Aquaculture produces roughly half of the seafood consumed worldwide, yet in the United States, the industry remains strikingly limited relative to its potential capacity (Lester et al., 2021). At present, U.S. marine aquaculture (mariculture) consists mostly of small-scale shellfish farming within state waters, with some states boasting well-established shellfish industries and others having entered the industry in earnest only in the last decade.

The September Edition of The Giving Herd, an ASAS Foundation Newsletter.

No obvious pathological symptoms such as inflammation were observed in fatty goose liver, suggesting that there is a unique mechanism to inhibit the development of inflammation during the goose fatty liver formation. Previous studies have shown that high glucose activated the ubiquitin–proteasome.

Body size is a crucial economic trait in donkeys, as it is closely related to meat and skin production. The aim of this study was to identify the genes and loci associated with body size traits, using the Dezhou donkey as an experimental population. The study findings make contributions to a better understanding on the molecular genetic mechanism of body size traits.

The U.S. livestock industry incurs over one billion dollars of economic loss every year due to fescue toxicosis, caused by consuming ergot alkaloids produced by an endophytic fungus in some grass species. Identifying means to mitigate the negative effects of fescue toxicosis is needed for U.S. beef producers.

This review provides a comprehensive overview of the different modeling approaches taken in the prediction of dairy cattle methane emissions.
Mechanistic models, which mathematically simulate the methane production process of the dairy cattle rumen, are both accurate and adaptable, yet their necessary input data is difficult to obtain and if imprecise, can produce misinformative results.

Incubation temperature is a crucial environmental factor affecting embryonic development and chick quality. The liver is the primary tissue of lipid metabolism in poultry. During incubation, it is responsible for converting yolk fatty acids into forms usable by the embryo. However, it remains unclear whether changes in embryonic incubation temperature can affect liver lipid utilization.

Dietary manganese supplementation regulates lipid deposition in broiler chickens, with the liver being a significant site of lipid metabolism. This study investigated the effects of different dietary forms of supplemental manganese on hepatic lipid deposition, gene expression, and enzyme activity in the liver fat metabolism of broiler chickens.

Climate change has increased the frequency of extreme weather events and raised global temperature. Grazing systems need to increase their resilience to adapt to these changes. Enhancing forage species functional diversity and species richness in space and time is an alternative to improve resilience.

Promoting sustainable breeding programs requires several measures, including genomic selection and continuous data recording. Digital phenotyping can be used to track animal activity and behavior like feeding and walking time and distress continuously. Coupled with machine learning techniques, any feature of interest can be extracted and used as phenotypes in genomic prediction models.

Whereas negative impacts of heat stress on production and health outcomes of dairy cattle are well described during lactation, recent studies support the concept that even dry cows are negatively impacted by heat stress in late gestation. Indeed, heat stress in the dry period programs a reduction in milk yield and immune status that persists for the next lactation.

Genomic Structural Variants (SVs) are large genetic duplications and deletions that are known to contribute to animal production and fertility. Unfortunately, SVs are quite difficult to accurately and efficiently detect in livestock populations as they have false discovery rates that range from 15-30%.

Respiratory Rate (RR) is an important physiological indicator for dairy cattle, providing insights into both herd and individual health, as well as responses to environmental factors like heat stress, thermo-resilience, and respiratory diseases. Our study explores Computer Vision algorithms to recognize the respiratory patterns of dairy cattle.

The process of weaning pigs and transitioning to a new environment and source of nutrition is challenging, but important because subsequent growth and livability is directly related to the pig’s ability to start quickly on feed. In order to minimize stress and improve performance, management strategies such as creep feeding before weaning and mat feeding immediately after weaning will help pigs start on feed.

Greenhouse gas emission mitigation on farm can encompass manure, soil, diet and animal management. All of these components of farm management must be considered prior to changing one aspect to reduce emissions so reductions in one area do not contribute to increased emission in another.

Research efforts in micronutrient supply, developmental programming, and strategic supplementation has practical relevance and should yield translatable results in terms of: 1) optimal animal growth and production, 2) long-term environmental sustainability, 3) sustained economic viability, and 4) increased food security.

The maternal environment during gestation and lactation affects foal health and growth. Obesity during lactation may decrease milk production and alter milk composition. Moderately obese pregnant and lactating mares have altered insulin and glucose dynamics relative to lean mares.

Growth is dependent on a higher rate of protein synthesis than degradation and in young animals, is largely attributable to the high rate of protein synthesis. The ingestion of food stimulates the synthesis of protein in skeletal muscle and this response is profound in early life. This feeding-induced stimulation of protein synthesis is crucial to support the rapid muscle growth during early postnatal life and the maintenance of body protein in adulthood.

Predictive growth models are unable to properly account for the effects of changes to body composition on the energetic efficiency of lamb growth and improving these models has been limited by the realities of data collection. By tracking changes in individual animal body composition, it is likely that better predictions of the effects of genetics, nutrition, and management on lamb growth can be made.