#Goats better than chemicals for curbing invasive marsh grassherbivores not herbicides may be the most effective way to combat the spread of one of the most invasive plants now threatening East Coast salt marshes a new Duke university-led
goats. We find that allowing controlled grazing by goats or other livestock in severely affected marshes can reduce the stem density of phragmites cover by about half in around three weeks said Brian R. Silliman lead author of the new study and Rachel Carson associate professor of marine conservation
biology at Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment. The goats are likely to provide an effective sustainable and much more affordable way of mowing down the invasive grass
and helping restore lost ocean views he said. In fenced in test plots at the USDA Beltsville Agricultural Research center in Maryland Silliman
and cows would also readily eat the invasive grass. In addition to restoring views the controlled grazing allowed native plant species to reestablish themselves in the test plots over time.
The only drawback he added is that people have to be okay with having goats in their marsh for a few weeks or few months in some years.
because as trees expand into these grassland areas people who are using grassland for cattle production have less grass for animals too Dodds said.
grazers such as bison; and the historical presence of woody vegetation. Their analysis revealed an important finding:
Dodds and Veach also found that bison do not significantly affect woody vegetation expansion along streams.
Previous Konza research has shown that bison do not spend significant time near stream areas so they may not influence the growth of nearby trees
Cities are serving as bellwethers of society's carbon emission trends. While many are experiencing growth in emissions others are leading the charge to reduce them.
#Search for better biofuels microbes leads to human gutscientists have scoured cow rumens and termite guts for microbes that can efficiently break down plant cell walls for the production of next-generation biofuels
The human microbes appear to be endowed with enzymes that break down a complex plant fiber component more efficiently than the most efficient microbes found in the cow rumen the researchers report.
Their work in cows led the researchers to the human microbes said University of Illinois animal sciences
In looking for biofuels microbes in the cow rumen we found that Prevotella bryantii a bacterium that is known to efficiently break down (the plant fiber) hemicellulose gears up production of one gene more than others
which belong to the same bacterial phylum as Prevotella from the cow. We expressed the human gut bacterial enzymes
and found that for some related enzymes the human ones actually were more active (in breaking down hemicellulose) than the enzymes from the cow Cann said.
In addition to finding microbes in the cow rumen and termite gut it looks like we can actually make some contributions ourselves he said.
And our bugs seem to have some enzymes that are even better than those in the cow rumen.
Taking lymphatic fluid from cattle is not easy but it can be performed effortlessly with some practice.
or milkthe scientists tested a total of 86 cows from different farms exhibiting symptoms of diarrhea and weight loss.
In comparison cows with a negative lymph result showed a 27 percent culling rate after one year only.
#Bluetongue disease overwintering mystery solvedthe bluetongue virus which causes a serious disease that costs the cattle
but also infects cattle and goats as well as deer and other wild ruminants. In the U s. the virus'greatest economic impact is in the cattle industry
because it is bigger than the domestic sheep industry and most adversely impacted by international trade barriers related to bluetongue.
The disease does not pose a threat to human health. The name bluetongue derives from the swollen lips and tongue of affected sheep
when temperatures warm the following season Findings from California dairythe researchers monitored cows and midges on a Northern California dairy farm for more than a year.
The bluetongue virus was widespread in both the dairy cows and the midges from August to November.
There was no sign of infection in the dairy cattle being studied. The researchers concluded that those long-lived female midges had been infected with the bluetongue virus during the previous warm-weather season.
and would later in the season once again transmit it to cows on the dairy. The research team notes that the bluetongue virus may also have additional yet-to-be discovered modes of overwintering in temperate regions.
However a handful of states still allow the wastewater to be used for watering cattle sprayed onto roads for dust control
Domestic goats for example are seven times more common than dogs in this landscape yet only make up 11 percent of leopard's prey.
because goats are less accessible and often brought into pens at night while dogs are allowed largely to wander freely.
Cows sheep and pigs were eaten also but collectively made up less than 20 percent of leopard's food.
Most domestic cattle in this region are too large to be preyed on by leopards. The author's of the study say that the selection of domestic dogs as prey means that the economic impact of predation by leopards on valuable livestock is expected lower than.
