#Caribou may be affected indirectly by sea-ice loss in the Arcticmelting sea ice in the Arctic may be leading indirectly to fewer caribou calf births and higher calf mortality in Greenland according to scientists at Penn State university.
which in turn is associated with lower production of calves by caribou in the area. The results of the study will be published in the journal Nature Communications on 1 october 2013.
In addition to analyzing their own data Post and Kerby also used information from a 1970s study of caribou calving and calf survival at the same site by Danish biologists Henning Thing and Bjarne Clausen.
As a result the data from the late 1970s indicate very high calf production in this population at that time.
#African breed of cattle harbors potential defense against life-threatening parasiteevery year millions of cattle die of trypanosomosis.
The UN and the International Livestock Research Institute list trypanosomosis among the ten diseases of cattle with the greatest impact on the poor.
Surprisingly one West-african dwarf cattle breed the Baoul seems less affected by trypanosomosis than others.
When they are infected Baoul cattle develop fever and lose weight but do not necessarily die. Their immune system is
In other words the cattle seem to have a natural tolerance against the parasite. A method to detect different trypanosomeskatja Silbermayr from the Institute of Parasitology of the University of Veterinary medicine Vienna (Vetmeduni) together with an international research team collected blood samples from three cattle types.
The scientists have developed a method that can identify the parasites responsible for trypanosomosis the trypanosomes and can even detect three different forms of the parasite in a single step.
Zebu cattle are infected twice as oftenthe researchers used their new method to examine samples of blood from apparently healthy Baoul cattle Indian Zebu cattle and crosses between the two breeds.
Zebus produce more meat and milk than Baoul but fall severely ill when infected with trypanosomes.
Zebus were infected twice as often as Baoul s or hybrid cattle. Nevertheless the highest amounts of the parasite were found in some Baoul s. Baoul s are infected less often than Zebus
and seem able to tolerate higher amounts of the parasite. We only studied healthy animals
and Zebus with such high parasite levels would have been too ill to be included in our study says Silbermayr.
It seems that the Baoul's immune system can tolerate higher levels of the blood parasite The Baoul gene pool should be preserveda number of international research projects are attempting to breed trypanosome-tolerant cattle
Crossing large breeds of cattle that produce a lot of meat and milk such as the Zebu with the smaller but immunologically stronger Baoul could be very beneficial for farming in Africa.
and Zebus and hope that in future it will be possible to determine the optimal degree of mixing to offer protection against trypanosomes explains Silbermayr.
and increase feeding efficiency in cattle. In lab tests followed by field experiments the researchers found that trenbolone does not fully break down in water as believed retaining enough of a chemical residue to regenerate itself in the environment under certain conditions to an extent that the drugs'lives may be prolonged even in trace amounts.
Trenbolone acetate is implanted in the ears of more than 20 million cattle in the United states according to studies cited by the researchers in their paper.
and the other from samples taken from a collection pond at a cattle rangeland and research operation run by the University of California.
Current cattle production mostly occurs on cleared pastures with only herbaceous plants such as grasses grown as food for the cows.
which is used now widely for cattle feed in Australia. Another success has been in Colombia where a mixed planting of the shrub Leucaena with a common pasture grass resulted in a 27%increase in dry matter for food and 64%increase of protein production.
When ruminants such as cows goats and sheep are consuming the plants from a silvopastoral system researchers have seen an increase in growth and milk production.
It's the IBEX satellite that's the hawk mapping the whole of space from its Earth orbit based on energetic neutral particles that stream in to it from outer space.
IBEX data indicate that there exists in space a very narrow ENA ribbon two or three times the brightness of anything else that may help us diagnose the structure of the heliosphere.
because according to our simulations in order for us to simulate the IBEX ribbon we have had to assume a quite specific direction and strength of the magnetic field.
Zirnstein's work sheds a great deal of light on the IBEX measurements said Dr. Zank. Tying together the IBEX global view with the extremely microscopic view of Voyager is very important.
What is the magnetic field doing? Why did it not change direction as we expected? Eric has sophisticated the most model to address energetic neutral atoms
Increase of MRSA in pigs In 2012 709 pigs at abattoirs and 219 samples of tank milk from dairy cattle were examined also for MRSA.
