Featured Articles

  • Sep
    16
    Interpretive Summary: BHBA Metoformin Bovine Hepatocytes


    Bovine, ruminant
    Bovine hepatocytes were first treated with different doses of metformin, then exposed to BHBA levels commonly observed in cows experiencing ketosis. Various methods, including western blot, real-time quantitative PCR, chromatin precipitation, and immunofluorescence, were used to assess the activation of various pro- and anti-inflammatory pathways in hepatocytes.

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  • Sep
    16
    Interpretive Summary: Digestibility Reduced Lignin Alfalfa Horses


    horse, alfalfa
    Alfalfa is a commonly used forage for horses with high nutritional requirements, but some of its utility as a highly digestible feed source may be negatively affected by lignin content. Lignin is a complex phenolic polymer that increases plant rigidity and growth, but negatively interacts gastrointestinal microbial populations, limiting the total tract digestibility of the forage.

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  • Sep
    15
    Interpretive Summary: Esfandyari and Jensen Bayesian genetic selection beef cattle


    danish beef cow
    Esfandyari and Jensen conducted a Bayesian analysis of growth performance records of Danish beef herds to calculate residual feed intake and demonstrated its statistical utility in genetic selection of beef bulls over a period of 392 days.

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  • Sep
    15
    Interpretive Summary: Hidalgo Accuracy Genomic Prediction Broilers


    broiler
    In poultry, the accuracy genomic prediction has historically remained relatively stable when animal with known genotypes and phenotypes were added to the breeding population, but was dramatically reduced when no new animals were included, and as a result the response to selection was smaller than expected.

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  • Sep
    13
    Interpretive Summary: Effects of guanidinoacetic acid supplementation on nitrogen retention and methionine flux in cattle


    lean cattle
    Creatine stores high-energy phosphate bonds in muscle and is synthesized in the liver through methylation of guanidinoacetic acid; supplementation of guanidinoacetic acid may therefore increase methyl group requirements, which may affect methyl group utilization.

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  • Sep
    13
    Interpretive Summary: Using an automated head chamber system to administer an external marker to estimate fecal output by grazing beef cattle


    cattle feed
    GreenFeed, is an acceptable method to measure fecal output. The research team hypothesized that there would be adequate agreement in fecal output estimated using titanium dioxide as an external marker dosed between the GreenFeed and hand feeding in stanchions.

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  • Sep
    13
    Interpretive Summary: Melatonin alters bovine uterine artery hemodynamics, vaginal temperatures, and fetal morphometrics during late gestational nutrient restriction in a season-dependent manner


    Melatonin
    Research recently published in the Journal of Animal Science aimed to use beef heifers to evaluate the effect of maternal nutrient restriction and melatonin supplementation during late gestation on uteroplacental blood flow, vaginal temperatures, and fetal morphometrics during compromised pregnancy. It was hypothesized that maternal nutrient restriction during late gestation would decrease uteroplacental blood flow and melatonin supplementation during the daytime, which would mitigate the adverse effects of compromised pregnancy.

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  • Sep
    13
    Interpretive Summary: Evaluation of sow thermal preference across three stages of reproduction


    Heat sow connection
    A paper recently published in the Journal of Animal Science evaluated whether different reproductive stages of sows altered thermal preference and if current recommendations required updating. It was hypothesized that the reproductive stage would alter thermal preference in sows. This study is the first to look at temperature preference differences based on the reproductive stage of sows.

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  • Sep
    13
    Interpretive Summary: Detecting effective starting point of genomic selection by divergent trends from BLUP and ssGBLUP in pigs, beef cattle, and broilers


    Genomic selection
    A paper recently published in the Journal of Animal Science aimed to find the start date of genomic selection for a set of economically important traits in pigs, Angus cattle, and broiler chickens by comparing trends obtained using best linear unbiased prediction and single-step genomic best linear unbiased prediction.

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  • Sep
    09
    Interpretive Summary: Effects of guanidinoacetic acid supplementation on nitrogen retention and methionine flux in cattle


    cattle herd
    The research team from Kansas State University hypothesized that guanidinoacetic acid supplementation to Metdeficient cattle would induce a methyl group deficiency and that methionine supplementation would reduce the methyl group deficiency. Additionally, it was thought that guanidinoacetic acid might improve nitrogen retention when methionine was supplemented.

