#First metritis vaccine protects dairy cowscornell scientists have created the first vaccines that can prevent metritis one of the most common cattle diseases.
Metritis develops after a cow gives birth when bacteria take advantage of the open vagina and cervix to settle in the uterus.
Infected cows suffer fever pain inflammation lack of appetite depression and reduced reproductive abilities. Metritis affects as many as 25 percent of the roughly 9 million dairy cows in the United states costing nearly $400 per case in lost productivity and treatment costs.
It is the number one cause of systemic antibiotic use which floods the whole body with antibiotics rather than just a specific region said Rodrigo Bicalho assistant professor of dairy production medicine at the College of Veterinary medicine.
and lessened its symptoms in the cows that received them showing promise for alternatives to antibiotics in addressing the disease.
Cows that were vaccinated with the subcutaneous vaccines had lower incidence of postpartum fever and puerperal metritis shorter disease periods and improved reproductive performance compared to those that did not receive the vaccines.
which is eaten then by the cattle and sheep that graze them. The concern is that
Brett Robinson a scientist with New zealand's Lincoln University recently published an article in the Mar 21 2014 edition of the Journal of Environmental Quality that gives some solutions to the problem.
Since the 2000s the frequency of wolf depredation on cattle has increased in Georgia and there were several reports of attacks on humans.
and have a greater protein efficiency rate than those from cow's milk or soya so they could be used to feed humans
and a bird that has claws on its wings and a stomach like a cow. The research published today in Current Biology the shows that Indonesia Australia
and a stomach like a cow while still another the Abbott's Booby breeds only on Christmas Island.
#Camels emit less methane than cows or sheepwhen digesting ruminants exhale methane. Their contribution to this global greenhouse gas is considerable.
Ruminant cows and sheep account for a major proportion of the methane produced around the world. Currently around 20 percent of global methane emissions stem from ruminants.
in absolute terms camels release less methane than cows and sheep of comparable body size.
These outlaws aren't rustling cattle--they're making milk sour and cheese soft and crumbly.
Likewise when cows were fed protein contaminated with bovine prions many of them developed mad cow disease. On the other hand transmission of prions between species for example from cows sheep or deer to humans is--fortunately--inefficient and only a small proportion of exposed recipients become sick within their lifetimes.
A study published on April 3rd in PLOS Pathogens takes a close look at one exception to this rule:
The scientists then exposed young mice to toxic misfolded prions from 8 different species including human cattle elk sheep and hamster.
and standardized approaches to meat preparation can prevent spread of diseases without the need to separate cattle from wildlife by fencing.
and plants and are renowned globally for fly fishing an industry worth more than £4m on the Rivers Test and Itchen (Hampshire) alone.
#Ancient African cattle first domesticated in Middle east, study revealsgeneticist and anthropologists previously suspected that ancient Africans domesticated cattle native to the African continent nearly 10000 years ago.
Now a team of University of Missouri researchers has completed the genetic history of 134 cattle breeds from around the world.
In the process of completing this history they found that ancient domesticated African cattle originated in the Fertile Crescent a region that covered modern day Iraq Jordan Syria and Israel.
Lead researcher Jared Decker an assistant professor of animal science in the MU College of Agriculture Food and Natural resources says the genetics of these African cattle breeds are similar to those of cattle first domesticated
in the middle East nearly 10000 years ago proving that those cattle were brought to Africa as farmers migrated south.
Those cattle then interbred with wild cattle or aurochs which were native to the region
and changed their genetic makeup enough to confuse geneticists. In their study published in PLOS Genetics Decker
and differences among the genetics of many different cattle breeds to determine how the breeds are related.
Their research found mixing of native cattle in Indonesia with imports from India European and African cattle in Italy and Spain and European and Asian cattle in Korea and Japan.
The MU researchers also determined that unique American cattle breeds such as Texas longhorns are the result of breeding between Spanish cattle transported from Europe by explorers in the 16th century and breeds of Zebu or Brahman cattle from India
In many ways the history of cattle genetics mirrors human history Decker said. In the case of African cattle anthropologists and geneticists used to suspect that domesticated African cattle were native to the continent
when in fact they were brought by migrating peoples thousands of years ago. By better understanding the history of the animals we domesticate we can better understand ourselves.
Decker also said that cattle breeding is important for animal farmers looking to maximize their herds'meat and dairy production.
He says that understanding the genetic history of cattle breeds is important when looking for solutions to agricultural issues.
