Featured Articles

  • Sep
    21
    Interpretive Summary: Predicting dry matter intake in beef cattle


    In animal agriculture, passive monitoring technology has the potential to lead to needed innovations as we look for solutions to make global food production more resilient. Here, we use passive intake systems to measure daily weight, water intake, and climatic variables to accurately predict dry matter intake.

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  • Sep
    21
    Interpretive Summary: A Clinical Trial on the Welfare Effects of Administering Meloxicam to 10 to 21 Day Dairy Calves Following Caustic Paste Disbudding


    Caustic paste disbudding (CPD) is a widely used practice in the cattle industry, yet there is a shortage of literature on the effects of meloxicam on calves aged 10 to 21 d who have undergone this procedure. In this clinical trial, we conducted a comparative analysis of the pain-related behavioral, physiological, and hematological performance of calves that were administered with either lidocaine plus normal saline (n = 15) or lidocaine plus meloxicam (n = 15) before undergoing disbudding operations.

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  • Sep
    21
    Interpretive Summary: Postpartum meloxicam administration to sows but not split-suckling increases piglet growth and reduces clinical incidence of disease in suckling piglets


    Suckling pigs should receive ≥200 g of colostrum (the first secretion of the mammary gland after giving birth) within the first 24 h of life. This is challenging to achieve as the number of piglets born alive has increased over the last decade, but the sow’s ability to produce colostrum has not increased.

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  • Sep
    21
    Interpretive Summary: Short communication: evaluation of an endotoxin challenge and intraruminal bacterial inoculation model to induce liver abscesses in Holstein steers


    Liver abscesses in feedlot cattle can cause a decrease in feed intake, average daily gain, feed efficiency, and hot carcass weight. At harvest, liver abscesses result in liver condemnations, carcass trimming, and a potential decrease in quality grade, with an estimated economic cost to packers of $41.6 million annually.

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  • Sep
    21
    Interpretive Summary: Diet production and utilization of corn fermented protein compared to traditional yeast in healthy adult cats


    The inclusion of yeast in pet food can provide health benefits and increase palatability. Corn-fermented protein is a co-product from ethanol production which contains approximately 20% to 25% yeast.

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  • Sep
    21
    Interpretive Summary: Standardized amino acid digestibility and protein quality in extruded canine diets containing hydrolyzed protein using a precision-fed rooster assay


    Hydrolyzed protein has been more commonly used in the pet food industry recently to increase digestibility, decrease allergenic responses, and for other health benefits (such as anti-inflammation and anti-oxidation) in companion animals. The study was designed to determine the protein quality of two protein hydrolysates for incorporating into dry dog foods.

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  • Sep
    14
    Interpretive Summary: The impact of protein source and grain inclusion on digestibility, fecal metabolites, and fecal microbiome in adult canines


    A recent topic of debate in pet food is whether grain or pulse ingredients and varying amounts of animal-based protein compared to plant proteins are better for pets’ health. Thus, the need to examine ingredients used in pet food is important.

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  • Sep
    14
    Interpretive Summary: Short-term changes in dietary fat levels and starch sources affect weight management, glucose and lipid metabolism, and gut microbiota in adult cats


    Obesity is a common problem in domestic cats. Fat in dry-extruded pet food may be a risk factor for feline obesity. Additionally, the utilization of various carbohydrates in domestic cats has garnered attention. This study explored the impact of varying fat levels and starch sources on body weight, glucose metabolism, and gut microbiota composition in healthy adult cats.

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  • Sep
    14
    Interpretive Summary: Boundaries for genotype, phenotype, and pedigree truncation in genomic evaluations in pigs


    Recording data for long years is common in animal breeding and genetics. However, the larger the data, the higher the computing cost of the analysis, especially with genomic information. This study aimed to investigate the impact of removing data, namely, genotypes, phenotypes, and pedigree, on the computing performance and prediction ability of genomic breeding values.

