In the past selection programmes for pigs have been based on measurements from individually housed animals. The manual weighing of food and refusals to obtain information on individual food intake is labour-consuming, and the housing method different to that found on most commercial farms where growing pigs are housed in groups. The selection of pigs in one environment to be kept in another often leads to a discrepancy between performance results achieved by pig breeders and those obtained in a commercial situation (Merks, 1989).

Two randomized-block experiments were carried out to examine the relative value of wheat and barley as supplements to grass silage for finishing beef cattle. In each experiment unwilted, formic acid-treated silage was offered ad libitum and supplemented with 500 g soya-bean meal and 50 g minerals and vitamins to 44 12-month-old bulls for 157 and 172 days in experiments 1 and 2 respectively. Twelve of the animals also received 2·5 kg rolled spring barley (LB), 12 received 4·0 kg barley (HB) and 20 received 3·25 kg rolled wheat (W). For experiments 1 and 2 respectively the barley contained 796 and 787 g dry matter (DM) per kg; 118 and 105 g crude protein (CP) per kg DM; 47 and 57 g crude fibre per kg DM; the wheat contained 845 and 800 g DM per kg; 112 and 116 g CP per kg DM; 23 and 25 g crude fibre per kg DM; and the silages contained 190 and 177 g DM per kg; 153 and 176 g CP per kg DM; 80 and 104 g ammonia-nitrogen per kg total nitrogen. On average over the two experiments, for treatments LB, HB and W respectively, silage DM intakes were 5·4, 4·7 (s.e. 0·14) and 4·9 (s.e. 0·11) kg/day; total DM intakes 7·9, 8·3 (s.e. 0·14) and 8·1 (s.e. 0·11) kg/day; metabolizable energy intakes 91·4, 97·8 and 94·2 MJ/day; live-weight gains 1·04,1·19 (s.e. 0·029) and 1·10 (s.e. 0·023) kg/day and carcass gams 0·65, 0·77 (s.e. 0·017) and 0·70 (s.e. 0·013) kg/day. It is concluded that the feeding value of wheat was proportionately 0·98 of that of barley for finishing beef cattle when given as a supplement to grass silage, and that the type of cereal offered did not affect silage intake or carcass composition.

Polyethylene glycol (PEG) measured with NIRS is known to be a valuable faecal marker when used in indoor experiments. In order to verify whether it can be used at pasture, an experiment was conducted with two trials. In trial 1, six Romane breed adult dry ewes placed in metabolism cages were fed daily with natural, freshly cut rangeland from a fertilised or unfertilised paddock for 6 weeks. Three ewes did not receive PEG and the three others were dosed with 10 g of PEG in solution form once daily until the end of the experiment to measure in vivo dry matter digestibility and PEG recovery rate for each forage quality. At the same time (trial 2), 15 ewe lambs and 14 lactating adult ewes suckling one or two lambs were allowed to graze together on the same herbage as that cut for indoor ewes. All animals were initially equipped with faecal bags emptied twice daily for collecting total faeces, and eight ewe lambs and seven adults were dosed once daily with 10 g of PEG. Faecal grab samples were collected for 4 to 5 days for each forage quality grazed. Indoor trial 1 showed that PEG had no effect on dry matter intake (DMI) or on digestibility. PEG recovery rates measured on fertilised (77.7%) and unfertilised (82.1%) forage were not different (P>0.05). PEG recovery rates measured at pasture did not differ (P>0.05) between pasture quality and animal type with an average value of 68.9%. Faecal output measured with bags or estimated with PEG and calculated DMI were not different (P>0.05) when PEG recovery rate measured at pasture was used. Conversely, using indoor PEG recovery values, significantly (P<0.05) or tended to overestimate faecal output. In conclusion, PEG could be used as a faecal marker administered at a minimal dose of 1% of DMI with a recovery rate measured under pasture conditions for pasture intake measurements on a group of animals at the same physiological stage but not for individual measurements.

Manipulation of the bacterial population of the intestine has been shown to result in changes in the structure and function of mucosal tissues. The objective of the present experiment was to investigate the effect of inclusion of a non-therapeutic antibiotic, virginiamycin, in the diet of sheep on the activity of the Na* -dependant transport of glucose and alanine by enterocyte cells. These transport mechanisms can be studied by isolation of brush border membrane vesicles following sub-cellular fractionation of the mucosal tissues.

