers introduced a novel object (a red plastic bin) into the calf's pen.
When first exposed to the novel object all calves showed interest as expected. But after multiple encounters with the bin the individually housed calves continued to respond
as if this was their first exposure while the paired calves began to habituate and ignored the bin.
The test suggests that individual rearing can make calves more sensitive to novelty and thus less able to habituate to changes in their environment says Prof Dan Weary.
This could make it more difficult for a farm animal to be trained or to do something as simple as walk down a path and not be overwhelmed by a bright light or a new noise.
In the second test the calves were taught to complete a simple task approaching a black bottle full of milk
After the calves learned to preferentially visit the black bottle the researchers switched the rules to determine how well the calves were able to adjust to a change in rules.
and the cattle-infesting screw-worm fly among others. Florida spends roughly $6 million a year using SIT to prevent Mediterranean fruit fly infestations
#Rapeseed-based animal feed cuts greenhouse gases by up to 13 per centthe use of rapeseed cake in the production of livestock feed cuts methane
#Better livestock diets to combat climate change, improve food securitylivestock production is responsible for 12%of human-related greenhouse gas emissions primarily coming from land use change
A new study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that within the current systems farmers would find it more profitable in coming years to expand livestock production in mixed systems--where livestock are fed on both grass
Cows sheep and goats grow more quickly and produce more milk when they eat energy-rich diets that include grain supplements or improved forages.
This means that more livestock can be raised on less land and with fewer emissions per pound of meat or milk produced.
At a moderate price of US$10 per ton of carbon dioxide equivalent livestock system transitions within a given region together with international relocation of production to regions with the most efficient livestock systems could also reduce the total
Havlã k says From the livestock sector perspective limiting land use change seems the cheapest option both in terms of the economic cost and in terms of impact on food availability.
and greenhouse gas emissions of different livestock production systems. The new study adds to this by examining the economic potential for a transition to more efficient systems as a mitigation measure and
Changing livestock production systems remains a challenge. The researchers say that policies to provide education
When your daily eating plans include foods like vegetables fruits whole grains lean meats poultry fish eggs fat-free
#Studies of cow antibodies help scientists understand how our own bodies workunderstanding how antibodies work is important for designing new vaccines to fight infectious diseases
of researchers from The Scripps Research Institute in La jolla Calif. In San francisco Ekiert will explain how the immune systems of cows are used to understand the diversity of antibodies
and how that knowledge could improve the health of both people and livestock. First studying the immune systems of cows and other animals helps us to understand how our own immune systems function.
Second the unique structure of these cow antibodies may be suited particularly well for recognizing certain kinds of antigens
and may be useful for antibody based therapies or diagnostics explained Ekiert. It turns out that cows make a very unusual kind of antibody different from anything scientists have seen ever before
and their antibodies are diversified by a surprising mechanism. Antibody diversity is particularly important because our ability to recognize
Previous work described an unusual subset of antibodies in cows that had exceptionally long loops
In addition to the obvious benefit of helping us understand the human immune system the research may benefit the large-scale raising of cattle an important segment of the U s. economy as new vaccines can be developed to protect farm animals from common cattle diseases.
We now have a really clear family tree of theses viruses in all those hosts--including birds humans horses pigs
which included UA graduate student Guan-Zhu Han and Andrew Rambaut a professor from the University of Edinburgh who is affiliated also with the U s. National institutes of health found a strong signature in the data suggesting that something revolutionary happened to avian influenza virus
Fertilizers are used intentionally in grassland to increase livestock fodder. Fertilizer addition is also occurring unintentionally in many places around the world
#Cosmic roadmap to galactic magnetic field revealedscientists on NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) mission including a team leader from the University of New hampshire report that recent independent measurements have validated one of the mission
Using measurements of ultra-high energy cosmic rays on a global scale we now have a completely different means of verifying that the field directions we derived from IBEX are consistent says Nathan Schwadron lead scientist for the IBEX Science
Schwadron and IBEX colleagues published their findings online today in Science. Establishing a consistent local interstellar magnetic field direction using IBEX low-energy neutral atoms
and galactic cosmic rays at ten orders of magnitude higher energy levels has wide-ranging implications for the structure of our heliosphere
and are at the opposite end of the energy range compared to IBEX's measurements says Schwadron.
what IBEX has revealed gives us vastly more confidence that what we're learning is correct.