An Analysis of the Extent and Nature of Illegality in Forest Conversion for Agriculture 90%of the deforestation in Brazil from 2000 to 2012 was illegal primarily due to the failure to conserve a percentage of natural forests in large-scale cattle
#Combining antibodies, iron nanoparticles and magnets steers stem cells to injured organsresearchers at the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute infused antibody-studded iron nanoparticles into the bloodstream to treat
and termites) and about 60%comes from human activities like cattle breeding rice agriculture fossil fuel exploitation landfills and biomass burning.
#Hog workers carry drug-resistant bacteria even after they leave the farma new study suggests that nearly half of workers who care for animals in large industrial hog farming operations may be carrying home livestock-associated bacteria in their noses
Researchers had believed that livestock-associated bacteria would clear from the noses of hog workers quickly--within 24 hours.
But this small study of hog workers in North carolina reported online Sept. 8 in the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine suggests it can stick around longer.
Much of the Staphylococcus aureus bacteria they carried were antibiotic resistant likely due to the use of drugs both to treat sick hogs
and to promote hog growth to ready them for market sooner. The longer the bacteria stick around in workers'noses the researchers say the greater the opportunity for them to potentially spread to hog workers'families their communities
and even into hospitals where the bacteria have been associated with an increased risk of staph infections.
Before this study we didn't know much about the persistence of livestock-associated strains among workers in the United states whose primary full-time jobs involve working inside large industrial hog-confinement facilities says study author Christopher D
Statistics on the number of hog workers are tough to come by but census data from 2007 suggest that there are roughly 292000 livestock workers in the United states. In North carolina where the study was conducted there are roughly 6400 workers employed at 938 hog operations that reported hired labor.
The study done in conjunction with researchers from the University of North carolina Gillings School of Global Public health
and the Statens Serum Institute and community organizers from the Rural Empowerment Association for Community Help (REACH) involved 22 hog workers in North carolina.
Between June and August 2012 researchers recruited industrial hog workers to be studied for two weeks. In the first week the goal was for workers to have at least a 24-hour stretch off from work.
Eighty-six percent of the hog workers--19 of them--carried at least one type of Staphylococcus aureus at some point during the study period
Researchers found that even after up to four days away from the hog operation the bacteria were still present in workers'noses.
if this is mainly a workplace hazard associated with hog farming or is it a threat to public health at large he says.
Persistence of livestock-associated antibiotic-resistant Staphylococcus aureus among industrial hog operation workers in North carolina over 14 days was written by Maya Nadimpalli Jessica L. Rinsky Steve Wing Devon
The production of both beef cattle and dairy cows is tied to especially high levels of greenhouse gas emissions.
For starters cows don't efficiently convert plant-based feed into muscle or milk so they must eat lots of feed.
In addition cows burp lots of methane and their manure also releases this potent greenhouse gas. Greenhouse gas emissions associated with producing the U s. diet are dominated by the meats category according to Heller and Keoleian.
and seasonal allergies and known anaphylaxis to penicillin and cow's milk she wasn't known to be allergic to any of the ingredients in the pie.
However the mushrooms could be used as food supplement for cattle the gel can be used to increase moisture retention in some crops
and that the ability to steer or maneuver is absent early in evolution. Falling gliding and flyingsuch activity has never been observed regularly in nature
Domestication of animals started as early as 9000 to 15000 years ago and initially involved dogs cattle sheep goats and pigs.
Here local farmers see cheetahs as a potential threat for their cattle. The conflict is an old one:
In Namibia the concern refers to the possible threat from cheetahs on cattle. When farmers in Namibia are missing a bovine calf cheetahs are regularly under suspicion--nowhere else in the world are there as many animals of this vulnerable species as on commercial farmland in Namibia.
But the suspicion can rarely be confirmed without demur. In their recent study scientists of the IZW investigated
whether cattle is on top of the cheetahs'menu. For this purpose they used an indirect method with
Small antelopes such as springbok or steenbok specialise on shrubs and herbs whereas the oryx antelope feeds on grass--just like the cattle.
The study shows that herbivores of the C4 food chain to which cattle belong are nearly irrelevant to the cheetah's diet.
and welfare of beef cattle and other ruminant animals suffering from lameness and following castration dehorning and other painful but necessary management procedures.
and Improving Performance of Cattle Undergoing Dehorning or Castration was awarded to the Kansas State university Research Foundation a nonprofit corporation responsible for managing technology transfer activities at the university.
and improve the performance of cattle. Researchers found that combinations of meloxicam and gabapentin improved the welfare of cattle by reducing the severity of lameness.
