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Colditz IG, Campbell DLM, Ingham AB, Lee C. Review: Environmental enrichment builds functional capacity and improves resilience as an aspect of positive welfare in production animals. Animal 2024; 18:101173. [PMID: 38761442 DOI: 10.1016/j.animal.2024.101173] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/04/2023] [Revised: 04/15/2024] [Accepted: 04/18/2024] [Indexed: 05/20/2024] Open
Abstract
The success of the animal in coping with challenges, and in harnessing opportunities to thrive, is central to its welfare. Functional capacity describes the capacity of molecules, cells, organs, body systems, the whole animal, and its community to buffer against the impacts of environmental perturbations. This buffering capacity determines the ability of the animal to maintain or regain functions in the face of environmental perturbations, which is recognised as resilience. The accuracy of physiological regulation and the maintenance of homeostatic balance underwrite the dynamic stability of outcomes such as biorhythms, feed intake, growth, milk yield, and egg production justifying their assessment as indicators of resilience. This narrative review examines the influence of environmental enrichments, especially during developmental stages in young animals, in building functional capacity and in its subsequent expression as resilience. Experience of enriched environments can build skills and competencies across multiple functional domains including but not limited to behaviour, immunity, and metabolism thereby increasing functional capacity and facilitating resilience within the context of challenges such as husbandry practices, social change, and infection. A quantitative method for measuring the distributed property of functional capacity may improve its assessment. Methods for analysing embedded energy (emergy) in ecosystems may have utility for this goal. We suggest functional capacity provides the common thread that links environmental enrichments with an ability to express resilience and may provide a novel and useful framework for measuring and reporting resilience. We conclude that the development of functional capacity and its subsequent expression as resilience is an aspect of positive animal welfare. The emergence of resilience from system dynamics highlights a need to shift from the study of physical and mental states to the study of physical and mental dynamics to describe the positive dimension of animal welfare.
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Affiliation(s)
- I G Colditz
- Agriculture and Food, CSIRO, Armidale, NSW 2350, Australia.
| | - D L M Campbell
- Agriculture and Food, CSIRO, Armidale, NSW 2350, Australia
| | - A B Ingham
- Agriculture and Food, CSIRO, St. Lucia, QLD 4067, Australia
| | - C Lee
- Agriculture and Food, CSIRO, Armidale, NSW 2350, Australia
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Huenul E, Salazar L, Frias D, Videka M, Luna D, Dwyer DM, Figueroa J. Effects of flavour variety on the intake and palatability of commercial feed in nursery pigs. Front Vet Sci 2023; 10:1218198. [PMID: 37711435 PMCID: PMC10498925 DOI: 10.3389/fvets.2023.1218198] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/06/2023] [Accepted: 08/18/2023] [Indexed: 09/16/2023] Open
Abstract
Sensory-specific satiety (SSS) could negatively affect pigs' feed intake, even when diets satisfy their nutritional requirements. We evaluated the short-term effects of SSS on feed intake and palatability. Thirty-two nursery pigs (tested in pairs) were exposed to short-term feeding trials for 6 days. In Trial 1, animals received for 90 min over three consecutive days three feeders: with different flavours (VAR); the same flavour (MON); or a mixture of the three flavours (MIX) in a 3 × 3 Latin square design. In Trial 2, with the same animals and different flavours, the three feeders were delivered successively (1 feeder every 30 min). In Trial 1, there was a day-by-diet interaction (F 4,36 = 2.98; p = 0.032), where the VAR diet was least consumed on the first day but most consumed subsequently. In Trial 2 a triple interaction between diet, day and delivery order modified pig's intake (F 12,15 = 3.33; p = 0.015), and consumption patterns (F 12,15 = 3.52; p = 0.012); where VAR diet presented the highest values in the last delivery order on the third experimental day. Flavour variety may decrease the effect of SSS, increasing feed intake and hedonic value in nursery pigs when there was a previous experience with those flavours.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elizabeth Huenul
- Department of Animal and Food Science, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain
| | - Laura Salazar
- Animal Behaviour and Welfare, Animal and Veterinary Sciences Research Group, Scotland’s Rural College, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
| | - Daniela Frias
