Featured Articles

  • Mar
    29
    FSIS extends time-limited trials until November


    The United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Food and Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) has extended the trial period for a study on the impact that line speeds have on workers at swine processing facilities, until November 30, 2023.

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  • Mar
    29
    Industry groups all to modernize the Federal Milk Marketing Order system


    The Board of Directors of the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) has endorsed a proposal that will modernize the Federal Milk Marketing Order (FMMO) system. Overseen by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), FMMOs establish provisions under which dairy processors buy fresh milk from dairy farmers who supply a marketing area, maintaining stable marketing relationships for all handlers and producers and organizing the complex process of marketing fresh milk.

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  • Mar
    29
    New “Product of USA” rule put forth by Biden Administration


    The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has proposed new requirements for the voluntary “Product of USA” claim. The proposed rule allows the voluntary “Product of USA” or “Made in the USA” label claim to be used on meat, poultry, and egg products only when they are derived from animals born, raised, slaughtered, and processed in the United States.

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  • Mar
    29
    The Beagle Brigade Act of 2023 is introduced


    Earlier this month, United States Senators Reverend Raphael Warnock (D-GA) and Joni Ernst (R-IA) introduced the Beagle Brigade Act of 2023. The bipartisan bill would provide permanent authorization for the National Detector Dog Training Center, located in Newnan, Georgia.

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  • Mar
    29
    The Military Family Nutrition Access Act is introduced


    United States Senators Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) have introduced The Military Family Nutrition Access Act, to support active-duty military families experiencing food insecurity. The bipartisan bill would address food insecurity by excluding Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH), from income calculations used to determine Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) eligibility.

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  • Mar
    29
    US requests talks with Mexico over GMO corn


    The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) has announced that it is requesting technical consultations with the Government of Mexico under the Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) Chapter of the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA). The request comes as the United States and Mexico are at battle regarding genetically modified corn.

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  • Mar
    29
    USDA announces over 43 million dollars for meat and poultry research


    The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has announced over $43 million for meat and poultry processing research, innovation, and expansion. This funding comes as part of the American Rescue Plan and the USDA’s Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI).

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  • Mar
    29
    USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack releases statement on FY2024


    President Joe Biden has released the Fiscal Year 2024 (FY2024) budget. The President’s plan calls for increasing corporate taxes and income taxes on higher-income earners (over $400,000) to shave the growth of the national debt over the next decade.

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  • Mar
    23
    Interpretive Summary: Effects of Aspergillus oryzae prebiotic on animal performance, nutrients digestibility, and feeding behavior of backgrounding beef heifers fed with either a sorghum silage- or a byproducts-based diet


    100x100 ASAS Blog Template - 2023-03-22T121824.532
    This experiment evaluated the effects of the dietary inclusion or not of Aspergillus oryzae prebiotic (AOP; 2 g/d) in two contrasting diets: sorghum silage-based (SS) vs. byproducts-based (BP), on growth performance, nutrient digestibility, and feeding behavior of growing heifers.

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  • Mar
    23
    Interpretive Summary: Feeding a Saccharomyces cerevisiae fermentation product before and during a feed restriction challenge on milk production, plasma biomarkers, and immune function in Holstein cows


    100x100 ASAS Blog Template - 2023-03-22T181007.376
    Postbiotic fermentation products have the potential to improve health and support anti-inflammatory functions when fed to lactating dairy cows. Since dairy cows experience disruptions of the intestinal barrier function at various stages of their life, for example, the transition into lactation, we sought to investigate potential beneficial effects of feeding a Saccharomyces cerevisiae fermentation (NTK) before and during a period of feed restriction to challenge gut function.

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  • Mar
    23
    Interpretive Summary: Feeding thermally processed spray-dried egg whites, singly or in combination with 15-acetyldeoxynivalenol or peroxidized soybean oil on growth performance, digestibility, intestinal morphology, and oxidative status in nursery pigs


    100x100 ASAS Blog Template - 2023-03-22T231323.567
    Swine can be exposed to a variety of nutritional stressors that can affect their well-being and productivity. Three stressors of concern include grains with naturally occurring mycotoxins, oxidized proteins in feedstuffs due to overheating during processing, or lipids that have been damaged by excessive heating.

