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Abstract We examine how workers’ expectations about pension reform vary with proximity to reforms, information availability and worker characteristics. Using newly collected data, we find that (1) expectations about reform are revised upward by about 10 percentage points in the year prior to a reform, from a median of 50%, regardless of whether the reform is announced; (2) expectations increase more the stronger the media activity about imminent reforms; (3) the effect of information on expectations varies systematically with characteristics that proxy cognitive ability and information value; (4) expectations do not converge as a result of reform announcements or implementations.

Local adaptation of animals to the environment can abruptly become a burden when faced with rapid climatic changes such as those foreseen for the Italian peninsula over the next 70 years. Our study investigates the genetic structure of the Italian goat populations and links it with the environment and how genetics might evolve over the next 50 years. We used one of the largest national datasets including > 1000 goats from 33 populations across the Italian peninsula collected by the Italian Goat Consortium and genotyped with over 50 k markers. Our results showed that Italian goats can be discriminated in three groups reflective of the Italian geography and its geo-political situation preceding the country unification around two centuries ago. We leveraged the remarkable genetic and geographical diversity of the Italian goat populations and performed landscape genomics analysis to disentangle the relationship between genotype and environment, finding 64 SNPs intercepting genomic regions linked to growth, circadian rhythm, fertility, and inflammatory response. Lastly, we calculated the hypothetical future genotypic frequencies of the most relevant SNPs identified through landscape genomics to evaluate their long-term effect on the genetic structure of the Italian goat populations. Our results provide an insight into the past and the future of the Italian local goat populations, helping the institutions in defining new conservation strategy plans that could preserve their diversity and their link to local realities challenged by climate change

Background: During the Neolithic expansion, cattle accompanied humans and spread from their domestication centres to colonize the ancient world. In addition, European cattle occasionally intermingled with both indicine cattle and local aurochs resulting in an exclusive pattern of genetic diversity. Among the most ancient European cattle are breeds that belong to the so-called Podolian trunk, the history of which is still not well established. Here, we used genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data on 806 individuals belonging to 36 breeds to reconstruct the origin and diversification of Podolian cattle and to provide a reliable scenario of the European colonization, through an approximate Bayesian computation random forest (ABC-RF) approach. Results: Our results indicate that European Podolian cattle display higher values of genetic diversity indices than both African taurine and Asian indicine breeds. Clustering analyses show that Podolian breeds share close genomic relationships, which suggests a likely common genetic ancestry. Among the simulated and tested scenarios of the colonization of Europe from taurine cattle, the greatest support was obtained for the model assuming at least two waves of diffusion. Time estimates are in line with an early migration from the domestication centre of non-Podolian taurine breeds followed by a secondary migration of Podolian breeds. The best fitting model also suggests that the Italian Podolian breeds are the result of admixture between different genomic pools. Conclusions: This comprehensive dataset that includes most of the autochthonous cattle breeds belonging to the so-called Podolian trunk allowed us not only to shed light onto the origin and diversification of this group of cattle, but also to gain new insights into the diffusion of European cattle. The most well-supported scenario of colonization points to two main waves of migrations: with one that occurred alongside with the Neolithic human expansion a

Conservation and sustainable management of local animal genetic resources and their diversity are priority tasks within a national and international framework. Officially listed as a threatened native breed, Canarian camels (Camelus dromedarius) are marginally reduced to the eastern islands of the archipelago and mainly used in touristic activities; sporadically, these animals are used for production of food and other products. Morphostructural and zoometric characterization of Canarian camel will lead to the identification of those genetic-based characters or features involved in productive functional activities. The present methodological proposal is framed into a context of opportunity and resurgence of a potential production industry throughout the establishment of the baselines for a sustainable selective breeding program in this livestock species., La conservación, mejora y uso racional de los recursos genéticos animales locales y su diversidad son propósitos prioritarios a nivel nacional e internacional de evidente carácter legítimo. Reconocida en situación de amenaza, la raza camellar canaria (Camelus dromedarius) se encuentra marginalmente reducida a las islas orientales del archipiélago. Su uso queda restringido fundamentalmente a la explotación turística y, de forma esporádica, a labores variadas en el ámbito agropecuario. La caracterización morfoestructural y zoométrica del camello canario es una tarea clave que permitirá la identificación de aquellos caracteres o rasgos fenotípicos implicados en la actividad productivo-económica de estos animales con el fin de recuperar posibles nuevos nichos funcionales. La presente propuesta metodológica se enmarca en un contexto de oportunidad y resurgimiento de una potencial industria de producción con el asentamiento de las bases para un programa de recuperación y cría selectiva de esta raza camellar a través de su sustentabilidad funcional.