MRSA found in tank milk from dairy cattle Last year was the first year that tank milk was examined for the presence of MRSA.
which may indicate that MRSA in cattle is more transient than in pigs. If MRSA is identified in a herd of pigs it is very difficult to eradicate it from this herd.
and 539000 cattle corresponding to 138 million kg of beef. In addition there were 580000 dairy cattle in Denmark producing 4928 million kg of milk.
Meat was examined for MRSA in the period 2009-11 but this was done not in 2012.
#Vaccinating cattle against E coli could cut human cases of infection by 85 percentvaccinating cattle against the E coli O157 bacterium could cut the number of human cases of the disease by 85%according to scientists.
Cattle are the main reservoir for the bacterium. The vaccines that are available for cattle are used rarely
but could be significant. The research was lead by a team of researchers at the University of Glasgow in collaboration with the University of Edinburgh the Royal Veterinary College Scotland's Rural College Health Protection Scotland and the Scottish E coli O157/VTEC
and molecular data to examine the risks of E coli O157 transmission from cattle to humans
and to estimate the impact of vaccinating cattle. The risk of E coli O157 infection is particularly significant
when the cattle are'super-shedding'--excreting extremely high numbers of bacteria in their feces for a limited period of time.
As a consequence the researchers predict that vaccinating cattle could reduce human cases by nearly 85 percent far higher than the 50 percent predicted by studies simply looking at the efficacy of current vaccines in cattle.
Treating cattle in order to reduce the number of human cases certainly makes sense from a human health perspective
This is problematic because E coli O157 does not harm cattle and assessing the impact of treatment involves coordination between human and veterinary health practitioners.
Farmers are now using faster maturing Gala goats red Maasai sheep and chickens along with improved cassava varieties that resist a deadly virus. They also are growing high-value crops like tomatoes onions and watermelons.
and cattle grazing in the grasslands along with slow growth rates likely explain a large part of it but aren't sure.
People in Europe for centuries preserved fresh fruit with larding a coating of the melted fat from hogs.
#Interstellar winds buffeting our solar system have shifted directionscientists including University of New hampshire astrophysicists involved in NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) mission have discovered that the particles streaming into the solar system from interstellar space have changed likely direction over the last 40 years.
The results based on data spanning four decades from 11 different spacecraft including IBEX were published in the journal Science September 5 2013.
because interstellar clouds are astronomically large says Eberhard MÃ bius UNH principal scientist for the IBEX mission
The data from the IBEX spacecraft show that neutral interstellar atoms are flowing into the solar system from a different direction than previously observed.
The latest IBEX measurements of the interstellar wind direction differed from those made by the Ulysses spacecraft in the 1990s.
That difference led the IBEX team to compare the IBEX measurements to data gathered by 11 spacecraft between 1972 and 2011.
IBEX and Ulysses directly measured neutral helium atoms as they coursed through the inner solar system.
IBEX's measurements are close to Earth while Ulysses'measurements were taken between 1. 3 and 2 times further from the sun. In the final analysis the direction of the wind obtained most recently by IBEX data differs from the direction obtained from the earlier measurements
which strongly suggests the wind itself has changed over time. Prior to this study we were struggling to understand why our current measurements from IBEX differed from those of the past says co-author Nathan Schwadron lead scientist for the IBEX Science Operations center at UNH.
We are finally able to resolve why these fundamental measurements have been changing with time: we are moving through a changing interstellar medium.
and goats is the primary cause of degraded land in the Mongolian Steppe one of the largest remaining grassland ecosystems in the world Oregon State university researchers say in a new report.
and a huge surge in the number of grazing animals occurred during just the past decade--especially sheep and goats that cause more damage than cattle.
Bovine TB is primarily a disease of cattle caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium bovis. The disease is hugely expensive costing the Government over £91 million in England in 2010/11.
in addition to data on the movement of cattle from farm to farm the researchers were able to build a detailed forensic map of bovine TB spread.
The results showed that even on a scale of few kilometres M. bovis samples from neighbouring farms were more closely genetically related than geographically distant farms that had had moved cattle between them.
while long distance spread via cattle movements plays a role local transmission mechanisms appear to drive the spread of the disease
and local persistence of the pathogen in cattle has a distinct spatial signature--we believe that explaining this signature is the key to quantifying the role that badgers play in the persistence of bovine TB in Britain and Ireland.
Given the extensive collection of samples already collected from cattle and badgers we are optimistic that this approach will help accumulating the right scientific evidence over the coming years to tackle this important problem.
Liver samples were taken from the lambs born to these ewes at four months of age to examine their genes and proteins.