Notes David Mccomas principal investigator of the IBEX mission at Southwest Research Institute and coauthor on the Science Express paper We are discovering how the interstellar magnetic field shapes deforms
Interestingly when scientists compared the IBEX and cosmic ray data with Voyager 1's measurements the Voyager 1 data provide a different direction for the magnetic fields just outside our heliosphere.
and place while IBEX gathers information averaged over great distances--so there is room for discrepancy.
Eberhard MÃ bius UNH principal scientist for the IBEX-Lo instrument on board is a coauthor on the Science paper along with colleagues from institutions around the country.
although infants might be at risk from bearded pigs and clouded leopards. In recent history their biggest predator has been man who is actually more likely to pick Orangutans off in the trees:
#Buying livestock products: Whatâ##s on the consumers mind? A look around the local grocery store might show images of consumers reading meat labels
and safety were the most important values consumers placed on buying popular livestock products--milk ground beef beef steak and chicken breast.
The findings for livestock-specific products were consistent with prior research examining consumers'general food values.
Ted Schroeder professor and livestock economist for K-State Research and Extension worked with other faculty and graduate students in the Department of Agricultural Economics on this research.
if similar results could be found when consumers considered buying specific livestock products. We wanted some diversity among those (livestock) products said Garrett Lister A k-State graduate student who worked on the study.
We also wanted them to be specific which is kept why we them in the livestock sector.
The popular products they chose to examine included milk ground beef beef steak and chicken breast. The 11 food values they chose to examine included freshness health hormone-free/antibiotic-free animal welfare taste price safety convenience nutrition origin and environmental impact.
These are similar to the general food product study aside from a few modifications that apply to livestock products.
There's more issues with spoilage in some of these livestock products than food in general Lister said.
A total of 1950 people responded to the livestock products survey which was a big jump from the 176 respondents included in the prior general food product survey.
This was mainly due to the online nature of the livestock products survey versus the mailed method of the general food products survey said Marcus Brix another K-State graduate student who worked on the study.
Freshness was the other top value for livestock products. In contrast the values of environmental impact animal welfare origin
and convenience were less important for the livestock products and this was also comparable to the prior research.
and Ireland as soon as cattle and sheep arrived. The ability to milk animals was a revolution in food production as for the first time humans did not have to kill animals to obtain food.
The use of cattle for dairy products from the earliest Neolithic confirms the view that farming was introduced by experienced immigrants.
and wild boar and ate large quantities of sea food including seals and shellfish. With the introduction of domestic animals some 6000 years ago they quickly gave up wild foods
#Genetic find might lead to cattle that are more resistant to TBSCIENTISTS have identified genetic traits in cattle that might allow farmers to breed livestock with increased resistance to bovine tuberculosis (TB.
The study which compared the genetic code of TB-infected animals with that of disease-free cattle could help to impact on a disease that leads to major economic losses worldwide.
The research led by the University of Edinburgh's Roslin Institute has identified a number of genetic signatures associated with TB resistance in the cows that remained unaffected.
The study builds on previous research by The Roslin Institute which showed that some cattle might be more resistant to bovine TB as a result of their genetic make-up.
Bovine TB caused by a bacterium called Mycobacterium bovis not only infects cattle but other livestock and wildlife.
Despite intensive efforts over many decades bovine TB continues to have a serious impact on livestock at home and abroad affecting farm profitability and animal welfare.
