The publications committee is working to meet the needs of the society. Over this past year, two topics have arisen with respect to the publication of manuscripts in the society’s journals. The committee would like to get your input on these topics that could dramatically impact the American Society of Animal Science.

Efficient beef production is crucial for meeting global food demands. Most of the feed consumed by beef cows is used for essential bodily functions like breathing, maintaining heart rate, and regulating body temperature. The remaining energy is partitioned into milk production, body weight gain, and pregnancy.

Fifty-five first lactation sows were used to evaluate how the dietary standardized ileal digestible (SID) Lys-to-net energy (NE) ratio affected nitrogen use by the sow and piglet growth performance. Sows were randomly assigned to one of five diets that had equally spaced and increasing SID Lys-to-NE ratios from 2.85 and 5.51 g SID Lys/Mcal NE that were fed for a 24-d lactation.

Supplementing prebiotics, particularly plant polysaccharides, in pet food is currently regarded as an important approach to enhancing gut health. Polysaccharides can produce abundant short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) in the large intestine, thereby benefiting health.

This study explores how different levels of rein tension affect the stress response and heart activity in horses, focusing on the differences between younger and older horses. We aimed to understand whether the experience of older horses makes them less sensitive to rein tension compared to younger ones.

This study assessed the effects of outdoor access, which is required to produce “Label Rouge” slow-growing chickens, compared to indoor rearing, which is used in genetic selection for health reasons. Chickens were reared either indoors or with outdoor access after 28 d of age for 2 consecutive summers (2022 and 2023), a season when farmers often observe lower performance.

The June Edition of The Giving Herd, an ASAS Foundation Newsletter

Dennis Lamm's ASAS Journey

Acacia fiber is a soluble dietary fiber extracted from the natural resin of acacia trees. This fiber is often utilized in the pet food industry as a processing aid to improve texture and stability but there is limited information regarding its effect on canine gastrointestinal health. The current study used an in vitro fermentation system and canine fecal inoculum to mimic the colonic bacterial fermentation process and assess the fermentation characteristics of acacia fiber, inulin, pectin (positive control), and cellulose (negative control).

The objectives of this work were to evaluate how population genetic and phenotypic components for dry matter intake and respiration rate in beef cattle changed as a function of temperature humidity index, to determine whether genotype-by-environment interactions (G × E) influenced selection decisions when breeding values (BV) were sourced from disparate environments, and to evaluate model-derived accuracy of BV at specific values of the temperature humidity index.

Reducing enteric methane and carbon dioxide emissions from cattle is a key strategy in mitigating climate change impacts. This study explored the relationship between enteric methane production and economically important traits such as growth and carcass quality in beef cattle.

Immune competence is a measurable trait that was developed to determine the ability of animals to respond to an infection. This trait involves measuring the response to vaccination and has been used in cattle selective breeding programs to ensure that animals maintain an effective ability to control disease, improving animal outcomes and productivity.

Despite limited scientific understanding of the impacts on juvenile horses, extra-label use of bisphosphonates is anecdotally reported to be widespread. This study was conducted to determine the effects of clodronate disodium (CD), a specific bisphosphonate, on hormones associated with blood calcium regulation.

Individual feed intake observed during the first week postweaning influenced intestinal development and physiology. Weanling pigs were classified as high or low eaters during the first 3 d after weaning and subsequently split into high and low eaters from days 4 to 6, hence, forming four patterns. Overall, piglets with higher feed intake presented a reduced metabolic stress and an activated immune system.

By increasing productivity and feed efficiency, genetic improvement has led to substantial reductions in the carbon footprint of pork production over the past decades. This review concludes that, other than continuing and accelerating genetic improvement for productivity and efficiency, opportunities to further enhance reductions in the carbon footprint of pork production through genetics are limited when based on traits that are currently routinely collected in breeding programs.

Improving feed and nutrient utilization of pigs will play a crucial role in helping lead the shift towards increased sustainability in pork production. Nutritional practices such as precision feeding, use of enzymes and feed additives, physical and thermal processing of diets, and reduction in feed wastage, coupled with genetic, health, and barn management improvements, can reduce the environmental impact of pork production.

This research was designed to identify periods during gestation for feeding high zinc that would improve piglet survival and to elucidate how high maternal zinc feeding affects sow and piglet trace mineral levels and gene expression in piglets. Thirty sows were assigned to treatments (10 sows per treatment): 1) Control—sows fed a corn–soybean meal-based diet containing 206 ppm total supplemental zinc; 2) Breed-to-Farrow—as Control + 147 ppm supplemental Zn from 5 days post-breeding to farrowing; and 3) Day 110-to-Farrow—as Control + 4,079 ppm supplemental Zn starting on day 110 of gestation until farrowing.

Corn protein (CP), a co-product of the corn ethanol industry, was evaluated as a protein source in dog foods. The study goals were to determine how CP inclusion affected the apparent total tract digestibility (ATTD) and palatability of dog foods and the health markers of dogs consuming them.

Strategies to improve housing for pre-weaned dairy calves are gaining attention, especially for reducing the potential impacts of heat stress on their growth and well-being. Researchers have studied how these strategies affect the ability of calves to regulate body temperature, their behavior, and overall performance. The impact of housing on the nasal microbiota, however, remains unexplored.

Our research looked for a new way of monitoring the water intake of cows which is vital for their health. We used a wireless device called a rumen bolus sensor to monitor the reticulorumen temperatures of cows. We established a regression equation model that could predict how much water a cow drank based on the reticulorumen’s temperature changes.