Farm Life and Physical Activity
Norman S. Giddan, Jane J. Giddan in Autistic Adults at Bittersweet Farms, 2020
A 48-foot by 32-foot barn with stalls for horses, cows, sheep and goats was constructed in 1985 from funds donated by the Toledo Rotary Club and the Lucas County Commissioners. The animal care program instructs four to five students during the day and is also important in Bittersweet Farms’ evening programming. Stu-dents care for two horses, two calves, pigs, goats, sheep, chickens, rabbits, ducks, and geese. Their activities include cleaning stalls and housing, exercising the animals, maintenance of equipment and fence building. Manure from the barn is transferred to the gardens where it enriches the soil. Students from all training areas take turns riding the horses. Each year, one hundred day-old chicks are raised for a fund-raising chicken barbecue in September. Within the next two years, plans for expansion include construction of a grade-A goat dairy which will produce milk and cheese for sale as well as processed milk for local small producers. This will eventually be another co-op enterprise to employ residents and day participants. The beef cattle, pigs, and lambs, as well as fowl and rabbits, are raised for their meat and used by the residents.
Specific Diseases of Large Animals and Man
Rebecca A. Krimins in Learning from Disease in Pets, 2020
Similar to the horse, cattle have long been a domesticated species in human society providing meat, milk, and hide production. Generally, cattle are divided into dairy and beef breeds, and management practices are vastly different between these groups. Dairy cattle are managed intensively during lactation, and milking is performed 2–3 times per day. Beef cattle are often managed extensively on large acreage farmland, although intensive management in feedlots is used in some regions for the final stage of growing cattle before slaughter for meat. There are estimated to be approximately 1.5 billion cattle worldwide and almost 94 million cattle in the United States. Specialized facilities for handling cattle are essential for personnel safety and many diagnostic procedures can be performed in the conscious or sedated animal with the aid of these handling facilities. As herbivores, cattle are ruminants and have a method of digestion in their rumen that relies on the microbial breakdown of plant material to molecules that can be absorbed and utilized for energy and other nutritional needs.
Food and drugs
Richard Lawson, Jonathon Porritt in Bills of Health, 2018
Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or ‘mad cow disease’ is a condition marked by destruction of nerve cells accompanied by the production of two abnormal proteins, PrP and SAF.32 It is new to cows, but has been known for many years as a disease of sheep called scrapie. It is clearly an infective disease, but the infective agent has not been identified. The existence of the infective agent is demonstrated when brain tissue from a suspect animal is injected into a mouse. It spread initially to cows through feeding them with dead sheep infected with scrapie. A total of 75 000 cows have been diagnosed with BSE, 90% of them dairy cows. Beef cattle do not live long enough to manifest the disease. Manifestly diseased animals are not allowed to be slaughtered for meat, but it is probable that infected carcasses do get through, either as a result of unscrupulous practices in the slaughterhouse, or because infected animals who are not yet showing signs of the disease are slaughtered and eaten. Brains and other infected tissues are removed, but the act of removal with circular saws inevitably deposits a spray of brain tissue on meat destined for the table.
Influence of prenatal transportation stress on innate immune response to an endotoxin challenge in weaned Brahman bull calves†,‡
Published in Stress, 2019
Brittni P. Littlejohn, Nicole C. Burdick Sanchez, Jeffery A. Carroll, Deborah M. Price, Rhonda C. Vann, Thomas H. Welsh, Ronald D. Randel
The bovine immune system may not be complete in its maturation until near puberty (Chase, Hurley, & Reber, 2008; Reber, Lockwood, Hippen, & Hurley, 2006). The average age at puberty has been estimated to be over 460 days in Bos indicus breeds (Fields, Hentges, & Cornelisse, 1982; Neuendorff, Rutter, Peterson, & Randel, 1985) and over 280 days in Bos taurus breeds (Lunstra, Ford, & Echternkamp, 1978). Between 4 weeks of age and shortly after weaning (standard weaning age is between 160 and 250 days; Cundiff, Van Vleck, & Hohenboken, 2016) a calf becomes less supported by passive immunity and more dependent on its own developing innate and adaptive immune systems (Chase et al., 2008). Weaning and shipping stressors typically occur at sensitive times relative to immune system development, resulting in a compromised immune response (Blecha, Boyles, & Riley, 1984) and an increased incidence of morbidity and mortality (Knowles, 1995; Sanderson, Dargatz, & Wagner, 2008). Increased morbidity rates in beef cattle production systems result in additional medical costs, reduced growth rates, and losses in productivity, especially at the feedlot stage (stage in which cattle are fed high concentrate diets to optimize weight gain prior to slaughter; Cernicchiaro, White, Renter, & Babcock, 2013).
