Dairy production systems in the US have changed considerably over the last several decades due to forces that promote economic efficiency of production and to scientific and technological advances that afford opportunities for change. Societal values and concerns about animal wellbeing and specifically about livestock production systems and their impact on animal well-being have also changed th...

Marine biodiversity underpins ecosystem health and societal well-being. Preservation of hotspots is a global challenge. Molecular tools, like DNA barcoding metabarcoding, hold great potential for monitoring, possibly outperforming more traditional taxonomic methods. However, metabarcoding-based assessments are limited by the availability sequences in reference databases; lack thereof results hi...

Fun is functional: play is evolution's way of making sure animals acquire and perfect valuable skills in circumstances of relative safety. Yet precisely what animals find fun has seldom been examined for what it can potentially reveal about how they represent and think about the world.

Rubber flooring in dairies has become popular because of perceived cow comfort. The objective of this longitudinal study was to evaluate locomotion, stress, and immunity over the first 180d of each of the 1st and 2nd lactations of cows assigned to free-stall housing with either rubber (RUB) or concrete (CON) at the feed-alley of their housing. Cows entered the experiment at d −60 before 1st (n ...

resulted in improved ileal true digestibility (TD) of protein. Petroleum spirit-extracted dehulled soybean (TI 58.4 mg/g DM) was adjusted to 780 g/kg DM and heated alone or with either sodium metabisulphite (11.8 g/kg DM) or cysteine (15 g/kg DM) for 25, 35, 55 or 75 minutes at 95C. Reactive SH, determined by reaction with 4-vinyl pyridine and HPLC separation, was increased by C and S and decre...

The dry period between successive lactations is crucial for regeneration of productive function of mammary tissue, preparation for high production, and to prevent new intramammary infections (IMI). With continually increasing production levels over time, the stress of abrupt drying-off could be a welfare concern, as well as an increased risk period for new IMI. The objectives of this study were...

Livestock continue to make a huge and diverse contribution to human health and well-being. About one quarter of the dietary energy and one half of the dietary protein of people in developed countries comes from animal and fish products. Contrary to all the predictions of thirty years ago, animal products are making a larger contribution to feeding people in developing countries than previously....