Volume 100, Issue 9, September 2022

In this study, a Saccharomyces cerevisiae fermentation product-supplemented extruded diet was fed to adult pointer dogs and shown to positively impact indicators of skin and coat health, modulate immune responses, and enhance some key antioxidant defense markers.

High-risk cattle may not require a low-energy receiving diet containing high proportions of roughage upon arrival to the feedlot.

Ergot alkaloids can affect ruminal metabolism of cattle, which can have large impacts on production, welfare, and health. Mycotoxin deactivators can alleviate some of the negative impacts that dietary ergot has on cattle.

There is little information regarding the role of glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide in ruminants. This experiment investigated the dietary inclusion of supplementary fats and the amount of feed offered as potential secretagogues of this gastrointestinal tract peptide, and its association with energy metabolism and beef quality of feedlot steers.

Zinc is an essential micronutrient which can increase growth performance and potentially prevent muscle fatigue. Beef steers were supplemented with three concentrations of zinc prior to an 18-h transit event to determine the effects of zinc supplementation on posttransit growth performance and blood and muscle metabolites.

This study shows that postincubation treatment of in vitro gas production fermentation bottles can cause discrepancies in the quantification of methane in the headspace gas. To reduce those discrepancies, this study suggests a system of equations to remove water vapor from the headspace gas to present methane estimates on a dry-gas basis.

Feeding lactating sows according to precision feeding principles is a very promising strategy for matching nutrient supply to nutrient requirements at the individual animal level in real time.

Elevated concentrations of copper promote pig growth performance by modulating cytokines and intestinal microbes.

The standardized ileal digestible valine to lysine requirement in 39 to 66 kg pigs fed with 30% DDGS is 68%. However, pigs fed with a standard corn soybean meal diet had a greater growth performance compared to diets containing 30% DDGS, regardless of valine level.

When formulating late finishing swine rations that include 20% DDGS, a standardized ileal digestible isoleucine to lysine ratio of 70% should be utilized when wanting to achieve similar growth performance compared to pigs fed a corn soybean meal diet.

Feeding high concentrations (250 µg/kg of feed) of a novel 25-hydroxycholecalciferol (25OHD3) source resulted in linear improvements in circulating vitamin D status and tissue deposition of 25OHD3 but did not improve growth performance. Importantly, after 21 d without 25OHD3 supplementation, circulating concentrations returned to that of pigs fed only vitamin D3, indicating that feeding high concentrations of this vitamin D source to growing swine is safe.

This is the first study to assess behavior during the grazing of Holstein cows milked in a pasture-based automatic milking system under heat stress. Milk yield was negatively associated with the temperature-humidity index (THI) of the three previous days for primiparous and multiparous cows. The milking frequency was positively related to THI on the same milking day, but only in multiparous cows. For each unit of THI increase, cows exhibited decreased time grazing, lying, and ruminating, increasing standing behavior time.

Equations to predict the megacalories of methane per unit of dry matter intake from the ratio of dietary starch to neutral detergent fiber concentrations and dietary ether extract concentration yielded better fits to experimental data than equations that directly predicted methane from the same variables in combination with dry matter intake. Further research is needed to evaluate these equations in other independent data sets.

Towards an unbiased and stable combination of information from genotyped and non-genotyped animals in genomic prediction models.

Genomic composition of composite breeds is not stable across generations and the Tarentaise breed contributes useful attributes as a progenitor beef cattle breed in a cool semi-arid environment.

This study provides important information for understanding the function of ZNF280BY in testicular development. The CNV of ZNF280BY associated with testicular size would be worthwhile for marker-assisted selection in Hu sheep breeding programs.

Genotype x environment (GxE) interactions may have an effect on reproductive traits and therefore impact on selective breeding. We studied GxE effect on scrotal circumference measurements at four different ages, across pubertal development. As a result, we recommend which ages are best for selection because GxE is lower.

Repeatability in semen production traits in beef and dairy bulls may be impacted by nonadditive genetic effects, especially epistatic effects. However, despite the large contribution of nonadditive genetic effects to these traits, the inclusion of nonadditive genetic effects in a predictive model did not improve prediction accuracy.

Allium mongolicum Regel ethanol extract changed the expression of genes related to the formation of branched-chain fatty acids to reduce its synthesis in the lamb liver.

Age, diet, and antimicrobial treatment can affect the overall hindgut microbiome with minimal impact on antimicrobial resistance in finisher pigs.

Transport stress is harmful to the liver and could disrupt hepatic glucolipid metabolism homeostasis. Astragalus polysaccharide (APS) may be a potential feed addition to antagonize the transport stress-induced hepatic glucolipid disorders in chicks through modulation of serum stress levels, lipid metabolism, gluconeogenesis, and glycogenolysis.

A ration solely comprising forage rape reduces methane emissions per unit of dry matter intake. There is a nonlinear increased reduction of methane with greater levels of forage rape in the diet.

The prevention of animal disease spread is very important, from an economic, animal as well as public health perspective. In this study, we used a nationally representative dataset that included information on biosecurity practices of almost 300 Irish dairy farmers and found that vaccination and testing bulk tank milk for diseases were significantly associated with better economic outcomes for dairy farms.

The present findings may offer insights into new strategies for regulating sow reproductive performance and piglet growth, highlighting the potential application of AMP in sow production.

A custom designed nose ring sensor system (NoRS) reads heart rate, breathing rate, and oxygen saturation from a dairy cow’s nostrils. The NoRS is a small wearable device now being piloted that requires no animal restraining to automatically and continuously record dairy cows’ cardiovascular and respiratory parameters.

The proposed method completely automates the measurement of carcass traits, providing an efficient way of grouping calves for breeding programs or meat quality control. It also implies that other labor-intensive metrics, like yield score, can be measured directly from images of live animals.

We assessed alternative ways to incorporate microbiome data into regression models to estimate variance components and predict host phenotypes in three pig breeds.

The relationship between trait differences and microbial differences among different sheep breeds was clarified.

The R- and S-epimer of an ergot alkaloid, ergocristine, and ergocristinine, produced a sustained vascular contractile response. A noncompetitive antagonist, phenoxybenzamine, alleviated vascular contraction during the sustained contractile response.

1. Acute stress causes redox imbalance and mitochondrial dysfunction in broiler muscle.

2. This study provides new aspects for understanding how acute stress affects broiler meat quality.