Search Results (1,503)

Starvation in horses presents critical welfare, economic, and management challenges with underlying molecular mechanisms of metabolic modification and recovery left poorly defined. Prolonged caloric deprivation induces significant systemic shifts in carbohydrate, protein, and lipid metabolism, reflected in coordinated changes in tissue-specific gene expression. This review synthesizes current knowledge on equine metabolic responses to starvation, emphasizing pathways found through RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) and real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) studies. Molecular investigations using RNA-seq and RT-qPCR have provided insight into transcriptional reprogramming during starvation and subsequent refeeding. Shifts in gene expression reflect the metabolic transition from carbohydrate dependence to lipid use, suppression of anabolic signaling, and activation of proteolytic pathways. However, interpretation of these data requires caution, as factors such as post-mortem interval, tissue handling, and euthanasia methods particularly the use of sodium barbiturates can influence transcript stability and abundance, potentially confounding results. The literature shows that starvation-induced molecular changes are not uniform across tissues, with skeletal muscle, liver, and adipose tissue showing distinct transcriptional signatures and variable recovery patterns during refeeding. Cross-species comparisons with hibernation, caloric restriction, and cachexia models provide context for understanding these changes, though equine-specific studies remain limited. Identified gaps include the scarcity of longitudinal data, inconsistent tissue sampling protocols, and lack of standardized reference genes for transcriptomic analyses in horses. Addressing these limitations will improve the accuracy of molecular evaluations and enhance our ability to predict recovery trajectories. A more comprehensive understanding of systemic and tissue-specific responses to starvation will inform evidence-based rehabilitation strategies, reduce the risk of refeeding syndrome, and improve survival and welfare outcomes for affected horses. Full article

Animal-based measures, such as detecting inflammation in areas like the tail, ears, teats, coronary band, heels and claws (Swine Inflammation and Necrosis Syndrome, SINS), are used to monitor animal health and welfare. When parameters deviate from the established range, these measures enable prompt action to adjust husbandry practices, feeding regimens and management strategies. In addition to environmental factors, genetics have been shown to play a key role in inflammation and necrosis processes, and selection can reduce the severity of the disease. This study examined whether different breeds of AI boar exhibit different signs of SINS and how these signs are associated with SINS in their offspring when they are suckling piglets and weaners. Initially, 286 AI boars of 7 breeds from a German artificial insemination center were evaluated for SINS. The following parameters were assessed: tail base, tail tip, ears, skin, scrotum, coronary bands, heels and claws. Subsequently, 23 Pietrain and Duroc boars were used in combination with a Topigs DL sow line. The progeny of the AI boars was evaluated as suckling and weaned piglets, with the assessment framework encompassing SINS traits. The results revealed significant differences between the breeds and lines, as well as a strong correlation between the SINS phenotypes of the AI boars and the SINS scores of their offspring. The offspring of the 25% most extreme boars exhibited a 17% variation in SINS scores. This association was particularly evident when comparing the boars’ tail base. However, the development of the boars’ heels and claws was found to be significantly influenced by mechanical environmental factors and not associated with the piglets’ scores. These findings imply that heritable, endogenous processes, as proposed for SINS, also visibly impact the phenotype of the AI boar. This study’s fundamental premise suggests that pre-selecting AI boars could mitigate the occurrence of SINS and enhance piglet health and welfare. Full article

In intensive broiler production, rapid environmental fluctuations can induce heat stress, adversely affecting flock welfare and productivity. Apparent temperature (AT), integrating temperature, humidity, and wind speed, provides a comprehensive thermal index, guiding predictive climate control. This study develops a multi-step AT forecasting model based on a hybrid SE-TCN–Transformer architecture enhanced with Kalman filtering. The temporal convolutional network with SE attention extracts short-term local trends, the Transformer captures long-range dependencies, and Kalman smoothing reduces prediction noise, collectively improving robustness and accuracy. The model was trained on multi-source time-series data from a commercial broiler house and evaluated for 5, 15, and 30 min horizons against LSTM, GRU, Autoformer, and Informer benchmarks. Results indicate that the proposed model achieves substantially lower prediction errors and higher determination coefficients. By combining multi-variable feature integration, local–global temporal modeling, and dynamic smoothing, the model offers a precise and reliable tool for intelligent ventilation control and heat stress management. These findings provide both scientific insight into multi-step thermal environment prediction and practical guidance for optimizing broiler welfare and production performance. Full article

