Investigating the impact of husbandry and management practices on the interaction of animal well-being and product quality in beef, swine, and dairy production systems

2011 Spring.Includes bibliographical references.The impact of husbandry and management practices were investigated in a beef feedlot, a small slaughter facility, and a dairy. In the first experiment, the impact of â-adrenergic agonist supplementation and implant strategy on the physiological, metabolic, and behavioral responses of feedlot steers was evaluated. Due to the ineffectiveness of head-only electrical stunning of pigs in small slaughter establishments, a two-stage stunning method was proposed where head-only stunning for 3 s was immediately followed by application of the same stunning wand to the cardiac region of the animal for 3 s while lying in lateral recumbancy. A paired-comparison study was conducted on 89 pigs in a small slaughter facility to compare the head-only method applied for 6 s to the head/heart method. Head/heart stunning eliminated rhythmic breathing, natural blinking, eye tracking to moving objects, and righting reflex, which were all observed in head-only stunned pigs. Blood lactate was not different (P > 0.05) between stunning methods (head only: 8.8 ± .7 mmol/l, head/heart: 7.8 ± .7 mmol/l). Stun to bleed time did not differ (P > 0.05) (head only: 32 ± 1 s, head/heart: 33 ± 1 s). No heartbeat was observed with the head/heart method. Longissimus thoracis pH, color, and drip loss were not different (P > 0.05) between stunning methods. This study determined that the head/heart electrical stunning method reduced the incidence of signs of return to sensibility without significant effects on meat quality, plant operation speed, or blood lactate concentration. As concern toward the care afforded to animals on U.S. dairy farms increases, benchmark data and means of assessing the welfare status of the dairy industry are necessary to dovetail with existing National Animal Health Monitoring System and National Cattlemens' Beef Association National Non-fed Beef Quality Audits. The 3rd study was developed to explore the framework of a potential study to dovetail with these two programs and identify variables of relevance to such an analysis. A single Northern Colorado Dairy Herd enrolled in the Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) Dairy Herd Retirement program was selected for this pilot study. Overall, data suggested that risk factors for herd health issues exist based on lactation number, days in milk, daily milk production, and previous lactation 305 d milk. Our analysis showed that muscling and finish scores are potentially valuable tools for assessing body condition score in cows post mortem. Body condition score was different between daily production levels (low: 3.08, medium: 2.70, high: 2.51) (P < 0.05). The mean percentage of broken tails in the herd was 44.1% and the occurrence of tail breaks increased as cows became more lame (P < 0.05) and as lactation number increased (P < 0.05). Overall, this study demonstrated the importance of including welfare-relevant variables in assessing on-farm animal welfare that are not strictly restricted to production. The results of these studies indicate the importance of management in maintaining acceptable animal welfare in livestock production and processing facilities

Assessment of United States Department of Agriculture Food Safety Inspection Service Humane Handling Enforcement Actions: 2018–2020

Federally inspected slaughter establishments in the United States must adhere to the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act and regulations that enforce it. Failure to comply with this law results in a Humane Handling Enforcement Action (HHEA) issued by the United States Department of Agriculture Food Safety Inspection Service (USDA FSIS). The objective of this study was to systematically analyze and describe HHEAs issued between 2018 and 2020. Enforcement action notification letters were accessed from the USDA FSIS website and date, location, regulatory action, reason for noncompliance, species, and follow up action for each HHEA was recorded. Summary statistics (proportions and percentages) were calculated for the entire population dataset. Between 2018 and 2020, FSIS issued 293 HHEAs; 109 in 2018, 85 in 2019, and 99 in 2020. The majority of HHEAs (64.16%; 188 of 293) were related to the mechanical stunning of bovine (39.93%; 117 of 293) and porcine (24.23%; 71 of 293) species. The majority (50.23%; 107 of 213) of causative reasons for mechanical stun failure across all species were not clearly described; however, of those that were, most (39.12%; 68 of 213) were related to the placement of mechanical stuns. Addressing these issues through improved training and research would help to reduce the total number of HHEAs. Additional detail in reporting the events that result in HHEAs from USDA FSIS would aid in guiding corrective actions on an industry-wide scale

Global diversity of the Brachypodium species complex as a resource for genome-wide association studies demonstrated for agronomic traits in response to climate