Tissue was obtained from two separate growth trials in which the effect of inclusion of virginiamycin on lamb growth was being studied. In Trial 1 (glucose studies) the animals had been fed a concentrate diet plus hay ad libitum and virginiamycin was included at 100 ppm in the treatment group. In Trial 2 (alanine studies) the sheep were fed a concentrate diet with virginiamycin included at 50 ppm in the treatment group.

The potential of antibodies raised against insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) as a treatment to enhance the anabolic actions of IGF-1 has been demonstrated in both rodent and ruminant models. We investigated whether treatment of genetically normal rats with anti-IGF-1 immunoglobulin (Ig, raised in cattle) would enhance growth and if anti-IGF-1 Ig treatment would ameliorate live-weight loss in genetically normal rats offered a severely protein-restricted diet. Scatchard analysis was used to characterise ammonium sulphate precipitated bovine anti-IGF-1 Ig. Anti-IGF-1 Ig binding to 125I-IGF-1 yielded an almost linear Scatchard plot, with a Hill co-efficient of 0.951 ± 0.012, indicating a single class of IGF-1 binding sites. The affinity of anti-IGF-1 Ig for IGF-1 was 2.14 ± 0.66 × 109 l/mol. The non-immune Ig preparation did not bind IGF-1. Rats were offered either a diet with a normal protein level (20%) or protein restricted (4% protein), and each dietary group was further treated with twice-daily i.p. injections of either diluent phosphate buffered saline, non-immune Ig or anti-IGF-1 Ig. Dietary protein level had a significant effect on live-weight gain, but there was no effect of non-immune Ig or anti-IGF-1 Ig on live-weight gain. Treatment with anti-IGF-1 Ig prevented the significant depression of cumulative dietary intake observed in diluent, and non-immune Ig treated groups offered the 4% protein diet. The cumulative dietary intake of the anti-IGF-1 Ig treated, 4% dietary protein group did not differ significantly from those of the groups offered the 20% protein diet. In addition, within the 4% dietary protein group, rats treated with non-immune Ig exhibited a cumulative feed intake that was intermediate between that of the diluent treated and anti-IGF-1 Ig treated groups (P < 0.05). Size exclusion chromatography was used to characterise in vitro125I-IGF-1 binding in end-point plasma from each treatment group. In comparison to control groups, anti-IGF-1 Ig treatment resulted in substantially increased 125I-IGF-1 binding in the 30 to 40 kDa region and a concomitant reduction in elution of free 125I-IGF-1. Protein restriction markedly depressed IGF-1 binding at ∼150 kDa in the plasma of diluent and non-immune Ig treated groups. Anti-IGF-1 Ig treatment was effective in preventing this decrease in ∼150 kDa binding. Thus, anti-IGF-1 Ig appears to have a beneficial effect on dietary intake in protein-restricted rats, which is associated with induced changes in IGF-1 binding profiles in plasma.

In farmed salmonids the majority of consumed nitrogen is lost in metabolic waste products (mainly ammonia) and the faeces (Table 1). Any improvement in nitrogen retention, brought about by reductions in these components, would decrease environmental load. Inter-individual variation in retained nitrogen has been little investigated as a basis for selection of more efficient fish; this communication points to an experimental approach to measuring individual variation by concentrating on digestive efficiency and protein turnover as possible contributors to nitrogen retention. The utilization of dietary nitrogen was investigated in two species of farmed salmonid, the rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss and the Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar.

Recent studies have shown increased silage intake and improved milk fat concentration in dairy cows offered restricted compared to extensively fermented silages (Chamberlain et al., 1990; Mayne 1992). Changes in milk composition may be related to increased intake per se and/or alterations in rumen fermentation parameters. A study was therefore undertaken to examine the effects of silage fermentation type, dry matter intake and the addition of water soluble carbohydrate (WSC) or lactic acid on rumen fermentation parameters in dairy cows.

