Animals, Volume 9, Issue 11

Pre-weaning morality (PWM) is attributed to a poor creep area microclimate and causes major economic and productivity losses for the US swine industry. Piglets need supplementary heat to overcome a high surface area to body weight ratio and minimal t...

The identification of genomic regions and candidate genes associated with milk fatty acids contributes to better understand the underlying biology of these traits and enables breeders to modify milk fat composition through genetic selection. The main...

Sustainably produced poultry meat with consideration of animal health poses a challenge for broiler production. Low protein diets with high amounts of synthetic amino acids (AAs) like methionine (Met) are the consequence. In a five-week feeding trial...

This study compared the efficiency of commercial egg yolk-free (AndroMed, OPTIXcell) and egg yolk-supplemented (Triladyl, Steridyl) Tris-based extenders for semen cryopreservation in seven adult dromedary camels. The camel-specific extender SHOTOR wa...

This study was conducted to evaluate the toxic effects of cadmium (Cd) on the kidney function and bone development in laying hens. A total of 480 Hy-line laying hens aged 38 weeks were randomly allocated into five treatments, each of which included s...

Rumen temperature boluses are becoming increasingly used as a means of monitoring core body temperature for the detection of ill health. However, the effect of behavior on rumen temperature is largely unknown. This research investigates the impact of...

A low nitrogen utilization efficiency (NUE, the ratio of retained N to N intake) and high methane (CH₄) emissions of ruminants can lead to potentially high diet protein wastage and directly contribute to global warming. Diet manipulation is the most...

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of the combination of probiotics replacing antibiotics on growth performance, serum biochemical parameters, intestinal morphology, and expression of tight junction proteins in intestinal mucosa of...

Several non-invasive methods for assessing stress responses have been developed and validated for many animal species. Due to species-specific differences in metabolism and excretion of stress hormones, methods should be validated for each species. T...

Encephalitozoonosis is a common infectious disease widely spread among rabbits. Its causative agent, Encephalitozoon cuniculi, is considered as a zoonotic and emerging pathogen capable of infecting both immunocompetent and immunocompromised hosts, in...

Globally, China is one of the largest producers and exporters of meat, and animal welfare is an emerging focal issue for Chinese society and for primary producers. We assessed the effectiveness of a “train the trainer” program to increase...

Although flavonoids or yeast have been used as feed additives to improve the production efficiency and health of adult cattle, little information is available on their effects on rumen fermentation in calves. The objective of this study was to invest...

This review focuses on wolf sociobiology to delineate the traits of cooperative baggage driven by natural selection (wolf-wolf cooperation) and better understand the changes obtained by artificial selection (dog-human cooperation). We selected some b...

Natural plant extracts and probiotics has been proved as the most preferred and effective alternatives for antibiotics in animal feeding. The current study aimed to investigate the facilitating effect of tartary buckwheat flavonoids and Lactobacillus...

In the recent years, antioxidant properties of food products have become an important aspect for consumers. Milk is a very good source of easily absorbable proteins and minerals, as well as a valuable source of antioxidants. Lipocalin-2 (LCN2), given...

Acute stress induces an array of behavioural reactions in horses that vary between individuals. Attempts to relate behavioural patterns and physiological responses have not always given clear-cut results. Here, we measured the changes in a panel of s...

The thermal environment inside a rabbit house affects the physiological responses and consequently the production of the animals. Thus, models are needed to assist rabbit producers in decision-making to maintain the production environment within the...

Reptiles undergo worldwide decline driven mostly by habitat change. Detailed recognition of factors underlying spatial structure and habitat utilization is therefore a prerequisite of effective conservation of this group. While the body of data on sp...

Some domestic dogs aggressively guard resources. Canine resource guarding impacts public health through dog bites and affects dog welfare through adoption and euthanasia policies at animal shelters. However, little is known about the demographic char...

The early diagnosis of mastitis is an essential factor for the prompt detection of the animal for further actions. In fact, if not culled, infected cows must be segregated from the milking herd and milked last, or milked with separate milking units....

Spermatogenesis and hormones secretions are crucial endocrine and physiological process for maintaining the life. Royal Jelly (RJ) bioactive components are Major Royal Jelly Proteins (MRJPs), owing exceptional biological properties. However, the effe...

Available research on the link between domestic cats’ environment and welfare has primarily been conducted in animal shelters or research facilities; a better understanding of the welfare of cats living in homes is needed. This study measured t...

Population dynamics in the marine realm can shape species’ spatial structure and genetic variability between given geographical areas. Connectivity is an important factor of species’ population structure. In this study, we examined the genetic divers...

Costa Rican animal feed production is continually growing, with approximately 1,238,243 metric tons produced in 2018. Production-wise, pet cat and dog food are in fifth place (about 41,635 metric tons per year) amongst animal feeds, and it supplies u...

Within animal research and testing, the need for an effective Culture of Care is widely recognized and described in terms of an establishment-wide commitment to improving the implementation of the 3Rs, animal welfare, scientific quality, care of the...