Intensive pig production practices may shape cognition and behavior. We evaluated whether repeated regrouping (mixing) and gender (gilts vs. barrows) affect social interactions, fear-related responses, and affective state. A total of 96 growing pigs were separated into two treatments: control—pigs that were mixed once during the growing–finishing period; and social stress—pigs that were mixed thrice during the growing–finishing period. Social and non-social behaviors were directly noted, and four behavioral tests were conducted: open field, novel object, couples, and judgment bias tests. The statistical analysis compared gender and treatment, and p-values ≤ 0.05 were considered significant. Females stayed longer in the test pen entrance area during the novel object test and barrows spent more time at the feeder and defecated more during the couples’ test. With regard to the judgment bias test, females took longer to be considered trained in the discriminatory learning task and presented a “pessimistic judgment” during the ambiguous cue. Our results suggest that gender influences judgment bias in pigs and can influence social and non-social behavior, which may reflect a negative affective state with implications for their welfare and management. Full article

This study addresses the growing need for intelligent monitoring in aquaponic systems by developing a predictive system based on artificial intelligence and environmental sensing. The goal is to improve fish welfare through the early detection of adverse water conditions. The system integrates low-cost digital sensors to continuously measure key physicochemical variables—pH, dissolved oxygen, and temperature—using these as inputs for real-time classification of fish health status. Four supervised machine learning models were evaluated: linear discriminant analysis (LDA), support vector machines (SVMs), neural networks (NNs), and random forest (RF). A dataset of 1823 instances was collected over eight months from a red tilapia aquaponic setup. The random forest model yielded the highest classification accuracy (99%), followed by NN (98%) and SVM (97%). LDA achieved 82% accuracy. Performance was validated using 5-fold cross-validation and label permutation tests to confirm model robustness. These results demonstrate that sensor-based predictive models can reliably detect early signs of fish stress or mortality, supporting the implementation of intelligent environmental monitoring and automation strategies in sustainable aquaponic production. Full article

As cattle are criticized for contributing to environmental problems by emitting pollutants, it is expected that environmental regulations on livestock will be strengthened. This will lead to an increase in the costs and benefits associated with these regulations. This paper develops a model that clearly shows the effects of environmental regulations on the production costs for cattle-breeding farmers and the changes in social welfare, as well as environmental benefits. The benefits associated with the regulation are measured by evaluating reductions in both greenhouse gas (GHG) and ammonia emissions. These benefits are then compared to the reduction in social welfare. According to the analysis, the reduction in social welfare, in terms of consumer and producer surplus, outweighs the environmental benefits. These results suggest that, in designing environmental regulations, policy measures are needed to alleviate producers’ economic burdens and minimize reductions in social welfare through byproduct utilization and technical support. Furthermore, this study contributes to laying the institutional foundation for the sustainable development of the livestock industry and the reduction in management costs associated with manure treatment. Full article

Animal welfare (AW) is increasingly being discussed and mandated in chicken production, both by current Brazilian legislation and by importing markets. Industries continually seek greater financial returns, and within this context, it has been observed that the proper implementation of animal welfare principles effectively reduces losses by minimizing carcass condemnations due to injuries, thereby significantly contributing to in-creased profitability. The economic impact of non-compliance with these welfare standards in broiler production is well documented in the scientific literature. However, the same level of concern is not observed regarding the financial impact on integrated producers, who supply the raw materials. The present study aims to systematically map, contextualize, quantify, and qualitatively analyze articles evaluating the implementation of animal welfare in industrial broiler production and its impact on the financial returns of producers and integrated companies. The primary descriptor used was “animal welfare.” To quantify the relevant articles, the Proknow-C method was applied, followed by a similarity analysis using VoSViewer® software version 1.6.19 for systematic content evaluation. Descriptor combinations were led by animal welfare, followed by broiler pro-duction, poultry production, slaughter, economy, and rural producers. Although a significant number of articles address AW, those focused exclusively on chicken production are far fewer, declining even more when carcass condemnations are considered. Only six studies included the descriptor “economic,” and just three included “producer.” The con-tent of these nine studies was systematically reviewed, with two excluded and seven selected for discussion. Among the seven analyzed studies, none specifically examined the economic impact of AW implementation for the producer, clearly highlighting a significant research gap. Full article

