Exploration of the Exogenous Male Yak Introduction Breeding Model and its Effects on Tibetan Small-Sized Family Farms

A total of three family farms including Village No. 9 in Nima township, Nerong Naqu County (NQA); Village No. 11 in Nima township, Nerong Naqu County (NQB); and Yare township, Gegi County, Ali District (GJ) from three ecology yak populations (EYP) were selected for this study to identify the most optimized mode of exogenous male adult yak introduction (EMI) within EYP for solving the inbreeding problem caused by the small-scale yak husbandry system. Exogenous adult male yaks from the same EYP with different proportions (100% to NQA, 50% to NQB, and 0% to GJ) were introduced, and 10 microsatellites were used to detect the genetic diversity of these populations before (in 2017) and after (in 2019) the introduction of exogenous adult male yaks (EMI). Results showed that the divergence between the observed and the expected heterozygosity of the NQA and NQB populations was reduced in 2019, while the number of markers significantly deviating from Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium (P<0.05) and FIS (inbreeding coefficient) within populations decreased compared with that in 2017. In contrast, the FIS of GJ population without EMI continued to increase (from 0.011 to 0.033) over the years 2017 to 2019. Moreover, genetic differences between the populations (Pairwise Fixation index, FST) showed that EMI increased the genetic divergence between populations. Overall, this study shows that the introduction of exogenous male adult yaks not only effectively reduces the degree of population deviation from equilibrium but also decreases the inbreeding level within the population within a few generations. This study also provides a valuable management model for stable yak production on small sized family farms

Veterinary assistance and knowledge of farmers about antimicrobials in Goiás, Brazil

The objective of this research was to evaluate the influence of veterinary care on milk production and quality variables in rural properties of Goiás. The objective was also to verify the farmers' knowledge on antimicrobials. A total of 132 farms were visited in the state of Goiás, where interviews were carried out in order to characterize the farm, the influence of veterinary assistance on productive and sanitary aspects, and the way antimicrobials were used. Pearson's chi-square test (χ2) was used to verify the dependency or independence of variables. It was verified that 55.3% of the farms had dairy production below 250 L per day. However, 60.2% of the total milk produced on the 132 farms visited came from only 15 farms (11.4%), with production above 1,000 L per day. Veterinary assistance was present in 56% of the farms and a significant association was identified between veterinary assistance and the variables: type of farm (p = 0.025), husbandry system (p = 0.015), number of milkings per day (p = 0.0007), daily production per cow (p = 0.0006), and antimicrobial prescription (p < 0.0001). The farmers know that milk with antimicrobial residues must be discarded; however, they do not do it properly. Farms with lower average daily production per cow showed higher use of antimicrobials on their own initiative (p = 0.02). With urgency, the expansion of technical assistance and training of farmers regarding milk production is required to prevent risks associated with public health in Goiás.

Assessment of Farm management risk factors of contracting haemoparasitic infections in Pastoralist and Sedentary cattle in Soba Local Government Area, Kaduna State, Nigeria

The major cattle management system observed in Soba Local Government Area was pastoral husbandry system. Under this system, cattle were extensively grazed on established forages of Kaduna State forests and were exposed to various arthropod vectors of haemoparasites. These haemoparasites are a serious threat to food security in Soba LGA due to their influence on cattle productivity. Questionnaires were used in assessing some farm management risk factors of contracting haemoparasitic infections in both pastoralist and sedentary herds in Soba LGA. A total of 24 herdsmen made up of 20 pastoralists and 4 sedentary herdsmen were interviewed. The study revealed, that some herd management practices were observed to have constituted risks to acquiring haemoparasitic infections in both pastoralist and sedentar y herds in the study area. For instance, vectors of haemoparasites such as ticks and biting flies aside Glossina were present in both pastoralist and sedentary herds in the study area. Some farm management practices such as screening of herds for haemoparasites, treatment of it once in 12 months and quarantining of new stock before adding to the existing herds were found not to be carried. Thus, constituted risk factors in the herds. This preliminary study, provided evidence of the possible arthropod vectors (ticks and biting flies) that may be involved in the transmission of haemoparasites to cattle in Soba LGA of Kaduna State. It is envisaged that this survey will stimulate more studies to determine the prevalence of haemoparasites in cattle in Soba LGA of Kaduna State.

