Hasil untuk "Animal biochemistry"

Jacqueline Crawley, Frederick K. Goodwin

M. Couteau, M. Chabanne, C. Guilloton et al.

Christian Fleming, Kelsey Mills, Nicolas Cardenas et al.

The U.S. launched the Secure Pork Supply (SPS) Plan for Continuity of Business, a voluntary program providing foreign animal disease (FAD) guidance and setting biosecurity standards to maintain business continuity amid FAD outbreaks. The role of biosecurity in disease prevention is well recognized, yet the U.S. swine industry lacks knowledge of individual farm biosecurity plans and the efficacy of existing measures. We describe a multi-sector initiative that formed the Rapid Access Biosecurity (RAB) app consortium with the swine industry, government, and academia. We (i) summarized 7,625 farms using RABapp, (ii) mapped U.S. commercial swine coverage and areas of limited biosecurity, and (iii) examined associations between biosecurity and occurrences of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) and porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV). RABapp, used in 31 states, covers ~47% of U.S. commercial swine. Of 307 Agricultural Statistics Districts with swine, 78% (238) had <50% of those animals in RABapp. We used a mixed-effects logistic regression model, accounting for production company and farm type (breeding vs. non-breeding). Requiring footwear/clothing changes, having multiple carcass disposal locations, hosting other businesses, and greater distance to swine farms reduced infection odds. Rendering carcasses, manure pit storage or land application, multiple perimeter buffer areas, and a larger animal housing area increased risk. This study leveraged RABapp to assess U.S. swine farm biosecurity, revealing gaps in SPS plan adoption that create vulnerable regions. Some biosecurity practices (e.g., footwear changes) lowered PRRSV/PEDV risk, while certain disposal and manure practices increased it. Targeted biosecurity measures and broader RABapp adoption can bolster industry resilience against foreign animal diseases.

Tianyi Xie, Yiwei Zhao, Ying Jiang et al.

Creating hand-drawn animation sequences is labor-intensive and demands professional expertise. We introduce PhysAnimator, a novel approach for generating physically plausible meanwhile anime-stylized animation from static anime illustrations. Our method seamlessly integrates physics-based simulations with data-driven generative models to produce dynamic and visually compelling animations. To capture the fluidity and exaggeration characteristic of anime, we perform image-space deformable body simulations on extracted mesh geometries. We enhance artistic control by introducing customizable energy strokes and incorporating rigging point support, enabling the creation of tailored animation effects such as wind interactions. Finally, we extract and warp sketches from the simulation sequence, generating a texture-agnostic representation, and employ a sketch-guided video diffusion model to synthesize high-quality animation frames. The resulting animations exhibit temporal consistency and visual plausibility, demonstrating the effectiveness of our method in creating dynamic anime-style animations. See our project page for more demos: https://xpandora.github.io/PhysAnimator/

Roger K. Moore

Human spoken language has long been the subject of scientific investigation, particularly with regard to the mechanisms underpinning speech production. Likewise, the study of animal communications has a substantial literature, with many studies focusing on vocalisation. More recently, there has been growing interest in comparing animal communications and human speech. However, it is proposed here that such a comparison necessitates the appraisal of a minimum set of critical phenomena: i) the number of degrees-of-freedom of the vocal apparatus, ii) the ability to control those degrees-of-freedom independently, iii) the properties of the acoustic environment in which communication takes place, iv) the perceptual salience of the generated sounds, v) the degree to which sounds are contrastive, vi) the presence/absence of compositionality, and vii) the information rate(s) of the resulting communications.

Dongmin Kim, Théo Michelot, Katherine Mertes et al.