Anatomical and locomotive understanding of natural gaits in camels is an essential tool for its kinetic and kinematic evaluation as they constitute elements of marked predictability for functional performance, energy expenditure and training response. Biomechanics evaluation, complemented with applied thermography analysis, makes possible the precise delimitation for those risk factors potentially associated with musculoskeletal injuries derived from the physical work these animals do, mainly classified as multifactorial etiology pathologies. Speed competitions, recreational exhibitions or tourist walks are some of the motor activities carried out by camels, being outlined by strong cultural roots in specific geographical regions. In particular, Canarian camel breed (Camelus dromedarius) is marginally relegated for touristic activities. As an autochthonous endangered breed, the systematized adjustment of locomotor performance records will enrich the viability and sustainability of its conservation programmes, selective breeding and functional revaluation actions., La comprensión anatómica y locomotora de los aires naturales del camello es un elemento esencial para su evaluación cinética y cinemática en tanto que constituyen herramientas de marcada predictibilidad del rendimiento funcional, gasto energético y respuesta al entrenamiento. El estudio biomecánico, en asociación con evaluaciones termográficas complementarias, permite la delimitación precisa de los factores de riesgo potencialmente asociados a lesiones músculo-esqueléticas derivadas del trabajo físico desarrollado por estos animales y en consideración de patologías de etiología multifactorial en la mayor parte de los casos. Competiciones de velocidad, exhibiciones lúdicas o paseos turísticos son algunas de las actividades motoras desempeñadas por camellos y que, en regiones geográficas concretas, se encuentran perfiladas por un marcado arraigo cultural. En el caso particular del camello canario (Camelus dromedarius), su uso actual está marginalmente relegado al sector turístico. En condición de raza autóctona amenazada, el ajuste sistematizado de registros de rendimiento locomotor enriquecerá la viabilidad y sostenibilidad de las acciones de conservación, cría selectiva y revalorización funcional de esta raza camellar.

Growing interests in the application of behavioral sciences to animal production has enabled the progressive development of techniques for the improvement of handling practices aiming to reach high productive yields in a sustainable framework. Selective and differential reproduction for specific and desirable behavioral traits in the Canarian camel breed (Camelus dromedarius), after ethofuncional characterization, can be applied to achieve an increase in the adaptive value of the animals to the pressures of the livestock production systems in which they are reared. This initiative is part of a strategic plan for the conservation, improvement and promotion of an autochthonous endangered breed through alternative ways of profitable and sustainable use of the breed and its products. The qualification of the human team involved, as well as the mechanical optimization of the camel rearing systems, are pivotal objectives in applied ethology., El interés creciente en la aplicación de las ciencias del comportamiento a la producción animal ha posibilitado el desarrollo progresivo de técnicas para el mejoramiento y ajuste de los sistemas de manejo con vistas a obtener rendimientos productivos elevados en el marco de la sostenibilidad. La reproducción selectiva y diferencial para rasgos conductuales específicos y deseables en la raza camellar canaria (Camelus dromedarius), previa caracterización etofuncional, puede aplicarse a lograr un incremento del valor adaptativo de los animales a las presiones de los sistemas de producción pecuaria en que se encuentran. Esta iniciativa se enmarca en un plan estratégico de conservación, mejora y fomento de una raza autóctona amenazada a través de vías alternativas de rentabilidad y utilización sostenibles de la raza y sus productos. La cualificación del equipo humano implicado, así como la optimización técnica y mecánica de las infraestructuras en los sistemas de producción camellar, se convierten en objetivos de consideración prioritaria en etología aplicada.

Background: In the Neolithic, domestic sheep migrated into Europe and subsequently spread in westerly and northwesterly directions. Reconstruction of these migrations and subsequent genetic events requires a more detailed characterization of the current phylogeographic differentiation. Results: We collected 50 K single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) profiles of Balkan sheep that are currently found near the major Neolithic point of entry into Europe, and combined these data with published genotypes from southwest-Asian, Mediterranean, central-European and north-European sheep and from Asian and European mouflons. We detected clines, ancestral components and admixture by using variants of common analysis tools: geography-informative supervised principal component analysis (PCA), breed-specific admixture analysis, across-breed $f_{4}$ f 4 profiles and phylogenetic analysis of regional pools of breeds. The regional Balkan sheep populations exhibit considerable genetic overlap, but are clearly distinct from the breeds in surrounding regions. The Asian mouflon did not influence the differentiation of the European domestic sheep and is only distantly related to present-day sheep, including those from Iran where the mouflons were sampled. We demonstrate the occurrence, from southeast to northwest Europe, of a continuously increasing ancestral component of up to 20% contributed by the European mouflon, which is assumed to descend from the original Neolithic domesticates. The overall patterns indicate that the Balkan region and Italy served as post-domestication migration hubs, from which wool sheep reached Spain and north Italy with subsequent migrations northwards. The documented dispersal of Tarentine wool sheep during the Roman period may have been part of this process. Our results also reproduce the documented 18th century admixture of Spanish Merino sheep into several central-European breeds. Conclusions: Our results contribute to a better understanding of the events th