Partial herd hoof trimming results in a higher economic net benefit than whole herd hoof trimming in dairy herds.

Sole ulcers, a common cause of lameness is the costliest non-infectious foot lesion in dairy cows and one of the most prevalent non-infectious foot lesions in freestall housing systems. Costs associated with sole ulcers are treatment costs, plus increased labor and decreased productivity and fertility. Routine hoof trimming is part of a strategy to manage sole ulcers.

Total and pathogen-specific serum Immunoglobulin G concentrations in neonatal beef calves, Part 1: Risk factors.

Maternal antibodies, delivered to the calf via colostrum, are crucial to prevent calfhood diseases and death. However, knowledge regarding the factors influencing this transfer of total and specific Immunoglobulin G (IgG) against common enteric and respiratory disease pathogens under current production conditions is sparse. The objectives of this study were to determine risk factors influencing total and pathogen-specific immunoglobulin G (IgG) concentrations against Escherichia coli (E.

Total and pathogen-specific serum Immunoglobulin G concentrations in neonatal beef calves, Part 2: Associations with health and growth.

The association of poor transfer of passive immunity (TPI) with negative health outcomes is extensively researched in dairy calves. However, few field studies have examined the effect of total and particularly pathogen-specific Immunoglobulin G (IgG) concentrations on pre-weaning health and growth of beef calves. Hence, the objective of this study was to determine the association of total and pathogen-specific IgG concentrations against selected pathogens associated with neonatal calf diarrhea (NCD) and bovine respiratory disease (BRD) and the odds of pre-weaning treatments, mortality, and the growth of newborn beef calves.

An experimental model to induce digital dermatitis in beef calves.

Background: Digital dermatitis (DD) is a multifactorial infectious disease affecting the skin on feet of cattle causing erosion and inflammation above the heel bulbs. Some cases of DD cause lameness and significantly impact animal welfare and productivity. While DD has emerged as a concern for the beef industry, key information regarding early detection and its impact on cattle behaviour is lacking.

Evaluation of 3 refractometers to determine transfer of passive immunity in neonatal beef calves.

Background: Refractometry is used to assess transfer of passive immunity (TPI), but studies evaluating different refractometers and appropriate thresholds for recommended target immunoglobulin G (IgG) concentrations for beef calves are limited.

Objectives: To evaluate test performance of digital (DSTP) and optical (OSTP) serum total protein (STP) refractometers and a digital Brix (DBRIX) refractometer for assessment of passive immunity in beef calves.

Animals: A total of 398 beef calves from 6 herds, 1 to 7 days of age.

Benchmarking calving management practices on western Canada cow-calf operations.

Benchmarking current calving management practices and herd demographics in the western Canadian cow-calf production system helps to fill the gap in knowledge and understanding of how this production system works. Further investigation into the relationships between management decisions and calf health may guide the development of management practices and protocols to improve calf health, especially in compromised calves after a difficult birth. Therefore, the objectives of this cross-sectional study were to describe current calving management practices on western Canadian cow-calf ranches and to investigate the association of herd demographics with herd-level incidence of calving assistance, morbidity, mortality, and use of calving and colostrum management practices.

Assessment of Brix refractometry to estimate immunoglobulin G concentration in beef cow colostrum.

Background: Brix refractometry can be used to assess colostral immunoglobulin G (IgG) concentration, but studies identifying Brix percentages to detect high- and low-IgG colostrum are lacking for beef cows and interlaboratory agreement is unknown.

Objectives: Evaluate Brix refractometer performance and interlaboratory agreement for assessing beef cow colostrum IgG concentration, including determination of thresholds to identify colostrum containing IgG concentrations <100 g/L and ≥150 g/L.

Animals: Beef cows (n = 416) from 11 cow-calf operations in Alberta, Canada.

Pharmacokinetics of oral and subcutaneous meloxicam: Effect on indicators of pain and inflammation after knife castration in weaned beef calves.

Oral meloxicam is labelled for reducing pain and inflammation associated with castration in cattle in Canada, however, subcutaneous meloxicam is only labelled for pain associated with dis-budding and abdominal surgery. The aim of this project was to determine the pharmacokinetic profile of oral (PO; 1.0 mg/kg BW) and subcutaneous meloxicam (SC; 0.

Clinical impacts of administering a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug to beef calves after assisted calving on pain and inflammation, passive immunity, health, and growth.

Assisted calves are often born weak, injured, or oxygen deprived and have a higher risk of morbidity and mortality. The objective was to investigate the impact of using pain mitigation at birth in assisted beef calves on physiological indicators of pain and inflammation, passive immunity, health, and growth. Thirty-three primiparous cows and their calves requiring assistance at birth on two ranches located in southern Alberta were enrolled.

Quantifying subclinical trauma associated with calving difficulty, vigour, and passive immunity in newborn beef calves.

This cross-sectional study quantifies subclinical trauma associated with calving difficulty, calf vigour, and passive immunity (PI) in newborn beef calves. The degree of calving difficulty was categorised as: unassisted, easy assist (one or two people manually pulling to deliver the calf) and difficult assist (more than two people pulling, a fetal extractor (ie, calf jack), or caesarean section). Vigour assessment occurred at 10 minutes and blood sampling at 24 hours after birth in 77 beef calves.

Effect of meloxicam and lidocaine administered alone or in combination on indicators of pain and distress during and after knife castration in weaned beef calves.

To assess the effect of meloxicam and lidocaine on indicators of pain associated with castration, forty-eight Angus crossbred beef calves (304 ± 40.5 kg of BW, 7-8 months of age) were used in a 28 day experiment. The experiment consisted of a 2 × 2 factorial design where main factors included provision of analgesia and local anaesthesia.