Understanding disease dynamics is crucial for managing wildlife populations and assessing spillover risk to domestic animals and humans, but infection data on free-ranging animals are difficult to obtain. Because pathogen and parasite infections can alter host movement, infection status may be inferred from animal trajectories. We present a hidden Markov model (HMM) framework that links observed movement behaviors to unobserved infection states, consistent with epidemiological compartmental models (e.g., susceptible, infected, recovered, dead). Using movement data from 84 reintroduced scimitar-horned oryx (Oryx dammah), 38 confirmed dead in the field and 6 sampled for disease testing, we demonstrate how HMMs can incorporate epidemiological structure through (1) constrained transition probabilities (e.g., to preclude or allow recovery), (2) covariate effects on transmission, and (3) hierarchically structured HMMs (HHMMs) for multi-scale transitions. Comparing veterinary diagnostic reports with model outputs, we found that HMMs with epidemiological constraints successfully identified infection-associated reductions in movement, whereas unconstrained models failed to capture disease progression. Simulations further showed that constrained HMMs accurately classified susceptible, infected, and recovered states. By illustrating flexible formulations and a workflow for model selection, we provide a transferable approach for detecting infection from movement data. This framework can enhance wildlife disease surveillance, guide population management, and improve understanding of disease dynamics.

Huan Liu, Sijin Fan, Qinglin Xu et al.

Large yellow croaker is one of the species with the highest production of marine fish culture in China. Germplasm resources are the indispensable material basis for the healthy and sustainable development of large yellow croaker aquaculture industry. It is of great significance to systematically carry out the collection and preservation, identification and evaluation, and germplasm innovation of large yellow croaker germplasm resources. This paper summarizes the progress in the conservation and exploitation of large yellow croaker germplasm resources and germplasm innovation. Around the main line of conservation of large yellow croaker germplasm resources and the creation of good varieties, the development direction of creating major new varieties for complex economic traits (e.g., disease resistance, stress resistance, quality, and feed utilization efficiency, etc.) was proposed, which provided theoretical support for realizing the significant improvement of the coverage rate of improved varieties of large yellow croaker and the healthy development of large yellow croaker industry.

Farwa Mustafa, Asif Sajjad, Muhammad Sajjad et al.

IntroductionInsects are receiving increasing attention due to their potential to enhance farming efficiency and sustainability, mitigate vast quantities of bio-waste, and improve animal performance. It is hypothesized that replacing soybean meal with Acheta domesticus will improve broiler productive performance, health, and meat quality. Therefore, the objective of this study was to assess the effect of the gradual replacement of soybean meal (4%, 8%, and 12%) with house cricket (A. domesticus) and black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens) on productive performances, hematology, intestinal morphology, and meat quality attributes of male broiler (Ross 308). MethodsA total of 350 1-day-old chicks (39.23 ± 0.19 g) were divided into seven groups (five pens per group and 10 chicks per pen) following a completely randomized design. The seven groups included 4%, 8%, and 12% SBM replacements with A. domesticus and H. illucens. Soybean meal was the basal diet considered the control. ResultsThe broilers fed 12% A. domesticus, or 12% H. illucens had significantly higher ((p 0.05) live weight, average daily weight gain, and improved feed conversion ratio than the broilers fed basal (SBM) diet throughout starter, grower, and finisher phases. Hematology (complete blood count and serum biochemistry traits) and intestinal morphology (villus height, villus width, crypt depth, and villus height-to-crypt depth ratio) of the broilers improved when fed on 12% A. domesticus and 12% H. illucens meals as compared to the control group (p &lt; 0.05). Feeding 12% A. domesticus and 12% H. illucens also had a significant positive impact on the meat quality traits of broilers, such as maximum redness (a*) and yellowness (b*) with minimal cooking loss and lightness (L*) (p &lt; 0.05) than the broilers fed the control diet. DiscussionUsing insect meal as an alternative to traditional feed sources could contribute significantly to the sustainable expansion of the poultry industry.

Zi-Hai Wei, Shu-Lin Liang, Feng-Fei Gu et al.