Differences between cattle in their genes is not the only factor in determining whether the animal will get bovine TB or not;
It is hoped that can help us to more effectively control TB in cattle. Story Source:
The management regimes were compared from the point of view of six forest species such as the capercaillie hazel grouse flying squirrel
In particular increasing habitat availability for the capercaillie is relatively inexpensive says MÃ nkkã nen. Providing dead-wood associated species with more habitats tended to be more expensive
which can cause detrimental effects on local sheep and goats via the water supply. Kansas State university's Ronette Gehring is an associate professor of clinical pharmacology in the of anatomy and physiology department of the university's College of Veterinary medicine.
and the United states in evaluating the effect of chronic lead intoxication in goats. In December 2013 the researchers published Effect of chronic lead intoxication on the distribution and elimination of amoxicillin in goats in the Journal of Veterinary Science.
Gehring teamed up with other veterinary researchers at Iowa State university Cairo University and the Jordan University of Science and Technology for the project
The group found that lead intoxication can impair the therapeutic effectiveness of the antibiotic amoxicillin in goats.
The goats with lead intoxication show signs of kidney and liver damage so we had hypothesized this damage would inhibit the excretion of amoxicillin leading to higher drug concentrations in these animals.
Surprisingly the lead-intoxicated goats actually had lower concentrations of amoxicillin compared to the healthy animals.
We found that amoxicillin was disposed more quickly in the lead-intoxicated goats than in the control group Gehring said.
We believe that goats with chronic lead intoxication would therefore need more frequent administrations of amoxicillin administration for the antibiotic therapy to be as effective as it is in the control group of healthy goats.
Gehring said a literature investigation had found similar research for lead poisoning in humans but not in animal subjects.
harmonized tradeidf and ISO have joined forces to expand the scope of an international standard used worldwide in the dairy industry to measure the protein content of cow's milk.
This combined with the fact that international collaborative studies of the method had been conducted for liquid bovine whole milk only thus far illustrated the need to validate the method for products other than bovine whole milk.
In addition to liquid bovine whole milk the method can now be applied to bovine milk with reduced fat content goat whole milk sheep whole milk cheese dried milk
and human health They live in the digestive systems of cattle and sheep where they facilitate the digestion of feed consumed in the diet.
Efforts to control methanogens in specific ways may improve feed utilization and enhance the production of meat
'foregut fermenters'such as cows goats and sheep and'hindgut fermenters'such as horses elephants and zebras.
The sources included Nijmegen goats French deer sheep from Poland and Utrecht an Indian elephant from Burger's Zoo in Arnhem and zebras and an African elephant from Tanzania.
APEC infections are a serious threat to poultry causing both systemic and localized infections collectively known as colibacillosis.
These afflictions cause significant economic losses to the poultry industry due to the costs of treatment for infected birds lowered rates of egg production and mortality.
Additionally the study assessed ECP's role in virulence in baby chicks. The new research demonstrates--for the first time--the prevalence of ecpa a gene coding for a major structural subunit of ECP in a majority APEC sequences examined.
and turkeys afflicted with colibacillosis 76 percent of which tested positive for ecpa which was associated previousely with human pathogenic E coli.
This finding suggests that ECP could be considered as a potential antigen for vaccines for both human and poultry infections.
Finally the study attempted to evaluate APEC virulence in baby chicks using strains with deleted ECP genes.
and on rangelands needed for raising livestock costing landowners millions of dollars. Although they pose a major threat grasshopper populations play a positive role in cycling nutrients from decomposing plant matter back into the soil.
Problem ingredients include lactose (often extracted using bovine rennet) gelatine (sourced from cows pigs and occasionally fish) and magnesium stearate (traditionally sourced from cows pigs and sheep) although some manufacturers now use vegetarian alternatives.
Last year a campaign to vaccinate children in Scotland against influenza was halted because of concern in the Muslim community about pork gelatine within the vaccine.
and livestock and increasing mechanization have also been rapidly evolving. In addition the clearing of woodlots hedgerows pastures and wetlands to make way for bigger fields has continued apace
and the number of livestock farms in particular will decrease steadily. Last year an agreement was reached on the common EU agricultural policy until 2020.
Only one fifth of farms would be livestock farms approximately 10000 farms. The number of pig and dairy farms will decrease by roughly 40 per cent
which leaves only 5400 farms that produce milk. The decline is focused on the smallest farms
The small study involved gastric bypass surgery on just four pigs but is the only study of its kind and therefore unique.
