Search Results (203)

The present study evaluated the effect of adding 0% (control), 30%, 40% and 50% SPMs (small-peptide chelating trace minerals) to replace ITMs (inorganic trace minerals) in the diets of Litopenaeus vannamei; 720 shrimp were randomly assigned to four treatments (six replicates per group, 30 shrimp per replicate) in a 42-day feeding trial. There were no significant differences (p > 0.05) among the control, 40% SPM and 50% SPM groups in terms of the survival rate, weight gain rate, specific growth rate, hepatosomatic index, condition factor, feed intake, feed conversion ratio, or protein efficiency ratio; however, protein efficiency ratio was reduced in the 30% SPM group (p < 0.05). Glucose, triglyceride, and aspartate aminotransferase levels in the hemolymph of the 30% SPM group were significantly increased (p < 0.05), while the glucose and aspartate aminotransferase levels were also significantly increased in the 40% SPM group (p < 0.05). In the 50% SPM group, the glucose and triglyceride levels were also significantly increased (p < 0.05). Hepatopancreatic alkaline phosphatase activity was elevated at 40% SPM, and alkaline phosphatase, acid phosphatase, glutathione peroxidase, and total antioxidant capacity activities were significantly increased in the 50% SPM group (p < 0.05). The moisture content and drip loss were reduced in both the 40% and 50% SPM groups (p < 0.05). Therefore, replacing 40–50% ITMs with SPMs can maintain growth performance while enhancing physiological functions. In conclusion, the results of this study demonstrate that the incorporation of 30–50% SPMs into one’s diet constitutes a viable alternative to 100% ITMs. Full article

Leptospirosis is a globally significant zoonosis affecting animal health, productivity, and the environment. While typically associated with tropical climates, its persistence in semi-arid regions such as La Laguna, Mexico—characterized by low humidity, high temperatures, and limited water sources—remains poorly understood. Although these adverse environmental conditions theoretically limit the survival of Leptospira, high livestock density and synanthropic reservoirs (e.g., rodents) may compensate, facilitating transmission. In this cross-sectional study, blood sera from 445 dairy cows (28 herds: 12 intensive [MI], 16 semi-intensive [MSI] systems) were analyzed via microscopic agglutination testing (MAT) against 10 pathogenic serovars. Urine samples were cultured for active Leptospira detection. Risk factors were assessed through epidemiological surveys and multivariable analysis. This study revealed an overall apparent seroprevalence of 27.0% (95% CI: 22.8–31.1), with significantly higher rates in MSI (54.1%) versus MI (12.2%) herds (p < 0.001) and an estimated true seroprevalence of 56.3% (95% CI: 50.2–62.1) in MSI and 13.1% (95% CI: 8.5–18.7) in MI herds (p < 0.001). The Sejroe serogroup was isolated from urine in both systems, confirming active circulation. In MI herds, rodent presence (OR: 3.6; 95% CI: 1.6–7.9) was identified as a risk factor for Leptospira seropositivity, while first-trimester abortions (OR:10.1; 95% CI: 4.2–24.2) were significantly associated with infection. In MSI herds, risk factors associated with Leptospira seropositivity included co-occurrence with hens (OR: 2.8; 95% CI: 1.5–5.3) and natural breeding (OR: 2.0; 95% CI: 1.1–3.9), whereas mastitis/agalactiae (OR: 2.8; 95% CI: 1.5–5.2) represented a clinical outcome associated with seropositivity. Despite semi-arid conditions, Leptospira maintains transmission in La Laguna, particularly in semi-intensive systems. The coexistence of adapted (Sejroe) and incidental serogroups underscores the need for targeted interventions, such as rodent control in MI systems and poultry management in MSI systems, to mitigate both zoonotic and economic impacts. Full article