One hundred and thirteen mid-lactation cows fed same diets and supplemented with 20 g/d rumen-protected methionine (RPM) for 8 weeks were used to investigate the individual responses of dairy cows to RPM in terms of lactation performance, amino acids (AA) metabolism, and milk metabolites. Among the cows, 10 cows exhibited positive responses (PR) and 10 cows showed limited responses (LR) in energy-corrected milk yield to RPM were used for further analysis. The lactation performance changed from gradual decline to steady increase in PR cows, while kept downward trend in LR cows following RPM supplementation. In PR cows, the AA metabolism was notably enhanced after RPM supplementation, evidenced by increased mammary blood flow (69.4%, P = 0.05), mammary uptake and clearance rate and uptake-to-output ratio (U:O) of essential AA. The improved AA metabolism could be attributed to the enrichment of pyrimidine (P = 0.06) and pyruvate (P = 0.07) metabolism pathways, which may have stimulated mammary cell proliferation and enhanced AA uptake. Additionally, the upregulation of milk biotin (fold change > 2, variable importance projection > 1), known to support milk yield, likely contributed to the PR observed in PR cows. Conversely, in LR cows, RPM supplementation did not improve AA metabolism, decrease was observed in mammary uptake, mammary clearance rate, and U:O of cysteine, potentially due to cysteine being irreversibly converted from methionine. Moreover, the enrichment of central carbon metabolism in cancer pathway (P = 0.06), which also utilize methionine, along with the lysine degradation pathway (P = 0.04), suggests that methionine in the mammary glands may have been diverted toward non-lactational metabolic processes, resulting in absence of PR in LR cows. Our results indicate that the responses to RPM in dairy cows are individualized, with variation in lactation performance likely driven by differential AA metabolism.

Abhishek Saraswat, Monika Joshi, K. A. Shende et al.

The experiment was conducted from July to September, 2024 at the poultry farm of the College of Veterinary and Animal Science, Navania, Vallabhnagar, Udaipur, Rajasthan, India to evaluate the effect of dried lemongrass leaves (Cymbopogon citratus) powder on haemato-biochemical parameters in broilers. A feeding trial of six weeks followed by a metabolism trial was conducted using ninety-six-day-old chicks. The chicks were randomly distributed in a completely randomized block design in four treatment groups, viz., the T1 group, i.e., the control group fed on a basal diet; the T2 group, i.e., the basal diet+lemongrass leaves powder @  5 g kg-1 feed; the T3 group, i.e., the basal diet+lemongrass leaves powder @ 10 g kg-1 feed; and the T4 group, i.e., the basal diet+lemongrass leaves powder @ 15 g kg-1 feed respectively in basal pre-starter, starter and finisher ration. There was a non-significant (p>0.05) difference in blood hemoglobin, PCV, TEC, TLC, serum globulin, A/G ratio, blood glucose, creatinine, ALT, and AST levels. Cholesterol level was significantly (p<0.05) high in the T1 group, whereas serum albumin and total protein levels were significantly higher (p<0.01) in the T4 group, and serum triglyceride level was significantly (p<0.01) higher in the T1 group as compared to other groups. It was concluded that supplementing the broiler diet with lemongrass leaves powder @ 15 g kg-1 feed could be beneficial for improving broiler chick haemato-biochemical parameters.

Logan Seymour, Niyogushima Nuru, Kaya R. Johnson et al.

BC is the most commonly diagnosed cancer and the second leading cause of cancer death among women worldwide. Cellular stress is a condition that leads to disrupted homeostasis by extrinsic and intrinsic factors. Among other stressors, hypoxia is a driving force for breast cancer (BC) progression and a general hallmark of solid tumors. Thus, intratumoral hypoxia is an important determinant of invasion, metastasis, treatment failure, prognosis, and patient mortality. Acquisition of the epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) phenotype is also a consequence of tumor hypoxia. The cellular response to hypoxia is mainly regulated by the hypoxia signaling pathway, governed by hypoxia-inducible factors (HIFs), mainly HIF1α. HIFs are a family of transcription factors (TFs), which induce the expression of target genes involved in cell survival and proliferation, metabolic reprogramming, angiogenesis, resisting apoptosis, invasion, and metastasis. HIF1α cooperates with a large number of other TFs. In this review, we focused on the crosstalk and cooperation between HIF1α and other TFs involved in the cellular response to hypoxia in BC. We identified a cluster of TFs, proposed as the HIF1α-TF interactome, that orchestrates the transcription of target genes involved in hypoxia, due to their post-translational modifications (PTMs), including phosphorylation/dephosphorylation, ubiquitination/deubiquitination, SUMOylation, hydroxylation, acetylation, S-nitrosylation, and palmitoylation. PTMs of these HIF1α-related TFs drive their stability and activity, degradation and turnover, and the bidirectional translocation between the cytoplasm or plasma membrane and nucleus of BC cells, as well as the transcription/activation of proteins encoded by oncogenes or inactivation of tumor suppressor target genes. Consequently, PTMs of TFs in the HIF1α interactome are crucial regulatory mechanisms that drive the cellular response to oxygen deprivation in BC cells.

