Animals, Volume 12, Issue 17

The welfare of laying hens in cage systems is of increasing concern. Represented by the European Union’s ‘End the Cage Age’ initiative, more and more countries have advocated cage-free farming. China, an important country for poultr...

Research primates may undergo surgical procedures making effective pain management essential to ensure good animal welfare and unbiased scientific data. Adequate pain mitigation is dependent on whether veterinarians, technicians, researchers, and car...

In this study, the eukaryotic composition of gut contents in three tropical sea cucumber species, Stichopus monotuberculatus, S. chloronotus and Holothuria atra were surveyed and compared by metabarcoding analysis based on 18S rRNA gene V4 region. Th...

Average daily gain (ADG) is an important growth trait in the pig industry. The direct genetic effect (DGE) has been studied mainly to assess the association between genetic information and economic traits. The social genetic effect (SGE) has been sho...

The assessment of population genetic structure is the basis for understanding the genetic information of indigenous breeds and is important for the protection and management of indigenous breeds. However, the population genetic differentiation of man...

Globally, unowned urban cats are a major concern because they may suffer from poor welfare and cause problems, including public health risks, nuisances, and urban wildlife predation. While management options are often presented as a choice between cu...

The effect of water with a salinity 3, 5, 7, 9 and 11 ppt on the growth and survivability of asp Leuciscus aspius (L.) larvae was investigated. A control sample consisted of asp larvae reared up in freshwater (0 ppt). Larvae were fed for 21 days with...

Herpesviruses are important pathogens of tortoises, and several serologically and genetically distinct virus types have been described in these animals. Virus neutralization testing is commonly used in Europe to determine previous infection with the...

Heat stress has emerged as a serious threat to the global poultry industry due to climate change. Heat stress can negatively impact the growth, gut health, immune function, and production and reproductive performances of poultry. Different strategies...

In the present study, thirty clinically healthy donkeys were used to establish the reference values and repeatability for Pulsed Wave Doppler echocardiographic variables of the mitral valve, aortic valve and myocardial performance. 2-dimensional Colo...

Analyses of sexual steroid hormones in wild boars are rarely described. Testosterone (T) and 17β-estradiol (E2) concentrations are useful to recognize sexual maturation. As threshold values for this species are unknown, additional parameters are...

Animal welfare is an increasingly important topic across multiple academic disciplines; however, few studies have investigated student perceptions of animal welfare outside of veterinary medicine. The objective of the study was to evaluate animal sci...

Red-crowned crane Grus japonensis is an endangered species in two separate populations: the mainland population in the Eurasian continent and the island population in eastern Hokkaido, Japan. We found 11 insertion/deletion (InDel) markers in the geno...

The critically endangered Yellow-breasted Bunting has undergone population collapse globally because of illegal hunting and habitat deterioration. It was listed as critically endangered (CR) by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN...

Previous studies have demonstrated that the effects of monensin on methanogenesis and ruminal fermentation in ruminants were time-dependent. To elucidate the underlying mechanism, we investigated the ruminal bacterial community successions during the...

We studied the effects of photoperiods on the growth performance, blood profile, welfare parameters, and carcass characteristics of broilers. A total of 336 male broiler chicks (Ross 308) were randomly allocated into 4 treatments (84 birds per treatm...

Prolactin (PRL) is a hormone expressed in lactotrophs cells of the pituitary gland in primates. Extra pituitary expression of PRL has been reported, including the eye; however, expression in the developing eye of primates is limited. The aim of the s...

Cardiopulmonary nematodes are highly pathogenic parasites affecting domestic and wild canids. As the result of conservation programs, the Iberian wolf (Canis lupus signatus) population has recently expanded, and its distribution range covers lands fr...

Bovine babesiosis (BB) is a vector-borne disease (VBD) that affects cattle in tropical and subtropical areas, caused by the haemoprotozoa Babesia bovis and Babesia bigemina. It is transmitted by tick bites belonging to the genus Rhipicephalus and is...

Among factors that can affect calf health, microbial quality of the pen air is poorly studied. In 25 Italian dairy farms, data concerning air quality in the calf pens, hygiene of pens and equipment, microclimatic conditions, calf health and managemen...

Historical sources and Indigenous oral traditions indicate that Australian Aboriginal people commonly reared and kept the wild-caught pups of dingoes (C. dingo) as tamed companion animals. A review of the available evidence suggests Indigenous commun...

Organoids are 3D-culture systems composed of tissue-specific primary cells that self-organize and self-renew, creating structures similar to those of their tissue of origin. Testicular organoids (TOs) may recreate conditions of the testicular niche i...

Scent is known to play an important role in the reproduction of cheetahs and other felids. In fact, the presence/odor of a male cheetah has been noted to trigger the estrous cycle in females. The objective of this study was to analyze the marking flu...

Knowledge about horses from early medieval (10th–13th c.) Poland has been largely based on historical and archaeological data. Archaeozoological information has only been used to a limited extent. Therefore, this article aims to present the cur...

Garlic powder (GP) has the outstanding antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, anti-parasitic and antioxidant characteristics because of its various contained bioactive components, such as alliin, allicin, and polysaccharide, etc. It has been widely us...

To investigate the effect of gardenia pomace (GP) as an unconventional feed of antioxidants, 180 Xiangcun pigs were randomly divided into 3 groups during the finishing period, with 6 replicates per group and 10 pigs per replicate. During the 47-day f...

