An ability to describe the quality of lived experience across the course of an animal’s life is of increasing interest in studies on wellbeing in farm animals. Integrity of physical functions is an important aspect of the tripartite model of wellbeing: feeling, functioning and interacting well. This review examines measures of functional integrity as potential indicators of functional (eudaimonic) wellbeing. Copious literature shows that coping with day-to-day fluctuations in the environment influences (1) periodicity of biorhythms, (2) allocation of resources to growth, defence and repair, and (3) rate of biological aging. Here we review opportunities for assessing functional integrity through analysis of (1) the dynamic status of physiological and behavioural variables, (2) the accretion of resources in production tissues (milk, eggs, body mass, offspring) and physical structures (fibre, hoof, bone, tooth, placoid scale, otolith, beak), and (3) biological age. A reduction in periodicity of biorhythms, complexity of behaviours, or uniformity of trajectories of growth and production is often associated with poorer current and future health outcomes and shorter functional longevity. These analytical approaches are grounded in statistical measures of stability in complex dynamic systems. Additionally, the cumulative effect of wear and tear on biological age can be assessed via telomere length, DNA methylation, biomarkers of allostatic load, hair cortisol, and physiological functional capacity. Timeseries of behaviour, physiology and accretion provide a richer record of functional integrity than do cumulative indicators of biological age. Indicators of integrity are needed for each phase of the animal’s life course including attainment of developmental competencies, stability of mature performance, and rate of decline with advancing age, to provide a comprehensive record across the whole of the animal’s life. The utility of measures may differ between real-time and retrospective assessments and between application to every individual versus sentinels. Further validation is required for interpretating measures of functional integrity as indicators of the functional aspect of wellbeing, together with determining their practicality and reliability before translation to commercial settings is feasible. A single type of indicator of functional wellbeing (e.g. DNA methylation) is unlikely to have utility for all life stages, species, production systems, and environments.
{"title":"Indicators of functional integrity in production animals","authors":"I. Colditz, E. G. Smith, A. Ingham, S. Dominik","doi":"10.1071/an23029","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1071/an23029","url":null,"abstract":"An ability to describe the quality of lived experience across the course of an animal’s life is of increasing interest in studies on wellbeing in farm animals. Integrity of physical functions is an important aspect of the tripartite model of wellbeing: feeling, functioning and interacting well. This review examines measures of functional integrity as potential indicators of functional (eudaimonic) wellbeing. Copious literature shows that coping with day-to-day fluctuations in the environment influences (1) periodicity of biorhythms, (2) allocation of resources to growth, defence and repair, and (3) rate of biological aging. Here we review opportunities for assessing functional integrity through analysis of (1) the dynamic status of physiological and behavioural variables, (2) the accretion of resources in production tissues (milk, eggs, body mass, offspring) and physical structures (fibre, hoof, bone, tooth, placoid scale, otolith, beak), and (3) biological age. A reduction in periodicity of biorhythms, complexity of behaviours, or uniformity of trajectories of growth and production is often associated with poorer current and future health outcomes and shorter functional longevity. These analytical approaches are grounded in statistical measures of stability in complex dynamic systems. Additionally, the cumulative effect of wear and tear on biological age can be assessed via telomere length, DNA methylation, biomarkers of allostatic load, hair cortisol, and physiological functional capacity. Timeseries of behaviour, physiology and accretion provide a richer record of functional integrity than do cumulative indicators of biological age. Indicators of integrity are needed for each phase of the animal’s life course including attainment of developmental competencies, stability of mature performance, and rate of decline with advancing age, to provide a comprehensive record across the whole of the animal’s life. The utility of measures may differ between real-time and retrospective assessments and between application to every individual versus sentinels. Further validation is required for interpretating measures of functional integrity as indicators of the functional aspect of wellbeing, together with determining their practicality and reliability before translation to commercial settings is feasible. A single type of indicator of functional wellbeing (e.g. DNA methylation) is unlikely to have utility for all life stages, species, production systems, and environments.","PeriodicalId":49242,"journal":{"name":"Animal Production Science","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2023-06-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47127543","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Context Steadily increasing consumption of chicken meat (Australia’s most consumed meat protein) has resulted in expanded production. With societal expectations that industries improve sustainability, understanding baseline impacts is vital. Aims This study determined carbon footprint (kg CO2-e), fossil energy (MJ), fresh water consumption (L), stress (LH2O-e) and scarcity (m3), and land-occupation (m2) impacts for conventional (C) and free-range (FR) production systems, identified hotspots and the implications of changes in production over the past decade, to establish targets for future improvement. Methods In the largest study of its kind, attributional life-cycle assessment with data collected for ∼50% of birds processed was used, reporting impacts per kilogram of the typical market mix of chicken products, and boneless chicken. Uncertainty was assessed through Monte Carlo analysis, and results are presented as the means and standard deviation. Key results Slightly lower impacts per kilogram of chicken meat product were observed for C production (2.1±0.03kgCO2-e, 18.0±0.3MJ, 178.6±22.4L, and 10.2±0.1m2) than for FR (2.2±0.03kgCO2-e, 18.5±0.3MJ, 189.6±24.6L, and 10.6±0.1m2). Feed production was the major hotspot, followed by grow-out and meat processing. Land use (LU) and direct land use-change (dLUC) impacts associated with imported soymeal added 1.7±0.3 and 1.8±0.3kgCO2-e to C and FR respectively. FR carbon footprint and land occupation were significantly (P<0.05) higher. Since 2010, fossil energy, arable land, and greenhouse-gas emissions have declined. One countertrend was LU and dLUC emissions, which increased due to changed soy imports, resulting in a slightly higher C carbon footprint. Conclusions Multi-indicator analysis is fundamental to understanding, communicating, and improving performance, and distinguishing between short-term fluctuations and long-term trends. Since 2010, feed-production impacts have increased (due to imported soymeal in poultry diets), indicating that alternative feed protein sources are a priority. Efficiency improvements reduced per-kilogram impacts across other indicators, demonstrating a positive trend in producing more food from fewer inputs. Implications Australian chicken meat is a low-impact animal protein. Future improvements require alternative feed proteins, technology adoption and practice change to maintain or reduce impacts as production expands alongside consumer demand.