- Escuela de Ingeniería y recursos Naturales, Instituto Profesional DuocUC, Santiago, Chile
| | - Milivoy Videka
- Departamento de Fomento de la Producción Animal, Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias y Pecuarias, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile
| | - Daniela Luna
- Departamento de Fomento de la Producción Animal, Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias y Pecuarias, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile
| | - Dominic M. Dwyer
- School of Psychology, College of Biomedical and Life Sciences, Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom
| | - Jaime Figueroa
- Instituto de Ciencias Agroalimentarias, Animales y Ambientales, Universidad de O’Higgins, San Fernando, Chile
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Creating a Design Framework to Diagnose and Enhance Grassland Health under Pastoral Livestock Production Systems. Animals (Basel) 2022; 12:ani12233306. [PMID: 36496827 PMCID: PMC9738856 DOI: 10.3390/ani12233306] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/13/2022] [Revised: 11/11/2022] [Accepted: 11/24/2022] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Grasslands and ecosystem services are under threat due to common practices adopted by modern livestock farming systems. Design theory has been an alternative to promote changes and develop more sustainable strategies that allow pastoral livestock production systems to evolve continually within grasslands by enhancing their health and enabling the continuous delivery of multiple ecosystem services. To create a design framework to design alternative and more sustainable pastoral livestock production systems, a better comprehension of grassland complexity and dynamism for a diagnostic assessment of its health is needed, from which the systems thinking theory could be an important approach. By using systems thinking theory, the key components of grasslands-soil, plant, ruminant-can be reviewed and better understood from a holistic perspective. The description of soil, plant and ruminant individually is already complex itself, so understanding these components, their interactions, their response to grazing management and herbivory and how they contribute to grassland health under different climatic and topographic conditions is paramount to designing more sustainable pastoral livestock production systems. Therefore, by taking a systems thinking approach, we aim to review the literature to better understand the role of soil, plant, and ruminant on grassland health to build a design framework to diagnose and enhance grassland health under pastoral livestock production systems.
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Marshall CJ, Garrett K, Van Vliet S, Beck MR, Gregorini P. Dietary and Animal Strategies to Reduce the Environmental Impact of Pastoral Dairy Systems Result in Altered Nutraceutical Profiles in Milk. Animals (Basel) 2022; 12:ani12212994. [PMID: 36359120 PMCID: PMC9657149 DOI: 10.3390/ani12212994] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/26/2022] [Revised: 10/14/2022] [Accepted: 10/24/2022] [Indexed: 11/06/2022] Open
Abstract
The objective of this study was to evaluate and provide further insights into how dairy cows genetically divergent for milk urea N breeding values [MUNBV, high (2.21 ± 0.21) vs. low (−1.16 ± 0.21); µ ± SEM], consuming either fresh cut Plantain (Plantago lanceolata L., PL) or Ryegrass (Lolium perenne L., RG) herbage, impacted the nutraceutical profile of whole milk by investigating amino and fatty acid composition and applying metabolomic profiling techniques. Both diet and MUNBV, and their interaction term, were found to affect the relative abundance of alanine, glycine, histidine, and phenylalanine in the milk (p < 0.05), but their minor absolute differences (up to ~0.13%) would not be considered biologically relevant. Differences were also detected in the fatty acid profile based on MUNBV and diet (p < 0.05) with low MUNBV cows having a greater content of total unsaturated fatty acids (+16%) compared to high MUNBV cows and cows consuming PL having greater content of polyunsaturated fatty acids (+92%), omega 3 (+101%) and 6 (+113%) compared to RG. Differences in the metabolomic profile of the milk were also detected for both MUNBV and dietary treatments. Low MUNBV cows were found to have greater abundances of choline phosphate, phosphorylethanolamine, N-acetylglucosamine 1-phosphate, and 2-dimethylaminoethanol (p < 0.05). High MUNBV cows had a greater abundance of methionine sulfoxide, malate, 1,5-anhydroglucitol (1,5-AG), glycerate, arabitol/xylitol, 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutarate, 5-hydroxylysine and cystine (p < 0.05). Large differences (p < 0.05) were also detected as a result of diet with PL diets having greater abundances of the phytochemicals 4-acetylcatechol sulfate, 4-methylcatechol sulfate, and p-cresol glucuronide whilst RG diets had greater abundances of 2,6-dihydroxybenzoic acid, 2-acetamidophenol sulfate, and 2-hydroxyhippurate. The results of this study indicate the potential to alter the nutraceutical value of milk from dietary and genetic strategies that have been previously demonstrated to reduce environmental impact.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cameron Joel Marshall