Medan Nature School with the Application of Energy Saving Ecological Architecture

Schools in Indonesia are conventional schools where students and teachers do activities which are commonly referred to as teaching and learning activities even though the school is not a place to lure students with stacks of information but also to train in terms of maturity of thinking and maturity of attitude. Now has developed a nature school that uses nature as a learning space, media, and teaching materials and learning objects that can take advantage of nature and can preserve nature for the next life. However, Medan only has a few nature schools. This nature school design uses the problem-solving methodology approach to solve existing problems, starting from the formulation stage, data collection, analysis to synthesis using survey techniques, interviews, literature studies, and comparative studies. So, through the design of Medan Nature School is expected to be able to educate students who emphasize education, character, and skills with the Ecological Architecture design approach where school buildings can maintain the environment to be sustainable, related to the plantation system, animal husbandry system, utility system, circulation systems, building design, and layout.

Doing nothing and what it looks like: inactivity in fattening cattle

Background Animals kept in barren environments often show increased levels of inactivity and first studies indicate that inactive behaviour may reflect boredom or depression-like states. However, to date, knowledge of what inactivity looks like in different species is scarce and methods to precisely describe and analyse inactive behaviour are thus warranted. Methods We developed an Inactivity Ethogram including detailed information on the postures of different body parts (Standing/Lying, Head, Ears, Eyes, Tail) for fattening cattle, a farm animal category often kept in barren environments. The Inactivity Ethogram was applied to Austrian Fleckvieh heifers kept in intensive, semi-intensive and pasture-based husbandry systems to record inactive behaviour in a range of different contexts. Three farms per husbandry system were visited twice; once in the morning and once in the afternoon to cover most of the daylight hours. During each visit, 16 focal animals were continuously observed for 15 minutes each (96 heifers per husbandry system, 288 in total). Moreover, the focal animals’ groups were video recorded to later determine inactivity on the group level. Since our study was explorative in nature, we refrained from statistical hypothesis testing, but analysed both the individual- and group-level data descriptively. Moreover, simultaneous occurrences of postures of different body parts (Standing/Lying, Head, Ears and Eyes) were analysed using the machine learning algorithm cspade to provide insight into co-occurring postures of inactivity. Results Inspection of graphs indicated that with increasing intensity of the husbandry system, more animals were inactive (group-level data) and the time the focal animals were inactive increased (individual-level data). Frequently co-occurring postures were generally similar between husbandry systems, but with subtle differences. The most frequently observed combination on farms with intensive and semi-intensive systems was lying with head up, ears backwards and eyes open whereas on pasture it was standing with head up, ears forwards and eyes open. Conclusion Our study is the first to explore inactive behaviour in cattle by applying a detailed description of postures from an Inactivity Ethogram and by using the machine learning algorithm cspade to identify frequently co-occurring posture combinations. Both the ethogram created in this study and the cspade algorithm may be valuable tools in future studies aiming to better understand different forms of inactivity and how they are associated with different affective states.

Bovine cysticercosis outbreak in an indoor beef finisher farm in the North of England

Bovine cysticercosis is a parasitic infection of cattle caused by the human tapeworm Taenia saginata. Bovine cysticercosis was identified by meat inspection in 4.7 per cent (18 out of 380) of the cattle submitted for slaughter, over an 8-month period, from a beef finisher farm. This value is significantly higher compared with the 2019 annual rate of detection from England meat inspection data, which was 0.018 per cent. Two of the 18 carcases were condemned on the grounds of generalised bovine cysticercosis. Its involvement was investigated by histopathological examination and confirmed using PCR and sequencing. Animal and Plant Health Agency collected data regarding the feed, the source of livestock, the staff sanitary conditions, the husbandry system, management and the farm environment. The results indicated that the permanently housed cattle were most likely infected on the finisher unit by homemade grass silage produced from a field which was crossed by a public footpath and bordered by two camp sites.

Characterising the Behaviour of the Ctenophore Pleurobrachia pileus in a Laboratory Aquaculture System

Neurobiological research focuses on a small number of model organisms, broadening the pool of animals used in research may lead to important insights into the evolution of nervous systems. The ctenophore is emerging as a promising model, but we are currently lacking an understanding into the relationship between behaviour and environment which is in part due to a lack of a standardised long-term laboratory husbandry system. We established a collection and husbandry system for wild caught Pleurobrachia pileus. We examined the behavioural profile of the animals over time in this controlled environment. We could reliably catch them on a seasonal basis, and we could keep the animals alive in our specialised aquarium system for months at a time. P. pileus spends most of the time in an inactive ‘drifting’ state which is interspersed with periods of one of 5 active behaviours. The most common active behaviours are tentacle resetting and feeding. The longest duration behaviours include swimming up or down. Time of day does not appear to alter their behavioural profile. Gaining a better understanding of the behaviour of these animals has important implications for systems and evolutionary neuroscience.