This experiment aimed to evaluate meat quality, fatty acid profile in back-fat, and fecal microbiota of growing-finishing pigs fed with liquid enzymatically digested food waste. Fifty-six crossbred pigs (approximately 32.99 kg body weight) were assig...

Freemartinism in females born from heterosexual multiple pregnancies is characterized by the presence of XX/XY cell lines due to the formation of a shared blood system by anastomoses between fetal membranes of co–twins and leads to disturbed de...

Public attitudes towards cows and cow shelters in India need to be assessed in the contemporary context, as India is facing an overpopulation of street cows, leading to traffic hazards, public health issues, and pollution. We investigated the attitud...

The assessment of hoof conformation is important due to its recognized relationship with the biomechanical functionality of the hoof. Hoof conformation can be assessed using objective measures or subjective scores. However, to date, there are limited...

Thirty-six Assaf male lambs (29.4 ± 3.10 kg body weight (BW)) were used to study the feasibility of including urea (at 0, 0.6 or 0.95% of dry matter for Control, Urea1, and Urea2 diets, respectively) in substitution of soybean meal in fattenin...

Training in the design of animal experiments focuses all too often on those aspects which can be approached mathematically, such as the number of animals needed to deliver a robust result, allocation of group size, and techniques such as randomizatio...

This study examined the effects of two housing systems (free-range and box stalls) on recovery of energy balance after competition-like exercise in Standardbred horses. Eight adult geldings (mean age 11 years) were used. The study had a change-over d...

Glanzmann’s thrombasthenia (GT) is an autosomal recessive inherited disorder characterized by changes in platelet aggregation, leading to hemorrhage and epistaxis. To date, two independent mutations have been described in horses and associated...

There is increasing interest in utilizing meat inspection data to help inform farmers of the health and welfare of their herds. The aim of this study was to determine whether ante-mortem measures of welfare in beef and dairy cattle (N = 305) were ass...

The objective of this work was to evaluate whether changes in time of herbage allocation and herbage mass (HM) (low (L) or medium (M)) modify the diurnal pattern of urinary nitrogen (N) concentration and ruminal ammonia (NH₃) of lactating dairy cows....

Attention must be paid to C-section anesthesia effects on mother and offspring. Alfaxalone induction results in improved puppy viability when compared to propofol. The present study aims to evaluate effects of alfaxalone or propofol induction for ele...

Native breeds of ducks have been the subject of many studies in the past, yet the relevant knowledge is still incomplete and needs to be further expanded. The objective of this study was to provide information about differences in growth performance,...

Based on the previous GWAS research related to bovine heat tolerance trait, this study aimed to explore the effect of myosin-1a (MYO1A) gene on bovine heat tolerance trait, and find the molecular markers related to the heat tolerance of Chinese cattl...

Left Displacement of the Abomasum (LDA) is a condition that occurs in high-producing postpartum dairy cows and it causes economic losses. Studies performed in the last decade indicate that adult dairy cows experience oxidative stress. Increasing inte...

This study was conducted to investigate the effect of prebiotic supplementation against intestinal coccidiosis in rabbits. Fifty male rabbits aged 35–60 days (1–1.5 kg) were divided into prophylactic and therapeutic experiments (five grou...

This study aimed to evaluate the effects of four levels of crude glycerin (0, 50, 100, or 150 g/kg on a dry matter basis) on intake, digestibility, production performance, and ruminal parameters for finishing Boer crossbred goats. Thirty-two crossbre...

Several reproductive factors may affect milk yield in goats. The main aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of reproductive disorders, parity, and litter size, and their interactions on the 150-day standardized milk yield (SMY150) of low-pr...

This study considers the impact of dried distillers’ grain with solubles (DDGS) in diets of lambs. Randomly; 27 lambs were distributed to one of three diets. Diets were: a control diet (CON; n = 9), a 125 (DDGS125; n = 9) or a 250 g/kg DDGS (DD...

The European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) has been an important model for immunological studies but the study of its immunoglobulins (Ig) has been restricted to its unique IgA and IgG. Here, we studied the genetic diversity of IgM and IgE in severa...

Raw milk production in Taiwan has increased year after year, which means that the environmental impact might also be intensified in certain regions. To balance both consumer demand and environmental sustainability, evaluating the potential impact and...

There are conflicting reports regarding the effect of farrowing house accommodation on piglet performance. The aim of this investigation was to use a systematic review and meta-analyses to summarise the results of publications that focused on direct...

Hu sheep and Small-tailed Han sheep are the most widely raised and most famous maternal sheep breeds in China, which are known for precocious puberty, perennial oestrus and high fecundity (1–6 lambs each parity). Therefore, it is crucial to inc...

Over the last two decades, pigs have become animal biomodels widely used for the investigation and practice of surgical techniques because of their great physiological and anatomical similarities to humans. Even though many of these studies must be c...

Variations in climatic variables (temperature, humidity and solar radiation) negatively impact livestock growth, reproduction, and production. Heat stress, for instance, is a source of huge financial loss to livestock production globally. There have...

The aim of the present study was to classify and characterise pigs with tail lesions using a combined parameter based on the frequency and duration of tail lesions and to find out whether biologically relevant groups could be separated by cluster ana...