- Faculty of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Lincoln University, Lincoln 7647, New Zealand
- Correspondence:
| | - Konagh Garrett
- Faculty of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Lincoln University, Lincoln 7647, New Zealand
| | - Stephan Van Vliet
- Department of Nutrition, Dietetics, and Food Sciences, Utah State University, Logan, UT 84322, USA
| | - Matthew Raymond Beck
- Livestock Nutrient Management Research Unit, The Agricultural Research Service, The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA-ARS), 300 Simmons Drive, Unit 10, Bushland, TX 79012, USA
| | - Pablo Gregorini
- Faculty of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Lincoln University, Lincoln 7647, New Zealand
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Garrett K, Beck M, Marshall C, Maxwell T, Logan C, Greer A, Gregorini P. It is not just what is fed but how we serve it through time — a varied pasture-based diet increases intake of lambs. Livest Sci 2022. [DOI: 10.1016/j.livsci.2022.104954] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
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Marshall C, Beck M, Garrett K, Barrell G, Al-Marashdeh O, Gregorini P. Urine and fecal excretion patterns of dairy cows divergent for milk urea nitrogen breeding values consuming either a plantain or ryegrass diet. J Dairy Sci 2022; 105:4218-4236. [DOI: 10.3168/jds.2021-21490] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/26/2021] [Accepted: 01/31/2022] [Indexed: 01/25/2023]
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Garrett K, Beck MR, Marshall CJ, Maxwell TMR, Logan CM, Greer AW, Gregorini P. Varied diets: implications for lamb performance, rumen characteristics, total antioxidant status, and welfare. J Anim Sci 2021; 99:skab334. [PMID: 34788446 PMCID: PMC8668175 DOI: 10.1093/jas/skab334] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/15/2021] [Accepted: 11/08/2021] [Indexed: 12/27/2022] Open
Abstract
Intensive pastoral systems have moved away from diverse and varied diets towards overly simple monotonous diets. Feed choice through time is an obsolete way of providing forage to animals, as intensive management schemes generally allocate a single herbage or a dyad mixed sward. Monotonous feeding regimes impose nutritional repetition, which may impair animal performance and welfare. The objective of this experiment was to determine the impact of a diverse diet [DIV; free choice from perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.), plantain (Plantago lanceolata L.), alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.), and chicory (Cichorium intybus L.) at all times], a varied diet [VAR; choice from ryegrass and plantain in the AM (0700-1600 h), and chicory and alfalfa in PM (1600-0700 h)], and a single forage diet of alfalfa [SFA; alfalfa at all times], on DMI, performance, and welfare of lambs. Six-month-old Coopworth ram lambs (n = 21) were offered their respective fresh-forage treatment (n = 7) diet indoors for 20 d. The DIV lambs consumed 1.64 ± 0.03 kg DM/d (mean ± SEm), which was 6% more (P < 0.05; 1.54 ± 0.03 kg DM/d) than the SFA and were not different (P > 0.05; 1.59 ± 0.03 kg DM/d) to the VAR lambs. Average daily gain (ADG) of DIV (296 g/d) and VAR (378 g/d) was 30% and 67% greater (P < 0.05) than that in the SFA lambs (227 g/d), respectively. The VAR lambs had 28% greater (P < 0.05) ADG than the DIV lambs. Differences among treatments were detected (P < 0.05) for the proportion of the day spent conducting the following behaviors: eating, ruminating, idling, lying, and standing. In addition, the number of bouts of stereotypic behaviors recorded from the SFA lambs (13.2 ± 2.2) was 150% greater (P < 0.05) than the DIV (5.1 ± 1.0) and VAR (5.5 ± 1.0) lambs. Our results suggest that the varied diet offered can improve animal performance and welfare compared to a monotonous SFA diet. Feeding management to provide a varied diet can improve performance relative to giving lambs free choice from taxonomically diverse forage options. Moreover, performance is affected by more than the primary chemical composition of the diet consumed, but how the diet is presented through time and the herbage species and quantities of each that are consumed to reach that chemical composition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Konagh Garrett
- Faculty of Agriculture and Life Sciences, PO Box 85084, Lincoln University, Lincoln 7647, Christchurch, New Zealand
| | - Matthew R Beck