Avian pathogenic Escherichia coli (APEC) poses a global threat to poultry health and public safety due to its high lethality, limited treatment options, and potential for zoonotic transmission via the food chain. However, long-term genomic surveillance remains limited, especially in countries like China where poultry farming is highly intensive. This study aimed to characterize the population structure, virulence traits, and antimicrobial resistance of 81 APEC isolates from diseased chickens collected over 16 years from Shandong and neighboring provinces in eastern China. The isolates were grouped into seven Clermont phylogroups, with A and B1 being dominant. MLST revealed 27 STs, and serotyping identified 29 O and 16 H antigens, showing high genetic diversity. The minor phylogroups (B2, C, D, E, G) encoded more virulence genes and had higher virulence-plasmid ColV carriage, with enrichment for iron-uptake, protectins, and extraintestinal toxins. In contrast, the dominant phylogroups A and B1 primarily carried adhesin and enterotoxin genes. Antimicrobial resistance was widespread: 76.5% of isolates were multidrug-resistant. The minor phylogroups exhibited higher tetracycline resistance (mediated by tet(A)), whereas the major phylogroups showed increased resistance to third- and fourth-generation cephalosporins (due to bla_CTX-M-type ESBL genes). These findings offer crucial data for APEC prevention and control, safeguarding the poultry industry and public health. Full article

Apigenin and sodium butyrate have been reported to help alleviate oxidative stress. This study evaluated the jejunal transcriptomic responses in ducks receiving apigenin and sodium butyrate supplementation under oxidative stress. In total, 200 healthy 300-day-old female Jinyun Ma ducks (1.53 kg ± 0.15) were randomly divided into four groups, with five replicates per group. The groups were as follows: a control group (CON): ducks were fed a basal diet with sterile saline injection; a diquat-injection (DIQ) group: ducks were fed a basal diet with diquat injection; an apigenin plus diquat group (API): ducks were fed a basal diet containing apigenin (500 mg/kg) with diquat injection; and a sodium butyrate plus diquat group (SB): ducks were fed a basal diet containing sodium butyrate (500 mg/kg) with diquat injection. The injection dose of diquat is 8 mg/kg body weight. Analysis revealed that the dietary supplementation of apigenin and sodium butyrate reduced malondialdehyde (MDA) levels and increased total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC) (p < 0.05). Compared to the DIQ group, sodium butyrate supplementation during oxidative stress elevated jejunal villus height and villus height/crypt depth ratio in ducks (p < 0.05). The study identified that some candidate genes, including solute carrier family 4 member 3 (SLC4A3), ADAM metallopeptidase domain 12 (ADAM12), and B-cell lymphoma 2-associated-athanogene 3 (BAG3), were significantly upregulated, whereas claudin 23 (CLDN23) and glucose-6-phosphatase catalytic subunit 1 (G6PC1) were markedly downregulated in the API group in comparison with that in the DIQ group (p < 0.05). Collectively, our findings provide molecular evidence for the beneficial effects of apigenin and sodium butyrate against oxidative stress in the jejunum of ducks. Full article

Artificial intelligence and bioacoustics represent a paradigm shift in non-invasive poultry welfare monitoring through advanced vocalization analysis. This comprehensive systematic review critically examines the transformative evolution from traditional acoustic feature extraction—including Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCCs), spectral entropy, and spectrograms—to cutting-edge deep learning architectures encompassing Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs), Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) networks, attention mechanisms, and groundbreaking self-supervised models such as wav2vec2 and Whisper. The investigation reveals compelling evidence for edge computing deployment via TinyML frameworks, addressing critical scalability challenges in commercial poultry environments characterized by acoustic complexity and computational constraints. Advanced applications spanning emotion recognition, disease detection, and behavioral phenotyping demonstrate unprecedented potential for real-time welfare assessment. Through rigorous bibliometric co-occurrence mapping and thematic clustering analysis, this review exposes persistent methodological bottlenecks: dataset standardization deficits, evaluation protocol inconsistencies, and algorithmic interpretability limitations. Critical knowledge gaps emerge in cross-species domain generalization and contextual acoustic adaptation, demanding urgent research prioritization. The findings underscore explainable AI integration as essential for establishing stakeholder trust and regulatory compliance in automated welfare monitoring systems. This synthesis positions acoustic AI as a cornerstone technology enabling ethical, transparent, and scientifically robust precision livestock farming, bridging computational innovation with biological relevance for sustainable poultry production systems. Future research directions emphasize multi-modal sensor integration, standardized evaluation frameworks, and domain-adaptive models capable of generalizing across diverse poultry breeds, housing conditions, and environmental contexts while maintaining interpretability for practical farm deployment. Full article