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  • Sep
    14
    Interpretive Summary: Variance component estimates for growth traits in beef cattle using selected variants from imputed low-pass sequence data


    Animals from a crossbred beef cattle population were sequenced at low depth (i.e., 0.5×) and different subsets of selected imputed variants were investigated relative to their ability to explain variation in birth weight (BWT) and post-weaning gain (PWG).

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  • Sep
    14
    Interpretive Summary: High-grain diet feeding alters ileal microbiota and disrupts bile acid metabolism in lactating dairy cows


    Bile acids plays an important role in regulating lipids metabolism in animals and human. Dairy cows fed high-grain (HG) diet generally suffer abnormal lipids metabolism. However, if there is a relationship between the bile acids metabolism and abnormal lipids metabolism in dairy cows fed HG diet is unclear.

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  • Sep
    14
    Infographic: In vitro gametogenesis from embryonic stem cells in livestock species: recent advances, opportunities, and challenges to overcome


    In vitro gametogenesis (IVG) is the ability to mimic the reproductive cycle in a dish and presents a paradigm shift for producing viable gametes and healthy offspring in animal agriculture.

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  • Sep
    07
    Interpretive Summary: The real place of livestock in GHG emissions and their control for climate change


    Climate change presents multiple challenges to the livestock industry including the need to examine animal and environmental management practices to enhance efficiency, reduce greenhouse gas emissions from animals and manure, reduce water and other resource use, and pressure to eliminate meat and livestock products from diets.

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  • Sep
    07
    Interpretive Summary: Metagenome strain deconvolution and abundance estimation enabled by low-error long-read DNA sequence


    The rumen microbiome is essential to animal nutrition and health, but current genetics resources to study this community are incomplete.

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  • Sep
    07
    Interpretive Summary: Update of nutritional requirements of goats for growth and pregnancy in hot environments


    Goats serve as a valuable source of income in agriculture, supplying both milk and meat. Their adaptability to diverse environments makes them a viable choice among rural households for livestock, especially in harsh environments. Research has been dedicated to refining goat feeding systems and determining their nutritional requirements.

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  • Sep
    07
    Interpretive Summary: Livestock-wildlife conflicts: A struggle for land use and conservation in the U.S. Mountain West


    Livestock production in the Intermountain West of the United States (U.S.) largely depends on grazing access to U.S. government-owned “public lands”, which also provide habitat for many of North American’s iconic wildlife species.

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  • Sep
    07
    Interpretive Summary: Genetic selection for dairy calf disease resistance traits: opportunities and challenges


    Genetic selection is a viable option to help improve calf health. Producer recorded calf disease data comprised of 69,695 Holstein calf disease records for respiratory problems (RESP) and diarrhea (DIAR). Across analyses, heritability estimates for RESP and DIAR ranged from 0.02 to 0.07, indicating the potential for selection.

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  • Aug
    31
    Interpretive Summary: Dairy groups comment on the FDA’s draft guidelines for plant milk-alternative labeling


    The National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) and the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) have submitted public comments on the United States Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) draft guidance for plant milk-alternative labeling.

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  • Aug
    31
    Interpretive Summary: FDA request input on antimicrobial use in animals


    The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is seeking public comments on a new report, which discusses a potential framework for establishing a public-private partnership (PPP) to collect and analyze antimicrobial use (AMU) data from food-producing animals. The report was created for the FDA by the Reagan-Udall Foundation (the Foundation) and summarizes the work completed over a multi-year cooperative agreement funded by the FDA.

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  • Aug
    31
    Interpretive Summary: Lawsuit filed against Massachusetts’ Question 3


    A group of pork producers have filed a lawsuit in Massachusetts against the Act to Prevent Cruelty to Farm Animals (Question 3). Passed by voters in November 2016, Question 3 imposes confinement requirements on out-of-state pork producers and prohibits the sale of pork meat within the state from offspring of an animal confined in a manner inconsistent with Massachusetts' requirements, regardless of where in the nation the animal was raised.

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