Meloxicam alone improved weight gain after dehorning and reduced the incidence of bovine respiratory disease after castration.
Once meloxicam was administered orally to beef cattle prior to these common procedures the cattle gained more weight
and control diseases in cattle. This reduces the risk of antibiotic resistance selection and has positive implications for both human and animal health.
if their immune system is compromised said Deborah J. Springer Ph d. lead study author and postdoctoral fellow in the Center for Microbial Pathogenesis at Duke university School of medicine.
and then sent those specimens to Springer at Duke. Springer DNA-sequenced the samples from California
and compared the sequences to those obtained from HIV/AIDS patients with C. gattii infections.
and serve as a source of ongoing infections Springer said. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Duke university.
#Why major cow milk allergen is actually allergeniccow milk allergy occurs in children and in adults.
In the case of the potentially much more dangerous cow milk allergy however the body's immune system attacks milk proteins with its own Ige antibodies.
and feeding cows may be involved a factor in this phenomenon. Iron loading may depend on whether the milk is produced organically or conventionally.
#Trees, shrubs invading critical grasslands, diminish cattle productionhalf of Earth's land mass is made up of rangelands
These lands support roughly 40 million heads of cattle. Researchers also used remote sensors to calculate the production of grasses and shrubs.
But in the U s. many people who own ranches don't actually raise cattle. They are using the land for many other different purposes.
We now know how much increase in tree cover is affecting the cattle ranchers. Sala and his colleagues hope that the information found in their study will be used to inform discussions as policy makers
#Wild sheep show benefits of putting up with parasitesin the first evidence that natural selection favors an individual's infection tolerance researchers from Princeton university
The researchers used 25 years of data on a population of wild sheep living on an island in northwest Scotland to assess the evolutionary importance of infection tolerance.
#Vaccinating cows could answer serum shortageby many estimates an Ebola vaccine could be available in humans as early as next year.
SAB Biotherapeutics is a company in South dakota with a small herd of cattle that can produce humanlike antibodies.
Together with SAB Dr. Schnell is applying for a grant that would allow the team to vaccinate the cows with his vaccine in order to produce large quantities of antibodies specific for the three viral strains.
The cows would have harvested their blood plasma every two weeks to produce 30-60 liters of serum every month from one animal--the equivalent of 2000 doses. The vaccinated cows would produce polyvalent antibodies--antibodies that can recognize many
That incorporates everything associated with non-biomass-burning human activity from coal-fired power plants to automobile emissions from concrete factories to cattle feedlots.
The region is an important area for grazing cattle. In a typical year ranchers annually burn thousands of acres of grassland to reduce the abundance of undesirable trees
and are of a higher forage quality for cattle. By burning when many animals are active fires in the late spring can devastate wildlife.
Lincoln Nebraska and other cities downwind. Burning over a wider time window would reduce the intensity of the smoke that carries to cities downwind
#Panthers prey on ranchers calves, but amount varies, Florida study findsa two-year panther study at two southwest Florida cattle ranches shows that the endangered cats attack
and kill calves but how often that happens can vary greatly by location and landscape.
which radio-transmitter tags were put on the ears of 409 calves at two ranches both near Immokalee.
But the panthers'comeback has not always been helpful to cattle ranchers. One of the ranches Jacobs studied lost 10 calves
or 5 percent of the herd each year to preying panthers while the other lost only one or half a percent of that herd during the same time span.
Both ranches also lost calves to other causes including eight deaths at one ranch and five at the other not attributed to predators.
although panthers weren't the only predator for calves to contend with. Each ranch also lost at least one ear-tagged calf to a bear attack during the two-year study
while some untagged calves were killed by coyotes and vultures. The ranches'physical geography including open spaces and the proximity of wooded areas in
which the cats can hide and stalk likely have much to do with the different rates she said.
and ranchers perhaps to programs that might pay ranchers to maintain key panther habitat rather than as compensation for difficult-to-track individual calf losses.
or back of the calf's neck was most often the mark of a panther attack she said
Coyote and bear attacks were much more damaging with the calf's body badly bruised
#DNA find reveals new insights into the history of cattle in Europea research team from the University of Basel made a surprising find in a Neolithic settlement at the boarders of Lake Biel in Switzerland:
The DNA of a cattle bone shows genetic traces of the European aurochs and thus adds a further facet to the history of cattle domestication.
