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Simple Summary: Female calves are the future, in terms of production, in every Holstein herd. Therefore, optimum rearing enhances productivity. Rearing dairy heifers involves important aspects of their early life that can affect their future efficiency. One of these key issues is nutrition management. Appropriate nutrition management impacts genetic performance, calf growth, and future productive and reproductive outcomes, as has been previously demonstrated in the literature. Traditionally, the recommended feeding strategies for dairy calves stipulate two daily milk replacement meals in a restricted diet. However, studies regarding feeding times point out different results in terms of efficiency, growth, and health in Holstein calves. We studied the effect of increasing feeding times (three instead of two per day) but with the same amount of milk replacer daily. Moreover, we included a supplementation of calcium gluconate to study its impact on growth, health, and productive and reproductive indexes in calves. We aimed to enhance welfare and digestive health early in life, expecting to induce positive medium- and long-term effects in the heifers. In fact, we observed a “catch-up” in the growth of calves since weaning, where supplementation with calcium gluconate appeared to reduce animal metabolic stress. We indeed observed a decreasing trend in the number of artificial inseminations per pregnancy, by 0.2 points, in heifers fed with milk replacer thrice daily. Finally, we confirmed significant correlations between early health and growth and reproductive efficiency. Although the medium- and long-term effects of these novel strategies were relatively weak, these management schemes seem to be promising for heifer rearing., We compared the effects of milk-feeding in 288 Holstein calves (72 per group) which were fed twice (2F) or thrice (3F) daily, with or without the addition of hydrogenated fat-embedded calcium gluconate (G) supplemented in the starter food and in the daily diet up to the age of 9 months, on the calves’ metabolism, growth, health, and reproductive efficiency up to first pregnancy. The calves received 6 L of milk replacer (130 g/L) and had ad libitum access to water and textured calf starter with or without gluconate. Gluconate supplementation promoted a “catch-up” in growth in supplemented calves compared to their counterparts that did not receive gluconate. Gluconate appeared to reduce animal metabolic stress during key events, such as weaning and transfer into open-door pens, reducing fructosamine (352.61 vs. 303.06 in 3FG and 3F, respectively; p = 0.028) and urea (3F revealed the highest values compared with the other three groups: 19.06 for 3F vs. 13.9 (2F), 13.7 (2FG), and 14.3 (3FG), respectively, p = 0.002) from weaning onwards. The feeding of dairy calves with milk replacer three rather than two times per day tended to be associated with better health from weaning to 4 months old; parameters such as ultrasound lung score and calf health score improved over time (p < 0.001). Thrice-daily feeding with milk replacer tended to reduce the number of artificial inseminations per pregnancy in heifers by 0.2 points (p = 0.092). We confirmed significant correlations between early health and growth parameters and reproductive efficiency and a positive correlation between body weight and average daily weight gain and the thickness of the back fat layer in young heifers (r = 0.245; p < 0.0001; r = 0.214; p < 0.0001 respectively). Our study was conducted on a commercial farm with reasonably effective animal management, so baseline welfare was likely satisfactory. more...

Climate change is primarily caused by greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that result in warming of the atmosphere. Around 15% of all global GHG emissions are attributed to livestock production. Here, we present an overview of the Horizon Europe project Re-Livestock – Facilitating innovations for resilient livestock farming systems. Re-Livestock is a five-year project (2022-2027) with the overall objective to increase the resilience of the livestock sector. This will be achieved by understanding and mobilizing adoption of innovative practices, which are applied cross-scale on animal, herd and farm, sector and region levels, to reduce GHG emissions of livestock farming and adaptation to climate change effects, mainly heat stress. Re-Livestock proposes a holistic approach based on the Re-Concept: Re-Evaluation of feeding inputs and nutrient cycling, Re-Exploring animals’ adaptive capacity to integrate mitigation and adaptation and Re-Design of livestock systems. Specifically, Re-Livestock will evaluate low carbon footprint feed materials, the role of grasslands in low carbon livestock production and the use of feed supplements to suppress enteric methane. Animal breeding has been shown to be a permanent, cumulative and cost-effective GHG mitigation strategy In Re-Livestock we will demonstrate the potential of animal breeding in climate change mitigation and design breeding strategies that reduce GHG emission. We will collaborate across countries and examine if individual methane emission of cattle recorded with different devices and in different countries is genetically the same or different traits. We will further investigate the usefulness of the rumen microbiome as predictor of individual methane emission in cattle across countries and develop novel models to determine the genetic architecture of methane emission in cattle. System specific on-farm level husbandry practices to reduce GHG emission will be evaluated by re-defining housing and management strategies, promoti more...