The presence of aggressive behavior in livestock creates major difficulties for animal welfare, farm safety, economic performance and selective breeding. The two innovative tools of deep learning-based video analysis and transcriptomic profiling have recently appeared to aid the understanding and monitoring of such behaviors. This scoping review assesses the current use of these two methods for aggression research across livestock species and identifies trends while revealing unaddressed gaps in existing literature. A scoping literature search was performed through the PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science databases to identify articles from 2014 to April 2025. The research included 268 original studies which were divided into 250 AI-driven behavioral phenotyping papers and 18 transcriptomic investigations without any studies combining both approaches. Most research focused on economically significant species, including pigs and cattle, yet poultry and small ruminants, along with camels and fish and other species, received limited attention. The main developments include convolutional neural network (CNN)-based object detection and pose estimation systems, together with the transcriptomic identification of molecular pathways that link to aggression and stress. The main barriers to progress in the field include inconsistent behavioral annotation and insufficient real-farm validation together with limited cross-modal integration. Standardized behavior definitions, together with multimodal datasets and integrated pipelines that link phenotypic and molecular data, should be developed according to our proposal. These innovations will speed up the advancement of livestock welfare alongside precision breeding and sustainable animal production. Full article

As a crucial characteristic waterfowl breed, the egg-laying performance of Lion-Headed Geese serves as a core indicator for precision breeding. Under large-scale flat rearing and selection practices, high phenotypic similarity among individuals within the same pedigree coupled with traditional manual observation and existing automation systems relying on fixed nesting boxes or RFID tags has posed challenges in achieving accurate goose–egg matching in dynamic environments, leading to inefficient individual selection. To address this, this study proposes YOLO-Goose, an improved YOLOv8s-based method, which designs five high-contrast neck rings (DoubleBar, Circle, Dot, Fence, Cylindrical) as individual identifiers. The method constructs a lightweight model with a small-object detection layer, integrates the GhostNet backbone to reduce parameter count by 67.2%, and employs the GIoU loss function to optimize neck ring localization accuracy. Experimental results show that the model achieves an F1 score of 93.8% and mAP50 of 96.4% on the self-built dataset, representing increases of 10.1% and 5% compared to the original YOLOv8s, with a 27.1% reduction in computational load. The dynamic matching algorithm, incorporating spatiotemporal trajectories and egg positional data, achieves a 95% matching rate, a 94.7% matching accuracy, and a 5.3% mismatching rate. Through lightweight deployment using TensorRT, the inference speed is enhanced by 1.4 times compared to PyTorch-1.12.1, with detection results uploaded to a cloud database in real time. This solution overcomes the technical bottleneck of individual selection in flat rearing environments, providing an innovative computer-vision-based approach for precision breeding of pedigree Lion-Headed Geese and offering significant engineering value for advancing intelligent waterfowl breeding. Full article