Use of topical healing agents on scrotal wounds after surgical castration in weaned beef calves.

Angus bulls ( = 48) were randomly assigned to control (castrated without the application of a postoperative healing agent) or surgical castration followed by either the application of a topical germicide, aluminum powder spray, or liquid bandage. The objective of this study was to determine the efficacy of commercial topical healing agents in improving wound healing and reducing inflammation and secondary infection after surgical castration. Indicators of wound healing included scrotal area temperature (determined by infrared thermography), scrotal circumference, clinical state of the scrotum score, and the wound healing score.

Effects of changing freestall area on lameness, lying time, and leg injuries on dairy farms in Alberta, Canada.

Cow comfort is of increasing importance in the dairy industry, due to an increased focus on animal welfare. However, whether producer changes to the cows' environment affect cow comfort has not been well characterized. Our objectives were to: (1) quantify the effect of freestall area changes on the prevalence of lameness, leg injuries, and average lying time; and (2) compare cow comfort outcomes on farms that had never had an assessment of cow comfort to farms that had had a previous assessment of cow comfort.

Energy reallocation to breeding performance through improved nest building in laboratory mice.

Mice are housed at temperatures (20-26 °C) that increase their basal metabolic rates and impose high energy demands to maintain core temperatures. Therefore, energy must be reallocated from other biological processes to increase heat production to offset heat loss. Supplying laboratory mice with nesting material may provide sufficient insulation to reduce heat loss and improve both feed conversion and breeding performance.

Winning the genetic lottery: biasing birth sex ratio results in more grandchildren.

Population dynamics predicts that on average parents should invest equally in male and female offspring; similarly, the physiology of mammalian sex determination is supposedly stochastic, producing equal numbers of sons and daughters. However, a high quality parent can maximize fitness by biasing their birth sex ratio (SR) to the sex with the greatest potential to disproportionately outperform peers. All SR manipulation theories share a fundamental prediction: grandparents who bias birth SR should produce more grandoffspring via the favored sex.

Impact of nesting material on mouse body temperature and physiology.

In laboratories, mice are housed at 20-24 °C, which is below their lower critical temperature (≈30 °C). Thus, mice are potentially cold stressed, which can alter metabolism, immune function, and reproduction. These physiological changes reflect impaired wellbeing, and affect scientific outcomes.

If you knew what was good for you! The value of environmental enrichments with known welfare benefits is not demonstrated by sows using operant techniques.

This study assessed the motivation of gestating sows housed in standard, barren gestation stalls (used for breeding/implantation and/or gestation) for access to environmental enrichment. Enrichment consisted of a cotton rope or rubber mat in comparison to positive (additional food when fed at commercial levels) and negative (empty trough) controls. Although environmental enrichment may improve animal welfare, sows' valuation of enrichments is largely unknown.

Heat or insulation: behavioral titration of mouse preference for warmth or access to a nest.

In laboratories, mice are housed at 20-24°C, which is below their lower critical temperature (≈30°C). This increased thermal stress has the potential to alter scientific outcomes. Nesting material should allow for improved behavioral thermoregulation and thus alleviate this thermal stress.

Increasing the frequency of co-mingling piglets during the lactation period alters the development of social behavior before and after weaning.

The purpose of this study was to determine how increasing the frequency of co-mingling affected piglets' behavior development before and after weaning. Co-mingling once (CM1), piglets interacted with 1 unfamiliar litter Days 10-18 after birth; co-mingling twice (CM2), piglets interacted with 1 unfamiliar litter Days 10-14; and with another, Days 14-18. Control (CM0) piglets did not interact with unfamiliar litters before Day 18 (n = 16 litters per treatment).

Measuring motivation in swine: the food-metric scale.

Understanding how nonhuman animals such as swine respond to their environment and understanding how to provide them with a good quality of life involves using a range of experimental approaches. More and more, ethological researchers are turning to operant methods to answer some of these questions. Employing an operant such as a lever, researchers can assess how hard animals will work to get access to environmental resources: increased space or social contact.

Little and often? Maintaining continued performance in an automated T-maze for mice.

Operant and maze tasks in mice are limited by the small number of trials possible in a session before mice lose motivation. We hypothesized that by manipulating reward size and session length, motivation, and hence performance, would be maintained in an automated T-maze. We predicted that larger rewards and shorter sessions would improve acquisition; and smaller rewards and shorter sessions would maintain higher and less variable performance.

Nutritional up-regulation of serotonin paradoxically induces compulsive behavior.

Dietary etiologies or treatments for complex mental disorder are highly controversial in psychiatry. Nevertheless, diet affects brain chemistry (particularly serotonin), and can reduce abnormal behavior in humans and animals. We formulated a diet that elevated brain serotonin and tested whether it would reduce hair pulling in a mouse model of trichotillomania.

Home improvement: C57BL/6J mice given more naturalistic nesting materials build better nests.

Environmental enrichment of laboratory mice can improve the quality of research, but debate arises over the means of enrichment and its ability to be used in a sterile environment. One important form of enrichment is nesting material. Mice in the wild build dome-shaped, complex, multilayered nests, but this behavior is not seen in the laboratory, perhaps due to inappropriate nesting material rather than the nest-building ability of the mice.

Capitalizing on the human-animal bond to teach ethics to youth.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a livestock ethics curriculum developed for high school students in agricultural education classes. The curriculum was developed in response to numerous unethical occurrences at major livestock shows in recent years. These have included drug violations, physical alteration of animals, and excessive involvement of professional livestock handlers.