The late monsoon in 2005 hindered summer grass development to the point that U s. ranchers had to buy supplemental feed for their cattle Andrea Ray a researcher at the National Oceanic
and the 1882-1905 drought killed more than 50 percent of Arizona's cattle. Co-author Connie A. Woodhouse UA associate head
Several of Africa's most famous wildlife areas involve large-scale migrations of wildebeest and zebra that could never be enclosed within a fenced reserve so the lions'last stand should be thought out carefully in terms of those places that can safely be fenced
The species has a distribution falling entirely within the Maputaland-Pondoland-Albany Centre of Endemism in South africa where an extraordinary amount of endemic species is found with around 30 endemic reptiles and emblematic mammals such as the blue duiker antelope.
but mammals such as horses rhinos and gazelles evolved long strong teeth that are up to the task.
President Ali Bongo Ondimba of Gabon says: Gabon's elephants are under siege because of an illegal international market that has driven ivory prices in the region up significantly.
but for the most badly labelled case 92%of kudu was a different species. Only 24%of springbok
and ostrich biltong was actually springbok or ostrich. The rest was horse impala hartebeest wildebeest waterbok eland gemsbok duiker giraffe kangaroo lamb pork or beef.
Worryingly one sample labelled zebra was actually mountain zebra a'red listed'species threatened with extinction.
Additional results from recent surveys show that other wildlife in the reserve fared much better including the highly important eastern chimpanzee population (approximately 6000 individuals) okapi and duikers (small forest antelopes) with almost no change in their estimated
#The lifetime journeys of manure-based microbesstudies at the U s. Department of agriculture (USDA) are shedding some light on the microbes that dwell in cattle manure--what they are where they thrive where they struggle
This research which is being conducted by Agricultural research service (ARS) scientists at the agency's Agroecosystems Management Research Unit in Lincoln Neb. supports the USDA priority of ensuring food safety.
In one project ARS microbiologist Lisa Durso used fecal samples from six beef cattle to identify a core set of bovine gastrointestinal bacterial groups common to both beef
and dairy cattle. She also observed a number of bacteria in the beef cattle that had not been reported in dairy cows
and identified a diverse assortment of bacteria from the six individual animals even though all six consumed the same diet and were breed the same gender and age.
The work is published online in Springer's journal Naturwissenschaften--The Science of Nature. Very few flowers are a simple block of a single color.
The above story is provided based on materials by Springer Science+Business Media. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
if populations of caribou musk ox and other large herbivores remain intact. The study demonstrates that grazing by these large herbivores maintains plant species diversity
and musk ox--two ecologically important large herbivores in the Arctic--while separate 800-square-meter areas that also received warming chambers were fenced off to exclude the animals.
and musk ox act as a buffer against the degradative effects of warming on plant species diversity Post said.
On the other hand in those areas where caribou and musk ox were able to graze freely shrub responses to warming were muted
Gabon President Ali Bongo Ondimba announced that Gabon will pass new legislation to further dissuade commercial ivory poachers even more by increasing prison terms to a minimum of three years for ivory poachers
Mike Fay the WCS explorer who played a key role in convincing the late Gabonese President Omar Bongo Ondimba to create a network of 13 national parks in 2002 said:
#New retention model explains enigmatic ribbon at edge of solar systemsince its October 2008 launch NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) has provided images of the invisible interactions between our home in the galaxy and interstellar space.
IBEX cameras measure energetic neutral atoms (ENAS) that form when charged particles become neutralized. As solar wind ENAS leave the solar system the majority move out in various directions never to re-enter.
The syrup you pour on a pancake piles up before slowly oozing out to the sides says Dr. David Mccomas IBEX principal investigator and assistant vice president of the Swri Space science and Engineering Division.
and form the bright ribbon seen by IBEX. ENA energies observed in the ribbon correlate to the speed of the solar wind
because it so directly reflects the latitudinal structure of the solar wind says Mccomas. Simulations using a realistic solar wind structure showed remarkably good association with the IBEX data closely reproducing the observed ribbon structure location and latitudinal ordering by energy.