The results confirm that neither weight loss nor reduced food intake are required in order for the procedure to raise the number of beta cells as the pigs had identical body weight and ate exactly the same amount of food.
The group at Lund University Diabetes Centre found that the pigs'beta cells improve their insulin secretion.
The researchers also studied tissue from the pigs'pancreas the organ where the beta cells are located something that is almost impossible to do in humans.
The reason why we have studied now pigs is that they are omnivores like us and their gastrointestinal physiology is similar to that of humans.
However we are first going to repeat the study on pigs with obesity and diabetes concludes Nils Wierup.
#Deaths attributed directly to climate change cast pall over penguinsclimate change is killing penguin chicks from the world's largest colony of Magellanic penguins not just indirectly--by depriving them of food as has been documented repeatedly for these
but still too young to have grown waterproof feathers downy penguin chicks exposed to drenching rain can struggle
And during extreme heat chicks without waterproofing can't take a dip in cooling waters as adults can.
It's the first long-term study to show climate change having a major impact on chick survival and reproductive success said Boersma who has led field work
During a span of 27 years an average of 65 percent of chicks died per year with some 40 percent starving.
Climate change a relatively new cause of chick death killed an average of 7 percent of chicks per year
when it was the most common cause of death killing 43 percent of all chicks one year and fully half in another.
Starving chicks are more likely to die in a storm she said. There may not be much we can do to mitigate climate change
while raising small chicks. Rainfall and the number of storms per breeding season have increased already at The argentine study site said Ginger Rebstock UW research scientist
For instance in the first two weeks of December when all chicks are less than 25 days old and most vulnerable to storm death the number of storms increased between 1983 and 2010.
We're going to see years where almost no chicks survive if climate change makes storms bigger
and kills down-covered chicks ages 9 to 23 days if they can't warm up
If chicks can live 25 days or more most have enough juvenile plumage to protect them.
Once chicks die parents do not lay additional eggs that season. The findings are based on weather information collected at the regional airport and by researchers in the field as well as from penguin counts.
and record the contents of the nest often hunting for chicks when they move around as they get older.
When chicks disappear or are found dead the researchers turn into detectives looking for evidence of starvation predators
Just back from two months in the field Boersma said heat this season took a greater toll on chicks than storms.
Such variability between years is the reason why the number of chicks dying from climate change is not a tidy ever-increasing figure each year.
The later in the year chicks hatch the more likely they'll still be in their down-covered stage
#Scientists shine spotlight on Herdwick sheep originsa new study highlights surprising differences between Herdwick sheep and their closest neighbouring UK upland breeds.
The research led by The Sheep Trust a national charity based at the University of York is the first of its kind to compare the genetics of three commercially farmed breeds all concentrated in the same geographical region of the UK.
Herdwicks and Rough Fell sheep both showed rare genetic evidence of a historical link to the ancestral population of sheep on Texel one of the islands in the Wadden Sea Region of Northern europe
and Dalesbred each showed a lower than average risk of infection to Maidi Visna a virus causing a slow-acting disease affecting millions of sheep worldwide with massive welfare and economic impacts.
These new data provide evidence to support suggestions that the native hill breeds are less susceptible to the virus. Mainstream agriculture is looking to locally adapted breeds of livestock to increase resilience to new pressures from climate change
The study demonstrates the potential these breeds offer in providing novel genetic traits that may help sheep farming in the future.
Professor Dianna Bowles an Emeritus Professor in the Department of biology at York and Chair of The Sheep Trust led the study.
Currently the sheep are farmed in large numbers and it is essential we take steps to ensure a commercial future for them
Amanda Carson a vet and Secretary of the Herdwick Sheep Breeders Association added: We all hope the results will help to convince Government of the importance of the genetic distinctiveness of these breeds.
and livestock and to combat insect-borne diseases like malaria--was introduced as a pesticide during WWII.
