Vitamin A Status of Women and Children in Yaoundé and Douala, Cameroon, is Unchanged One Year after Initiation of a National Vitamin A Oil Fortification Program.

Vitamin A (VA) fortification of cooking oil is considered a cost-effective strategy for increasing VA status, but few large-scale programs have been evaluated. We conducted representative surveys in Yaoundé and Douala, Cameroon, 2 years before and 1 year after the introduction of a mandatory national program to fortify cooking oil with VA. In each survey, 10 different households were selected within each of the same 30 clusters (n = ~300). Malaria infection and plasma indicators of inflammation and VA (retinol-binding protein, pRBP) status were assessed among women aged 15-49 years and children aged 12-59 months, and casual breast milk samples were collected for VA and fat measurements. Refined oil intake was measured by a food frequency questionnaire, and VA was measured in household oil samples post-fortification. Pre-fortification, low inflammation-adjusted pRBP was common among children (33% <0.83 µmol/L), but not women (2% <0.78 µmol/L). Refined cooking oil was consumed by >80% of participants in the past week. Post-fortification, only 44% of oil samples were fortified, but fortified samples contained VA concentrations close to the target values. Controlling for age, inflammation, and other covariates, there was no difference in the mean pRBP, mean breast milk VA, prevalence of low pRBP, or prevalence of low milk VA between the pre- and post-fortification surveys. The frequency of refined oil intake was not associated with VA status indicators post-fortification. In sum, after a year of cooking oil fortification with VA, we did not detect evidence of increased plasma RBP or milk VA among urban women and preschool children, possibly because less than half of the refined oil was fortified. The enforcement of norms should be strengthened, and the program should be evaluated in other regions where the prevalence of VA deficiency was greater pre-fortification

Mobility, functionality and functional mobility: A review and application for canine veterinary patients

Mobility is an essential aspect of a dog’s daily life. It is defined as the ability to move freely and easily and deviations from an animals’ normal mobility capabilities are often an indicator of disease, injury or pain. When a dog’s mobility is compromised, often functionality (ability to perform activities of daily living; ADL), is also impeded, which can diminish an animal’s quality of life. Given this, it is necessary to understand the extent to which conditions impact a dog’s physiological ability to freely move around their environment to carry out ADL, a concept termed functional mobility. In contrast to human medicine, validated measures of canine functional mobility are currently limited. The aim of this review is to summarise the extent to which canine mobility and functionality are associated with various diseases and how mobility and functional mobility are currently assessed within veterinary medicine. Future work should focus on developing a standardised method of assessing functional mobility in dogs, which can contextualise how a wide range of conditions impact a dog’s daily life. However, for a true functional mobility assessment to be developed, a greater understanding of what activities dogs do on a daily basis and movements underpinning these activities must first be established

Unravelling selection signatures in a single dog breed suggests recent selection for morphological and behavioral traits

Strong selection has resulted in substantial morphological and behavioral diversity across modern dog breeds, which makes dogs interesting model animals to study the underlying genetic architecture of these traits. However, results from between-breed analyses may confound selection signatures for behavior and morphological features that were coselected during breed development. In this study, we assess population genetic differences in a unique resource of dogs of the same breed but with systematic behavioral selection in only one population. We exploit these different breeding backgrounds to identify signatures of recent selection. Selection signatures within populations were found on chromosomes 4 and 19, with the strongest signals in behavior-related genes. Regions showing strong signals of divergent selection were located on chromosomes 1, 24, and 32, and include candidate genes for both physical features and behavior. Some of the selection signatures appear to be driven by loci associated with coat color (Chr 24; ASIP) and length (Chr 32; FGF5), while others showed evidence of association with behavior. Our findings suggest that signatures of selection within dog breeds have been driven by selection for morphology and behavior. Furthermore, we demonstrate that combining selection scans with association analyses is effective for dissecting the traits under selection

The effect of the climatic housing environment on the growth of dairy-bred calves in the first month of life on a Scottish farm

