Use of organic material provided by an automatic enrichment device by weaner pigs and its influence on tail lesions.

Providing pigs with organic enrichment material is important for satisfying pigs' natural explorative behavior to prevent injurious tail biting and thus increase animal welfare in general. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of automatically supplied enrichment material of three different types (alfalfa pellets, oat bran pellets, or a mixture of both) and different enrichment frequencies (2, 4, or 6 supplies/day) on the behavior, the occurrence of tail biting, and daily weight gains of weaner pigs. The results showed significant effects and interactions of enrichment material, frequency and the time of day on the exploratory behavior, the occurrence of tail biting, and daily weight gains.

A multidisciplinary approach to forensic biological profiling on a single tooth and nail sample.

Introduction: Analysis of a single tooth and nail can provide valuable forensic information, including year of birth, year of death, age, sex, DNA-profile, geographic residence during childhood and at time of death and drug exposure. The aim is to minimize the amount of used bodily material and to validate the applicability of a multidisciplinary sampling protocol.

Methods: A nail of the big toe, a tooth and blood of seven deceased individuals were collected postmortem.

Enhancing the contemporary human and water isotope reference database for the Netherlands: New insights from Sr-O-C-N-H isotope data.

The determination of an individual's geographic origin is an essential aspect of forensic investigations. When primary identifiers cannot be used to make a positive identification, isotope analysis can be utilized to provide new leads. Modern reference data are essential for accurate interpretation of human isotopic data in terms of diet and origin.

Behavioural responses related to increasing core body temperature of grazing dairy cows experiencing moderate heat stress.

Exposure to direct solar radiation, high ambient temperature, lack of wind movement, coupled with own metabolic heat production, makes grazing dairy cows vulnerable to heat stress. In pastures, it would be beneficial to monitor heat stress by observable changes in behaviour. We hypothesised that grazing dairy cows exhibit behavioural changes due to increasing heat load in temperate climate.

Isotopic analysis of formula milk reveals potential challenges in geolocating bottle-fed babies.

In forensic investigations involving the identification of unknown deceased individuals, isotope analysis can provide valuable provenance information. This is especially pertinent when primary identifiers (i.e.