Climate change will bring about plethora of challenges to how we farm, creating a need to adapt our practices to shield ourselves from extreme weather, supply chain shocks, increasing temperatures and more. Here, we present an overview of the Horizon Europe project Re-Livestock – Facilitating innovations for resilient livestock farming systems. Re-Livestock is a five-year project (2022-2027) with the overriding objective to increase the overall resilience of the livestock sector. This will be achieved by understanding and mobilizing adoption of innovative practices, to reduce GHG emissions and increase adaptive capacity in livestock farming, to increase the overall resilience of the sector. Specifically, Re-Livestock will identify and evaluate low carbon footprint feed materials, the role of grasslands in low carbon livestock production and the use of feed supplements to suppress enteric methane. In Re-Livestock we will also investigate the role of breeding in increasing sustainability and resilience. We will investigate the potential for certain cattle breeds to mitigate GHGs through reduced enteric methane, as well as the potential for cross-breeding, and dual-purpose (beef and dairy) systems to bring about wider environmental and social benefits. We will also assess the role of sustainable management approaches such as agroforestry, and compost bed systems to increase resilience. Innovative holistic farm-level environmental and socio-economic assessment tools to enhance the adoption of strategies by farmers will be applied. Additionally, Life Cycle Assessment and a suite of models will be applied to explore the impacts of re-designed European livestock production systems. This poster will give an overview of the objectives of Re-Livestock and how the project will increase sustainability and resilience in livestock systems. Re-Livestock receives funding from the European Union under Grant Agreement No. 101059609. more...

Aims: We aim to present data obtained from three patients belonging to three unrelated families with an infantile onset demyelinating neuropathy associated to somatic and neurodevelopmental delay and to describe the underlying genetic changes. Methods: We performed whole-exome sequencing on genomic DNA from the patients and their parents and reviewed the clinical, muscle and nerve data, the serial neurophysiological studies, brain and muscle MRIs, as well as the respiratory chain complex activity in the muscle of the three index patients. Computer modelling was used to characterise the new missense variant detected. Results: All three patients had a short stature, delayed motor milestone acquisition, intellectual disability and cerebellar abnormalities associated with a severe demyelinating neuropathy, with distinct morphological features. Despite the proliferation of giant mitochondria, the mitochondrial respiratory chain complex activity in skeletal muscle was normal, except in one patient in whom there was a mild decrease in complex I enzyme activity. All three patients carried the same two compound heterozygous variants of the TRMT5 (tRNA Methyltransferase 5) gene, one known pathogenic frameshift mutation [c.312_315del (p.Ile105Serfs*4)] and a second rare missense change [c.665 T > C (p.Ile222Thr)]. TRMT5 is a nuclear-encoded protein involved in the post-transcriptional maturation of mitochondrial tRNA. Computer modelling of the human TRMT5 protein structure suggests that the rare p.Ile222Thr mutation could affect the stability of tRNA binding. Conclusions: Our study expands the phenotype of mitochondrial disorders caused by TRTM5 mutations and defines a new form of recessive demyelinating peripheral neuropathy. more...

Application of manure (urine and/or feces) to agricultural soils enhances emissions of gases such as nitrous oxide (N2O) and carbón dioxide (CO2). Some minor N compounds such as hippuric acid and benzoic acid present in urine can be controlled through diet manipulation to mitigate these emissions. The aim of this study was to evaluate how the inclusion of fibrous by-products in the diet of pigs affects hippuric and benzoic acid concentrations in the excreted urine/slurry, and their possible effect on N2O emissions following application of these manures to soil. Slurries were obtained from growing-finishing pigs fed five contrasting diets: a conventional diet (pig slurry control, PSC); and orange pulp and carob meal at a dietary fiber level of 75 or 150 g kg?1 (OP-75; OP-150; CM-75; CM-150) and were then applied to mesocosms containing young ryegrass plants. A control treatment without slurry was also included. The N2O and CO2 emissions were measured using static chambers following slurry application, alongside measurements of soil ammonium (NH4+), nitrate (NO3?), and dissolved organic carbon. Soils amended with slurries obtained from fibre by-products, OP and CM, decreased N2O emissions by 65 and 47%, respectively, compared with slurries obtained through a conventional pig diet. Benzoic acid was negatively correlated with N2O emission for slurries from OP diets, which had over double the hippuric acid content, and more than 1.8 times the benzoic acid content than the CM. However, this effect only occurred during the first week due to rapid degradation of this compound within soil. The possible toxic effect of benzoic acid did not appear to affect soil respiration, since a positive correlation was found. Results of a benzoic acid balance (considering both intake through feed and release through urine) indicated that the source of both acids were phenolic compounds (polyphenolic or lignin) present in the fibrous fraction. These results show that N2O emissions are more more...