The development of model systems requires a detailed assessment of standing genetic variation across natural populations. The Brachypodium species complex has been promoted as a plant model for grass genomics with translation to small grain and biomass crops. To capture the genetic diversity within this species complex, thousands of Brachypodium accessions from around the globe were collected and genotyped by sequencing. Overall, 1897 samples were classified into two diploid or allopolyploid species, and then further grouped into distinct inbred genotypes. A core set of diverse B. distachyon diploid lines was selected for whole genome sequencing and high resolution phenotyping. Genome-wide association studies across simulated seasonal environments was used to identify candidate genes and pathways tied to key life history and agronomic traits under current and future climatic conditions. A total of 8, 22, and 47 QTL were identified for flowering time, early vigor, and energy traits, respectively. The results highlight the genomic structure of the Brachypodium species complex, and the diploid lines provided a resource that allows complex trait dissection within this grass model species.We are grateful for funding and support from the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology (CE140100008). Australian Plant Phenomics Facility is supported under the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy of the Australian Government. The research was undertaken with the assistance of resources from the National Computational Infrastructure (NCI), which is supported by the Australian Government

Search for New Physics with Jets and Missing Transverse Momentum in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

A search for new physics is presented based on an event signature of at least three jets accompanied by large missing transverse momentum, using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36 inverse picobarns collected in proton--proton collisions at sqrt(s)=7 TeV with the CMS detector at the LHC. No excess of events is observed above the expected standard model backgrounds, which are all estimated from the data. Exclusion limits are presented for the constrained minimal supersymmetric extension of the standard model. Cross section limits are also presented using simplified models with new particles decaying to an undetected particle and one or two jets

Search for the standard model Higgs boson in the H to ZZ to 2l 2nu channel in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

A search for the standard model Higgs boson in the H to ZZ to 2l 2nu decay channel, where l = e or mu, in pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV is presented. The data were collected at the LHC, with the CMS detector, and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 4.6 inverse femtobarns. No significant excess is observed above the background expectation, and upper limits are set on the Higgs boson production cross section. The presence of the standard model Higgs boson with a mass in the 270-440 GeV range is excluded at 95% confidence level.Comment: Submitted to JHE

Measurements of branching fraction ratios and CP-asymmetries in suppressed B^- -> D(-> K^+ pi^-)K^- and B^- -> D(-> K^+ pi^-)pi^- decays

We report the first reconstruction in hadron collisions of the suppressed decays B^- -> D(-> K^+ pi^-)K^- and B^- -> D(-> K^+ pi^-)pi^-, sensitive to the CKM phase gamma, using data from 7 fb^-1 of integrated luminosity collected by the CDF II detector at the Tevatron collider. We reconstruct a signal for the B^- -> D(-> K^+ pi^-)K^- suppressed mode with a significance of 3.2 standard deviations, and measure the ratios of the suppressed to favored branching fractions R(K) = [22.0 \pm 8.6(stat)\pm 2.6(syst)]\times 10^-3, R^+(K) = [42.6\pm 13.7(stat)\pm 2.8(syst)]\times 10^-3, R^-(K)= [3.8\pm 10.3(stat)\pm 2.7(syst]\times 10^-3, as well as the direct CP-violating asymmetry A(K) = -0.82\pm 0.44(stat)\pm 0.09(syst) of this mode. Corresponding quantities for B^- -> D(-> K^+ pi^-)pi^- decay are also reported.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figure, accepted by Phys.Rev.D Rapid Communications for Publicatio

X-ray emission from the Sombrero galaxy: discrete sources

We present a study of discrete X-ray sources in and around the bulge-dominated, massive Sa galaxy, Sombrero (M104), based on new and archival Chandra observations with a total exposure of ~200 ks. With a detection limit of L_X = 1E37 erg/s and a field of view covering a galactocentric radius of ~30 kpc (11.5 arcminute), 383 sources are detected. Cross-correlation with Spitler et al.'s catalogue of Sombrero globular clusters (GCs) identified from HST/ACS observations reveals 41 X-rays sources in GCs, presumably low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs). We quantify the differential luminosity functions (LFs) for both the detected GC and field LMXBs, whose power-low indices (~1.1 for the GC-LF and ~1.6 for field-LF) are consistent with previous studies for elliptical galaxies. With precise sky positions of the GCs without a detected X-ray source, we further quantify, through a fluctuation analysis, the GC LF at fainter luminosities down to 1E35 erg/s. The derived index rules out a faint-end slope flatter than 1.1 at a 2 sigma significance, contrary to recent findings in several elliptical galaxies and the bulge of M31. On the other hand, the 2-6 keV unresolved emission places a tight constraint on the field LF, implying a flattened index of ~1.0 below 1E37 erg/s. We also detect 101 sources in the halo of Sombrero. The presence of these sources cannot be interpreted as galactic LMXBs whose spatial distribution empirically follows the starlight. Their number is also higher than the expected number of cosmic AGNs (52+/-11 [1 sigma]) whose surface density is constrained by deep X-ray surveys. We suggest that either the cosmic X-ray background is unusually high in the direction of Sombrero, or a distinct population of X-ray sources is present in the halo of Sombrero.Comment: 11 figures, 5 tables, ApJ in pres