The journal Scientific Reports has published the results. The modern cattle is domesticated the descendant of the aurochs a wild species that became extinct in the 17th century.
The aurochs'domestication already began roughly 10000 years ago in the Near east. It is their DNA that reveals their ancestry:
Aurochs of the Near east carry a maternally inherited genetic signature (mtdna) called T haplogroup. Modern cattle still carry this signature
and thus show that they derive from these early domesticated cattle of the Near east. This suggests that with the spreading of early farmers from the Near east to Europa the domesticated cattle was imported to Europe alongside.
Unlike the aurochs of the Near east the local wild aurochs of Europe belonged to the P haplogroup.
So far scientists believed that the female European aurochs did not genetically influence the Near Eastern cattle imported during the Neolithic age (5500-2200 BC.
Small sturdy cows as draft animalsscientists from the University of Basel by accident found a very small metacarpal bone from a Neolithic cattle among other animal bones found in the lake settlement Twann in Switzerland
and analyzed its mtdna. The analysis showed that the bovine bone carried the European aurochs'genetic signature of the P haplogroup.
The bone thus represents the first indisputable evidence that female European aurochs also crossbred with domestic cattle from the Near east.
The bone dated to around 3100 BC is evidence for the earlier crossbreeding between a wild female European aurochs with a domestic bull.
If these were coincidental single events or rather cases of intentional crossbreeding cannot be answered clearly on the basis of our results explains Prof.
JÃ rg Schibler head of the research groups for Integrative Prehistoric and Archaeological Science (IPAS) from the Department Environmental science at the University of Basel.
The animal to which the bone belonged was exceptionally small with a withers height of only 112 centimeters.
which the bone dates could have been trying to create a new smaller and sturdier type of cattle especially suitable as draft animal by intentional crossbreeding with wild aurochs.
Hause's most recent work has led to the discovery of an influenza virus in cattle.
Subsequent research has shown that it is widespread in cattle not just pigs. Now we're studying the association of this strain of bovine influenza with respiratory disease in feedlots.
#Genome analysis helps in breeding more robust cowsgenome analysis of 234 bulls has put researchers including several from Wageningen Livestock Research on the trail of DNA variants
which influence particular characteristics in breeding bulls. For example two variants have proven responsible for disruptions to the development of embryos and for curly hair
These are the first results of the large 1000 Bull Genomes project on which some 30 international researchers are collaborating.
whether the genomes of all the common bulls in The netherlands can be filled with the help of these 234 bulls.
Currently these bulls have been genotyped with markers of 50000 or 700000 DNA variants. The positive results indicate the direction for further research into the practical use of genome information in breeding.
Dairy and beef cattle The project demonstrates how useful large-scale DNA analyses can be says Professor Roel Veerkamp Professor of Numerical Genetics at Wageningen University and board member of the 1000 Bull Genomes project.
He emphasises that the requirements for dairy and beef cattle are becoming ever more exacting: Until the mid nineties a cow primarily had to produce a lot of milk.
But since then expectations have gone up. Farmers are looking for more robust cows. In practice that means good fertility longer life udders that give good protection against infections improved claws and more efficient feed utilisation.
That adds up to a lot of characteristics which are governed by all kinds of genes. In order to bring them together in a cow in the best
and fastest way possible genomic selection is important for breeding organisations such as CRV and by means of genome analysis we want to improve this further says Veerkamp.
Bull genome The genome of a bull consists of 3 billion'letters'.'In the 234 bulls studied the researchers found a total of over 28 million positions on the DNA
which displayed variation in other words where the animals have different letters. Currently CRV uses approximately 50000 variants the so-called single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) for genomic selection by linking SNP patterns of a very large number of animals to characteristics
The bull analysis presented at this time is the first phase of the 1000 Bull Genomes project a database which is planned to incorporate the genomes of a thousand bulls from all over the world.
The bulls analysed to date are primarily from Australia The netherlands Germany and France. However there are now many more countries involved
and we have exceeded already 1000 bulls says Professor Veerkamp. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Wageningen University and Research Centre.
and good for people said Dr. Andrew Steer President & CEO WRI. Every head of government minister and climate negotiator should pay attention to this important if often overlooked strategy to address climate change.
because plants represent the main food source for cattle in countries such as Brazil--one of the only countries in the world that produce meat and milk through the extensive farming of livestock i e. through livestock farming in pastures.
