Body composition of animals and man is generally assumed to be a regulated phenomenon. Understanding the factors that are involved in such regulation is important in at least two different contexts. The obesity epidemic sweeping across developed nations has been described by the WHO as the greatest health threat facing Western societies. Understanding the underlying physiological factors that lead sectors of the population to fail in their attempts to regulate body mass and composition are of key importance in the drive to develop pharmaceutical remedies for this serious condition. A knock on effect for the agricultural sector however is the consumer demand for leaner animal products. This places a premium on understanding how body composition is regulated in livestock. Moreover the financial rewards for improving the energetic efficiency of production provide an additional incentive for understanding the details of energy regulation that underlie control of body composition. While direct genetic and physiological studies of livestock are feasible the mouse provides a convenient model animal that can inform our understanding of the conserved physiological mechanisms in both man and other animals. The key advantages of using the mouse in this context are that its small size and short breeding cycle enable experiments to be performed rapidly. Measuring physiological components of energy balance in mice is easily performed. In addition the mouse genome has been sequenced and the tools for performing large scale gene expression studies are already commercially available, opening up the capacity to perform integrative physiological studies form the level of the genome to the whole animal. Several genetic models of mice are known which have monogenic forms of extreme obesity. The best known of these is the ob/ob mouse, which is deficient in production of the adipokine leptin. However, many other single gene mutants are known which generate similar effects. Dissecting the loci of such effects has enabled us to construct a working model of how adiposity is signalled in the brain via the melanocortin system and how feedback loops including this system may contribute to regulation of energy balance. While some individuals have been identified that have similar genetic disruptions these are very rare, and it is clear that variation in human and livestock body composition generally reflects polygenic effects. More useful models may therefore be mice that have been selected for many generations for traits that impact on their body composition. The short generation time of the mouse has been extremely useful in the generation of such lines. My own group has been collaborating with the University of Edinburgh where such long-term selection experiment was initiated in the 1970s. We have in particular been quantifying the energy balance of mice long term selected for fat and lean body composition. We first showed that these polygenic effects do not seem to include polymorphisms within the leptin signalling system. By comparing total energy intake, with measures of resting energy expenditure the contribution of different energy compartments to energy balance can be assessed. These studies indicated that the major difference in energy regulation between the lines is that the lean line diverts substantially more energy into activity than the fat line. Direct measures of activity have been made to confirm this effect with mixed results. Using passive infrared detection devices the converse result is found – that the lean mice are less active, but using running wheels the logged activity matches the measured energy balance. These data indicate that the factors influencing energy balance reflect complex polygenic effects that reach far outside the leptin signalling system. The mouse is an ideal tool to explore these effects with implications for both the livestock industry and the obesity epidemic.

Genetics has not been a usual academic pursuit in the study of horses. Nutrition, exercise physiology and veterinary topics related to infectious diseases or mechanical defects are more traditional scientific pursuits. Genetics has been left to the realm of horse breeders. Indeed, horse breeders are historically credited with being the leading practitioners of the art and certainly have the longest pedigree records including the Weatherby Studbook and the oral tradition of Arabian horse breeding.

On the other hand, modern animal breeder need not yield ground in the area of genetics to horse breeders. Rightfully, our quantitative geneticists can point to the remarkable genetic gains and genetic predictions that have been made with Dairy cattle and since the 1940s,... without benefit of molecular biology!

Infectious diseases have great impact on the margin per pig sold and the animal’s welfare. The common veterinary approach to illness is to deal with the pathogen and ideally eliminate the pathogen from the herd. This approach reduces the probability of an outbreak, but increases the consequences of an outbreak, should it occur. A complicating matter is that an increasing number of parasites and pathogens have become resistant to antibiotics or anthelmintics. The objective of this paper is to draw attention to the pig’s ability to deal effectively with pathogens after natural exposure, with particular emphasis on genetic improvement. The terms used in this paper are defined as in Knap and Bishop (2000).

We now live in a Decoupled world. The direct support measures paid to farmers as part of the CAP Pillar 1 agricultural support, which paid them according to the number of livestock held or areas of crops grown, have been replaced by a Single Farm Payment (SFP). In the UK as a whole, these direct subsidy payments represented 77% of Total Income from Farming (TIFF) in 2004 and a large proportion of farmers would derive negative net farm incomes in the absence of them. In particular, livestock farmers appear to depend crucially on direct subsidies such as Suckler Cow Premium, Sheep Annual Premium and Beef Special Premium. The latest average position for LFA grazing livestock producers is that 188% of NFI is derived from subsidies and for lowland livestock producers the situation is even worse, at 259%. This suggests that if these subsidies were removed, Net farm Income would be negative and the business would be unsustainable.

Grazing is a natural process affecting the composition and structure of plant communities and is widely considered to be an essential nature conservation tool. However, our understanding of the interrelations between grazing by large herbivores and biodiversity is relatively poor. Nature conservation imperatives, to control succession, for example, mean that practice has moved ahead of the science knowledge base on grazing. This gap now needs to be bridged. Improving our understanding of and ability to predict consequences of manipulating grazing pressure, duration, type and/or mix of large herbivore on biodiversity outcomes are particular issues that we are addressing.

The characteristics of dairy products depend on both the processing technology and the chemical and microbiological characteristics of milk. The milk properties depend themselves on a number of production factors linked to animals (genetic and physiology) or feeding. Some of these factors, the way animal are fed in particular, are increasingly becoming the focus of consumers’ concern. In particular, grass-based diets are sensitive because grass carries a positive image that can be attractive to some, because it may confer special nutritional characteristics to the products and also because grass feeding is part of the basic link between products and their original land which is important in the case of labelled products (Protected Denomination of Origin [PDO]). The aim of this text is to take stock of the recent studies (Coulon et al., 2004), which have studied the effect of grass on the sensory qualities of cheeses and butter. Other dimensions of quality. i.e., health and nutrition, are not investigated.

Animal science research is important in relation to our understanding of animals, their function and performance, and their relationships with their social and physical environments. Animal science research covers a wide range of disciplines and so can lead to the use of a variety of experimental techniques on animals for many different purposes. This has the potential to lead to a multitude of diverse ethical issues. Members of the British Society of Animal Science and authors of papers submitted to the Society for publication come from countries around the world and therefore are subject to differences in legislative requirements and recommendations regarding animal experimentation. These legal requirements, along with the ethical implications of the research must be fully considered before any experimental work is undertaken.