Two direct cut grass silages were prepared using either an inoculant (Ecosyl, 3 1/t, ICI. pic) or Maxgrass (BP Chemicals, 6 1/t). Five silage only treatments were offered to four ruminally fistulated dairy cows in a five period, partially balanced, changeover design experiment. Each period was of 4 weeks duration. Treatment 1: Inoculant treated silage (I), 2: Maxgrass silage (M), 3: Maxgrass ad-libitum (MAL), 4: Inoculant + sucrose (500 g/day) (IS), 5: Maxgrass + lactic acid (200 ml/day) (ML).

Field data were analysed in an attempt to identify factors contributing to differences between haemoglobin types n i the proportion of ewes lambing per ewe exposed to the ram in flocks grazing oestrogenic pastures. The number of ewes mated and the proportion of ewes failing to conceive to first service per ewe exposed to the ram were analysed. Neither was found to significantly differ between matings of different haemoglobin type. It is concluded that differences in reproductive performance between haemoglobin types could possibly result from differences in embryo survival.

One hundred and thirty crossbred gilts (Yorkshire × Duroc × Hampshire) were exposed to either natural (40 lux) or supplemental lighting (700 lux) beginning at 8 weeks of age. Gilts received supplemental lighting from 40-W flourescent bulbs from 05·15 to 09·00 h and 16·30 to 20·15 h from 9 September to 22 April. At 4 months of age, all gilts were exposed daily for 15 min to mature boars five times weekly. Twelve gilts from each group were slaughtered at 4, 5, 6 and 7 months of age. All gilts were bled from indwelling cannulas at 20-min intervals for 4 h the day preceding slaughter. In addition, blood samples were drawn weekly from 17 gilts in each group from 7 to 9 months of age and analysed for progesterone to determine age of puberty. Twelve of 17 gilts that received supplemental lighting reached puberty at 228 (s.e. 11) days of age whereas 11 of 16 gilts that received natural lighting reached puberty at 252 (s.e. 7) days of age (P = 0·07). No significant differences occurred in anterior pituitary gland weight or pituitary concentration of LH, mean concentrations of serum LH or number of LH secretory spikes between natural and supplemental-lighted gilts at each month (all P > 005). Concentration of oestradiol-17β and progesterone in follicular fluid was similar between treatment groups within months and follicular size (P > 0·05). Content of GnRH in the stalk-median eminence, preoptic area and hypothalamus proper were also similar between treatment groups (P > 0·05). In summary, supplemental lighting reduced the age of puberty in gilts without a detectable change in pituitary, hypothalamic or ovarian parameters.

Three different stages of pig antral follicles have been studied in a granulosa-cell transcriptome analysis on nylon microarrays (1152 clones). The data have been generated from seven RNA follicle pools and several technical replicates were made. The objective of this paper was to state the feasibility of a transcriptomic protocol for the study of folliculogenesis in the pig. A statistical analysis was chosen, relying on the linear mixed model (LMM) paradigm. Low variability within technical replicates was hence checked with a LMM. Relevant genes that might be involved in the studied process were then selected. For the most significant genes, statistical methods such as principal component analysis and unsupervised hierarchical clustering were applied to assess their relevance, and a random forest analysis proved their predictive value. The selection of genes was consistent with previous studies and also allowed the identification of new genes whose role in pig folliculogenesis will be further investigated.

The majority of lambs in the United States are born from late winter to early spring and pregnant ewes are generally sheared in the last third of pregnancy. Although there are benefits to shearing before parturition, shorn animals may be more vulnerable to the cold, highly variable climatic conditions associated with these seasons. The objective of this study was to determine if late gestation shearing induces differences in individual BW, dry matter intake (DMI) and plasma metabolite concentration of finewool ewes managed outdoors during winter. Thirty-six mature, pregnant Rambouillet ewes (3.8±0.45 years; 76.8±11.4 kg) were managed in a drylot with ad libitum access to pelleted alfalfa in bunks capable of measuring individual daily DMI. The treatment group consisted of ewes sheared at ~5 weeks before the estimated parturition date (shorn; n=18). Unshorn ewes (n=18) remained in full fleece throughout the experiment and were shorn on the last day of the experiment ~2 weeks before the estimated parturition date. Blood was collected on days 0 (before shearing shorn group), 7, 14 and 21 (before shearing unshorn group) of the trial, and plasma was isolated and analyzed for non-esterified fatty acid (NEFA), β-hydroxybutyrate (BHB) and glucose (GLU) concentrations. There was no effect of shearing on ewe DMI or BW during the trial (P⩾0.35). Plasma NEFA and GLU concentrations were similar (P⩾0.36) between shearing groups, though plasma BHB concentration was 103.7 μmol/l greater (24.1%; P<0.01) in unshorn ewes. Lamb BW at birth was not affected (P=0.30) by ewe shearing treatment. Under conditions of this study, no differences in economically important aspects of sheep production were observed between shorn and unshorn pregnant ewes.