Wolfgang Paier, Paul Hinzer, Anna Hilsmann et al.

We present a new approach for video-driven animation of high-quality neural 3D head models, addressing the challenge of person-independent animation from video input. Typically, high-quality generative models are learned for specific individuals from multi-view video footage, resulting in person-specific latent representations that drive the generation process. In order to achieve person-independent animation from video input, we introduce an LSTM-based animation network capable of translating person-independent expression features into personalized animation parameters of person-specific 3D head models. Our approach combines the advantages of personalized head models (high quality and realism) with the convenience of video-driven animation employing multi-person facial performance capture. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach on synthesized animations with high quality based on different source videos as well as an ablation study.

Md Ridoan Pasha, Mohammad Belayet Hossain, Amir Hossan Shaikat et al.

Objective: This study aimed to assess the welfare conditions of broiler chickens in the live bird markets (LBMs) in Bangladesh. Materials and Methods: A total of fifty broiler outlets were studied in 10 LBMs of Chattogram, Bangladesh. A total of 10 chickens were observed to check the welfare issues during slaughter from each outlet (N = 500). The data were collected using a structured questionnaire method through interviews of the vendors and observation of the lairage and slaughter practice. Results: The study revealed that the stocking density was significantly higher in cage-type lairage than in floor-type (p &lt; 0.05). The feeding and drinking areas for the chickens were significantly but negatively correlated to the stocking density. The duration between unloading of broiler chickens at LBMs and feeding or drinking could exceed 5 hours in 22% of outlets. The mortality was significantly higher in the bigger outlets than the smaller outlets (p &lt; 0.05). During pre-slaughter han¬dling, the one-wing grasping method was practiced more in the bigger outlets (p &lt; 0.05) whereas the feet grasping method was used more in the smaller outlets (p &lt; 0.05). Moreover, the knives used to slaughter the chickens were not sharpened daily in 76% of outlets. Conclusion: This study indicated that the broiler chickens in the LBMs of Chattogram had to face many stress episodes at different stages at their penultimate moments—from lairage to slaugh¬ter—which led to poor welfare conditions and exacerbated the suffering of chickens. [J Adv Vet Anim Res 2024; 11(3.000): 803-809]

David Abraham, P.M. Deepa, C. Purnima et al.

Tuberculosis in Asian elephants usually shows involvement of lungs and associated lymph nodes. Grossly, the affected lobes of lungs reveal circumscribed lesions of varying sizes with central areas of caseation and necrosis. This report documents histomorphological features of pulmonary tuberculosis in six Asian elephants. The important cell types present were lymphocytes, foamy macrophages, epithelioid macrophages and Langhan’s type of giant cells. In addition, caseation necrosis, fibrotic capsule, and mineralisation (calcification) were also observed. Characteristic features of tuberculoid granulomas observed in the six cases showed similarities with other species. The six cases showed varying proportions of the seven defined features but all features were present together only in one case Keywords: Granuloma, histopathology

Leilei Wang, Bin Wei, Xuemeng Si et al.