Egg yolk IgY antibody has significant application potential in aquaculture as a form of passive immunotherapy against various bacterial infections owing to its capacity for large-scale and cost-effective production. In this research, laying hens were immunized with live or inactivated Aeromonas hydrophila to produce IgY antibodies. Following this, experiments were carried out to assess the passive immune protection rates of the two types of IgY antibodies when used to immunize goldfish (Carassius auratus), which were then infected with A. hydrophila or Aeromonas veronii. ELISA experiments were conducted to demonstrate the interaction between the IgY antibodies and the bacteria. The kidneys of C. auratus were coated on a Luria–Bertani (LB) medium to evaluate bacterial content. The leukocyte phagocytosis was detected by a cell phagocytosis assay. The serum of C. auratus was used to assess the expression of antioxidant factors, and a qRT-PCR was conducted to evaluate the mRNA expression of inflammatory factors in visceral tissue. Furthermore, histopathology and immunofluorescence analysis were performed to evaluate the structural integrity, apoptosis, and DNA damage of visceral tissues. The results indicated that the live or inactivated A. hydrophila IgY antibodies exhibited passive immune protection rates against A. hydrophila and A. veronii and could recognize these two bacteria in vitro. Additionally, these two IgY improved the phagocytic ability of leukocytes, diminished renal bacterial concentration, and decreased the levels of antioxidant factors and mRNA expression of inflammatory factors. Meanwhile, the two IgY antibodies did not cause any pathology of the kidney, spleen, and intestine, and decreased the levels of DNA damage factor (γH2A.X) and cell apoptosis factor (p53) in renal tissue. Therefore, live and inactivated A. hydrophila IgY antibodies can resist bacterial infections, with live bacteria IgY providing greater protection than inactivated bacteria IgY. Further, A. hydrophila is an aquatic pathogen that causes minimal damage to laying hens, and the immunity of live A. hydrophila conforms to animal welfare. Altogether, live A. hydrophila IgY antibody can serve as a polyvalent passive immune vaccine candidate in aquaculture. Full article

Surgical castration of male piglets is a common practice to prevent boar taint and reduce aggressive behaviour. However, it raises welfare concerns and alters carcass fat deposition. Immunocastration, a vaccine-based alternative targeting gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH), mitigates these welfare issues. This study evaluated carcass traits and meat quality in surgically and immunocastrated pigs slaughtered at two weight classes (approximately 116 kg and 136 kg). We compared growth performance, carcass composition, fat quality, and key meat quality indicators among surgically castrated males, immunocastrated males, and immunocastrated females. Inclusion of uncastrated and immunocastrated females provides novel comparative data for mixed-sex production systems, where such information is scarce. This broader evaluation helps fill current gaps in knowledge about immunocastration effects in female pigs. Surgically castrated males showed higher backfat thickness and fat content, particularly at the heavier weight, while immunocastrated pigs exhibited intermediate traits. Ultimate pH, colour, marbling, water-holding capacity, and moisture loss varied with castration method, sex, and slaughter weight, though many differences were subtle. The findings confirm that immunocastration offers a favourable balance between animal welfare and production traits, producing pork quality comparable to surgical castration. These results provide valuable insights for optimizing pork production systems, balancing welfare, efficiency, and meat quality. Full article

Neuromuscular blocking agents (NMBAs) are essential in intraocular surgeries to improve surgical conditions and ensure optimal ventilation. However, residual blockade can pose significant risks, particularly in pinnipeds due to their unique diving physiology. This case report describes the use of sugammadex for reversing rocuronium and AMG for monitoring neuromuscular block (NMB) in a California sea lion undergoing lensectomy. The objective is to evaluate the feasibility and safety of sugammadex for reversal of rocuronium-induced neuromuscular blockade and acceleromyography (AMG) for monitoring neuromuscular function in pinnipeds, with the goal of improving anesthetic management and recovery. Rocuronium (0.3 mg/kg IV) was used to achieve complete NMB, and an additional 0.1 mg/kg IV was administered to prolong the block. Sugammadex (1 mg/kg IV) reversed the NMB, with recovery within 90 s. Neuromuscular function was monitored using AMG, with the ulnar nerve of the foreflipper as the stimulation site. AMG allowed for an objective assessment of neuromuscular function, ensuring accurate titration of the NMBA and reversal agent. This is the first report documenting the use of sugammadex for the reversal of rocuronium and AMG for neuromuscular monitoring in a sea lion. This successful application highlights the potential of these techniques to improve anesthesia protocols, patient safety, and welfare in marine mammal medicine. Full article

Calf disbudding is a routine practice in the dairy industry to prevent horn growth and reduce the risk of injury to animals and handlers. However, growing public concern about animal welfare has raised questions about the acceptability of common disbudding methods. This study explored public perceptions of caustic paste and hot-iron disbudding using a mixed methods approach. Quantitative survey analyses captured measurable trends while iterative qualitative analysis explored the underlying reasons behind participant’s attitudes. A convenience sample with a total of 511 Texas resident participants completed a 44-item online survey that included demographic questions, the Animal Attitude Scale (AAS-10), and image-based evaluations of the two techniques. Quantitative analysis using factor analysis and multiple regression revealed that concern for animal welfare and justification for animal use were the most significant predictors (p < 0.001) of method acceptability, with caustic paste generally viewed as more humane. Qualitative responses reinforced these results, identifying themes of animal suffering, ethical concerns, and a widespread lack of public knowledge. While caustic paste was preferred, skepticism toward hot-iron disbudding was more pronounced among low-income participants. Nonetheless, when properly performed with pain control, hot-iron disbudding is often considered a more controlled and welfare-conscious method due to faster healing times and reduced risk of injury to other animals from paste exposure. These findings underscore the need for consumer education and transparent communication from the dairy industry. Full article

