Featured Articles

  • Sep
    28
    Interpretive Summary: Governors send letter regarding Farm Bill


    The National Governors Association has sent a letter to the Agriculture Committee leaders in the House and Senate, expressing their wishes for the Farm Bill. The National Governors Association assembled a task force to compile the key priorities for their states and believe their priorities highlight the important role farm bill programs play in strengthening communities.

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  • Sep
    28
    Interpretive Summary: Senators send letter to the FDA over lab-grown dairy


    A group of bipartisan Senators, led by Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Senator Jim Risch (R-ID) sent a letter to the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), over concerns for lab-grown dairy. The letter expresses deep concern that the FDA is allowing non-dairy lab-grown products to be illegally labeled with dairy terms.

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  • Sep
    28
    Interpretive Summary: The Livestock Consolidation Research Act introduced


    A new bill that would direct the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to research how consolidation of livestock producers impacts the industry and consumers, has been introduced by United States House Representatives Randy Feenstra (R-IA) and Elissa Slotkin (D-MI). A companion version of The Livestock Consolidation Research Act was introduced into the Senate by Senators Tina Smith (D-MN) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA).

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  • Sep
    28
    Interpretive Summary: Third party resolution needed for US and Mexico corn dispute


    United States Trade Representative Katherine Tai announced that the United States is seeking a dispute settlement panel the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) regarding Mexico’s biotechnology corn measures. The United States is in an ongoing disagreement with Mexico over the February 2023 decree, banning the use of biotech corn in tortillas or dough, and the instruction to Mexican government agencies to gradually phase out the use of biotech corn in all products for human consumption and for animal feed.

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  • Sep
    28
    Interpretive Summary: USDA awards small business owners and farmers


    The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has announced over $265 million in awards to help small business owners, farmers, and ranchers lower their energy costs, create income, and expand operations. The awards are provided through President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act and the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP), as part of the Investing in America Agenda.

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  • Sep
    28
    Interpretive Summary: USDA gives 65 million dollars in conservation grants


    The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has announced $65 million through the Conservation Innovation Grant (CIG) Program. The funds will support two programs, designed to provide new tools, approaches, practices, and technologies to further natural resource conservation on private lands.

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  • 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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