For example cattle grazing on arid land in the western half of the US use enormous amounts of land but relatively little irrigation water.
Cattle in feedlots on the other hand eat mostly corn which requires less land but much more irrigation and nitrogen fertilizer.
Cattle require on average 28 times more land and 11 times more irrigation water are responsible for releasing 5 times more greenhouse gases
and fertilizing the crops fed to milk cows-as well as the relative inefficiency of cows in comparison to other livestock-jacks up the cost significantly.
and that beef cattle are responsible for far more greenhouse gas emissions than other types of animals. It is published by Climactic Change.
and dairy cattle comprised 74 percent of livestock-related greenhouse gas emissions 54 percent coming from beef cattle and 17 percent from dairy cattle.
Part of this is due to the abundance of cows but it is also because cattle emit greater quantities of methane and nitrous oxide than other animals.
Sheep comprised 9 percent buffalo 7 percent pigs 5 percent and goats 4 percent. That tasty hamburger is the real culprit Caldeira said.
It might be better for the environment if we all became vegetarians but a lot of improvement could come from eating pork or chicken instead of beef.
or goats to find out if that increases their tolerance to toxic foods. Juniper is expanding its range
and goats to eat juniper. The study was funded by the National Science Foundation. Dearing and Kohl conducted the research with three other University of Utah faculty members:
She and her coworkers will study the potential of dandelions to inhibit bacteria related to bovine mastitis an infection in the mammary glands of dairy cows.
Their recommendations state that rice-based formulas are an option for infants allergic to cow's milk
The team say that some tokens likely stand for grain as well as different types of livestock (such as goats
and cattle) but--as they were in use at the height of the empire--tokens could have been used to represent commodities such as oil wool and wine.
Two CT-scanned Siberian mammoth calves yield trove of insightsct scans of two newborn woolly mammoths recovered from the Siberian Arctic are revealing previously inaccessible details about the early development of prehistoric pachyderms.
Micro-CT scans of teeth from both mammoth calves were conducted at the University of Michigan School of dentistry.
These differences may simply reflect the one-month age difference between the calves or they could relate to the different populations from which the two calves derived.
The researchers refer to both calves as mummies due to the high level of soft-tissue preservation.
In addition to fully articulated skeletons the carcasses held preserved muscle fat connective tissue organs and skin. Khroma even had clotted blood inside intact blood vessels and undigested milk in the stomach.
A possible death scenario for Khroma places the calf and her mother on a riverbank in the spring.
Drought conditions lead to poor pasture conditions and hay production which then impacts the number of cattle ranchers can graze Knapp said.
The study appears in Springer's Journal of Ornithology. The fossil of the Scansoriopteryx (which means climbing wing) was found in Inner Mongolia
The above story is provided based on materials by Springer. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
#Developing better vaccine for mutating virus in cowsbovine viral diarrhea virus infections result in one of the most costly diseases among cattle with losses in U s. herds estimated at $2 billion per year according to professor Christopher
Identifying persistent infectionswhen a pregnant cow becomes infected the developing calf is at risk. If the infection occurs between 40 and 120 days of gestation the calf will be born persistently infected according to the U s. Department of agriculture.
The calf appears healthy but is what Chase refers to as a walking time bomb that can infect the entire herd.
It's like Typhoid Mary a BVDV Bossy he says. The animal will shed the virus for its entire life.
Approximately 0. 5 percent of all cattle in the United states are infected persistently according to Chase. Most cattle producers vaccinate yearly
but when testing is done anywhere from one to 15 percent of a herd can test positive.
BVDV spreads via direct contact through nasal discharge saliva such as when cows drink from a tank with unchlorinated water.
Identifying variationsin 2003-2004 the Antelope research station in northwestern South dakota bought 136 cattle and wound up with 60 persistently infected calves.
The surviving calves all of whom died of mucosal disease within a year provided Chase and his graduate researchers a gold mine of samples.
In some cases the virus incorporated part of a cow gene or another virus in the part of the genome in which most mutations take place Chase explains.
and assistant professor Adam Hoppe of SDSU Chemistry and Biochemistry Department are examining how BVDV suppresses the cow's immune response.
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