Historical aspects of exploitation of mountain pasture resources in the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic

The article presents an overview of materials on the pasture load dynamics on mountain meadow ecosystems of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic in the XX-XXI centuries. The livestock number in the public sectors and private business in different periods of development of the pasture animal husbandry system are presented. The article describes the state of grassland and the main reasons for the degradation of pastures during the periods of collective farm animal husbandry, after the elimination of the collective farm-state system, in the conditions of the economic crisis of the late XX century and in current times. Widespread rental land use by economic entities of various forms without proper control over the intended use of land leads to re-degradation of previously long-time unused pastures.

Seroprevalence of equine herpes virus-1 in endemic area of Egypt with risk factors assessment

Although equine herpesvirus-1 (EHV-1) infection occurs throughout the world; causing various health problems within horse population such as respiratory disease, abortion and myeloencephalopathy, there is information shortage concerning the epidemiological situation of EHVs in Egypt. This paper is the first study of EHV-1 prevalence rate in Monufia province (as a model for other pro­vinces). During 2015, two hundred and seventy serum samples from EHV non-vaccinated horses were randomly collected from 9 centres of Monufia province. The indirect ELISA was used to detect the prevalence rate of the disease while assessment of the associated risk factors was conducted using univariate and multivariate logistic regression models. The results showed that EHV-1 infection was widespread among horses at Monufia province (apparent prevalence rate 64% and true prevalence rate 28%) and posed risk for the health of other equines in the region. Results of risk factors identification showed that horses > 5 years of age were at significant risk of getting EHV-1 infection than < 1-year-old horses (OR: 5; P<0.02), while males were twice more prone than females of getting the EHV-1 infection (OR: 2 and P<0.03). There was a significant effect of different localities on the prevalence of EHV-1 infection. The obtained results could be extrapolated to the different districts and governorates of Egypt because of the similarity of the husbandry system of equines all over Egypt.

Doing nothing and what it looks like… Inactivity in fattening cattle

Animals kept in barren environments often show increased levels of inactivity and first studies indicate that inactive behaviour may reflect boredom or depression-like states. However, inactivity does not necessarily reflect negative welfare and can even be a sign of positive welfare, for example in terms of relaxation. To date, knowledge of how to reliably differentiate between positive and negative states associated with inactivity is scarce and methods to identify different forms of inactivity are thus warranted. To this end, we developed an Inactivity Ethogram including detailed information on the postures of different body parts (Standing/Lying, Head, Ears, Eyes, Tail) for fattening cattle, a farm animal category often kept in barren environments. The Inactivity Ethogram was applied to Austrian Fleckvieh heifers from intensive, semi-intensive and pasture-based husbandry systems. Three farms per husbandry system were visited twice; once in the morning and once in the afternoon to cover most of the daylight hours with our observations. During each visit, 16 focal animals were continuously observed for 15 minutes each (96 heifers per husbandry system, 288 in total). Moreover, the focal animals’ groups were video recorded to later determine the inactivity level on the group level. Group level and focal animal data were analysed with (generalised) linear mixed-effect models with husbandry system as fixed effect and (group nested in) farm visit nested in farm as random effects. Husbandry system did not affect group level inactivity or the time the different postures were adopted (with the exception of asymmetrical ears, which were more prevalent in intensive than in semi-intensive than in pasture systems). In addition to the analysis of the time the single postures were observed for, simultaneous occurrences of postures of different body parts (Standing/Lying, Head, Ears and Eyes) were analysed using the machine learning algorithm cspade to provide insight into co-occurring postures of inactivity. Frequently co-occurring postures were generally similar between husbandry systems, but with subtle differences. The most frequently observed combination in intensive and semi-intensive systems was Lying with Head up, Ears backwards and Eyes open whereas in pasture systems it was Lying with Head up, ears low and eyes closed. To conclude, both the Inactivity Ethogram (including the description of detailed postures) and the machine learning algorithm cspade (for identifying frequently co-occurring posture combinations) are promising tools to understand how combinations of postures may be used to distinguish between different affective states associated with inactivity.