Bovine placental lactogen (bPL) is structurally related to prolactin (PRL) and growth hormone (GH). In synergism with steroid and thyroid hormones, bPL is crucial in stimulating the development of the mammary gland, mammary cell differentiation and function. To further explore whether bPL gene is associated with milk production traits, we herein analyzed single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within eight regions of bPL gene, which are potentially associated with five milk production traits on 1028 Chinese Holstein cows. Among these, two SNPs, NT7409(T–C) and Nt11246(G–A), were identified. The former is within exon 2; it induces an alteration of amino acid from Val to Ala. The later is within exon 4. It is a synonymous mutation. We found that there were significant associations between NT7409(T–C) and milk and protein yield. Cows of the AA genotype yielded less milk (P = 0.001) and less protein (P = 0.003) than those of genotypes AB and BB. However, on the NT11246(G–A) locus, no significant association was observed in the five milk production traits studied. In addition, bPL has been localized near markers RM185 and CC549051 with a distance of 23.2 cR on BTA 23. It is at the same position as the region including quantitative trait loci (QTLs) affecting milk and protein yields by previous linkage analysis. In summary, our findings demonstrated that the SNP within exon 2 of bPL (NT7409(T–C)) is associated with two milk production traits, and this provided further evidence that bPL could be a major gene-controlling milk production trait in Holstein dairy cattle.

The study was carried out on a continuously stocked grass/white clover pasture, which was maintained at two sward heights: 3·5 cm (low; LSH) and 6·5 cm (high; HSH). Three oesophageal-cannulated and three other rumen-cannulated Merino sheep were allocated to each of the plots (LSH and HSH) in order to study the effects of sward height and advancing grazing season on rumen fermentation in grazing sheep. Three grazing periods (13 days) were considered: mid June, late July and early October. During each grazing period and after a preliminary period (7 days), samples of the grazed herbage and of grass hay were incubated in nylon bags in the rumen of each sheep for 0, 3, 6, 12, 24, 48, 72 and 96 h. On days 10 and 12 rumen fluid was sampled at the incubation time (11.00 h) and at 3, 6 and 12 h afterwards and pH, ammonia-nitrogen and volatile fatty acids (VFA) concentrations were determined. Sward height did not affect (P > 0·05) the degradation rate of dry matter (DM) and neutral-detergent fibre (NDF) from grazed herbage in any of the considered periods. Animals grazing LSH presented higher (P < 0·05) DM and NDF effective degradabilities (DMED and NDFED, respectively) during October but no differences were found during June and July. HSH grazing animals presented lower (P < 0·05) degradation rates of DM and NDF from grass hay during June and July than those found for LSH grazing sheep, with no differences (P > 0·05) observed during October. Sward height did not affect (P > 0·05) grass hay DMED and NDFED during July but during June and October HSH grazing sheep presented higher (P < 0·05) values. In general, DMED and NDFED from grazed herbage increased with advancing season, the lowest (P < 0·05) value being observed during June. Rumen ammonia-nitrogen concentrations were higher during October than during June and July for both sward heights but values were higher than 200 mg/l at any sampling time during all grazing seasons. Rumen pH values were within the range considered adequate for maintaining a normal cellulolytic activity at most of the sampling times, with the exception of sheep grazing LSH during October. Rumen VFA concentrations were within the range reported for other grazing studies and only a few differences between sward heights were found. Differences in rumen parameters are discussed in relation to both chemical composition of grazed herbage and pattern of intake.

