Water quality concerns and revised regulations are changing how confined animal feeding operations manage manure. Devising acceptable and feasible changes in manure practices requires a full understanding of the forces shaping current manure management decisions. Previous theoretical models have shown that a wide range of factors influence the lowest cost solution for manure management. We used...

The Bologna Declaration of 19 June 1999 was a pledge, signed by 29 European countries, to reform higher education systems in order to create a European Space for Higher Education by 2010. As the deadline approaches, it is time to specify how the veterinary curricula can most adequately be oriented to adapt to the guidelines of the Declaration. The increasing demand for food of animal origin has...

Interest in selection for improved feed efficiency is increasing, but before any steps are taken toward selecting for feed efficiency, correlations with other economically important traits must first be quantified. The objective of this study was to quantify the genetic associations between feed efficiency measured during performance testing and linear type traits, BW, live animal value, and ca...

Food safety continues to be an important issue to the prevention of foodborne illness outbreaks. Animal feed is the beginning of the food safety chain. However, animal feeds can be contaminated with undesirable substances such as dioxins, mycotoxins, heavy metals, pesticides and veterinary drugs at any time during the processing, storage and dispersal. These substance can be transmitted through...

INTRODUCTION Air from animal feeding operations (AFOs) has been shown to transport numerous contaminants of public health concern. While federal statutes like the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) generally require that facilities report hazardous releases, AFOs have been exempted from most of these requirements by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). We asse...

BACKGROUND Industrial food animal production employs many of the same antibiotics or classes of antibiotics that are used in human medicine. These drugs can be administered to food animals in the form of free-choice medicated feeds (FCMF), where animals choose how much feed to consume. Routine administration of these drugs to livestock selects for microorganisms that are resistant to medication...

The industrialization of livestock production and the widespread use of nontherapeutic antimicrobial growth promotants has intensified the risk for the emergence of new, more virulent, or more resistant microorganisms. These have reduced the effectiveness of several classes of antibiotics for treating infections in humans and livestock. Recent outbreaks of virulent strains of influenza have ari...

The excessive use of antibiotics in food animal production has contributed to resistance in pathogenic bacteria, thereby triggering regulations and consumer demands to limit their use. Alternatives for disease control are therefore required that are cost-effective and compatible with intensive production. While vaccines are widely used and effective, they are available against a minority of ani...

An important series of issues confronts the animal research scientist involved in meeting world needs for food products from animal agriculture. The major issues stem from societal pressures for improved products, for prevention of chemical pollution of the biosphere, and for wise use of animal resources in toxicological testing and research. The following issues are among those treated in the ...

The risk of dispersing invasive species, especially human pathogens, through acts of bioterrorism, cannot be neglected. However, that risk appears quite low in comparison with the risk of dispersing animal pathogens that could dramatically burden the agricultural economy of food animal producing countries, such as Australia and countries in Europe and North and South America. Although it is not...