Role of preovulatory concentrations of estradiol on timing of conception and regulation of the uterine environment in beef cattle
Published in Systems Biology in Reproductive Medicine, 2020
George A. Perry, Robert A. Cushman, Brandi L. Perry, Amanda K. Schiefelbein, Emmalee J. Northrop, Jerica J.J. Rich, Stephanie D. Perkins
Data were retrospectively collected from 4,499 animals (Bos taurus beef animals ages 13 months to 13 years; n = 3041 cows and 1458 heifers) in 31 different herds. All cows were postpartum lactating cows, and all heifers were virgin heifers (13 to 16 months of age at the start of the breeding season). Animals used in the study were mainly cross-bred animals consisting of the breeds of Angus, Hereford, Simmental, Charolais, Maine-Anjou, Red Angus, Limousin, and Gelbvieh. All animals in this analysis were synchronized using an injection of GnRH (100 µg as 2 mL of Factrel i.m.; Pfizer Animal Health, Madison, NJ) at insertion of an intravaginal progesterone device (Pfizer Animal Health, Madison, NJ) on day −9, an injection of prostaglandin F2α (PG; 25 mg as 5 mL of Lutalyse i.m.; Pfizer Animal Health, Madison, NJ) at device removal on day −2, and an injection of GnRH (100 µg of Factrel i.m.; Pfizer Animal Health, Madison, NJ) at time of AI on day 0. All studies had been conducted at South Dakota State University between 2004 and 2019. At time of CIDR removal, an estrus detection aid (EstroTect, Rockway Inc, Spring Valley, WI) was applied to each animal. Estrus response was recorded at time of AI based on the amount of the scratch-off coating that was removed. Animals with 50% or more of the coating removed were considered to be in estrus, and animals that were missing the estrus detection aid at time of insemination were removed from the analysis.
Dietary advanced glycation end-products elicit toxicological effects by disrupting gut microbiome and immune homeostasis
Published in Journal of Immunotoxicology, 2021
Several studies have been conducted in attempts to establish a database for AGEs. Most of the large-scale studies quantified CML levels using ELISA (Goldberg et al. 2004; Uribarri et al. 2010; Takeuchi et al. 2015) or LC-MS/MS (Hull et al. 2012; Scheijen et al. 2016). One study used ELISA to compare CML to glyceraldehyde, glucose, or fructose-derived AGEs in a total of 1650 beverages/foods commonly consumed in Japan (Takeuchi et al. 2015). Another study compared CML to two other markers of AGEs, CEL and Nδ-(5-hydro-5-methyl-4-imidazolon-2-yl)-ornithine (MG-H1), in 190 foods using LC-MS/MS (Scheijen et al. 2016). In general, foods with high AGE content include nuts, biscuits, and cooked meat (Uribarri et al. 2010; Hull et al. 2012; Scheijen et al. 2016). Heating steps, such as occur in cooking and industrial processing, dramatically increase AGE levels in food. For example, the AGE level in beef was >10-times higher after 4 min of grilling (Uribarri et al. 2010) and 5- to 10-times higher in evaporated semi-skimmed milk than in semi-skimmed milk (Scheijen et al. 2016). Kinetically, the Maillard reaction rate can be increased by 4- to 8-fold/10 °C (Kaanane and Labuza 1989). In comparison, fruits and vegetables are low in AGEs (Uribarri et al. 2010). Lastly, most beverages are low in CML, CEL, or MG-H1 (Uribarri et al. 2010; Takeuchi et al. 2015; Scheijen et al. 2016), but high in fructose- and glucose-derived AGEs (especially the latter).