2018 November - 33 articles
In 2017 the Abruzzo region, located in central Italy, was struck by a sequence of four moderately powerful seismic events (5.0 magnitude on Richter scale), in addition to heavy snowfall that caused a state of emergency affecting the resident populati...
Low birth weight has profound implications for perinatal mortality and morbidity in lambs, causing higher mortality and lower growth potential. Low birth weight, as a consequence of fetal growth restriction, occurs in undernourished and multiple preg...
The occurrence of wounds in different anatomical regions, such as tail tip lesions, is an important welfare concern in farmed mink. This study investigated whether mechanical factors attributed to cage design in multilevel cages may be involved in th...
Donkeys have been reported to be highly sensitive to environmental changes. Their 8900–8400-year-old evolution process made them interact with diverse environmental situations that were very distant from their harsh origins. These changing situations...
The use of wild animals as photo props is prevalent across the globe and is widely recognised to represent a potential animal welfare concern. However, detailed information regarding the specific impacts of such activity on wild animal behaviour is c...
The British people voted to leave the European Union (EU) in a 2016 referendum. The United Kingdom (UK) has been a member of the EU since the Maastricht Treaty was signed in 1993 and before that a member of the European Communities (EC) since 1973. E...
The present study assessed the effect of dietary supplementation with coconut oil (CNO), watercress oil (WCO), and their mixture as promoters of growth, antioxidant status, immunity, and intestinal microbiota in growing rabbits. A total of 120 rabbit...
To identify differences in rumen function as a result of feeding monensin to beef cattle, rumen fluid metagenomics and metabolomics analyses were used to evaluate the functional attributes and metabolites of rumen microbiota in beef steers fed no or...
Free-range laying hen systems provide individuals a choice between indoor and outdoor areas where range use may be socially influenced. This study used radio-frequency identification technology to track the ranging of individually-tagged hens housed...
Immunoprophylaxis with a live anticoccidial vaccine is regarded as the most promising alternative in place of in-feed coccidiostats in the poultry industry. An experiment, designed as a 2 × 2 × 2 factorial arrangement with 6 replicate pens per treatm...
Land transport is an unavoidable experience for most livestock, yet there is limited research comparing animal welfare under different conditions. We video recorded sheep responses during short (2 h) commercial road transport journeys. Using Qualitat...
This qualitative study aims to investigate consumers’ perceptions toward dairy cow welfare in traditional mountain farms. While consumers’ understanding of conventional dairy production and animal welfare has already been investigated, how consumers...
Lawsonia intracellularis infections are a common reason for antibiotic treatment in pig production. Experimental studies in animals naturally infected with Lawsonia intracellularis comparing the course of an experimental Salmonella infection in pigle...
In the last years several studies have investigated the strong relation between nutrition and immune response in the livestock production, particularly in dairy cattle and sheep. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of supplementation ba...
In spring, transition from a total mixed ration (TMR) to pasture requires rumen adaptions for the cow. It had been shown that transition period does not necessarily mean an increased risk for subacute ruminal acidosis (SARA). After adaption to pastur...
We appreciate the interest [1] in our opinion paper [2] regarding companion animal obesity and, although there is limited published evidence, agree that some pet owners might respond negatively when this issue is addressed [...]
Extreme weather conditions challenge pig thermoregulation during transport and are addressed by the National Pork Board (NPB) Transport Quality Assurance® (TQA) program that provides guidelines for trailer boarding, bedding, and misting. These gu...
Growth differentiation factor 9 (GDF9) plays an important role in the early folliculogenesis of sheep. This study investigated the mRNA expression of ovine GDF9 in different tissues by real-time PCR. GDF9 exhibits significantly higher levels of expre...
The diversity of the Canadian equine industry makes determining baseline attitudes and beliefs a challenge. Adult members of the Canadian equine industry (n = 901) participated in an online survey to report demographic information and views on the ro...
Drawing on American Kennel Club (AKC) puppy registration numbers for approximately 82 varieties of pedigree dogs between 1926 and 2005, the current article analyses behavioural reports on 32,005 dogs of these varieties reported through the Canine Beh...
Use of low dose, prophylactic antibiotics contributes to the emergence of antibiotic resistant bacteria. In one study, goat meat in Missouri was found to have a higher percentage of antibiotic residues at slaughter than the national average, so we at...
Conditions of pet rabbit breeding colonies and breeder practices are undocumented and very little is known about the pet rabbit sales market. Here, multiple methods were employed to investigate this sector of the UK pet industry. A freedom of informa...
Shifts in ruminal oleic acid (OA) metabolism have received little research attention but recent studies have suggested their association with marine lipid-induced milk fat depression (MFD) in ewes and cows. Measurement of specific products of OA with...
Transport coops are infrequently washed and have been demonstrated to cross-contaminate broiler carcasses. We hypothesized that peracetic acid or a chlorinated cleaner, commonly used within poultry processing plants, can also be used to disinfect tra...
This study compared the effect of two vegetable oils and their feeding duration on pig backfat quality. The experiment was conducted with 60 DanBred pigs that were fed a diet supplemented (40 g/kg) with rapeseed or soybean oil for 2, 4 or 6 weeks bef...
Dairy precision technologies helps producers monitor individual animals. Reticulorumen temperature boluses are a way to monitor core body temperature; however, factors such as water intake affects reticulorumen temperature. This research determined t...
Early life socialization of piglets has been shown to reduce piglet aggression at weaning, but information on sow health and long-term benefits is lacking. We aimed to assess how socialization impacts sow udder quality and long-term pig behaviour and...
Social bond analysis is of major importance for the evaluation of social relationships in group housed horses. However, in equine behaviour literature, studies on social bond analysis are inconsistent. Mutual grooming (horses standing side by side an...
Arapaima gigas is a large air-breathing fish found in Amazonian rivers, a characteristic that gives this species an advantage in oxygen-deprived waters. It shows high potential for aquaculture in the Amazon region due to its fast growth rate that app...
Domestic cats (Felis catus) are popular pets worldwide and play an important role in the lives of many of their owners; however, there is growing awareness of the potential negative impacts of cats. Accordingly, there is increasing interest in pet ca...
The dietary methionine:cysteine (Met:Cys) ratio (MCR) is an important factor influencing the optimal growth of chickens. Therefore, this study aimed to contribute to the assessment of the optimal dietary MCR in diets with the complete replacement of...
Broad-scale abundance estimates of the southern hairy-nosed wombat population use a proxy measure based on counting the number of active burrows, which is multiplied by an index of ‘wombats/active burrow’. However, the extant indices were...
Grape pomace (GPO), the main by-product of the wine making process, is a rich source of polyphenols with potent antioxidant properties. Recently, GPO has emerged as a potential feed additive in livestock nutrition, with several reports describing its...
