Accuracy of Risk Perception of Zoonoses Due to Intensive Animal Farming and People’s Willingness to Change Their Animal Product Consumption

Zoonoses have become more frequent and intense. As intensive animal farming plays a role in the emergence of zoonoses, the increase in intensive animal farming increases the risk of future zoonotic outbreaks. This raises the question of to what extent people are aware that intensive animal farming poses a risk to zoonoses. Furthermore, if people would be made aware, would they be willing to take protective measures, such as reducing their animal food consumption? This was investigated in a representative descriptive study of 1009 Dutch citizens. We measured participants’ perception of the risk of intensive animal farming and their perception of the way animals are treated. We measured their willingness to consume fewer animal products and their opinions on governments banning intensive animal farms. Additionally, participants estimated the percentage of meat from intensive farms that they consume. The main results showed that most participants were aware that zoonoses can occur through intensive animal farming, but not where their meat comes from. The majority of participants were willing to change their animal consumption behavior if this could reduce future zoonotic outbreaks.

The Effects of Exposure to Information about Animal Welfare Reforms on Animal Farming Opposition: A Randomized Experiment

There is limited research on the effects of animal welfare reforms, such as transitions from caged to cage-free eggs, on attitudes toward animal farming. This preregistered, randomized experiment (N = 1520) found that participants provided with information about current animal farming practices had somewhat higher animal farming opposition (AFO) than participants provided with information about an unrelated topic (d = 0.17). However, participants provided with information about animal welfare reforms did not report significantly different AFO from either the current-farming (d = -0.07) or control groups (d = 0.10). Although these latter effects on AFO were small and nonsignificant, they appeared to be mediated by changes in perceived social attitudes towards farmed animals and optimism about further reforms to factory farming. Exploratory analysis found no evidence that hierarchical meat eating justification or beliefs about how well-treated farmed animals currently are mediated the effect. Further research is needed to better understand why providing information about animal welfare reforms did not substantially increase AFO overall, whereas providing information about current practice did somewhat increase AFO.

Antimicrobial resistance determinants in silage

Animal products may play a role in developing and spreading antimicrobial resistance in several ways. On the one hand, residues of antibiotics not adequately used in animal farming can enter the human body via food. But resistant bacteria may also be present in animal products, which can transfer the antimicrobial resistance genes (ARG) to the bacteria in the consumer's body by horizontal gene transfer. As previous studies have shown that fermented foods have a meaningful ARG content, it is indicated that such genes may also be present in silage used as mass feed in the cattle sector. In our study, we aspired to answer what ARGs occur in silage and what mobility characteristics they have? For this purpose, we have analyzed bioinformatically 40 freely available deep sequenced silage samples from shotgun metagenome next-generation sequencing. A total of 57 ARGs occurred 616 times in the samples. More than half of these ARGs are mobile because they can be linked to integrative mobile genetic elements, prophages or plasmids. We believe that our results point to a substantial source of ARG in the food chain.

Occurrence and spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria on animal farms and in their vicinity in Poland and Ukraine—review

Intensive animal farming emits to the environment very high concentrations of bioaerosol, mainly composed of microorganisms, including antibiotics resistant strains, and their derivatives. Poland is a significant producer of poultry and swine in Europe; Ukraine is located in the immediate vicinity of Poland and the EU. Thus, the review focuses on the presence of potentially pathogenic and antimicrobial-resistant zoonotic bacteria and antimicrobial genes in the environment of farms and food of animal origin in Poland and Ukraine. Existing data confirms presence of these bacteria in the food animal origin chain environment in both countries. However, it is difficult to compare the scale of multidrug-resistant bacteria (e.g. MRSA, ESBL) dissemination in Poland and Ukraine with other EU countries due to lack of more extensive studies and large-scale monitoring in these two countries. A series of studies concerning resistance of pathogenic bacteria isolated from livestock environment have been published in Poland but usually on single farms with a very limited number of samples, and without a genotypic drug resistance marking. From Ukraine are available only few reports, but also disturbing. The risk of antibiotic-resistant bacteria transmission does not only concern animal farming, but also other facilities of animal origin food supply chains, especially slaughterhouses.

Going veggie: Identifying and overcoming the social and psychological barriers to veganism

We conceptualize the journey to ethical veganism in the stages of the transtheoretical model of change, from precontemplation through contemplation, preparation, action, and maintenance. At each stage, we explore the psychological barriers to progressing towards veganism, discuss how they manifest, and explore ways to overcome them. It is hoped that this paper can be used as a guide for animal advocates to identify the stage an individual is at, and understand and overcome the social and psychological barriers they may face to progressing. We argue that, while many people are ignorant of the cruel practices entailed in animal farming, many deliberately avoid thinking about the issue, are unable to appreciate the scale of the issue, and simply tend to favour the status quo. When engaging with the issue of farm animal suffering, meat-eaters are largely driven by cognitive dissonance, which manifests as motivated reasoning aimed at protecting one’s image of oneself and one’s society. This is facilitated by confirmation bias and complicit media which cater to the preferred views of their meat-eating audience. Even once convinced of veganism, habit and willpower present further barriers to acting on those beliefs. This is all in the context of a speciesist and carnistic culture where meat consumption is normal, farming is noble, and vegans are ‘others’. We locate and elucidate each of these biases within the stages of the transtheoretical model and discuss the implications of this model for animal advocates and for further research.

Intelligent Perception-Based Cattle Lameness Detection and Behaviour Recognition: A Review

The growing world population has increased the demand for animal-sourced protein. However, animal farming productivity is faced with challenges from traditional farming practices, socioeconomic status, and climate change. In recent years, smart sensors, big data, and deep learning have been applied to animal welfare measurement and livestock farming applications, including behaviour recognition and health monitoring. In order to facilitate research in this area, this review summarises and analyses some main techniques used in smart livestock farming, focusing on those related to cattle lameness detection and behaviour recognition. In this study, more than 100 relevant papers on cattle lameness detection and behaviour recognition have been evaluated and discussed. Based on a review and a comparison of recent technologies and methods, we anticipate that intelligent perception for cattle behaviour and welfare monitoring will develop towards standardisation, a larger scale, and intelligence, combined with Internet of things (IoT) and deep learning technologies. In addition, the key challenges and opportunities of future research are also highlighted and discussed.

Enhanced Biosynthesis of Fatty Acids Is Associated with the Acquisition of Ciprofloxacin Resistance in Edwardsiella tarda

Edwardsiella tarda is the causative agent of edwardsiellosis, which imposes huge challenges on clinics and aquaculture. Due to the overuse of antibiotics, the emergence and spread of antibiotic-resistant E. tarda threaten human health and animal farming.