Amphibian welfare, particularly pain assessment in anurans, remains understudied despite their ecological and biomedical significance. This study aimed to identify and validate operational pain indicators for adult anurans under professional care. A four-phase approach was used: a systematic literature review, expert validation with risk analysis, field validation in a zoological facility, and development of a preliminary pain index. From 158 publications, 16 potential indicators were identified, encompassing behavioural, clinical, and physiological signs. Expert evaluation by 28 professionals from 12 institutions refined this to seven indicators, achieving over 60% consensus: feeding behaviour changes, abnormal behaviour, impaired locomotion, oedema, reduced movement, retained skin post-moulting, and altered respiration. Field validation in 53 anurans confirmed high observability and ease of measurement, with feeding behaviour changes and oedema scoring highest for practicality (93.5% and 93.0%, respectively). These validated indicators provide a science-based foundation for routine welfare monitoring, enabling timely interventions. Their integration into husbandry protocols can enhance ethical standards, improve conservation outcomes, and increase public confidence in amphibian care, paving the way for a standardised anuran pain index. Full article

The aim of this project was to co-create an animal welfare monitoring system that incorporated both positive and negative welfare measures that would contribute to best practice husbandry standards of farm animals in a real animal research setting. Researchers worked with nine staff to co-design six bespoke welfare assessment protocols to be conducted in addition to legally required welfare monitoring for adult cattle, calves, sheep, pigs, and goats in specific experimental environments. Four protocols were subsequently applied with variable frequency by three staff to cattle, goats, and two pig populations. Assessments were all observational, and included behavioural scan sampling, Qualitative Behaviour Assessment scores, visual analogue mood scores, and physical condition data. Two staff provided feedback on their views of the process. A key finding was that with facilitation, staff could generate protocols that included elements designed to encourage or evaluate interventions to promote positive emotions. However, data collection was sporadic, and although the staff who provided feedback reported that they valued the process highly, they noted that the primary challenge was finding the time to conduct the assessments. We therefore conclude that sustained support is likely to be required to maximise the benefits for the animals and staff of developing and conducting voluntary welfare monitoring of farm animals. Full article

Stunning of farmed fish prior to slaughter is increasingly recognized as a key animal welfare priority, yet uptake remains limited in the EU aquaculture sector. While the effects of different stunning methods on fish welfare are the subject of significant recent research, the effect on aquaculture businesses remains unclear. Therefore, this study assesses the economic feasibility of implementing electrical stunning for four species where it is not currently routine: carp, trout, seabass, and seabream. Using a granular cost model across 17 country–species–system combinations, and cost data from 2018 to 2020, the impact of introducing in-water and dry electrical stunning systems under various cost pass-through and sensitivity scenarios is evaluated. Results show that while stunning increases the production costs, under realistic assumptions, 16 out of 17 segments remain profitable, with the one unprofitable segment already being unprofitable under business-as-usual conditions. Three trout systems even experience cost savings due to reduced labor requirements. Sensitivity analyses confirm the robustness of these findings across plausible increases in operating costs and financing assumptions. Even under a 0% cost pass-through, 16 segments still remain profitable. These results provide timely, policy-relevant evidence to support species-specific welfare legislation, while identifying segments that may require targeted support for compliance. Full article

Lameness is a significant global welfare and economic problem in dairy farming. The objective of this study was to explore the relationship between various claw lesions and locomotion scores (LCS). A total of 491 cows from ten Austrian dairy farms were included in the study. Each cow’s gait was individually evaluated and an ascending locomotion score ranging from 1 to 5 was assigned. Subsequently, functional hoof trimming was conducted on all cows. During this procedure the claws were examined and all lesions electronically documented. For statistical analysis, the prevalence of each LCS was calculated and the distribution of LCS in relation to parity and lactation stage examined. Additionally, a simple chi-square test and a generalised linear mixed model (GLMM) were applied to identify associations between specific types of lesions and LCSs. The results from the GLMM showed significant associations (p < 0.05) between ‘other causes’, thin soles and interdigital hyperplasia with acute digital dermatitis on its surface (IH-DD-M2) and an LCS ≥ 2, between DD-associated claw horn lesions, thin soles, interdigital hyperplasia IH-DD-M2 and an LCS ≥ 3, and between DD-associated claw horn lesions, IH-DD-M2, and ‘infectious claw disorders’ and an LCS ≥ 4. The results emphasise the importance of early and accurate detection of lameness to promptly treat underlying painful claw lesions, thereby promoting improved animal welfare. Full article