Controlling low ambient temperatures and ammonia levels is critical for effective environmental management in poultry houses during winter, as both represent persistent stressors affecting bird health and productivity. However, evidence regarding their combined long-term effects on the physiological responses of laying hens remains limited. In this study, 576 eighteen-week-old Hy-Line Brown hens were randomly assigned to six treatments (8 replicates with 12 birds per replicate each treatment) and housed in environmentally controlled chambers for 20 weeks: T1 (8 °C, ≤5 ppm ammonia), T2 (8 °C, 20 ppm ammonia), T3 (8 °C, 45 ppm ammonia), T4 (20 °C, ≤5 ppm ammonia; control), T5 (20 °C, 20 ppm ammonia), and T6 (20 °C, 45 ppm ammonia). Plasma samples were collected at 22, 26, 30, 34, and 38 weeks to evaluate physiological stress biomarkers (corticosterone, CORT; total antioxidant capacity, T-AOC), immunoglobulins (IgG, IgM, and IgA), and reproductive hormones (luteinizing hormone, LH; follicle-stimulating hormone, FSH; estradiol, E2). At 38 weeks, hypothalamus, pituitary, and spleen tissues were collected to assess the relative mRNA expression of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH), FSH, tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), and interleukins (IL-1β, IL-6, and IL-10). Results showed that both cold and ammonia stress reduced antioxidant capacity, disrupted immune homeostasis, and altered reproductive hormone profiles. Cold exposure induced acute immunoendocrine alterations with partial physiological adaptation over time, whereas ammonia exerted progressive and cumulative damage, including elevated immunoglobulins (IgG and IgM) and downregulation of GnRH and FSH expression. Combined exposure significantly upregulated TNF-α and IL-1β expression, suggesting a synergistic inflammatory response. These results highlight complex, parameter-specific interactions between cold and ammonia stressors, emphasizing the need for targeted environmental strategies. Stage-specific interventions—thermal regulation in early laying and ammonia control in later phases—are recommended to safeguard hen health and optimize productivity under winter conditions. Full article

This study investigated the effects of potassium magnesium sulfate (PMS) on intestinal dissociation and absorption rate, immune function, and expression of the NOD-like receptor thermal domain-associated protein 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome, aquaporins (AQPs), and potassium and magnesium ion channels in weaned piglets. Experiment 1 involved the assessment of the dissociation rate of PMS in pig digestive fluid and the absorption rate of PMS in the small intestine using an Ussing chamber in vitro. In Experiment 2, 216 healthy 21-day-old weaned piglets were selected and randomly assigned to six groups (0%, 0.15%, 0.30%, 0.45%, 0.60%, and 0.75% PMS), with each group 6 replicates of six piglets per replicate. The in vitro Ussing chamber results indicated that the absorption of K⁺ and Mg²⁺ in the jejunum and ileum was significantly higher than that in the duodenum (p < 0.05). The in vivo study demonstrated that the addition of PMS resulted in a linear increase in serum K⁺, IgG, and interleukin (IL)-2 levels while simultaneously reducing serum IL-1β levels (p < 0.05). Dietary PMS significantly elevated serum IL-10 and Mg²⁺ levels in feces (p < 0.05). Furthermore, supplementation with 0.60% or 0.75% PMS significantly downregulated the mRNA expression of NLRP3 in the jejunum (p < 0.05). Dietary PMS supplementation linearly reduced the mRNA expression levels of cysteine protease 1 (Caspase-1) and IL-1β in both the jejunum and colon as well as the mRNA expression levels of two-pore domain channel subfamily K member 5 (KCNK5) in these regions (p < 0.05). Notably, supplementation with 0.15% PMS significantly decreased the mRNA expression of transient receptor potential channel 6 (TRPM6) in the jejunum and significantly increased the expression of TRPM6 in the colon (p < 0.05). Dietary addition of 0.45% and 0.60% PMS significantly increased the mRNA expression of aquaporin 3 (AQP3) in the colon (p < 0.05), whereas 0.75% PMS significantly increased the mRNA expression of aquaporin 8 (AQP8) in both the jejunum and colon. Moreover, the expression levels of AQP3 and AQP8 were significantly negatively correlated with the diarrhea rate observed between days 29 and 42. In conclusion, dietary PMS supplementation improved immune function, inhibited the activation of intestinal NLRP3, and modulated the expression of water and ion channels in weaned piglets, thereby contributing to the maintenance of intestinal water and ion homeostasis, which could potentially alleviate post-weaning diarrhea in piglets. The recommended supplemental level of PMS in the corn-soybean basal diet for weaned piglets is 0.30%. Full article