PSW Research Wildlife Biologist Dr. Hartwell Welsh and Garth Hodgson examined two species of woodland salamanders across four stages of tree development at Mill Creek--a disturbed
and cow cartilage tissue was funded by medical research charity Arthritis Research UK the Biotechnology and Biological sciences Research Council's (BBSRC) Diet and Health Research Industry Club (DRINC
and did not have pigs sheep goats or cows all of which were introduced to Europe with incoming farmers about 6000 BC.
--and how reducing use would affect cattle and crops. The aquifer supplies 30 percent of the nation's irrigated groundwater
Steward conducted the study with Kansas State university's Michael Apley professor of clinical sciences and an expert in cattle production;
and the effect it will have to cattle and crops. According to their model researchers estimated that 3 percent of the aquifer's water had been used by 1960.
while peak water use will happen around 2025 western Kansas will see increased corn and cattle production until the year 2040.
#Beetles modify emissions of greenhouse gases from cow patscattle contribute to global warming by burping
Some of the same gases are emitted also from cow pats on pastures. But now researchers from the University of Helsinki have found that beetles living in cow pats may reduce emissions of the key greenhouse gas--methane.
Agriculture is one of the biggest sources of the anthropogenic greenhouse gases responsible for global warming.
Among these cattle farming for meat and milk are major sources of methane a gas with a potent warming effect.
Much of this methane comes from the guts of ruminating cattle but some escapes from dung pats on pastures.
Now researchers from the University of Helsinki have found that beetles living in the cow pats may reduce emissions of methane.
Cow pats offer a prime food for a large number of organisms. In fact there are probably as many beetle species living in dung as there are bird species on this planet.
This will have a major impact on how carbon escapes from cow pats into the atmosphere. You see the important thing here is not just how much carbon is released explains Tomas Roslin head of the research team.
If carbon is first taken up by plants as carbon dioxide then emitted in the same format by the cows eating the plants then the effect of plants passing through cattle will be small in terms of global warming.
When you combine the current increase in meat consumption around the world with the steep declines in many dung beetle species overall emissions from cattle farming can only increase.
#Eating poisonous plants saves life of gemsbok in Namibian desertin drought periods browsing springbok (Antidorcas marsupialis) feed on all plant material they can find
while grazing gemsbok (Oryx gazella gazella) in contrast switch their diet to a high proportion of poisonous plants
Researchers from theizw the University of Namibia and other Namibian partners found that gemsbok (also called oryx) adjusted its diet according to season.
Surprisingly gemsbok diet also consisted of up to 25%of Damara milk-bush (Euphorbia damarana) an endemic large succulent plant
When food was plentiful gemsbok specialised exclusively on grasses and more ephemeral succulent species. In contrast springboks fed on a higher proportion of shrubs and trees than grasses and succulent plants irrespective of environmental conditions.
As the researchers expected springbok opportunistically adjusted their diet in response to variation in food sources availabilities preferring e g. grass sprouts during the wet season and browsing predominantly on leaves of bushes when grass quality decreased during drought.
Springbok therefore adopted a different dietary strategy than gemsbok when facing a shortage of food sources.
The potential effects of the Damara milk-bush on gemsbok health are still unknown. However by extensively using this poisonous plant gemsbok succeed in surviving environmental challenges.
Gemsbok seem to be well adapted to the toxic effects of special plants growing in dry regions
and they benefit from their high water and nutritious content. Because global climate change increases drought periods and enhances desertification in Southern Africa it is crucial to understand how wildlife species respond to the impoverishment of their natural environments and the decline of their food sources.
Furthermore gemsbok and springbok are two of the main protein sources for local communities who would be affected negatively by declining wildlife population sizes.
Knowledge about feeding behaviours of local species like gemsbok and springbok is therefore fundamental to establish sustainable wildlife management plans.
The study appears in the August issue of the journal Oryx. Authors include Jonathan Slaght of the Wildlife Conservation Society R. J. Guti rrez of the University of Minnesota and Sergei Surmach of the Institute of Biology and Soils (Russian Academy of Sciences.
and soft tissue infections in humans originally came from cattle according to a study to be published in mbio the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology.
The findings highlight the potential for cows to serve as a reservoir for bacteria with the capacity for pandemic spread in humans.
The researchers sequenced the genomes of 43 different CC97 isolates from humans cattle and other animals and plotted their genetic relationships in a phylogenetic tree.