Now that we have this more complete genetic history of cattle worldwide we can better understand the diversity of the species Decker said.
By understanding the variations present we can improve cattle for agricultural purposes whether that is through breeding more disease-resistant animals or finding ways to increase dairy or beef production.
#Goats are far more clever than previously thought, and have an excellent memorygoats learn how to solve complicated tasks quickly
Writing in the journal Frontiers in Zoology today (Wednesday 26 march) the scientists trained a group of goats to retrieve food from a box using a linked sequence of steps;
The goats'ability to remember the task was tested after one month and again at 10 months.
The speed at which the goats completed the task at 10 months compared to how long it took them to learn indicates excellent long-term memory said co-author Dr Elodie Briefer now based at ETH Zurich.
Before each learning session some of the goats had the opportunity to watch another goat to demonstrate the task.
This shows that goats prefer to learn on their own rather than by watching others. This is the first time that scientists have investigated how goats learn complex physical cognition tasks which could explain why they are so adaptable to harsh environments and good at foraging for plants in the wild for example.
Co-author Dr Alan Mcelligott from Queen Mary's School of Biological and Chemical sciences commented: Our results challenge the common misconception that goats aren't intelligent animals--they have the ability to learn complex tasks
and remember them for a long time. This could explain why they are so successful in colonising new environments
though we would need to perform a similar study with wild goats to be sure. The research was supported through a Swiss Federal Veterinary Office grant and Swiss National Science Foundation fellowship.
The data was collected at Buttercups Sanctuary for Goats in Kent. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Queen Mary University of London.
%Bristol City VA 1. 4%Benson County ND 1. 3%Grant County WV 1. 2%Hampshire County WV 1. 2
#Reducing E coli in cows, improving food safetya new biological treatment could help dairy cattle stave off uterine diseases
and eventually may help improve food safety for humans a University of Florida study shows. Kwang Cheol Jeong an assistant professor in animal sciences and UF's Emerging Pathogens Institute examined cattle uterine illnesses
because they can make cows infertile lower milk production and because those maladies are linked often to bacteria he said.
The UF researchers did their experiments in labs and at the Dairy Unit on the Gainesville campus. Jeong and his research team infused chitosan microparticles â an antimicrobial material derived from dissolved shrimp shells â into diseased cow uteri.
When bought in stores chitosan can be used to treat many ailments from obesity to anemia. On its own chitosan only works at acidic ph levels Jeong said.
For cattle Jeong's team developed chitosan microparticles which work in acidic and neutral ph
because cattle uteri have a neutral ph. The study's findings suggest chitosan microparticles kill bacteria in the uteri he said.
#Bighorn sheep went extinct on desert island in Gulf of Californiausing ancient DNA analysis and other techniques a research team led by conservation biologists at the University of California Riverside has determined that bighorn sheep so named for their massive spiral horns became extinct on Tiburã n Island a large and mostly uninhabited island just
off Sonora Mexico in the Gulf of california sometime in the last millennium--specifically between the 6th and 19th centuries.
because conventional wisdom among wildlife biologists and the indigenous Seri people who long inhabited this coastal desert region was had that bighorn sheep not occupied Tiburã n Island before 1975
when sixteen female and four male bighorn sheep were introduced deliberately. This introduction--viewed until now as an introduction of an alien species into a previously unoccupied ecosystem--was aimed at fostering a large breeding population at a safe site that could be used in restocking the mainland where historic land use decimated native bighorn sheep populations.
Introduction success was expected on Tiburã n Island given the suitable habitat lack of predators absence of domestic sheep
and their diseases and minimal human disturbance said Benjamin Wilder a Ph d. graduate student in UC Riverside's Department of Botany
and extinct herbivores to determine that bighorn sheep formed the dung mat. This determination was confirmed later by conservation geneticists at Oregon State university who used specialized techniques to extract
Further the DNA sequences were not identical to the modern bighorn populations on Tiburã n Island giving confidence to the researchers'claim that the sequences do not derive from modern use of the cave by introduced bighorn sheep.
How should the reintroduction of bighorn sheep on Tiburã n Island be regarded? Is it a restoration or a biological invasion?
With extended biological baselines such as the knowledge that the Tiburã n bighorn sheep went extinct before it is possible to refine conservation targets he said.
Given the cultural and conservation significance of the Tiburã n bighorn actions can be taken to avoid their past fate.
