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"Animal feeding"
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Just Fodder
Just Fodder addresses ethical and political questions arising from thinking about animals as eaters rather than as foodstuffs. Josh Milburn offers a novel theory of animal rights that insists that figuring out the full range of our obligations to animals requires asking questions about the nature and circumstances of our relationships with them.
eBook
The birds at my table : why we feed wild birds and why it matters
\"Discusses the history and scale of feeding wild birds. Outlines debates about the practice, highlighting key research findings and pointing out the issues that require further examination. Written in nontechnical language, thus making it accessible to the general public, birders, and academics\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
What Do We Feed to Food-Production Animals? A Review of Animal Feed Ingredients and Their Potential Impacts on Human Health
Animal feeding practices in the United States have changed considerably over the past century. As large-scale, concentrated production methods have become the predominant model for animal husbandry, animal feeds have been modified to include ingredients ranging from rendered animals and animal waste to antibiotics and organoarsenicals. In this article we review current U.S. animal feeding practices and etiologic agents that have been detected in animal feed. Evidence that current feeding practices may lead to adverse human health impacts is also evaluated.
We reviewed published veterinary and human-health literature regarding animal feeding practices, etiologic agents present in feed, and human health effects along with proceedings from animal feed workshops.
Data were extracted from peer-reviewed articles and books identified using PubMed, Agricola, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food and Drug Administration, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention databases.
Findings emphasize that current animal feeding practices can result in the presence of bacteria, antibiotic-resistant bacteria, prions, arsenicals, and dioxins in feed and animal-based food products. Despite a range of potential human health impacts that could ensue, there are significant data gaps that prevent comprehensive assessments of human health risks associated with animal feed. Limited data are collected at the federal or state level concerning the amounts of specific ingredients used in animal feed, and there are insufficient surveillance systems to monitor etiologic agents \"from farm to fork.\"
Increased funding for integrated veterinary and human health surveillance systems and increased collaboration among feed professionals, animal producers, and veterinary and public health officials is necessary to effectively address these issues.
Journal Article
Embodied relating and transformation : tales from equine-facilitated counseling
\"What kinds of embodied and relational learning can come from developing a responsive relationship with a horse? What insights might such ways of learning offer counselors and educators? In this book, the authors explore how women challenged by disordered eating develop transformative relational and embodied experiences through Equine-Facilitated Counseling (EFC). Embodiment refers to how we engage with others and the world in often habitual and taken for granted ways that shape who we are and the relationships we have. These habitual ways of being provide us with a sense of stability, but they can sometimes become constraining and problematic (as in the case of eating disorders). Our corporeal engagement with the world structures such habits, but it can also afford us opportunities to experiment, modify, and challenge problematic patterns, and in some instances, create new and preferred ones. The horses that participate in EFC present a vastly different sort of other who can help clients interrupt their sedimented ways of being and foster moments of responsivity that hold the power to become transformative. This theoretical context presents a different way of thinking about and practicing counseling? one that adds to a growing language of embodiment across a variety of disciplines. Chapters set forth a theoretical context for understanding the following: relationally embodied processes of stability and change, EFC, client stories from our research associated with riding horses in EFC, and implications we see for practice across different healing and learning contexts.\"
Book
Persistence of antibiotic resistance genes in beef cattle backgrounding environment over two years after cessation of operation
Confined animal feeding operations can facilitate the spread of genes associated with antibiotic resistance. It is not known how cattle removal from beef cattle backgrounding operation affects the persistence of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in the environment. We investigated the effect of cessation of beef cattle backgrounding operation on the persistence and distribution of ARGs in the beef cattle backgrounding environment. The study was conducted at a pasture-feedlot type beef cattle backgrounding operation which consisted of feeding and grazing areas that were separated by a fence with an access gate. Backgrounding occurred for seven years before cattle were removed from the facility. Soil samples (n = 78) from 26 georeferenced locations were collected at the baseline before cattle were removed, and then one year and two years after cattle were removed. Metagenomic DNA was extracted from the soil samples and total bacterial population (16S rRNA), total Enterococcus species and class 1 integrons (intI1), and erythromycin (ermB and ermF), sulfonamide (sul1 and sul2) and tetracycline (tetO, tetW and tetQ) resistance genes were quantified. Concentrations of total bacteria, Enterococcus spp., class 1 integrons, and ARGs were higher in the feeding area and its immediate vicinity (around the fence and the gate) followed by a gradient decline along the grazing area. Although the concentrations of total bacteria, Enterococcus spp., class 1 integrons and ARGs in the feeding area significantly decreased two years after cattle removal, their concentrations were still higher than that observed in the grazing area. Higher concentrations over two years in the feeding area when compared to the grazing area suggest a lasting effect of confined beef cattle production system on the persistence of bacteria and ARGs in the soil.