SIMPLE SUMMARY: The climatic environment within calf housing can have an effect on calf health, but also on growth and performance. Calves have a lower threshold environmental temperature (lower critical temperature, LCT), below which can impact on the calf’s ability to maintain its core body temperature. This can cause the calf to partition more of its available energy into heat production and less into growth. The LCT decreases as the calf gets older. This year-long study followed 299 dairy-bred calves on one farm in Scotland from birth until approximately 28 days of age, and looked at the proportion of time for which the temperature was below the LCT for the individual calf, as well as the daily liveweight gain (DLWG; kg/d) of the calves during this time. For their first 6–14 days of life the calves were individually housed, and then subsequently group housed. Air temperature (°C), relative humidity (%), and wind speed (m/s) were recorded every hour of every day throughout the study, and calves were weighed regularly so that DLWG could be calculated. The study demonstrated that calves that spent a high proportion of their time below their LCT had a lower DLWG compared to calves that spent a low proportion of their time below their LCT. ABSTRACT: Calf housing is naturally thermodynamic, with interactions between various elements such as wind speed, air temperature, and humidity. This study investigated the effect of the proportion of time for which calves were exposed to effective environmental temperatures below their lower critical temperature (LCT) on their daily liveweight gain (DLWG) within their first month of life. This study used the naturally occurring climatic environment, whereas other such studies have been conducted under climatically controlled conditions. Air temperature (°C), relative humidity (%), and wind speed (m/s) were recorded within the calf housing from birth until approximately 28 days of age, with calves being health-scored and weighed at regular intervals. Calves were housed from birth until 6–14 days old in individual hutches, and then moved into group housing igloo pens. Whilst individually housed, calves that spent less than 32% of their time below their LCT had a DLWG of 0.06 ± 0.34 kg/d (mean ± SE) compared to calves that spent more than 97% of their time below their LCT, which had a DLWG of −0.19 ± 0.045 kg/d. When group housed, calves that spent less than 1% of their time below their LCT had a DLWG of 0.59 ± 0.18 kg/d, whereas calves that spent more than 28% of their time below their LCT had a DLWG of 0.53 ± 0.23 kg/d. The proportion of time for which calves were exposed to effective environmental temperatures below their LCT had a significant effect on DLWG when calves were individually housed. Therefore, exposure to effective environmental temperatures below the LCT can be detrimental to the growth of the calf in the early stages of its life

Dairy cows value an open area for lying down

As dairy cows are being housed for longer periods, with all-year-round housing growing in popularity, it is important to ensure housed environments are meeting the needs of cows. Dairy cows are motivated to access open lying areas, although previous motivation studies on this topic have confounded surface type and location (i.e. pasture outdoors vs cubicles indoors). This study measured cow motivation for lying down on an indoor open mattress (MAT; 9 m x 5 m) compared to indoor mattress-bedded cubicles, thus removing the confounding factor of surface type and location. This was repeated for an identically sized indoor deep-bedded straw yard (ST), to investigate whether surface type affected motivation for an open lying area. Thirty Holstein-Friesian dairy cows were housed in groups of 5 (n = 5 x 6) in an indoor robotic milking unit with access to six mattress-bedded cubicles. To assess motivation, cows were required to walk increasing distances via a one-way indoor raceway to access the open lying areas: Short (34.5 m), followed by Medium (80.5 m) and Long (126.5 m). Cows could choose to walk the raceway, leading to the MAT or ST, to lie down or they could lie down on the cubicles for ‘free’. Overall, cows lay down for longer on the open lying areas at each distance compared to the cubicles, with cows lying down slightly longer on ST than MAT, although lying times on the open lying areas did decrease at the Long distance. However, cows were still lying for >60% of their lying time on the open lying areas at the Long distance. This study demonstrates that cows had a high motivation for an open lying area, the provision of which could better cater for the behavioural needs of housed dairy cows and improve housed dairy cow welfare

Validating Accelerometer Technology to Detect Play Behaviour in Weaned Dairy Calves

Objectives: Animal welfare is an increasingly important subject that is gaining interest not only from veterinarians and scientists, but also from consumers. The public drive for higher welfare standards has increased the need for research to better understand the needs and nature of animals. Play behaviour is commonly observed in young animals and may be adversely affected by negative experiences. Thus, play can be regarded as an indication of a positive welfare state. Observational methods of recording animal behaviour can be labour intensive and impractical for studies of long duration. The increase in commercially available accelerometer technology has allowed for detailed analysis of animal behaviours in a more efficient manner than continuous visual observations. Accelerometers have been validated for detecting play behaviour in newborn (≤ 48 h old) dairy calves but not in any other age group of cattle. The objective of this study was to determine the ability of accelerometers to detect play behaviour in older calves (3 to 5 months old), with a particular focus on motion index (MI) – a proprietary measure of overall animal activity (IceTag, Peacock Technology, Scotland). Materials and methods: Eight weaned female Holstein-Friesian calves (age 118 ± 16 d) were recruited from a 50-cow dairy herd in central Scotland. Calves were housed in a straw-bedded group pen of up to ten calves and had ad libitum access to water, concentrate pellets and straw. Accelerometers (IceTag, Peacock Technology) were attached to one hindlimb of each calf for a 48-hour period. Sensor data were downloaded in 15-min intervals at the end of the recording period. These devices measure acceleration forces which occur during animal movements and output a variety of activity data including step count, lying times and a measure of overall activity termed “motion index (MI)”. Calf behaviour was filmed continuously over the same 48-hour period using two cameras providing an unobstructed view of the calf shed. Behavioural analysis was conducted using one-zero sampling to identify the presence (1) or absence (0) of play within each 15-min interval corresponding to the IceTag data output. Visual observations and MI data were compared and formatted in 2x2 contingency tables for the calculation of the sensitivity (Se), specificity (Sp) and balanced accuracy of different MI thresholds to detect the presence of play. Results: The number of 15-min intervals in which play events were recorded varied between calves and ranged from 9 to 39 (median 26) over the 48-hour recording period. The median MI was 6 (range 0 to 2343). The MI threshold which best correlated with visual identification of play behaviour was MI ≥69 (sensitivity = 94.42%; specificity = 93.60%; balanced accuracy = 94.01%). Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that IceTag generated MI data can be used as a more time efficient alternative to visual analysis to detect play behaviour in weaned dairy calves. This technology can be implemented as a research tool in comparing play, an indicator of positive welfare states, in weaned dairy calves across different management systems