IntroductionThe study aimed to investigate the potential effects of varying wheat levels in broiler diets on growth performance, intestinal barrier, and cecal microbiota.MethodsDay-old male broilers were fed the same diet until 10 d of age. Then they were randomly assigned to 1) the low-level wheat group, where inclusion of 15.0% and 25.0% wheat in the grower and finisher diet, respectively, 2) the medium-level wheat group with 30.0% and 40.0% of wheat in the grower and finisher periods; and 3) the high-level wheat dietary group, in which the grower and finisher diets contained 55.77% and 62.38% of wheat, respectively.ResultsDietary treatments unaffected the body weight at 39 d, whereas incorporating high wheat in diets significantly increased the feed intake and reduced the feed conversion ratio from 10 to 39 d (p &lt; 0.05). Except for increased phosphorus digestibility in the high wheat group, dietary treatments had no significant effect on the apparent digestibility of dry matter, crude protein, and ether extract. Meanwhile, the broilers that consumed the medium and high content of wheat presented a higher villus height and the ratio of villus height to crypt depth than those fed the low-level wheat birds. Feeding the medium-level wheat enhanced ileal integrity and depressed the expression of proinflammatory cytokines in the ileum. The addition of high levels of wheat reduced the Chao1 index and the abundance of Lactobacillaceae, Bacteroidaceae, and Ruminococcacea in cecal content, which probably decreased the metabolism of histidine, sulfur-containing amino acids, and the biosynthesis of lysine.DiscussionThese results support the medium-level wheat diet improved intestinal barrier function and had no deleterious effects on the growth performance of broiler; dietary inclusion of high wheat reduced the feed conversion rate, which might be associated with the disturbed gut microbiota and decreased metabolism of amino acids.

Ruihan Yang, Zhuoqun Chen, Jianhan Ma et al.

The agility of animals, particularly in complex activities such as running, turning, jumping, and backflipping, stands as an exemplar for robotic system design. Transferring this suite of behaviors to legged robotic systems introduces essential inquiries: How can a robot learn multiple locomotion behaviors simultaneously? How can the robot execute these tasks with a smooth transition? How to integrate these skills for wide-range applications? This paper introduces the Versatile Instructable Motion prior (VIM) - a Reinforcement Learning framework designed to incorporate a range of agile locomotion tasks suitable for advanced robotic applications. Our framework enables legged robots to learn diverse agile low-level skills by imitating animal motions and manually designed motions. Our Functionality reward guides the robot's ability to adopt varied skills, and our Stylization reward ensures that robot motions align with reference motions. Our evaluations of the VIM framework span both simulation and the real world. Our framework allows a robot to concurrently learn diverse agile locomotion skills using a single learning-based controller in the real world. Videos can be found on our website: https://rchalyang.github.io/VIM/

Tung-Yuan Hsiao, Lu-Kai Wang, Tzung-Yuang Chen et al.

Background : Proton flash therapy is an emergency research topic in radiation therapy since the Varian announced the promising results from the first in human clinical trial of Flash therapy recently. However, it still needs a lot of researches on this topic, not only to understand the mechanism of the radiobiological effects but also to develop an appropriate dose monitoring system. Purpose : In this study we setup an experimental station for small animal proton Flash irradiation in a clinical machine. The dose monitoring system is able to provide real-time irradiation dose and irradiation time structure. Methods : The dose monitoring system includes homebrewed transmission ionization chamber (TIC), plastic scintillator based beam position monitor, and Poor Man Faraday Cup (FC). Both TIC and FC are equipped with a homebrewed fast reading current integral electronics device. The imaging guidance system comprises a moveable CT, laser, as well as attaching a bead on the body surface of the mouse can accurately guide the testing small animal in position. Results : The dose monitoring system can provide the time structure of delivered dose rate within 1 ms time resolution. Experimental testing results show that the highest dose in one pulse of 230 MeV proton that can be delivered to the target is about 20 Gy during 199 ms pulse period at 100 Gy/s dose rate. Conclusion : A proton research irradiation platform dedicated for studying small animal Flash biological effects has been established at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital. The final setup data represent a reference for the beam users to plan the experiments as well as for the improvement of the facility.

Mohammad Moniruzzaman, Dahye Kim, Hyunsoo Kim et al.

