Taking Stock - Special Edition, Foundation Week
May 22, 2026

The global livestock and poultry farming systems are navigating an unprecedented paradigm shift. Faced with the compounding pressures of rising global protein demand, climate change, labor shortages, and increasing societal scrutiny regarding animal welfare, the agricultural sector is rapidly turning to digital solutions.

Animal husbandry is currently undergoing an unprecedented structural transformation, driven by the growing adoption of advanced digital technologies and, in particular, artificial intelligence (AI). The urgency of tackling global challenges—such as environmental sustainability, animal welfare, economic competitiveness, and food security—requires a profound revision of traditional management models, making it necessary to take a major leap in the collection, analysis, and use of data.

Precision livestock farming (PLF) is undergoing a profound transformation, with its core driver shifting from traditional data collection to intelligent decision-support systems powered by artificial intelligence (AI). While early-stage PLF relied on simple sensors for discrete tasks like estrus detection, rapid advancements in the Internet of Things (IoT), sensor technology, and computing power now enable modern systems to gather vast, multidimensional data covering animal behavior, physiology, and their micro-environment (Alexy & Haidegger, 2022; Kaur et al., 2023).

Animal science is at a critical juncture, faced with the challenge of providing sustainable nutrition for a growing global population. Against this backdrop, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has emerged as a powerful transformative force, offering the potential to enhance efficiency, improve animal welfare, and reduce environmental footprints (Distante et al., 2025).

Health management of livestock and poultry production is critical for ensuring food safety, animal welfare, and production sustainability. Farm scales expanded rapidly in China over the last two decades. As such, the prevention and control of animal diseases have become increasingly complex.

Animal science has become a data-rich field, particularly within the area of animal breeding and genetics, where millions of phenotyped and genotyped animals are now available across livestock species databases. Genomic selection is now routinely used for genetic evaluations in many livestock species. Meanwhile, artificial intelligence (AI) has become a major focus in recent years, appearing in nearly every aspect of our daily lives.

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Mammalian stress hormones influence the composition and activity of bacteria, which may be important to ruminants such as cattle that rely on these microorganisms for nutrient digestion. Therefore, two experiments were completed to determine if stress hormones such as cortisol, epinephrine, and norepinephrine impact fermentation and digestion characteristics of rumen microbes in an in vitro system.

Death loss associated with bovine respiratory disease (BRD) has continued to rise in recent decades, and as such, new approaches should be sought to mitigate BRD. Research suggests that the predisposing factors of gut barrier dysfunction (GBD) are like BRD in that they can both be triggered and aggravated by stress events, thus, they may occur simultaneously.

Sows produce characteristic vocalizations during estrus, including short high-pitched calls and longer rhythmic grunts. Recognizing these sounds helps farmers determine the appropriate breeding time. In commercial farms, background noise and the relatively short duration of estrus can make these vocal signals difficult to detect.

In harness racing, removing the shoes to race barefoot is commonly seen as it helps the horse to run faster. However, not all horses have hooves that can stand the increased wear and tear from racing barefoot, and the hind hooves have been shown to be extra vulnerable. Thus, racing barefoot could possibly violate animal welfare, and the debate continues over whether young trotters should be allowed to race barefoot.

This study explored how the livers of young goats adapt when they switch from their mother’s milk to solid feed. This dietary change requires major metabolic adjustments, but how the liver manages this shift at the molecular level is not well understood.

We studied whether wildfire smoke and fine particulate matter (which makes up most of smoke by mass) impacts bulls’ reproductive health, specifically if sperm samples collected at a Colorado breeding facility were saved for future use or were discarded due to poor quality. We analyzed 11,217 sperm quality records collected February 2021–October 2023 from 100 bulls.

This study investigates how adding 3-nitrooxypropanol (3-NOP) to cattle diet affects methane (CH4) emissions, animal performance, rumen microbiome, and metabolomic profile. We tested two doses of 3-NOP (65 and 85 mg/kg of dry matter) in Nellore cattle fed a high-concentrate diet and found lower CH4 emissions without compromising the animals’ health or performance.

Analysis of the management records of 181 Japanese Black beef calves (93 females and 88 males) indicated birth weight was significantly greater in calves with a visually thick umbilical cord. Additionally, birth weight was positively related to average daily gain during the fattening period, as well as to carcass weight.

This study evaluated the efficacy of 3-nitrooxypropanol (3-NOP), a feed additive marketed as Bovaer®10, on enteric methane (CH4) emissions in Hanwoo steers. Twelve Hanwoo steers (average body weight 342 ± 17 kg) were assigned to one of three dietary treatments: a control diet or the same diet supplemented with either 100 mg or 150 mg of 3-NOP per kg of dietary dry matter. Methane emissions were measured using whole-body respiratory chambers.

This study explored a natural way to improve chicken growth without using antibiotics. Researchers used bacteriophages viruses that attack specific bacteria to remove Enterococcus bacteria from the gut. These bacteria break down bile acids, which are important for digesting fats.