Lamb icteric carcasses condemnation due to Anaplasma ovis is causing relevant economic losses. A comparative study was developed on the effects of different antibiotics to treat ovine anaplasmosis in fattening lambs. A total of 100 A. ovis naturally...

The present study aimed to assess the impact of dietary phytogenic extracts on laying hen productivity, egg quality, blood constituents, antioxidant, and immunological parameters through a meta-analytical approach. A total of 28 articles (119 data po...

Animal-derived products have an important role in treating many health conditions and have widely been used across cultures. In South Asia, ethnozoological research has been conducted only by a small number of researchers. Therefore, this area of res...

Sperm cryopreservation is one of the sublime biotechnologies for assisted reproduction. In recent decades, there has been an increasing trend in the use of preserved semen. Post-thaw semen quality and values vary among animals of the same species. Si...

In order to explore the role of follistatin (FST) in ovarian follicular development and egg production in Yangzhou geese, sixty-four egg laying geese of the same genetic origin were selected and divided into two groups with equal numbers. One group w...

Recently, miR-22 has been suggested to be an important microRNA (miRNA) affecting meat quality. Studies have shown that muscle fatty acid composition and mitochondrial function are closely related to meat quality. The regulatory mechanism of miR-22 o...

Forty-six Dorper (DOR), 46 Katahdin (KAT), and 43 St. Croix (STC) female sheep (initial body weight of 58, 59, and 46 kg, respectively, SEM = 1.75; 3.3 ± 0.18 years of age, 2.6–3.7), derived from 45 commercial farms in four regions of th...

The pharmacological pathway of para-toluenesulfonamide (PTS) restricts the kinase activity of the mammalian target of rapamycin, potentially leading to reductions in cell division, cell growth, cell proliferation, and inflammation. These pathways hav...

This study aimed to perform a comparative analysis of the horses’ heart rate parameters and locomotor activity in a herd or isolation, with or without the company of goats. Twenty horses were tested in a paddock, accompanied (or not) by three g...

Gut microbiota diversity is a result of co-evolution between microorganisms and their hosts. However, there are few studies on the evolution of the gut microbiota of wild boars and domestic pigs. Therefore, this study aimed to analyze the composition...

This meta-analysis determined the effect of Bacillus spp. on growth performance of growing–finishing pigs and then assessed causes for the heterogeneity of responses detected using meta-regression. A database of 22 articles published from 2000...

The reasons for differences in lipid depositions between fatty-type (F-T) and lean-type (L-T) ducks remain unknown. The present study aimed to compare the growth performance, lipid deposition, and gene expression related to lipid droplet formation in...

The bromodomain (BRD) proteins specifically recognize the N-acetyllysine motifs, which is a key event in the reading process of epigenetic marks. BRDs are evolutionarily highly conserved. Over recent years, BRDs attracted great interest because of th...

The search for an alternative approach of estrus control (induction or suppression) in dogs is an important issue and the use of slow GnRH agonist-releasing implants has been the subject of frequent research in recent years. Studies to date demonstra...

This study evaluated the accuracy of sequence imputation in Hanwoo beef cattle using different reference panels: a large multi-breed reference with no Hanwoo (n = 6269), a much smaller Hanwoo purebred reference (n = 88), and both datasets combined (n...

Personal likes, experience, and deep-rooted interests to satisfy emotional needs such as companionship, affection, empathy, and security are some of the underlying human motivations for acquiring a pet companion. In this study, we asked how long the...

Currently, there is an increased interest in mass producing edible insects, e.g., field crickets (Gryllus bimaculatus), due to their market value and sustainable development. The current study aimed to measure the production performance of field cric...

The influence of the lunar cycle on bluefin tuna foraging in the upwelling area of the Strait of Messina was investigated by exploring trophic interaction with mesopelagic fish and cephalopod prey. To focus on how the lunar cycle could affect availab...

Background: We tested the hypothesis that the ratio between lactate dehydrogenase activity (LDH) and total nucleated cell counts (TNCC) in effusions may be useful to diagnose feline infectious peritonitis (FIP). Methods: LDH/TNCC ratio was retrospect...

This study aimed to investigate the effects of citric acid, malic acid, and Lactobacillus acidophilus (L) on fermentation parameters and the microbial community of leguminous Chamaecrista rotundifolia silage. Fresh C. rotundifolia was treated without...

Ocean acidification and warming are two of the most important threats to the existence of marine organisms and are predicted to co-occur in oceans. The present work evaluated the effects of acidification (AC: 24 ± 0.1 °C and 900 μatm CO...

Fat deposition is a crucial element in pig production that affects production efficiency, quality and consumer choices. In this study, Duroc pigs, a Western, famous lean pig breed, and Luchuan pigs, a Chinese, native obese pig breed, were used as ani...

Throughout history it has been common to practice activities which significantly impact on animal welfare. Animal fighting, including dogfighting, is a prime example where animals often require veterinary care, either to treat wounds and fractures or...

This study investigated the antimicrobial resistance (AMR) profile of fecal Escherichia coli isolates from beef cattle (n = 150) at entry and exit from an Australian feedlot. Sample plating on MacConkey agar and Brilliance ESBL agar differentiated ge...