Journal Article
Characterizing the soil microbiome and quantifying antibiotic resistance gene dynamics in agricultural soil following swine CAFO manure application
As agriculture industrializes, concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) are becoming more common. Feces from CAFOs is often used as fertilizer on fields. However, little is known about the effects manure has on the soil microbiome, which is an important aspect of soil health and fertility. In addition, due to the subtherapeutic levels of antibiotics necessary to keep the animals healthy, CAFO manure has elevated levels of antibiotic resistant bacteria. Using 16s rRNA high-throughput sequencing and qPCR, this study sought to determine the impact of swine CAFO manure application on both the soil microbiome and abundance of select antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) and mobile element genes (erm(B), erm(C), sul1, str(B), intI1, IncW repA) in agricultural soil over the fall and spring seasons. We found the manure community to be distinct from the soil community, with a majority of bacteria belonging to Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes. The soil samples had more diverse communities dominated by Acidobacteria, Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria, Verrucomicrobia, and unclassified bacteria. We observed significant differences in the soil microbiome between all time points, except between the spring samples. However, by tracking manure associated taxa, we found the addition of the manure microbiome to be a minor driver of the shift. Of the measured genes, manure application only significantly increased the abundance of erm(B) and erm(C) which remained elevated in the spring. These results suggest bacteria in the manure do not survive well in soil and that ARG dynamics in soil following manure application vary by resistance gene.
Journal Article
Grazing camels under semi-extensive production system: selectivity, feed intake capacity, digestion and energy expenditure
It was proposed that camels are more effective than other livestock species in selecting plants for their nutritional value. They may self-regulate their voluntary feed intake to satisfy their nutritional needs. This study was designed to investigate camels' feeding selectivity and ability to cover nutritional requirements when grazing alfalfa (high in protein) and/ or barley (high in energy) in a desert climate. Eighteen lactating camels were equally divided into three feeding treatments. They grazed daily on alfalfa, barley, or a mixed pasture of both, for two periods of one month each. The concentrate supplement was individually administered at 40 g/kg BW.sup.0.75, divided into two equal parts, in the morning and in afternoon. Total energy expenditure (EE) was estimated by heart rate (HR) monitors for 48 h after being calibrated by oxygen consumption using an upgraded face mask open-circuit respiratory system. During the first period, camels had a greater forage intake and digestibility when they grazed barley rather than alfalfa, while those grazing mixed pasture performed intermediately. In the second period, camels had a similar forage intake and digestibility among treatments due to a decline in barley intake and digestibility compared to the first period, which was expected since the preferred plant part gradually shifted from barley grains to predominantly straw as a function of time. Similar HR and EE were found across periods and treatments. As a result of greater gross and digestible energy intake in period 1, a better energy balance in period 1 was observed compared to period 2. Camels better utilize barley than alfalfa. Grazing on barley had a higher energy balance than grazing alfalfa alone or in combination with barley. However, camels grazing barley produced lower milk yield and energy than those grazing alfalfa alone or in combination with barley, with no interaction detected between period and treatment. Lactating camels are able to self-regulate their voluntary intake to cover their energy requirements when they are grazing barley and/or alfalfa supplemented with a concentrate supplement at 40 g/kg BW.sup.0.75. Grazing barley is better utilized by camels than alfalfa. The chemical and physical properties of plant species play an important role in the selectivity of foraging camels. It also impacts their intake and digestibility, which is negatively associated with the proportion of cell wall content consumed.
Journal Article
The menu varies with metabarcoding practices: A case study with the bat Plecotus auritus
Metabarcoding of feces has revolutionized the knowledge of animal diets by providing unprecedented resolution of consumed resources. However, it is still unclear how different methodological approaches influence the ecological conclusions that can be drawn from such data. Here, we propose a critical evaluation of several data treatments on the inferred diet of the bat Plecotus auritus using guano regularly collected from various colonies throughout the entire active season. First and unlike previous claims, our data indicates that DNA extracted from large amounts of fecal material issued from guano accumulates yield broader taxonomic diversity of prey than smaller numbers of pellets would do, provided that extraction buffer volumes are adapted to such increased amounts of material. Second, trophic niche analyses based on prey occurrence data uncover strong seasonality in the bat's diet and major differences among neighboring maternity colonies. Third, while the removal of rare prey items is not always warranted as it introduces biases affecting particularly samples with greater prey species richness. Fourth, examination of distinct taxonomic depths in diet analyses highlights different aspects of food consumption providing a better understanding of the consumer's diet. Finally, the biologically meaningful patterns recovered with presence-absence approaches are virtually lost when attempting to quantify prey consumed using relative read abundances. Even in an ideal situation where reference barcodes are available for most potential prey species, inferring realistic patterns of prey consumption remains relatively challenging. Although best practice in metabarcoding analyses will depend on the aims of the study, several previous methodological recommendations seem unwarranted for studying such diverse diets as that of brown long-eared bats.
Journal Article