The findings are published in Springer's journal Animal Cognition. The research was conducted on dogs that would willingly eat cheese
The above story is provided based on materials by Springer. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
or up their trunks whilst calves could potentially be killed by a swarm of stinging bees as they have yet to develop a thick protective skin.
Cows for example would be threatened by heat stress and the dryness would be a problem for the forests.
#Africans ability to digest milk linked to spread of cattle raisingbabies are born with the ability to digest lactose the sugar found in milk
which raised cattle and consumed the animals'fresh milk. The research was led by Alessia Ranciaro a postdoctoral fellow in Penn's Department of Genetics in the Perelman School of medicine
It requires participants to fast overnight have measured their blood sugar then drink a sweet beverage containing the equivalent lactose of one to two liters of cow's milk
The distinct geographic patterns in which these variants were present correlate in many cases with historic human migrations mixing between populations as well as the spread of cattle camels or sheep.
The age of this genetic mutation is estimated to be 5000-12300 years old coinciding with the origins of cattle domestication in North africa and the Middle east.
#Concerns raised about using beta agonists in beef cattleuse of certain animal drugs known as beta agonists in cattle production has received considerable national attention.
although there are significant societal benefits to the practice an increase in death loss of cattle raises questions about welfare implications of its use.
and Drug Administration for use in cattle increase muscle growth and may reduce the amount of fat the cattle accumulates he said.
This means the cattle converts more of the feed it eats into beef and it does this more efficiently.
The article is authored co by Daniel Thomson and Morgan Scott of Kansas State university and is titled Increased mortality in groups of cattle administered the Î-adrenergic agonists ractopamine hydrochloride and zilpaterol hydrochloride.
With the use of beta agonists cattle require less feed and less water to produce the same amount of beef than
if no beta agonists were used. Less land would be used to grow the crops used to feed the animals
However through our extensive analysis we found that the incidence of death among cattle administered beta agonists was 75 to 90 percent greater than cattle not administered the beta agonists Loneragan said.
Grandin generally speaks on issues at the slaughter houses with lame cattle due to beta agonists
Dr. Hartwell Welsh Jr. research wildlife biologist at the U s. Forest Service's Pacific Southwest Research Station (PSW) helped conduct a study in Northwestern Calif. that examined how woodland salamander
The renowned evolutionary biologist E. O. Wilson once said it is the little things that run the world Dr. Welsh said.
At the same time grasslands worldwide are being converted to pastures for domestic animals with native grazers like elk and antelope giving way to cattle and sheep.
At others they'd been replaced mostly by domestic animals like cattle goats and sheep. And still others were former pastures where livestock had browsed in the past
cattle pronghorn and elk on North america's Great plains; wildebeests and impala on Africa's Serengeti;
and horses sheep and ibex in rural India. In places where the only grazers were small animals like rabbits voles
and gophers the grazers'effect was weak and variable. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by University of Maryland.
and found those that had calves before the age of 19 were almost two times more likely to die before the age of 50 than those that had their first offspring later.
However elephants that entered motherhood at an earlier age had more calves following their teenage years than those that started reproducing after the age of 19.
The team also found elephants that gave birth twice in their teenage years had calves three times more likely to survive to independence than those born to mothers who had their first young after the age of 19.
Therefore although having calves as a teenager reduced a mother's lifespan early reproduction was favoured by natural selection
Eight strategies to cut the environmental and economic costs of keeping livestock such as cows goats
European and North american Holstein dairy cows can produce 30 litres of milk a day. Thousands of these animals have been exported to Asia
and sub-optimal housing the cows produce much less milk and the costs of feed and husbandry far exceed those of native breeds.
A cow produces up to 70 kg of manure per day providing enough fertilizer in a year for one hectare of wheat equivalent to 128 kg of synthetic nitrogen that might
An important way to create more self-managing ecosystems with a high level of biodiversity is to make room for large herbivores in the European landscape--and possibly reintroduce animals such as wild cattle bison and even elephants.
They are also at great risk due to climate change and other human interference such as mining cattle ranching and agriculture.
#Bison ready for new pastures? Protocol used to demonstrate brucellosis-free bison from infected herdsa new study from the USDA Animal
and Plant Health Inspection Services (APHIS) and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) demonstrates that it is possible to qualify bison coming from an infected herd as free of brucellosis using quarantine procedures.
These bison can then be used to seed conservation herds in other landscapes without the threat of spreading the disease.
