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Jun
30
Chavonda Jacobs Young confirmed as USDA REE Undersecretary
Earlier this month, the United States Senate confirmed Dr. Chavonda Jacobs-Young to be the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) undersecretary of agriculture for Research, Education, and Economics (REE).
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Jun
30
Biden Administration proposes changes to the Packers and Stockyards Act
The United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack announced additional support, resources, and rulings to strengthen the American food supply chain, promote fair and competitive agricultural markets, prevent abuse of farmers by poultry processors, and make prices fairer for farmers and American consumers.
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Jun
30
Americans are changing their eating habits as inflation soars
As inflation soars, many Americans are changing the ways they shop and consume food. Currently, inflation is the highest it has been in over 40 years. Food-at-home prices have increased 11.9%, over the past year, up almost a point from May 2022, according to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics.
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Jun
23
Interpretive Summary: Body weight of newborn and suckling piglets affects their intestinal gene expression
Under hyperprolific situations, piglets must deal with a reduced birthweight and a severe sibling competition for nutrients. Therefore, light body weight newborn and suckling piglets may also have physiological disadvantages compared to their middle-weight littermates.
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Jun
23
Interpretive Summary: ASAS-NANP symposium: mathematical modeling in animal nutrition: limitations and potential next steps for modeling and modelers in the animal sciences
Modeling in the animal sciences has received a boost by large-scale adoption of sensor technology, increased computing power, and the further development of artificial intelligence (AI) in the form of machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) models.
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Jun
23
Interpretive Summary: Genetic aspects of piglet survival and related traits: a review
Piglet survival is under genetic control and there are clear differences between individuals in their ability to live. Animals that do not survive their first weeks will obviously not reproduce as this is natural selection. Animals that survive still harbor relevant genetic differences.
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Jun
23
Interpretive Summary: Review: Physiology and nutrition of late gestating and transition sows
The transition period is a short period of the reproductive cycle spanning from 7–10 d prepartum to 3–5 d postpartum in sows. Nonetheless, it is highly important for the productivity of sows because it is when the majority of piglet deaths occur.
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Jun
23
Interpretive Summary: Improving young pig welfare on-farm: The Five Domains Model
Considering welfare through the “neonatal and nursery pig perspective” is an exciting approach. Overlaying this with the Five Domains Model, as we suggest in this review, points to practical on-farm improvements that provide each pig the opportunity to experience positive mental states.
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Jun
23
Interpretive Summary: Biological sex: an understudied factor driving disease susceptibility in pigs
It has become increasingly evident that females and males differ in their susceptibility to disease and mortality. Females typically have higher survivability rates during pandemics and environmental challenges compared with males.
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Jun
23
Interpretive Summary: Impact of housing environment and management on pre-/post-weaning piglet productivity
Achievement of pre-/post-weaning piglet success requires careful environmental management to ensure the thermal needs of the pigs are adequately met to reduce stress and promote livability, performance, and health.
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Jun
23
Interpretive Summary: Gilt development to improve offspring performance and survivability
Proper gilt development influences offspring performance and survivability by increasing gilt longevity and colostrum and milk production. Gilt development success starts in selecting gilts heavier than 1 kg at birth, prioritizing colostrum and milk intake, and weaning at 24 d of age or older.
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Jun
23
Interpretive Summary: Effects of administration of a growth promoting implant during the suckling phase or at weaning on growth, reproduction, and ovarian development in replacement heifers grazing native range
Management of beef females during the first year of life can impact fertility and reproductive longevity. Cattle producers can improve calf weight gains by using growth promoting implants; however, to be applicable, they must not negatively impact heifer reproductive performance or development.
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Jun
16
Interpretive Summary: ASAS-NANP symposium: mathematical modeling in animal nutrition: the progression of data analytics and artificial intelligence in support of sustainable development in animal science
Data analytics have evolved remarkably. This paper discussed the evolution of data analytics from a competitive advantage perspective within academia and illustrated the combination of different advanced technological systems in developing hybrid intelligent mechanistic models (HIMM).
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Jun
16
Interpretive Summary: Genetic relationships between efficiency traits and gut microbiota traits in growing pigs being fed with a conventional or a high-fiber diet
The link between the composition of the gut microbiota, i.e the composition of microorganisms in the gut, in pigs and their feed efficiency, i.e. their ability to utilize nutrients, as well as their ability to digest were studied from a genetic point of view.
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Jun
16
Interpretive Summary: Model definition for genetic evaluation of purebred and crossbred lambs including heterosis
Crossbreeding is common in commercial sheep enterprises. It allows breeds with different attributes to be combined to generate crossbred progeny tailored to production environments and customer preferences.
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Jun
16
Interpretive Summary: Effects of management strategies during early lactation and weaning on etiological agents of ovine subclinical mastitis and antimicrobial susceptibility of milk-derived bacterial isolates
The objectives of this study were to quantify the prevalence of subclinical mastitis, evaluate the impact of bedding treatments on subclinical mastitis, evaluate the efficacy of weaning treatments, and identify levels of antimicrobial resistance in milk-derived bacteria.
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Jun
16
Interpretive Summary: Evaluation of lipid sources and emulsifier addition on fat digestion of yellow-feathered broilers
Considering that commercial diets generally contain 3% to 8% added lipids to provide up to 20% metabolizable energy (ME) in broiler diets, the addition of emulsifier in diets was believed to improve the digestibility of fat.
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Jun
16
Interpretive Summary: Effects of dietary vitamin E and fat supplementation in growing-finishing swine fed to a heavy slaughter weight of 150 kg: II. Tissue fatty acid profile, vitamin E concentrations, and antioxidant capacity of plasma and tissue
The study evaluated vitamin E (VE) supplementation and fat source on fatty acid (FA) composition and VE concentrations in pigs. Three fat sources with distinctive fatty acid profiles were used; VE levels were 11 (the requirement estimate) and 200 (a high level to assure any responses could be seen) ppm.
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Jun
16
Interpretive Summary: Effect of limestone solubility on mineral digestibility and bone ash in nursery pigs fed diets containing graded level of inorganic phosphorus or increasing dose of a novel consensus bacterial 6-phytase variant
Microbial phytase is added to commercial pig diets to increase phosphorus (P) availability and reduce P excretion. It is known that an excess of calcium (Ca), mostly sourced from limestone, can affect phytase efficacy.
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Jun
16
Interpretive Summary: Evaluation of essential fatty acids in lactating sow diets on sow reproductive performance, colostrum and milk composition, and piglet survivability
Supplemental fat sources are an effective and widely accepted strategy to increase energy density of sow lactation diets that can also provide essential fatty acids such as linoleic acid (LA) and α-linolenic acid (ALA). Currently, the effects of supplemental LA and ALA provided shortly before farrowing on colostrum and milk composition are not fully understood.
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