Thus far the retention model appears best able to reproduce the IBEX observations. However more studies are needed to confirm
In addition the IBEX ribbon could provide researchers with a means for measuring the strength of the interstellar magnetic field as well as its direction.
The paper Spatial Retention of Ions Producing the IBEX Ribbon by N. A. Schwadron and D. J. Mccomas was published Feb 4 in the Astrophysical Journal.
The IBEX team's papers on the first six models about the ribbon's origin were published in Science (2009.
IBEX is the latest in NASA's series of low-cost rapidly developed Small Explorer space missions.
Southwest Research Institute in San antonio leads the IBEX mission with a team of national and international partners.
and beef cattle with an enriched diet of flaxseed and other omega-3 rich grains have fewer respiratory diseases.
The cattle also have higher fertility rates which helps offset infertility among dairy cattle. The technology to enrich ground beef with omega-3s is a spinoff of flaxseed research Drouillard began in 1998.
Drouillard and his students studied flax for several of its omega-3 fatty acids that may suppress inflammation
and reduce diabetes in cattle. Research showed that omega-3 levels dramatically increased in the cattle as more flaxseed was introduced into their diet.
Keeping the omega-3s from becoming saturated fats in cattle's digestive system is a challenge however.
Microorganisms in the rumen--the largest chamber in the cow's stomach--modify most of the ingested fats and turn them into saturated fats.
This causes ground beef to have low levels of omega-3s. Christian Alvarado Gilis a doctoral candidate in animal sciences and industry is researching how to improve omega-3 levels in cattle diets to further enhance the fat profile of beef.
Gilis is from Chile. According to Drouillard substituting omega-3 fatty acids for saturated fats does not change the ground beef's flavor.
and can double the risk of death in calves aged up to five new research from the University of Sheffield has found.
It is hoped this research--which was published in the journal Ecology--will make a difference by highlighting the importance of protecting vulnerable calves in captivity from the effects of climate changeexperts at the University of Sheffield accessed unique recordings of the life
It also highlights the importance of protecting vulnerable calves from extremes of temperature because more calves will be needed to maintain the dwindling population of endangered Asian elephants.
The project is funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and was carried out at the University of Sheffield and Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin and the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research in Germany.
There are also thousands of small dams located in small streams to provide water for cattle noted coauthor Marcia Macedo of WHRC.
and antelopes) grazed as well as how plants across the landscape reacted to periods of global and regional environmental change.
This behaviour and their tendency to scavenge in groups means that vultures risk encountering dead cattle that have been administered veterinary drugs that are poisonous to them
In India several vulture species are on the verge of extinction due to accidental poisoning from cattle carcasses that contain anti-inflammatory drugs administered by farmers.
These drugs are nonlethal to cattle yet fatal to vultures. There is a concern that these drugs could become more widely used in Africa.
and find easier pickings on cattle carcasses in farmland outside these protected areas. We found evidence that individual birds were attracted to'vulture restaurants'where carrion is regularly put out as an extra source of food for vultures
#In beef production, cow-calf phase contributes most greenhouse gasesscientists have known long that cattle produce carbon dioxide
and methane throughout their lives but a new study pinpoints the cow-calf stage as a major contributor of greenhouse gases during beef production.
In a new paper for the Journal of Animal Science scientists estimate greenhouse gas emissions from beef cattle during different stages of life.
If you look at everything that contributes to greenhouse gases through the beef supply chain then it is the cow-calf that produces the greatest greenhouse gases Mitloehner said.
In the cow-calf phase the cow gives birth and nurses the calf until the calf is six to 10 months old.
During this time the cow eats rough plants like hay and grasses. The methane-producing bacteria in the cow's gut thrive on these plants.
