Veterinary perspectives on cattle welfare challenges and solutions

Livestock veterinarians have important roles in advancing animal welfare on farms. In the present study, focus groups were used to engage dairy and beef cattle veterinarians and veterinary researchers based primarily in Europe. Discussions were structured to elicit perceptions of welfare issues on cattle farms, as well as the challenges and desired solutions for change. Discussions were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim and content analysis was used to identify participants’ views on animal welfare challenges and solutions. Participants held multi-dimensional conceptions of animal welfare that included animal health, pain and distress, and behaviour. When asked to discuss animal welfare challenges, participants focused on five primary themes: animal welfare definition and assessment, economic barriers, and farmer, veterinarian, and researcher-related challenges. Participants envisioned the following overarching solutions: 1) research to develop better animal welfare assessment, 2) motivating increased adherence to standards via either voluntary incentives or mandatory regulations, and 3) increased communication linkages between stakeholders, primarily in the form of education to farmers and veterinarians

Dark matter sensitivities of the MAJORANA demonstrator

The Majorana Demonstrator is an array of natural and enriched high purity germanium detectors that will search for the neutrinoless double-beta decay of Germanium-76 and perform a search for weakly interacting massive particles with masses below 10 GeV. To reach the background rate goal in the neutrinoless double-beta decay region of interest of 4 counts/keV/t/y, the DEMONSTRATOR will utilize a number of background reduction strategies, including a time-correlated event cut for (68)Ge that requires a sub-keV energy threshold. This low energy threshold allows the DEMONSTRATOR to extend its physics reach to include a search for light WIMPs. We will discuss the detector systems and data analysis techniques required to achieve sub-keV thresholds as well as present the projected dark matter sensitivities of the Majorana Demonstrator

The MAJORANA demonstrator: A search for neutrinoless double-beta decay of germanium-76

The observation of neutrino less double-beta decay would show that neutrinos are Majorana particles and provide information on neutrino mass. Attaining sensitivities for neutrino masses in the inverted hierarchy region requires large, tonne scale detectors with extremely low backgrounds, at the level of 10(-')(3) counts keV(-')(1) t(-')(1) y(-')(1) or lower in the region of the signal. The MAJORANA collaboration is constructing the DEMONSTRATOR, an array consisting of 40 kg of p-type point contact germanium detectors, at least half of which will be enriched to 86% in (76)Ge. The primary aim is to show the feasibility for a future tonne scale measurement. With a sub-keV energy threshold, the array should also be able to search for light WIMP dark matter. This paper presents a brief update on the status of constructing the DEMONSTRATOR including an electroforming facility that is now operating underground at the Sanford Underground Research Facility