{"title":"Environmental impacts of the Australian poultry industry. 1. Chicken meat production","authors":"M. Copley, S. Wiedemann","doi":"10.1071/an22230","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1071/an22230","url":null,"abstract":"Context Steadily increasing consumption of chicken meat (Australia’s most consumed meat protein) has resulted in expanded production. With societal expectations that industries improve sustainability, understanding baseline impacts is vital. Aims This study determined carbon footprint (kg CO2-e), fossil energy (MJ), fresh water consumption (L), stress (LH2O-e) and scarcity (m3), and land-occupation (m2) impacts for conventional (C) and free-range (FR) production systems, identified hotspots and the implications of changes in production over the past decade, to establish targets for future improvement. Methods In the largest study of its kind, attributional life-cycle assessment with data collected for ∼50% of birds processed was used, reporting impacts per kilogram of the typical market mix of chicken products, and boneless chicken. Uncertainty was assessed through Monte Carlo analysis, and results are presented as the means and standard deviation. Key results Slightly lower impacts per kilogram of chicken meat product were observed for C production (2.1±0.03kgCO2-e, 18.0±0.3MJ, 178.6±22.4L, and 10.2±0.1m2) than for FR (2.2±0.03kgCO2-e, 18.5±0.3MJ, 189.6±24.6L, and 10.6±0.1m2). Feed production was the major hotspot, followed by grow-out and meat processing. Land use (LU) and direct land use-change (dLUC) impacts associated with imported soymeal added 1.7±0.3 and 1.8±0.3kgCO2-e to C and FR respectively. FR carbon footprint and land occupation were significantly (P<0.05) higher. Since 2010, fossil energy, arable land, and greenhouse-gas emissions have declined. One countertrend was LU and dLUC emissions, which increased due to changed soy imports, resulting in a slightly higher C carbon footprint. Conclusions Multi-indicator analysis is fundamental to understanding, communicating, and improving performance, and distinguishing between short-term fluctuations and long-term trends. Since 2010, feed-production impacts have increased (due to imported soymeal in poultry diets), indicating that alternative feed protein sources are a priority. Efficiency improvements reduced per-kilogram impacts across other indicators, demonstrating a positive trend in producing more food from fewer inputs. Implications Australian chicken meat is a low-impact animal protein. Future improvements require alternative feed proteins, technology adoption and practice change to maintain or reduce impacts as production expands alongside consumer demand.","PeriodicalId":49242,"journal":{"name":"Animal Production Science","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2023-03-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45440838","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
K. McCosker, N. Perkins, G. Fordyce, P. O'rourke, M. McGowan
Context Sound reproductive efficiency is a key determinant for the overall productivity of a beef breeding business. For beef breeding herds to obtain high levels of reproductive productivity, breeding females need to efficiently become pregnant while lactating. Aims This study aimed to determine and quantify the major factors associated with lactating cows becoming pregnant within 4months of calving (P4M) in commercial beef breeding herds of northern Australia. Methods A prospective epidemiological study was conducted using 78 commercial northern Australian beef breeding herds and involved 78 000 cattle that were monitored for 3–4years. A multivariable model-building process was employed to scrutinise the resulting dataset to identify what herd-management practices, and nutritional, environmental and individual cow factors were major determinants of lactating cows becoming pregnant within 4months of calving (P4M) and to estimate their magnitudes of effect. Key results Overall, 41.6% of cows per production year were successful for P4M. Country type was strongly associated with 65.4%, 57.5%, 61.8% and 16.4% P4M for the Southern Forest, Central Forest, Northern Downs, and Northern Forest respectively. Between-year variability ranged between 3.3 and 11.7 percentage points. Cows calving in December–January (61%) had a substantially higher occurrence of P4M than did cows calving between July and September (15%). The difference in P4M when comparing availability of wet-season pasture protein and phosphorus was 12.7 and 20.3 percentage points respectively. Modelling of the impact of group seroprevalence and management group prevalence of recent infection with several infectious diseases was estimated, with a large negative association between group bovine viral diarrhoea seroprevalence and P4M suggested. Conclusions This study further demonstrated the substantial impact that environment, herd management practices, nutrition and disease factors can have on the reproductive performance of females. Implications To optimise the performance of females (through increasing the occurrence of cows contributing calves in consecutive years) under commercial conditions in northern Australia, herd managers should focus on maximising the proportion of cows within a herd calving at the desired time of the year, ensuring that any nutritional deficiencies and herd health issues are managed, and that cows are managed such that they are of good body condition score at the time of calving.