In response to Interagency Bison Management Plan (IBMP) guidelines on federal and state bison management actions the USDA APHIS Brucellosis Eradication:
Uniform Methods and Rules protocol for the quarantine of bison was tested to see if it could successfully be used to qualify the animals as brucellosis-free.
Results of the study indicated that it is feasible to take young bison from an infected population
and using the approved quarantine protocol published as a Federal Uniform Method and Rule (UM &r) qualify them as brucellosis-free in less than three years.
Between 2005 and 2008 more than 200 bison calves of Yellowstone national park origin were transported to a quarantine facility at Corwin Springs Montana just outside Yellowstone national park.
and birthing events all animals testing negative were held until they produced their first calf and showed no evidence of the disease in newborn calves birth fluids or blood.
At that point the bison were considered brucellosis-free. The study showed that all bison continued to be brucellosis-free over the course of the seven-year study after the initial screening period and through several calving cycles.
No evidence of brucellosis was found in either newborn calves or their mothers. The results of this study indicate that under the right conditions there is an opportunity to produce live brucellosis-free bison from even a herd with a large number of infected animals like the one in Yellowstone national park said Dr. Jack
Rhyan APHIS Veterinary Officer. Additionally this study was a great example of the benefits to be gained from several agencies pooling resources
and expertise to research the critical issue of brucellosis in wildlife. The authors of the study note that agencies charged with the management of bison agree that capture
and relocation of bison to other suitable habitats would be an appropriate alternative to the lethal removal of bison that exceed population objectives for Yellowstone national park as defined by the IMBP.
The UM &r protocol could facilitate such relocation by demonstrating animals are disease-free and would not transmit brucellosis to cattle or other animals.
At the same time a movement to ecologically restore bison to large landscapes is gaining momentum throughout the United states
and Canada and brucellosis-free bison may be needed to seed those landscapes. In particular the genetics of Yellowstone bison are important
because they are known to be free of cattle genes and represent bison that existed on the Great plains for thousands of years.
WCS Bison Project Coordinator Keith Aune said This study represents an important milestone in bison conservation
and these research findings enable us to practice genetic rescue from brucellosis infected bison herds.
The Yellowstone animals passing through this system of testing are critical to conserving the diversity of the bison genome over the long term.
We've also learned a great deal about brucellosis blood testing and how to better interpret results when screening animals for this disease.
It is our hope that several satellite herds of Yellowstone bison can be assembled from the animals that graduate through this quarantine process.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Wildlife Conservation Society. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
Journal Reference e
#Majority of children unaware of cigarette warning labels, international study showsan international study of children's perceptions of cigarette package warning labels found that the majority of children are unaware
that they exist. Children in countries where larger warning labels are used and which include a compelling graphic image of the negative health impacts of smoking were more likely to be aware of
Large herd animals like bison or mammoths likely lived on the highland steppe tundra because they graze.
because they competed with cattle so farmers would let them graze unattended in the forests.
#Male goat essence really turns the females onanyone who has spent ever time around goats knows they have a certain smell.
By carefully analyzing eau de male goat researchers reporting in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on February 27 have identified now a novel citrus-scented ingredient that speaks directly to the females.
It acts on female goats'brains to turn their reproductive systems on. The study is the first to uncover a pheromone that activates the central reproductive axis according to the researchers.
Although the work was done in goats the researchers say there is reason to think the findings will apply to other livestock and perhaps even to humans too.
In goats the researchers already knew it is the hair of males not the urine that shows male effect pheromone activity.
Organic solvent extracts of male goat hair retain that activity but a specific primer pheromone remained unidentified.
They discovered that male goat pheromone is synthesized primarily in the head skin so the researchers collected the scent they were after using a custom-made head cap.
After collecting volatiles for one week from normal and castrated male goats the researchers chemically analyzed
Those analyses uncovered several chemicals specific to intact male goats including one in particular 4-ethyloctanal with the power to activate the gonadotropin-releasing hormone pulse generator in the female brain
The researchers were able to show the effects of that ingredient using a method they developed for real-time electrophysiological monitoring of a key part of the goats'brains.
We are tempted to speculate that this is a clever reproductive strategy of the male goat to alter behavior
#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
Cows sheep and goats grow more quickly and produce more milk when they eat energy-rich diets that include grain supplements or improved forages.
#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
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
It turns out that cows make a very unusual kind of antibody different from anything scientists have seen ever before
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.
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