Alpha-ketoglutaric acid (AKG) is a key intermediate in the tricarboxylic acid cycle and plays a crucial role in energy production and amino acid metabolism. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of AKG on growth performance, nutrient digestibility, plasma biochemical parameters, and plasma amino acid profiles in weaned piglets. A total of 72 weaned piglets with an average weight of 7.33 kg (±0.50 kg) and an average age of 28 (±2 days) were randomly assigned to 3 dietary treatments with 6 replicates per group in a 42-day trial. The treatments included a basal diet (CT), a basal diet with 500 g/t AKG (AKG1), and a basal diet with 1000 g/t AKG (AKG2). Blood samples were collected on days 14 and 42, and fecal samples were collected on day 42. The results showed that diets including 500 g/t and 1000 g/t AKG significantly reduced diarrhea incidence in piglets compared to the CT group (p < 0.01). Moreover, diets including 1000 g/t AKG enhanced fecal dry matter digestibility, plasma albumin (ALB), and glucose (GLU) concentrations on day 42 compared to the AKG1 group (p < 0.05). In conclusion, diets including AKG reduced diarrhea incidence in weaned piglets, potentially through improved nutrient digestibility and enhanced systemic health. The 1000 g/t level exhibited greater beneficial effects than 500 g/t. Full article

Water security is a basic requirement of a region’s residents and also an important point of discussion worldwide. The middle route of the south-to-north water diversion project (MR-SNWDP) represents the most extensive inter-basin water allocation scheme globally. It is the major water resource for the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region, and its security is of great significance. In this study, 28 indicators including society, nature, and economy were selected from the water sources of the MR-SNWDP from 2000 to 2017. According to the Drivers-Pressures-States-Impact-Response (DPSIR) framework principle, the entropy weight method was used for weight calculation, and the comprehensive evaluation method was used for evaluating the water security of the water sources of the MR-SNWDP. This study showed that the total loss of nonpoint source pollution (NPSP) in the water source showed a trend of slow growth, except in 2007. Over the past 18 years, the proportion of pollution from three NPSP sources, livestock, and poultry (LP) breeding industry, planting industry, and living sources, were 44.56%, 40.33%, and 15.11%, respectively. The main driving force of water security in all the areas of the water source was the total net income per capita of farmers. The main pressure was the amount of LP breeding and the amount of fertilizer application. The largest impact indicators were NPSP gray water footprint and soil erosion area, and water conservancy investment was the most effective response measure. Overall, the state of the water source safety was relatively stable, showing an overall upward trend, and it had remained at Grade III except for in 2005, 2006, and 2011. The state of water safety in all areas except Shiyan City was relatively stable, where the state of water safety had fluctuated greatly. Based on the assessment findings, implications for policy and decision-making suggestions for sustainable management of the water sources of the MR-SNWDP resources are put forward. Agricultural cultivation in water source areas should reduce the application of chemical fertilizers and accelerate the promotion of agricultural intensification. Water source areas should minimize retail livestock and poultry farming and promote ecological agriculture. The government should increase investment in water conservancy and return farmland to forests and grasslands, and at the same time strengthen the education of farmers’ awareness of environmental protection. The evaluation system of this study combined indicators such as the impact of agricultural nonpoint source pollution on water bodies, which is innovative and provides a reference for the water safety evaluation system. Full article

The Yellow River Basin in China is the region with the most severe agricultural non-point source pollution. The control of agricultural non-point source pollution is an important task for ecological protection and high-quality development in the Yellow River Basin at present and in the near future. This paper takes the eight provinces located along the Yellow River, except Sichuan, as the research object. This study estimates the total amount, intensity, and structure of agricultural non-point source pollution from 2014 to 2023 by adopting quantitative methods such as the pollutant discharge coefficient method, the equivalent pollution load method, and so on. The results reveal that the total amount of non-point source pollution of the Yellow River Basin has risen from approx. 4.94 million tons in 2014 to approx. 7.45 million tons in 2023. However, the growth rate has decelerated over the past five years, and the pollution intensity has decreased by 15~40% on average. The characteristics of agricultural non-point source pollution presents as follows: chemical oxygen demand (COD) emissions have become the most significant pollutant, accounting for 90% of the total pollution; livestock and poultry breeding has become the main source of pollution; and the key areas of pollution have shifted from the lower reaches to the middle and upper reaches, but the regional differences have been narrowing, as measured by the Gini coefficient. An analysis of the Kuznets curve indicates that most of the provinces in the Yellow River Basin still depend on an extensive growth model characterized by high input, high emission, and low output. Finally, this paper proposes a classified governance and measurement system for regions and sources, aiming to enhance the agricultural non-point source pollution prevention and control system. It also advocates for accelerating the green transformation of agricultural production in the Yellow River Basin to achieve the rapid decoupling of pollution emission from economic growth. Full article