Corresponding author Ross Fitzgerald of the Roslin Institute and the University of Edinburgh in Scotland says strains of CC97 found in cows appear to be the ancestors of CC97 strains from humans.
This led us to conclude that the strains infecting humans originated in cows and that they had evolved from bovine to human host jumps says Fitzgerald.
Although the CC97 strains from animals were quite genetically diverse the human isolates cluster together in two tight distinct clades
or relatedness groups indicating that S aureus CC97 in cattle crossed over into humans on two separate occasions.
Any number of factors could create these differences making pigs--but not cattle--a source of a drug-resistant bacterium.
whether differences in the S. aureus strains differences between pigs and cattle or differences between swine and dairy farming practices might be responsible.
Methane the main component of natural gas is released from leaking pipelines coal mines oil wells cattle rice paddies and landfills.
The veterinary fences--which had been built to keep wild buffalo from transferring diseases to cattle--were taken down in 2004.
or canola oil supplemental lipids from algae sources and amino acid supplements such as taurine. An amino acid used in energy drinks taurine plays a critical role in the metabolism of fats stress responses
and muscle growth and is found in high levels in carnivorous fish and their prey.
The study Taurine Supplementation of Plant Derived Protein and n-3 Fatty acids are Critical for Optimal Growth
because we do not have cattle to be killed every day an elder Maasai told the researchers.
because the lion will keep coming back to eat cattle until all the cattle are gone. And then what will we do with the money?
Goldman also a faculty research associate at CU-Boulder's Institute of Behavioral Science is the first author on the study that was published recently online in the journal Oryx
The tiny algae of the greenhouse world were just too small to support big animals said Norris. It's like trying to keep lions happy on mice instead of antelope;
The tree is harvested heavily for its leaves to feed cattle and for its bark which is used medicinally to treat many ailments from stomachaches to reducing malaria fevers.
and algae much of today's grain-fed cattle contain less of these essential fatty acids.
Livestock grazing in grizzly bear habitat adjacent to the national park and bison herbivory in the park likely also contribute to high foraging pressure on shrubs
and January and these same individuals produced a calf a year later. We concluded that this is a pretty strong indication of a mating ground
Using genetic data gathered in other field work known fathers seen in the surveys were identified as were known mothers who were identified by association with a calf.
The good news is that calf production has been fairly good with 22 calves born in 2011 7 in 2012 and 20 this past winter.
It will be interesting to see how many calves are born next year. Most of the North Atlantic right whale population spends the spring and summer on feeding grounds off the northeastern U s. and the Canadian Maritimes.
Mothers and calves are detected during intensive aerial surveys conducted from December through March off the coasts of Florida Georgia South carolina and North carolina.
Mothers and calves return to the northeast feeding grounds in the early spring and the calves stay with their mothers for a year following birth Recovery of this endangered species depends on successful reproduction
but current reproductive rates for North Atlantic right whales are much lower than those for the recovering populations of southern right whales.
Pig receiving chemotherapy for lymphoma successfully recoveringplayful as a puppy even at 730 pounds Nemo a rescued black-and-white Hampshire pig became a porcine pioneer after lymphoma struck.
The study finds that as pastoralists expand goat herds to increase profits for the cashmere trade in Western markets wildlife icons from the Tibetan Plateau to Mongolia suffer--including endangered snow leopard wild yak chiru saiga Bactrian camel
gazelles and other remarkable but already endangered species of remote Central asia. Ecological effects of the growth in goat herds include increasing conflicts with pastoralists predation by dogs on wildlife retaliatory killing of snow leopards and displacement of wildlife away from critical food habitats.
The study appears in the August issue of the journal Conservation Biology. Authors include: Joel Berger of WCS and University of Montana Bayarbaatar Buuveibaatar of WCS Mongolia and Charudutt Mishra of the Snow leopard Trust.
Goats from this region produce high-quality fibers that when processed into cashmere are sought highly by western consumers.
and wild yak Przewalski's horse chiru saiga antelope Tibetan gazelle kiang khulan and snow leopard are increasingly dominated by domestic goats and other livestock.
In particular mammals such as forest elephants gorillas forest antelopes and others play a major role in seed dispersal for most tree species;
The paper appears in the July 17 issue of the journal Oryx. Authors are Tim Davenport of the Wildlife Conservation Society Katarzyna Nowak of the Udzungwa Elephant Project and Andrew Perkin of the Tanzania Forest Conservation Group.