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  • Mar
    23
    Interpretive Summary: Effects of cottonseed meal on performance, gossypol residue, liver function, lipid metabolism, and cecal microbiota in geese


    100x100 ASAS Blog Template - 2023-03-22T232215.763
    The shortage of feed resources and the rising price have become one of the significant challenges for animal husbandry worldwide. Considering the strong tolerance and adaptability to roughage of geese, less expensive crop byproducts are used in goose feed by animal nutritionists.

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  • Mar
    23
    Interpretive Summary: Predicting the metabolizable energy and metabolizability of gross energy of conventional feedstuffs for Muscovy duck using in vitro digestion method


    100x100 ASAS Blog Template - 2023-03-22T233003.539
    Metabolizable energy (ME) is one of the major factors in formulating diets for ducks and most studies on the ME values of ingredients have been conducted on Peking ducks, with limited research on Muscovy ducks.

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  • Mar
    23
    Interpretive Summary: The development of a semisynthetic diet deficient in methionine for adult cats for controlled feline nutrition studies: effects on acceptability, preference, and behavior responses


    100x100 ASAS Blog Template - 2023-03-22T234032.500
    Previous studies that determined the requirement of amino acids (AA) in cats utilized experimental diets that do not represent commercial cat diets available in the market. Using this type of diets can present a challenge when applying AA requirements to commercial diet production.

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  • Mar
    23
    Interpretive Summary: Effects of a Saccharomyces cerevisiae fermentation product-supplemented diet on fecal characteristics, oxidative stress, and blood gene expression of adult dogs undergoing transport stress


    100x100 ASAS Blog Template - 2023-03-22T234855.538
    Saccharomyces cerevisiae fermentation product (SCFP) is a yeast product containing bioactive fermentation metabolites, residual yeast cells, and yeast cell wall fragments. In this study, SCFP was investigated for its impacts on fecal characteristics and oxidative stress of dogs undergoing transport stress.

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  • Mar
    16
    Interpretive Summary: Performance and milk fatty acid profile of beef cows with a different energy status with short nutrient restriction and refeeding


    100x100 ASAS Blog Template - 2023-03-16T100348.554
    Lactating cows can undergo periods with a negative energy balance due to feed shortages, which trigger metabolic adaptations to support cow maintenance and milk yield. We explored beef cows’ response to a short feed restriction (4 d, 55% of their energy and protein requirements) and subsequent refeeding (4 d, 100% of their energy and protein requirements) in the second month of lactation.

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  • Mar
    16
    Interpretive Summary: Effects of replacing inorganic salts of trace minerals with organic trace minerals in the pre- and postpartum diets on mineral status, antioxidant biomarkers, and health of dairy cows


    100x100 ASAS Blog Template - 2023-03-16T122044.118
    Trace minerals (TM) are important for oxidative balance and immunity of cows. Different forms of TM are available for dietary supplementation of dairy cows. We tested whether replacing inorganic salts of TM by organic sources of TM in both pre- and postpartum diets improve TM concentration in body fluids and liver, antioxidant capacity in blood, and postpartum health of dairy cows.

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  • Mar
    16
    Interpretive Summary: Development of a dynamic model for prediction of energy in milk protein, lactose, fat, and enteric methane emissions in goats based on energy balance and indirect calorimetry studies


    100x100 ASAS Blog Template - 2023-03-16T123535.485
    The present model using mixed diets with different by-products to obtain macronutrient balance, methane emission, and milk performance during mid lactation could be an interesting tool to help farmers, without the costs of running animal experiments.

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  • Mar
    16
    Interpretive Summary: Modeling net energy partition patterns of growing–finishing pigs using nonlinear regression and artificial neural networks


    100x100 ASAS Blog Template - 2023-03-16T124855.383
    Net energy (NE) is the most refined energy system in animal nutrition, and understanding the NE partition patterns of pigs can help us to develop suitable feeding strategies to improve the growth performance and carcass traits of pigs. However, it is time-consuming, laborious, and expensive to directly measure the NE; thus, establishing a predicted model is more efficient.

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  • Mar
    16
    Interpretive Summary: Impact of ileal indigestible protein on fecal nitrogen excretion and fecal microbiota may be greater compared with total protein concentration of diets in growing pigs


    100x100 ASAS Blog Template - 2023-03-16T125731.350
    Dietary protein concentration has been gradually reduced because reductions in protein concentration in swine diets are known to be beneficial in terms of feed costs, nitrogen excretion, and intestinal microbiota. However, ileal indigestible protein concentration may be more influential in those variables of pigs compared with total protein concentration in diets because ileal indigestible protein considers both protein concentration and digestibility of diets.

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