Validating Accelerometer Technology to Detect Play Behaviour in Weaned Dairy Calves

Animal welfare, in particular calf welfare, is an increasingly important subject that is gaining interest from multiple stakeholders within the dairy industry. The drive for higher welfare standards has increased the need for research to better understand the needs and nature of animals. Play behaviour is commonly observed in young animals and is regarded as an indicator of positive welfare states. Traditional observational methods of measuring animal behaviour can be labour intensive and impractical for on farm assessment or for studies of long duration. The increase in commercially available accelerometer technology has allowed for detailed analysis of animal behaviours, such as play, in a more efficient manner than continuous visual observations. Accelerometers have been validated for detecting play behaviour in newborn (≤ 48 h old) calves but not in any other age group of cattle. Therefore the objective of this study was to determine the ability of accelerometers to detect play behaviour in weaned dairy calves. Eight weaned female Holstein-Friesian calves (aged 3-5 months) were recruited from a 50-cow dairy herd in central Scotland. Accelerometers (IceTag, Peacock Technology) were attached to one hindlimb of each calf for a 48-hour period. Sensor activity data including step counts, lying times and a measure of overall activity termed “motion index (MI)” were downloaded at the end of the study period in 15-minute intervals. Calf behaviour was filmed continuously over the same 48-hour period and analysed using one-zero sampling to identify the presence (1) or absence (0) of play within each 15-min interval corresponding to the IceTag data output. A significant, positive correlation between MI and visually recorded play was found (r=0.59, p<0.01) and therefore this output metric was selected for further analysis. Using 2x2 contingency tables and Classification and Regression Tree (CART) analysis, it was determined that the MI threshold which best correlated with visual identification of play behaviour was MI ≥69 (sensitivity = 94.42%; specificity = 93.60%; balanced accuracy = 94.01%). The results of this study suggest that IceTag generated MI data can be used as a more time efficient alternative to visual analysis to detect play behaviour in weaned dairy calves

Validating Accelerometer Technology to Detect Play Behaviour in Weaned Dairy Calves

Relevant sector: • Calf health • Welfare • Precision livestock technology. Objectives: Animal welfare is an increasingly important subject that is gaining interest not only from veterinarians and scientists, but also from consumers. The public drive for higher welfare standards has increased the need for research to better understand the needs and nature of animals. Play behaviour is commonly observed in young animals and may be adversely affected by negative experiences. Thus, play can be regarded as an indication of a positive welfare state. Observational methods of recording animal behaviour can be labour intensive and impractical for studies of long duration. The increase in commercially available accelerometer technology has allowed for detailed analysis of animal behaviours in a more efficient manner than continuous visual observations. Accelerometers have been validated for detecting play behaviour in newborn (≤ 48 h old) dairy calves but not in any other age group of cattle. The objective of this study was to determine the ability of accelerometers to detect play behaviour in older calves (3 to 5 months old), with a particular focus on motion index (MI) – a proprietary measure of overall animal activity (IceTag, Peacock Technology, Scotland). Materials and methods: Eight weaned female Holstein-Friesian calves (age 118 ± 16 d) were recruited from a 50-cow dairy herd in central Scotland. Calves were housed in a straw-bedded group pen of up to ten calves and had ad libitum access to water, concentrate pellets and straw. Accelerometers (IceTag, Peacock Technology) were attached to one hindlimb of each calf for a 48-hour period. Sensor data were downloaded in 15-min intervals at the end of the recording period. These devices measure acceleration forces which occur during animal movements and output a variety of activity data including step count, lying times and a measure of overall activity termed “motion index (MI)”. Calf behaviour was filmed continuously over the same 48-hour period using two cameras providing an unobstructed view of the calf shed. Behavioural analysis was conducted using one-zero sampling to identify the presence (1) or absence (0) of play within each 15-min interval corresponding to the IceTag data output. Visual observations and MI data were compared and formatted in 2x2 contingency tables for the calculation of the sensitivity (Se), specificity (Sp) and balanced accuracy of different MI thresholds to detect the presence of play. Results: The number of 15-min intervals in which play events were recorded varied between calves and ranged from 9 to 39 (median 26) over the 48-hour recording period. The median MI was 6 (range 0 to 2343). The MI threshold which best correlated with visual identification of play behaviour was MI ≥69 (sensitivity = 94.42%; specificity = 93.60%; balanced accuracy = 94.01%). Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that IceTag generated MI data can be used as a more time efficient alternative to visual analysis to detect play behaviour in weaned dairy calves. This technology can be implemented as a research tool in comparing play, an indicator of positive welfare states, in weaned dairy calves across different management systems