Special Issue "Application and Development of New Technologies in Breeding Healthy and Animals Resilience: Precision Livestock Farming, Genomics and Their Interaction Can Contribute to Sustainable Management of the Livestock Sector"
A special issue of Animals (ISSN 2076-2615). This special issue belongs to the section "Animal Genetics and Genomics".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 March 2024 | Viewed by 4112
Special Issue Editors
Interests: animal breeding; genomics; mathematical modeling; precision farming
Interests: sustainable livestock production; animal feeding and nutrition; precision livestock farming
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
In the recent years, the introduction, development, and application of sensors for the continuous monitoring of individual parameters and high-throughput molecular technologies, derived from human genome sequencing, have radically changed the animal production sector, and continue to do so.
The introduction of innovative technologies has been massive and has received ever-increasing attention both at a scientific and at practical level. This has allowed the livestock sector to increase production, ensuring animal welfare and the health and safety of products.
This Special Issue focuses on exploring, highlighting, and defining the potential of current technologies and their potential applications, in order to respond to the new needs of animal husbandry: feeding the planet while reducing environmental impacts. From this perspective, farmer income protection, job security, animal and human safety and welfare, and product quality are pivotal, and PLF may be a powerful tool.
Original research papers and reviews on PLF, genetics, and genomics are welcome. Particular attention will be paid to their synergy and technical and computational management, as well as their applications for different livestock species and in different breeding systems.
Dr. Roberto Steri
Dr. David Meo Zilio
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Animals is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2000 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- precision livestock farming
- precision feeding
- genomics
- genetics
- large ruminants
- small ruminants
- poultry
- rabbits
- welfare
- safety
- security
- resilience
- quality products
- Aquaculture and Aquaponics
Planned Papers
The below list represents only planned manuscripts. Some of these manuscripts have not been received by the Editorial Office yet. Papers submitted to MDPI journals are subject to peer-review.
Title: Increased ruminant feeding precision from automatic feeding systems: considerations on technology spread and farm level perceived advantages in Italy.
Authors: Elio Romano; Massimo Brambilla; Maurizio Cutini; Simone Giovinazzo; Andrea Lazzari; Aldo Calcante; FRANCESCO TANGORRA; Paolo Rossi; Ambra Motta; Carlo Bisaglia; Andrea Bragaglio
Affiliation: Council for Agricultural Research and Economics (CREA), Research Centre for Engineering and Agro-Food Processing. Via Milano 43, 24047, Treviglio (BG), Italy
Abstract: Automation reduces the impact of farming on climate change and helps farmers adapt to its financial impact. Automatic feeding systems (AFS) increase the ruminant’s feeding precision and ease operators’ workload. Such systems exist on a spectrum, requiring varied levels of operator support and installation complexity. A recent survey on farmers pointed out that those already running an AFS and those willing to buy it appreciate their easy-to-use, the resulting animal welfare and the overall benefits deriving from these (increased production, farm profitability and reduced feed waste). Whether technologically complex or not, studies confirm the benefits farmers perceive underlying the remarkable reduction in the environmental impact of feeding operations (AFS are electrically powered), and the increase in animal welfare resulting from reduced conflicts to access the feed bunk, and the constant availability of fresh feed. However, their introduction shall follow accurate and holistic structural and economic planning for existing and newly built facilities. The availability of public subsidies plays an essential role in pushing farmers to adopt the most modern digital technologies, whose benefits may even increase when farmers couple them with interconnected sensors to monitor animals’ physiological states.
Title: Review: Current status of genomic selection in dairy sheep
Authors: Antonello Carta, Sotero Salaris, Sara Casu, Mario Graziano Usai
Affiliation: Italy
Title: Review: What contribution can we expect from the adoption of PLF devices to support the mitigation of environmental impact on dairy farms?
Authors: Abeni Fabio Palmiro; Caré Sara
Affiliation: Italy
Title: Article: Application of Genomic Technologies for studying Beef traits and Meat Quality in Italian Simmental Cattle
Authors: Giustino Gaspa, Alberto Cesarani, Lorenzo Degano, Daniele Vicario, Alfredo Pauciullo, Nicolò Macciotta, Edi Piasentier
Affiliation: University of Turin, Torino
University of Sassari, Sassari
Italian Simmental Breeding Association, Udine
University of Udine, Udine
University of Georgia, Athens
Abstract: Abstract. Genetic improvement of meat traits in cattle is usually carried out on growth performances and muscularity scores of young bulls in performance test stations. In Italian Simmental (IS), genetic and genomic estimated breeding values for meat and milk traits are combined in a dual-purpose selection index. However, carcass and nutritional quality traits are excluded because expensive to measure and recorded after slaughtering. Our objective was to search for genomic variants associated to technological and nutritional quality of meat. To this aim, 119 IS young bulls were genotyped using GGP-HD v.2-150K that simultaneously interrogate about 139K single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP). After data editing, 117 calves and 120,188 SNPs on 29 chromosomes (chr) were analysed. The animals were unselected young bulls at performance test station at Fiume Veneto (Italy) slaughtered between 16-18 month of age. After measuring 7 carcass traits, longissimus thoracis m. was sampled and analysed for assessing meat quality (12 traits) and fatty acid composition (31 Traits). The traits examined were live weight at slaughterhouse (LW), Carcass Yield (CY, %) and centesimal composition, SEUROP, pH (48 h), Colour (48h, L*, a*, b*, c and h), cooking loss (CL7) and Warner-Bratzler share force 7 d post-slaughtering (WB7), the profile of 26 fatty acid (%) and their relevant sum and ratio (5 traits). Genome-wide association study (GWAS) were conducted using GenABEL package implemented in R software (v. 3.6.1) and candidate genes in QTL regions +/- 250kb interval were retrieved from Genome Browser (https://genome.ucsc.edu/). LW and CY were 664.8±42.6 kg and 56±2.2%. GWAS allows to detect QTL regions in 24/50 analysed traits and to suggest 238 candidate genes on 21 chr(s). The SNPs associated to pH, colour (b*, c) and fat% allows to target 34 genes. The fatty acid composition traits harboured the largest number of QTL. In summary, 196 genes in QTL region were retrieved for saturated, mono/poly-unsaturated fatty acids and relevant sum/ratios. SNP genotypes close to the FANS gene (chr19) were associated C14:0 and 5 genes located on BTA5 were related to 4 poly-unsaturated fatty acid (C20:2w6, C20:3w6, C20:4w6 and C22:4w6). In conclusion, GWAS allowed to identify a number of QTL region harbouring gene possibly affecting meat nutritional quality.