#Sequence of water buffalo completedlal Teer Livestock Limited an associate of Lalteer Seed Ltd. the largest seed company in Bangladesh with strong hybrid research program
and BGI the world's largest genomics organization jointly announced today that they have completed the genome sequencing of water buffalo
and the bioinformatics analysis. The outstanding work lays an important foundation for molecular breeding of water buffalo and sheds new light on the understanding of its origin and domestication process.
Considering the importance of buffalo and realizing the need of genomic research for its improvement Lal Teer Livestock took a great effort for The Whole Genome Sequencing of Water buffalo in collaboration with BGI since March 2012.
The joint efforts yielded a high-quality water buffalo genome with the size of about 2. 77gb slightly smaller than human genome.
Researchers compared buffalo genome with other mammals'such as cattle horse panda pig and dog for discovering more genetic characteristics of water buffalo and providing guidance for its breeding and industrial transformation.
We are pleased to form partnership with Lal Teer Livestock to decode this important animal said Professor Jian Wang President of BGI BGI is dedicated to using genomics technology to benefit human beings
and we have contributed to the sequencing of many critical crops and livestock including rice maize soybean potato pigeonpea pig and sheep.
BGI is continuing to make more progress for facing the challenges on food shortage and safety as well contribute to the development
With the joined forces with BGI we are excited to successfully complete the task of sequencing water buffalo. stated Mr. Tafsir Mohammed Awal Director of Lal Teer This will now lay the foundation of ensuring nutrition and food security in Bangladesh and other developing countries.
when it comes to Holstein dairy cows and how much milk they produce for their offspring according to a new study by Kansas State university and Harvard university researchers.
A study of 2. 39 million lactation records from 1. 49 million dairy cows showed that cows produce significantly more milk for daughters than for sons across lactation said Barry Bradford associate professor in K-Stateâ
#In addition the researchers found that the sex of the fetus a cow is carrying can enhance
and protein in milk did not differ between cows that gestated a son or daughter so the quality of milk was the same.
and found it to be significant as well. â#Cows with two daughters back-to-back produced about 445 kilograms â
#or about 980 pounds â#more milk across the first two lactations than did cows with back-to-back sons he said.
and sex-selected semen is an option for producers to buy. â#oeaccording to our rough calculations taking into account the wholesale value of milk the number of two-year-old heifers added to U s. dairy herds annually the production advantage
But it hasnâ##t yet been studied systematically. â#â#oethis research in cows demonstrates that the fetus can influence the milk the mother produces during lactation
Historically it probably followed bison herds and liked really short grass but we don't have that anymore.
The team also found other grassland species that are in decline--Eastern meadowlarks ring-necked pheasants and field sparrows--nesting in no-till fields.
Methane is emitted by natural sources such as wetlands and human activities such as leakage from natural gas systems and the raising of livestock.
#Wolf predation of cattle affects calf weight in Montanaa recent study by University of Montana faculty
and graduate students found that wolf predation of cattle contributes to lower weight gain in calves on western Montana ranches.
This leads to an economic loss at sale several times higher than the direct reimbursement ranchers receive for a cow killed by wolves.
The study found that wolves living on the landscape with cattle have no effect on herd weight
but once a ranch has confirmed a wolf kill average calf weight decreases relative to if that ranch had experienced not a wolf depredation.
Ranchers have been saying for years that wolves cause weight loss in cattle but nobody ever had done any research on the topic said Derek Kellenberg a co-author on the study and UM associate professor and chair of the Department of economics.
The study quantifies the economic impact of weight loss after a confirmed wolf kill for an average ranch consisting of 264 head of calves.
It finds that a decrease of 22 pounds in the average weight of calves across the herd implies a $6679 loss at sale for an affected ranch.
When you compare that to the direct reimbursement of the cow that was killed--about $900 on average--these indirect costs are about seven
and climatological and environmental variables such as annual precipitation average temperature and snowfall explain a much larger proportion of variance in calf weight over the years than do wolf affects.
In fact these other factors explain the vast majority of the accounted-for variation in annual calf weights.
The study started as a senior thesis by then-undergraduate student Ramler collecting data from public cattle auction records.
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