- Faculty of Agriculture and Life Sciences, PO Box 85084, Lincoln University, Lincoln 7647, Christchurch, New Zealand
| | - Cameron J Marshall
- Faculty of Agriculture and Life Sciences, PO Box 85084, Lincoln University, Lincoln 7647, Christchurch, New Zealand
| | - Thomas M R Maxwell
- Faculty of Agriculture and Life Sciences, PO Box 85084, Lincoln University, Lincoln 7647, Christchurch, New Zealand
| | - Chris M Logan
- Faculty of Agriculture and Life Sciences, PO Box 85084, Lincoln University, Lincoln 7647, Christchurch, New Zealand
| | - Andrew W Greer
- Faculty of Agriculture and Life Sciences, PO Box 85084, Lincoln University, Lincoln 7647, Christchurch, New Zealand
| | - Pablo Gregorini
- Faculty of Agriculture and Life Sciences, PO Box 85084, Lincoln University, Lincoln 7647, Christchurch, New Zealand
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From the get-go: Dietary exposure in utero and in early life alters dietary preference in later life. Appl Anim Behav Sci 2021. [DOI: 10.1016/j.applanim.2021.105466] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
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Marshall CJ, Beck MR, Garrett K, Barrell GK, Al-Marashdeh O, Gregorini P. Nitrogen Balance of Dairy Cows Divergent for Milk Urea Nitrogen Breeding Values Consuming Either Plantain or Perennial Ryegrass. Animals (Basel) 2021; 11:ani11082464. [PMID: 34438921 PMCID: PMC8388765 DOI: 10.3390/ani11082464] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/19/2021] [Revised: 08/19/2021] [Accepted: 08/20/2021] [Indexed: 01/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Simple Summary We studied the nitrogen excretion patterns of cows selected for divergent nitrogen excretion consuming either ryegrass or plantain. Both the use of a plantain diet as well as the use of low milk urea nitrogen breeding values were found to reduce the concentration of urinary urea nitrogen per urination event compared to cows with a high milk urea nitrogen breeding value and cows consuming a ryegrass-based diet. These results indicate that both the use of cows with low milk urea nitrogen breeding values and the use of a plantain diet are tools that temperate pastoral dairy production systems can use to reduce nitrogen loses. Abstract Inefficient nitrogen (N) use from pastoral dairy production systems has resulted in environmental degradation, as a result of excessive concentrations of urinary N excretion leaching into waterways and N2O emissions from urination events into the atmosphere. The objectives of this study were to measure and evaluate the total N balance of lactating dairy cows selected for milk urea N concentration breeding values (MUNBVs) consuming either a 100% perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.) or 100% plantain (Plantago lanceolata L.) diet. Sixteen multiparous lactating Holstein-Friesian × Jersey cows divergent for MUNBV were housed in metabolism crates for 72 h, where intake and excretions were collected and measured. No effect of MUNBV was detected for total N excretion; however, different excretion characteristics were detected, per urination event. Low MUNBV cows had a 28% reduction in the concentration of urinary urea nitrogen (g/event) compared to high MUNBV cows when consuming a ryegrass diet. Cows consuming plantain regardless of their MUNBV value had a 62% and 48% reduction in urinary urea nitrogen (g/event) compared to high and low MUNBV cows consuming ryegrass, respectively. Cows consuming plantain also partitioned more N into faeces. These results suggest that breeding for low MUNBV cows on ryegrass diets and the use of a plantain diet will reduce urinary urea nitrogen loading rates and therefore estimated nitrate leaching values, thus reducing the environmental impact of pastoral dairy production systems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cameron J. Marshall
- Faculty of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Lincoln University, P.O. Box 85084, Lincoln 7647, New Zealand; (K.G.); (G.K.B.); (O.A.-M.); (P.G.)
- Correspondence:
| | - Matthew R. Beck
- USDA-ARS, Livestock Nutrient Management Research Unit, 300 Simmons Drive, Unit 10, Bushland, TX 79012, USA;
| | - Konagh Garrett
- Faculty of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Lincoln University, P.O. Box 85084, Lincoln 7647, New Zealand; (K.G.); (G.K.B.); (O.A.-M.); (P.G.)
| | - Graham K. Barrell
- Faculty of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Lincoln University, P.O. Box 85084, Lincoln 7647, New Zealand; (K.G.); (G.K.B.); (O.A.-M.); (P.G.)
| | - Omar Al-Marashdeh
- Faculty of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Lincoln University, P.O. Box 85084, Lincoln 7647, New Zealand; (K.G.); (G.K.B.); (O.A.-M.); (P.G.)
| | - Pablo Gregorini
- Faculty of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Lincoln University, P.O. Box 85084, Lincoln 7647, New Zealand; (K.G.); (G.K.B.); (O.A.-M.); (P.G.)
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