Semen cryopreservation is a crucial technology in the artificial insemination of livestock and poultry. It not only contributes to the conservation of germplasm resources but also facilitates the cross-regional exchange of high-quality breeding stock. In this study, 165 Duroc boars were selected for genome-wide genotyping, and the sperm freezing/thawing motility ratio (sperm recovery rate) was used as phenotypic data for genome-wide association analysis (GWAS). Considerable individual variations in sperm recovery rates (SRRs) were detected, and the sperm structure after cyropreservation was significantly better in highly freeze-tolerant individuals compared to non-freeze-tolerant ones. The heritability of the SRR was calculated and found to be 0.199 ± 0.158, representing low heritability. Through GWAS, eight single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) loci and four candidate genes (SLC10A6, MYRF, GGA1, and UTRN) were identified as being significantly associated with sperm freezing tolerance. Moreover, the dominant genotypes of four SNPs were finally determined to be valuable for identifying individuals with high sperm freezing tolerance. This study reveals the heritability of the sperm recovery rate and identifies molecular markers associated with sperm freezing tolerance in Duroc boars, which is of great significance for accelerating boar genetic improvement and enhancing the economic efficiency of pig breeding industry. Full article

This study delves into the mapping method for the navigation system of a chicken coop disinfection robot. It systematically analyzes the problems of insufficient effective particle count, high particle repetition rate in environmental map information, and penetration phenomenon in traditional SLAM laser point cloud mapping technology in chicken coop environments containing multiple layers of chicken cages. To address these issues, this paper proposes an optimized mapping method based on an improved ICP algorithm, significantly improving the laser point clouds’ registration performance. At the same time, by limiting the sampling of environmental map information particles within a specific range and optimizing the screening based on the predicted distribution of particle poses and the matching degree of the map, the diversity of particles and the accuracy of map information have been effectively improved. The field experiment results show that the maximum error of this method on the chicken coop environment map does not exceed 3.5 cm. The environmental characteristics of the chicken coop are maximally preserved, which verifies the effectiveness and robustness of this method and provides a scientific basis for the mapping method of the livestock and poultry breeding robot navigation system. Full article

The relentless drive to meet global demand for poultry products has pushed for rapid intensification in chicken farming, dramatically boosting efficiency and yield. Yet, these gains have exposed a host of complex welfare challenges that have prompted scientific scrutiny and ethical reflection. In this review, I critically evaluate recent innovations aimed at mitigating such concerns by drawing on advances in behavioral science and digital monitoring and insights into biological adaptations. Specifically, I focus on four interconnected themes: First, I spotlight the complexity of avian sensory perception—encompassing vision, auditory capabilities, olfaction, and tactile faculties—to underscore how lighting design, housing configurations, and enrichment strategies can better align with birds’ unique sensory worlds. Second, I explore novel tools for gauging emotional states and cognition, ranging from cognitive bias tests to developing protocols for identifying pain or distress based on facial cues. Third, I examine the transformative potential of computer vision, bioacoustics, and sensor-based technologies for the continuous, automated tracking of behavior and physiological indicators in commercial flocks. Fourth, I assess how data-driven management platforms, underpinned by precision livestock farming, can deploy real-time insights to optimize welfare on a broad scale. Recognizing that climate change and evolving production environments intensify these challenges, I also investigate how breeds resilient to extreme conditions might open new avenues for welfare-centered genetic and management approaches. While the adoption of cutting-edge techniques has shown promise, significant hurdles persist regarding validation, standardization, and commercial acceptance. I conclude that truly sustainable progress hinges on an interdisciplinary convergence of ethology, neuroscience, engineering, data analytics, and evolutionary biology—an integrative path that not only refines welfare assessment but also reimagines poultry production in ethically and scientifically robust ways. Full article