On pig farms, a high proportion of the cost of production comes from feed costs. However, the use of alternative ingredients such as legume seeds may help to reduce this cost. In fact, legume seeds are an important source of essential amino acids (EAA) and can therefore be an alternative to oilseed meals. However, the accurate use of these legume seeds requires a precise knowledge of the standardized ileal digestibility (SID) of EAA, which may vary depending on its botanical variety. A meta-analysis was performed on a database compiling data from 41 studies published between 1981 and 2013 and 178 dietary treatments. Models of prediction of the SID of EAA as well as the dietary concentration of digestible standardized EAA (dEAA) were obtained, based on the chemical composition of ingredients reported in the publications. The effect of the type of legume seeds (faba bean, lupin, pea and soya bean), surgical procedures (T-cannula, re-entrant cannulas, post valve T-cannulas and ileo-rectal anastomosis), and BW of pigs (BW⩽25 kg BW>25 kg) were also tested in each model. Results showed that dietary CP and crude fibre (CF) were, respectively, the best predictors of each EAA SID for faba bean, lupin and pea (R2=0.42 to 0.89) and soya bean (R2=0.32 to 0.77). For the dEAA content, the best prediction models included dietary CP and ADF for faba bean, lupin and pea and soya bean, respectively, with R2 ranging from 0.66 to 0.98. Models developed in this study allow predicting the digestibility of EAA in these alternatives feedstuffs.

Animal health issues are a problem on many dairy farms, and much is already known about clinical treatments and the behaviour of sick animals. Animal health issues can influence behaviour seen around the milking parlour, but less is known about the relationship between the number of previous medical treatments and the queuing to be milked, the ‘milking order’. Information was collected on five afternoon milking sessions, the individual cows’ age and the medical treatment history of each cow in a group of 100 cows. The question addressed was whether the age and the medical treatment history of each cow in the herd affected its milking order. In addition, milking order was tested day to day, and was found to be consistent. A significant positive correlation was found between medical treatment history and milking order rank, meaning that cows with a higher medical treatment history tended to enter the milking parlour later than cows with a lower medical treatment history. In contrast with this finding, it was found that older cows were more likely to enter the milking parlour early when compared to younger animals, a finding which is supported by previous studies. These somewhat contradictory effects of (a) age and (b) medical treatment history on milking order suggest that health disorders may have long-term measurable effects on the position of a cow in the milking order, even when the effect of age on milking order is accounted for.

Following an outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAIV) in a poultry house, control measures are put in place to prevent further spread. An essential part of the control measures based on the European Commission Avian Influenza Directive 2005/94/EC is the cleansing and disinfection (C&D) of infected premises. Cleansing and disinfection includes both preliminary and secondary C&D, and the dismantling of complex equipment during secondary C&D is also required, which is costly to the owner and also delays the secondary cleansing process, hence increasing the risk for onward spread. In this study, a quantitative risk assessment is presented to assess the risk of re-infection (recrudescence) occurring in an enriched colony-caged layer poultry house on restocking with chickens after different C&D scenarios. The risk is expressed as the number of restocked poultry houses expected before recrudescence occurs. Three C&D scenarios were considered, namely (i) preliminary C&D alone, (ii) preliminary C&D plus secondary C&D without dismantling and (iii) preliminary C&D plus secondary C&D with dismantling. The source-pathway-receptor framework was used to construct the model, and parameterisation was based on the three C&D scenarios. Two key operational variables in the model are (i) the time between depopulation of infected birds and restocking with new birds (TbDR) and (ii) the proportion of infected material that bypasses C&D, enabling virus to survive the process. Probability distributions were used to describe these two parameters for which there was recognised variability between premises in TbDR or uncertainty due to lack of information in the fraction of bypass. The risk assessment estimates that the median (95% credible intervals) number of repopulated poultry houses before recrudescence are 1.2 × 104 (50 to 2.8 × 106), 1.9 × 105 (780 to 5.7 × 107) and 1.1 × 106 (4.2 × 103 to 2.9 × 108) under C&D scenarios (i), (ii) and (iii), respectively. Thus for HPAIV in caged layers, undertaking secondary C&D without dismantling reduces the risk by 16-fold compared to preliminary C&D alone. Dismantling has an additional, although smaller, impact, reducing the risk by a further 6-fold and thus around 90-fold compared to preliminary C&D alone. On the basis of the 95% credible intervals, the model demonstrates the importance of secondary C&D (with or without dismantling) over preliminary C&D alone. However, the extra protection afforded by dismantling may not be cost beneficial in the context of reduced risk of onward spread.