The study suggests that Neolithic farmers used the dung from their herds of cattle sheep goats and pigs as a slow release fertiliser for crops.
#Surprising benefits about dairy cow inflammationinflammation. The word typically has a negative connotation. Arthritis#infection#numerous maladies come to mind.
But a Kansas State university researcher found that inflammation that occurs naturally in dairy cows the first few days after giving birth may play a surprisingly beneficial role in the complex process of going from late pregnancy to lactation.
and going into the lactating phase dairy cows naturally experience some degree of inflammation said Barry Bradford associate professor in the university's department of animal sciences and industry.
Thinking that reducing inflammation during this period might be beneficial for the cow's transition from gestation to lactation plus limit metabolic disease Bradford
or SS) for the first seven days of lactation would prevent liver fat accumulation improve the supply of glucose for lactation and limit metabolic disease in dairy cows entering lactation.
Our findings suggest that mild inflammation may be a necessary part of a cow's adaptation to lactation Bradford said.
Similarly anti-inflammatory treatment led to a dramatic drop in plasma glucose concentration in mature cows. Both of these responses are associated often with metabolic disease in early lactation cows.
The study improved our understanding of the re-prioritization process by suggesting that inflammatory pathways promote a temporary state of insulin resistance in dairy cows resulting in conservation of glucose for use by the mammary gland Bradford said.
The results of the study which was funded by the U s. Department of agriculture's National Institute of Food
And it's not just cattle that experience the shift in demands on the body: Many species experience these dramatic shifts Bradford said.
--and drawbacks--of grazing by larger vertebrates such as cows and sheep but we haven't studied in detail the impact slugs might have particularly on very young plants in meadows that we are trying to restore
#Understanding bulls gene-rich Y chromosomes may improve herd fertilitythe Y chromosomes of cattle have more genes
This discovery may help biologists better understand how cattle and other mammals evolved as well as help animal breeders
and enhance fertility in the cattle industry said Wansheng Liu associate professor of animal genomics Penn State.
Most researchers believed that the Y chromosome of cattle would be similar to the Y chromosome of other mammals
which determines the gene content and transcriptional activity of the Y chromosome among cattle according to Liu.
With little knowledge of the roles that the Y chromosome genes play in fertility most animal breeders and farmers select bulls based on physical characteristics such as the size of the testis.
The lineage of most of the bulls in current Holstein herds for example can be traced back over a hundred years to just a few bulls said Liu who worked with Ti-Cheng Chang and Yang Yang both former postdoctoral
The potential impact of a limited number of bulls on fertility and the surviving of the breed as not been investigated.
We can begin to understand the Y chromosome variation among male lineages in a cattle breed Liu said.
The researchers analyzed the expression of the entire Y-linked genes as the bull aged beginning soon after the bull's birth during puberty and then again after the bull matured.
#IBEX spacecraft images the heliotail, revealing an unexpected structurenasa's Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) spacecraft recently provided the first complete pictures of the solar system's downwind region revealing a unique and unexpected structure.
The first IBEX images released in 2009 showed an unexpected ribbon of surprisingly high energetic neutral atom (ENA) emissions circling the upwind side of the solar system.
As the next two years of IBEX data filled in the observational hole in the downwind direction researchers found a second tail region to the side of the previously identified one.
The IBEX team reoriented the IBEX maps and two similar low-energy ENA structures became clearly visible straddling the downwind direction of the heliosphere indicating structures that better resemble lobes than a single unified tail.
We chose the term'lobes'very carefully says Dr. Dave Mccomas IBEX principal investigator and assistant vice president of the Space science and Engineering Division at Southwest Research Institute.
IBEX data show the heliotail is the region where the Sun's million mile per hour solar wind flows down
The IBEX spacecraft uses two novel ENA cameras to image and map the heliosphere's global interaction providing the first global views and new knowledge about our solar system's interaction with interstellar space.
The paper The heliotail revealed by IBEX by D. J. Mccomas M. A. Dayeh H. O. Funsten G. Livadiotis
IBEX is part of NASA's series of low-cost rapidly developed Small Explorer space missions. Southwest Research Institute in San antonio leads the IBEX mission with teams of national and international partners.
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt Md. manages the Explorers Program for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
Overtext Web Module V3.0 Alpha
Copyright Semantic-Knowledge, 1994-2011