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  • Sep
    09
    Interpretive Summary: The impact of direct-maternal genetic correlations on international beef cattle evaluations for Limousin weaning weight


    Limousin cow
    Maternally influenced traits include genetic factors that impact birth and weaning. Cultivating a better understanding of the heritability of maternally influenced traits may improve estimated breeding values (EBV), genetic selection and ultimately productivity.

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  • Sep
    09
    Interpretive Summary: Piglet birth weight increases, and litter size decreases, with compensatory feeding of sows


    Piglet birthweight
    High backfat is not a desired trait in finisher pigs. Backfat thickness can vary depending on the season when piglets are born. Sows with high weight loss after summer lactation, for instance, yield smaller pigs with higher backfat thickness at harvest.

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  • Sep
    09
    Interpretive Summary: Review: optimizing genomic selection for crossbred performance by model improvement and data collection


    breeding program
    Crossbreeding enables breeders to capitalize on heterosis, which is the phenomenon of superior average performance of crossbreds compared with the average performance of their parental lines. Breeding programs aiming to improve the performance of crossbreds may benefit from genomic prediction of crossbred performance for purebred selection candidates.

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  • Sep
    09
    Interpretive Summary: Wingless-type mouse mammary tumor virus integration site regulation of bovine theca cells


    Bovine Theca Cells Image
    The results of the present study, outlined in the full paper, support the idea that the WNT signaling pathway is involved in the regulation of theca cell proliferation and steroidogenesis, but further research is required to explain the specific mechanisms of action and dose responses of WNT, Dickkopf, and secreted frizzled-related protein 4 and their relationship with other molecules during follicular growth. A better understanding of the role of WNT and their molecular mechanisms will allow for a greater perspective on how these signals impact follicular maturation and subsequent conditions that could lead to ovarian cysts.

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  • Aug
    30
    Interpretive Summary: Addition of dietary methionine but not dietary taurine or methyl donors/receivers to grain-free diet increases postprandial homocysteine concentrations in adult dogs


    adult dog
    Grain-free diets have been popular in the pet industry for over a decade; however, recently, they have been associated with canine dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). Research has linked DCM with a deficient of taurine in cats, which may be a possible cause for DCM in large breed dogs. Methionine and cysteine, amino acid precursors to taurine synthesis in dogs, is very low in ingredients used to replace grains. To date, there has been no research evaluating the plasma and whole blood taurine concentration of dogs when feeding grain-free diets supplemented with nutrients involved in the biosynthesis of taurine.

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  • Aug
    30
    Interpretive Summary: The impacts of xylanase on the fermentability and digestibility of high insoluble fiber diets in growing pigs


    growing pig
    Adding coproducts to swine feed is an economical choice that can also adversely impact the digestibility of feed. Coproducts contain a higher amount of non-starch polysaccharides (NSP), which cannot be digested by pigs. Poorly digested feed leads to reduced performance, an undesired effect. Adding carbohydrase enzymes to feed may make NPS more digestible without negatively impacting performance.

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  • Aug
    30
    Interpretive Summary: Effects of induced hindgut acidosis in growing pigs on growth, intestinal morphology and inflammation


    baby pigs
    Hindgut acidosis was induced by continuously infusing glucose (GLC) or casein (CAS) into the terminal ileum of growing pigs. Pigs were separated into three groups and given either an infusion of water (control), dextrose 50% (GLC) or casein sodium salt (CAS). Average daily feed intake was reduced in GLC and CAS pigs compared to the control.

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  • Aug
    30
    Interpretive Summary: Thermoregulatory and physiological responses of nonpregnant, mid-gestation, and late-gestation sows exposed to incrementally increasing dry bulb temperature


    sow
    Results of the present study demonstrated that, when compared with mid-gestation and nonpregnant sows, late-gestation sows had increased respiration rate and altered blood characteristics in response to increasing dry bulb temperature, which can be indicative of greater heat stress sensitivity.

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  • Aug
    26
    FARM Act Reintroduced


    climate change
    The Future of Agricultural Resiliency and Modernization Act (FARM Act), designed to help farmers more effectively fight climate change, has been reintroduced by Representative Josh Harder (D-CA), The FARM Act was first introduced by Harder in 2020 and referred to the Subcommittee on Conservation and Forestry.

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  • Aug
    26
    New Lawsuit Against USDA Gene-Editing Approvals


    Biotech
    In 2020, The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) issued its final rule to modernize agricultural biotechnology regulations. The rule was revised to enable USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) to regulate organisms developed using genetic engineering for plant pest risk with greater precision and reduces regulatory burden for developers of organisms that are unlikely to pose plant pest risks.

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