The more roughage is in the diet of the ruminant animal the more methane is produced by the microbes in the gut of the ruminant
and methane comes out the front end Mitloehner said. In feedlots by contrast cattle eat mostly corn and grains
which the methane-producing bacteria cannot use as effectively. Methane is one of the most important greenhouse gases.
and bacterial contamination of these popular items made from the uncooked dried penis of a bull or steer.
#Cows fed flaxseed produce more nutritious dairy productsdairy cows that are fed flaxseed produce more nutritious milk according to a new study by Oregon State university.
Traditional cattle feed mixtures of corn grains alfalfa hay and grass silage result in dairy products with low concentrations of omega-3 and other polyunsaturated fats according to Gerd Bobe the lead scientist
Ten pregnant cows at OSU's dairy were fed different amounts of flaxseed--up to seven percent of their daily diet.
The study found that feeding cows up to six pounds of extruded flaxseed improved the fat profile without negatively affecting the production and texture of the milk and other dairy products.
Also the cows produced the same amount of milk while eating flaxseed Although flaxseed costs more than traditional cattle feeds Bobe hopes that it still could be feed an affordable supplement for cows
because products enriched with omega-3 can sell for a premium at the grocery store. Many consumers already show a willingness to pay extra for value-added foods like omega-3 enriched milk he said.
Dairy farmers will have no trouble convincing cows to eat flaxseed. They loved it. They ate it like candy he said.
#Global gene pool of goat is seriously under threatamongst the range of domestic livestock species the goat is not just the'black sheep
) has analysed the situation of the global goat population. The study took into account the state of different breeds the multiple implications of their conservation the interaction with other animal species (wild and domestic) and the consequences of goat grazing from an environmental point of view.
The risk of the gene pool of the goat disappearing has increased due to intensive animal husbandry systems that use a very limited number of breeds.
Strangely enough the biggest loss in the genetic resources of indigenous animals has been observed in Europe although the situation is unknown in many areas as explained to SINC by Rocã o Rosa Garcã a researcher at SERIDA and coauthor of the study.
The bad reputation given to goats stems from one of its main virtues: it has an extraordinary capacity to adapt to the most difficult of environmental conditions in places where other domestic livestock species would not survive.
According to data from the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United nations (FAO) nowadays the largest number of goats can be found in the poorest of countries and especially those
and often the goat is the only source of animal protein in their diet explains Rosa Garcã a. The team led by Koldo Osoro Otaduy manager of the Animal Production Systems Area at SERIDA
which the role of the goat is very relevant and have certain similarities with hostile environments in other parts of the world.
The goat: its virtues and defectspoor handling of grazing which does not consider the livestock species
and their most fitting habitat is the main cause of the damaging effects that goats can cause on the environment.
For example the uncontrolled growth of the cashmere goat to increase production of its prized wool has meant in some cases that the ecosystems have become overloaded.
and analysing to what extent the goat competes with local fauna in each region and whether it interferes with the survival of the most sensitive species outlines Rosa Garcã a. Story Source:
if R opacus can help calves stay healthy during transport. This could potentially be carried over to human health as well Donaldson said.
and fragmented by human activity--primarily the clearing of forest for cattle raising. It shows that increases in howler monkey'travel time'--the amount of time needed to find requisite nourishment--are leading to increases in levels of stress hormones called glucocorticoids.
Previous research has found that killing of animals can be motivated as much by social and psychological factors such as perception of danger as by any actual real risk posed by a species. A new study published in the Springer journal Human ecology has identified several key factors
The above story is provided based on materials by Springer Science+Business Media. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
The study area included Kruger National park Sabi Sand Game Reserve and communal areas in the Bushbuck Ridge municipality.
These findings may be a bellwether of the radical changes in ecosystem stability that could result from anticipated future increases in extreme events.
Even when humans are successful in avoiding the bite of the tsetse fly domesticated animals like cattle
The Kanha and Pench reserves and the Satpura and Melghat reserves are connected via forest corridors that tigers leopards humans and cattle share.
