Showing papers in "Livestock Production Science in 2000"

TL;DR: This review concerns the heat stress–strain response of domestic ruminants from the viewpoint of animal welfare and physiological, hormonal, and behavioral thermoregulatory responses are discussed in respect to animal welfare.

TL;DR: The use of clinical mastitis data and somatic cell counts in selection for mastitis resistance as well as implications and prospects for the future are discussed.

TL;DR: Genetic variability and heritability of muscle fibre number and size are sufficiently high to include these traits in farm animal selection in addition to commonly used selection criteria for improving lean meat content and meat quality.

TL;DR: Insulin-like growth factor I, which in colostrum is present in high amounts, may enhance gastrointestinal tract development and function of neonatal calves and should be ingested as soon as possible after birth for efficient and sufficient absorption.

TL;DR: Variation in residual feed intake, that is, variation in feed intake in relation to liveweight and growth rate, was investigated using data from 540 progeny of 154 British Hereford sires collected over ten 200-day postweaning performance tests conducted between 1979 and 1988.

TL;DR: Behavioural observations showed that environmental enrichment reduced time spent inactive and time spent involved in harmful social and aggressive behaviour while increasing the time spent in exploratory behaviour.

TL;DR: The main characteristics of feeding behaviour are described in terms of the satiation process and motivation to eat, and the main feed factors that influence intake are reviewed.

TL;DR: In the future, computerised animal models based on scientifically correct feed evaluation systems offer the opportunity for securing optimal feeding of farm animals in relation to their ideal amino acid profile for all different purposes of production.

TL;DR: The present relationship indicates that VFI depends on temperature and body weight with a marked negative effect of high ambient temperatures in heavier pigs.

TL;DR: The findings indicate that culling for reproductive reasons is more common among low-parity females, which suggests that minimisation of NPD at early reproductive cycles is crucial to optimise female lifetime reproductive efficiency.

TL;DR: Since 1992 a number of lactating dairy cows and beef steers were offered grass silage-based diets in a range of feeding experiments and subjected to gaseous exchange measurements in calorimetric chambers to evaluate the relationship between methane energy output (CH4-E), and the data from both dairy and beef cattle were pooled to predict CH 4-E.

TL;DR: The main aims of this experiment were to study the sites and extent of digestion of the nutrients in wheat and its by-products and the contribution of microbial action and endogenous secretion of N in the small intestine and interactions with an exogenous non-starch polysaccharide (NSP) degrading enzyme.

TL;DR: Genotype seems the most appropriate sow factor that can be used to realise the desired changes and selection for a higher voluntary feed intake during lactation is recommended, for sustainable pig production.

TL;DR: The extent to the modification of the fatty acid composition of lamb carcasses by choice of dietary ingredients despite the ruminal hydrogenation of dietary fat is supported.

TL;DR: Data from 1799 Large White and 1522 Landrace boars were used to obtain heritability and litter effect estimates for performance, carcass and meat quality traits applying a REML procedure fitting an animal model.

TL;DR: It will be important to manipulate rumen biohydrogenation in order to increase CLA output with a low trans C18:1/CLA ratio, and scarce data suggest this could be achieved by increasing the supply of linoleic rich fat and modifying the basal diet or include ionophores.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors used a random regression model to estimate the covariance between regression coefficients and error variances for cows' weights, using restricted maximum likelihood (RML).

TL;DR: Experimental evidence indicates a regulatory role of these milk-borne growth factors in stimulating GI tissue growth and function maturation, and in enhancing repair of damaged GI mucosa in the suckling young and potential therapeutic applications of Milk-borne Growth factors in both agricultural animals and human infants warrant further investigation.

TL;DR: Since the main effects did not interact, the poorer ADG of large groups, and the higher lesion score and suppressed immune response of pigs provided with lower space allowance, suggest that these conditions may independently compromise productivity and welfare.

TL;DR: A synergistic effect of organic acids and microbial phytase was found for ash, P and Mg digestibility, and the apparent total tract digestibility of DM, ash, Ca and P were significantly enhanced by the organic acids.

TL;DR: The purpose of the present review is to reflect on the impact of studies on the UK metabolisable energy (ME) system, and other net energy (NE) systems, and validate these systems using published calorimetric data, and incorporate them in the future revision of an energy feeding system.

TL;DR: The possibility to improve different sow reproduction traits, such as age at puberty, oestrous symptoms, ability to become pregnant, litter size, piglet survival and weight, milk production, maternal behaviour and ability to show oestrus after weaning, are discussed in this review.

TL;DR: A disease affecting weaned pigs and known as Postweaning Multisystemic Wasting Syndrome (PMWS) is described on French farms with a strong litter effect on disease susceptibility and the environment was suspected as an important determining factor for the effect of PMWS in the herds.

TL;DR: There is genetic variation that can be utilised for increasing longevity by selection in Swedish Landrace sows using a proportional hazards model based on the Weibull distribution.

TL;DR: Goats are less sensitive to copper toxicity than sheep and cattle and can tolerate higher levels of Cu in their diets than other ruminant species such as cattle and sheep as discussed by the authors.

TL;DR: It is concluded that the selection for longevity is possible because of high genetic standard deviations of the stayability traits and that an antagonism exists between growth performance and longevity, whereas a better leg status decreases involuntary culling.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors used a repeated measures model to predict herd mean energy balance (EB) and investigate whether herd size affects the precision of prediction, concluding that sufficiently precise prediction of energy balance would require either herds larger than 150 cows or pooling of the results of subsequent test days.

TL;DR: There was a positive trend in the Median length of life over time for horses that had participated in the RHQT, and the median length-of-life curve increased more steeply for mares than for males, which showed a longer median length oflife for coldblood geldings than for the mares.

TL;DR: Test-day data comprising of 63,331 test-day milk records of 6310 primiparous Finnish Ayrshire cows were used to estimate genetic parameters for daily milk production and estimates of heritability were found to be highest during early and late lactation when estimated by ASM and OPMPE1 models, while the converse was true for those derived by CF.

TL;DR: Both circulating and luminal factors affect prenatal GIT development to ensure that the foetal GIT is sufficiently mature to support the dramatic changes in nutrition that occur at birth.