Curcumin is a bioactive functional feeding stimulant that is widely used as an additive in cuisine and animal feeds. Owing to its hydrophobic nature and low bioavailability, the nanoformulation of curcumin has recently received special attention from researchers. In this study, we investigated the effects of curcumin nanospheres (CN) on the growth performance, serum biochemistry, meat quality, intestinal immunohistochemistry, fecal malodors and microbes in finishing pigs. A total of 90 crossbred pigs (Duroc × [Yorkshire × Landrace]) with an average initial body weight of 73.77 ± 0.08 kg were randomized into 3 dietary groups in triplicate pens (10 pigs in each pen): control (CON) without supplementation of CN and the pigs in the remaining two groups were supplemented with CN at 1.0 (CN1) and 2.0 (CN2) mL/kg diet for a 40-day long experiment. The results showed that pigs fed the higher CN supplemented diet (CN2) had significantly higher final weight (FW) and weight gain (WG) than those fed the CON diet, and no significant differences were observed in the feed conversion ratio (FCR) and average daily feed intake (ADFI) after 28 days. At the end of the experiment, pigs fed the CN supplemented diet showed no significant difference in WG, ADFI or FCR compared to those on the CON diet. Overall, at the termination of the 40-day feeding trial, dietary CN had a significant effect on FW and WG, except for ADFI and FCR, in finishing pigs. After 40 days of the feeding trial, serum biochemical parameters such as glutamic-pyruvic transaminase, glutamic-oxaloacetic transaminase, triglycerides, and total cholesterol levels were significantly decreased in pigs fed the CN supplemented diet. However, high density lipoprotein levels were significantly increased in pigs fed the CN diets. Protein and lipid contents, as well as yellowness and lightness of the neck and longissimus dorsi muscles were not significantly affected by CN supplementation; however, there was a tendency to increase the redness of the longissimus dorsi muscle in pigs fed the CN2 supplemented diet compared to the CON diet. Meat grading and carcass weight significantly increased in pigs fed a higher CN supplemented diet. Fecal Escherichia coli and ammonia gas were significantly depleted in pigs fed CN diets. Histomorphological parameters, such as villus height, crypt depth and goblet cells in the jejunum of the intestine were significantly increased in pigs fed CN diet. Immunohistochemical staining showed that pro-inflammatory cytokine like tumor necrosis factor-α expression was reduced in pigs fed CN supplemented diets compared to the CON diet; however, antibodies such as immunoglobulin A and tight junction proteins such as claudin 3 were highly expressed in the intestine of pigs fed the CN diets. Overall, the results demonstrate the potential of dietary curcumin nanospheres as a nanobiotechnology tool as well as an effective feed additive for improving the performance and health status of finishing pigs.

Fiona Lippert, Bart Kranstauber, E. Emiel van Loon et al.

Studying animal movements is essential for effective wildlife conservation and conflict mitigation. For aerial movements, operational weather radars have become an indispensable data source in this respect. However, partial measurements, incomplete spatial coverage, and poor understanding of animal behaviours make it difficult to reconstruct complete spatio-temporal movement patterns from available radar data. We tackle this inverse problem by learning a mapping from high-dimensional radar measurements to low-dimensional latent representations using a convolutional encoder. Under the assumption that the latent system dynamics are well approximated by a locally linear Gaussian transition model, we perform efficient posterior estimation using the classical Kalman smoother. A convolutional decoder maps the inferred latent system states back to the physical space in which the known radar observation model can be applied, enabling fully unsupervised training. To encourage physical consistency, we additionally introduce a physics-informed loss term that leverages known mass conservation constraints. Our experiments on synthetic radar data show promising results in terms of reconstruction quality and data-efficiency.

Ádám Csóka, György Kovács, Virág Ács et al.

Various applications of farm animal imaging are based on the estimation of weights of certain body parts and cuts from the CT images of animals. In many cases, the complexity of the problem is increased by the enormous variability of postures in CT images due to the scanning of non-sedated, living animals. In this paper, we propose a general and robust approach for the estimation of the weights of cuts and body parts from the CT images of (possibly) living animals. We adapt multi-atlas based segmentation driven by elastic registration and joint feature and model selection for the regression component to cape with the large number of features and low number of samples. The proposed technique is evaluated and illustrated through real applications in rabbit breeding programs, showing r^2 scores 12% higher than previous techniques and methods that used to drive the selection so far. The proposed technique is easily adaptable to similar problems, consequently, it is shared in an open source software package for the benefit of the community.