#Yaks are back: Nearly 1, 000 wild yaks in remote Tibetan Plateaua team of American and Chinese conservationists from the Wildlife Conservation Society and University of Montana recently counted nearly 1000 wild yaks from a remote
area of the Tibetan-Qinghai Plateau. The finding may indicate a comeback for this species which was decimated by overhunting in the mid 20th century.
The team counted 990 yaks in a rugged area called Hoh Xil--a national nature reserve nearly the size of West virginia but devoid of people.
Wild yaks are the third largest mammal in Asia second only to elephants and rhinos.
Adults are estimated to be the size of bison but--because the area where they occur is isolated
so--wild yaks have never been weighed officially. Fifty years ago the Tibetan steppe was dotted with wild yak much in the way that bison once stretched across vast North american prairies.
Like bison wild yaks were slaughtered. Yak skulls still litter high elevation haunts up to 17500 feet.
Wild yak population estimates across the Tibetan-Qinghai Plateau are unknown though conservationists believe they may be making a comeback due to conservation efforts by Chinese park officials and provincial governments.
Recently the Qinghai provincial government has launched several conservation related policies and regional projects in order to develop a sound basis for wildlife and environmental conservation in this region.
Wild yaks are icons for the remote untamed high-elevation roof of the world said Joel Berger who led the expedition for WCS and the University of Montana.
While polar bears represent a sad disclaimer for a warming Arctic the recent count of almost 1000 wild yaks offers hope for the persistence of free-roaming large animals at the virtual limits of high-altitude wildlife.
Berger and his colleagues found greater yak densities near glaciers which often support adjacent food-rich alpine meadow habitats.
Less than one percent of the yaks observed showed color variation a good indication that hybridization with their more colorful domestic yak cousins is less frequent here than in more peopled regions on the Tibetan Plateau Very little is known about wild yak
biology including how often they reproduce infant mortality rates and the role wolves may play on population dynamics.
For millennia yaks have sustained human life in this part of Asia it would be a cruel irony
and drinking cow's milk are the two most important factors that determine how much Vitamin d is in a child's body new research has found.
and cow's milk said Dr. Maguire who was surprised to find that 57 per cent of the children were taking a regular Vitamin d supplement.
Research published by Dr. Maguire in the journal Pediatrics in December found that drinking two cups of cow's milk per day was enough to maintain adequate Vitamin d levels in most children.
Drinking more cow's milk could deplete iron stores in children's bodies. The study published January 14 was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the St michael's Foundation.
#Beef industry, consumers to be affected by cattle production decreases in 2013beef production in the United states is expected to decrease 4. 8 percent in 2013 the second largest year-over-year decrease in 35 years
and a projected 5 percent or more decrease in cattle slaughter said Derrell Peel Oklahoma State university Cooperative Extension livestock marketing specialist.
Cattle and calves represent the number one agricultural commodity produced in Oklahoma accounting for 46 percent of total agricultural cash receipts
NASS data indicates Oklahoma is the nation's fifth-largest producer of cattle and calves with the third-largest number of cattle operations in a state.
SBV is discovered a recently pathogen of livestock such as cattle sheep and goats. The researchers have laid bare important ways by which this virus causes disease.
because it causes stillbirths abortions and fetal defects in pregnant cows and ewes. It has spread rapidly throughout Europe since its discovery in Germany less than eighteen months ago (in October 2011.
and spinal cord of aborted lambs and calves. The virus prefers to infect cells called neurons
when virus is transmitted from an SBV infected mother to the calves or lambs in the uterus during pregnancy.
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.
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.
Distributed by species pigs account for around 78%of antimicrobial use in 2013 cattle 10%aquaculture 3%poultry 1%fur animals 4
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.
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
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.
which is a major cause of reduced fertility in cattle and milk yield says Bernt Guldbrandtsen.
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.
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.
#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.
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