{"title":"Production and performance of commercial beef breeding females in northern Australia. 4. Factors influencing the occurrence of lactating cows becoming pregnant within 4 months of calving","authors":"K. McCosker, N. Perkins, G. Fordyce, P. O'rourke, M. McGowan","doi":"10.1071/an17502","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1071/an17502","url":null,"abstract":"Context Sound reproductive efficiency is a key determinant for the overall productivity of a beef breeding business. For beef breeding herds to obtain high levels of reproductive productivity, breeding females need to efficiently become pregnant while lactating. Aims This study aimed to determine and quantify the major factors associated with lactating cows becoming pregnant within 4months of calving (P4M) in commercial beef breeding herds of northern Australia. Methods A prospective epidemiological study was conducted using 78 commercial northern Australian beef breeding herds and involved 78 000 cattle that were monitored for 3–4years. A multivariable model-building process was employed to scrutinise the resulting dataset to identify what herd-management practices, and nutritional, environmental and individual cow factors were major determinants of lactating cows becoming pregnant within 4months of calving (P4M) and to estimate their magnitudes of effect. Key results Overall, 41.6% of cows per production year were successful for P4M. Country type was strongly associated with 65.4%, 57.5%, 61.8% and 16.4% P4M for the Southern Forest, Central Forest, Northern Downs, and Northern Forest respectively. Between-year variability ranged between 3.3 and 11.7 percentage points. Cows calving in December–January (61%) had a substantially higher occurrence of P4M than did cows calving between July and September (15%). The difference in P4M when comparing availability of wet-season pasture protein and phosphorus was 12.7 and 20.3 percentage points respectively. Modelling of the impact of group seroprevalence and management group prevalence of recent infection with several infectious diseases was estimated, with a large negative association between group bovine viral diarrhoea seroprevalence and P4M suggested. Conclusions This study further demonstrated the substantial impact that environment, herd management practices, nutrition and disease factors can have on the reproductive performance of females. Implications To optimise the performance of females (through increasing the occurrence of cows contributing calves in consecutive years) under commercial conditions in northern Australia, herd managers should focus on maximising the proportion of cows within a herd calving at the desired time of the year, ensuring that any nutritional deficiencies and herd health issues are managed, and that cows are managed such that they are of good body condition score at the time of calving.","PeriodicalId":49242,"journal":{"name":"Animal Production Science","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2023-03-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42240348","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Foreword: Reproductive performance of northern Australia beef herds","authors":"M. McGowan","doi":"10.1071/anv63n4_fo","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1071/anv63n4_fo","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":49242,"journal":{"name":"Animal Production Science","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2023-03-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41903567","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Future application of an attention bias test to assess affective states in sheep","authors":"Jessica E. Monk, D. Campbell, Caroline Lee","doi":"10.1071/an22260","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1071/an22260","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":49242,"journal":{"name":"Animal Production Science","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"59171186","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Environmental impacts of the Australian poultry industry: 2. Egg production","authors":"M. Copley, S. Wiedemann, E. McGahan","doi":"10.1071/an22297","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1071/an22297","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":49242,"journal":{"name":"Animal Production Science","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"59171671","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A regional-scale assessment of nutritional-system strategies for abatement of enteric methane from grazing livestock","authors":"A. K. Almeida, F. Cowley, R. Hegarty","doi":"10.1071/an22315","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1071/an22315","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":49242,"journal":{"name":"Animal Production Science","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"59172011","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Benefits of prolonged ageing for the quality of Australian pork depends on cooking temperature and meat pH","authors":"R. Vaskoska, M. Ha, Jason D. White, R. Warner","doi":"10.1071/an22389","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1071/an22389","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":49242,"journal":{"name":"Animal Production Science","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"59173246","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
T. Zehnder, M. Schneider, A. Lüscher, K. Giller, P. Silacci, J. Messadene-Chelali, J. Berard, M. Kreuzer
{"title":"The effects of Alnus viridis encroachment in mountain pastures on the growth performance, carcass and meat quality of Dexter cattle and Engadine sheep","authors":"T. Zehnder, M. Schneider, A. Lüscher, K. Giller, P. Silacci, J. Messadene-Chelali, J. Berard, M. Kreuzer","doi":"10.1071/an22409","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1071/an22409","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":49242,"journal":{"name":"Animal Production Science","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"59173630","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
京公网安备 11010802042870号
京ICP备2023020795号-1
扫码关注我们
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：