Leg lameness is a prevalent welfare concern in broiler chickens, and biologically-relevant environmental enrichment designed to increase physical activity and decrease leg disorders is lacking. Therefore, a novel enrichment device was developed with the objective to motivate broilers to voluntarily move, thus improving leg health, production outcomes, and overall animal well-being. Research completed thus far has shown that the enrichment device was successful in improving performance. The work described here aims to validate that the change in these performance outcomes, particularly feed intake, was due to the enrichment itself, and to study if the device directly led to the birds to the feeder. Results show that in the first 9 days, 71% of birds went to the feeder during 4-min enrichment periods or within 5 mins following enrichment. Over weeks 1-6, 61% of birds went to the feeder during or within 5 mins after the enrichment periods. These data indicate that the environmental enrichment was successful in leading birds to the feeder and improving performance.

While chemotherapy is championed as the primary treatment for cancer patients around the world, there are adverse side effects including infertility. Specifically, the drug phosphoramide mustard (PM), a chemotherapy metabolite, was researched in this study. PM is recognized as the most genotoxic metabolite of a widely used chemotherapy drug, cyclophosphamide, and is an alkylating agent that interferes with DNA replication and depletes all ovarian follicle types, leading to infertility. PM can be metabolized to chloroethylaziridine (CEZ), a volatile compound previously reported to expire from rat lungs. Using 14-week-old lean and obese mice, levels of metabolism gene expression following intraperitoneal PM exposure were analyzed. Three days after exposure, lungs were collected, RNA extracted, and real-time PCR performed. Microsomal epoxide hydrolase (mEH), a key metabolizing enzyme, was increased (P< 0.05, 5.4-fold) with obesity, compared to the lean controls. PM-treated obese mice had increased (P< 0.05, 1.5-fold) mEH levels compared to obese, vehicle control treated mice. The results of this study could have significant implications, like compromised lung capacity or fertility, for patients or the nurses and doctors who are administering the drug, thus being exposed to CEZ as the patients metabolize the chemotherapy and expire CEZ into the air.

Swine vocalizations may provide information on behavioral states. Previous studies have reported that an increased total number of high calls (≥1000 Hz) may be an indicator of a negative state in male pigs (Kluivers-Poodt et al., 2011). However, few studies have investigated if vocalizations differ between male and female pigs. Therefore, the objective of this study was to investigate differences between barrow and gilt vocalizations during a human approach test (HAT). Twenty barrows and 20 gilts were tested over two consecutive weeks. Each pig was individually tested in an arena with an unfamiliar human for 10 minutes. Digital audio recordings of pig vocalizations during HAT were captured with a Marantz recorder. Raven software was used to produce spectrograms and manually identify vocalizations. Two call categories were developed based on published literature: low (< 0.01). These data suggest barrows and gilts differ in their vocal response to HAT.

A successful dairy farm develops individualized mastitis prevention and treatment programs using the milk quality profile of their herd. Port-Haven Dairy’s 230 Brown Swiss milking cow herd’s monthly DHIA somatic cell count data was used to select cows requiring milk sampling. Each quarter of selected cows and cows with clinical mastitis were sampled following a CMT paddle test. Milk samples were cultured and organisms that grew were identified visually and with subsequent tests. A composite sample was also cultured from each fresh cow to test for mycoplasma organisms. Eight positive staphylococcus aureus cows and zero positive mycoplasma cows were found. Two trials of sampling determined that the prevalent mastitis organisms in the herd included environmental streptococcus and skin staphylococcus. Using antibiotic sensitivity results, a treatment program was established for the Staphylococcus aureus cows using Pirsue. The predominant environmental organisms lead to the examination of milking procedures, the barn environment, and teat end callouses. These results directed the formation of immediate herd goals including eliminating mycoplasma threats and keeping the bulk tank somatic cell count below 300,000. Increasing the square footage per cow in each barn to decrease environmental organisms and somatic cell count stands as a long term goal.

The enteric nervous system (ENS) consists of neurons and glia that control motility, secretions, and blood flow within the gastrointestinal tract. Using the zebrafish, Danio rerio, as a model we aim to understand ENS development and how this process might go array in disorders such as Hirschsprung’s, in which children are born lacking neurons in portions of their gastrointestinal tract. The number of markers for enteric glia is relatively small and many of the current immunohistochemical approaches are confounded by the uncertainty of cross-reactivity patterns between species. In preliminary experiments using established glia markers, we obtained unexpected results identifying glia in mutants lacking the ENS, suggesting a lack of glia marker specificity, or the presence of an uncharacterized subpopulation of glia in our mutants. To distinguish between these possibilities, we have cloned other markers to examine glia populations in normal larvae and larvae with defects in ENS development.

Bovine Respiratory Disease is a multifactorial syndrome, which negatively impacts performance and welfare among cattle. BRD is associated with viral and bacterial pathogens; but other causal factors include management techniques and environmental stresses. Low stress handling methods use the natural behavior and innate responses of cattle to minimize negative consequences potentially associated with handler interactions. Acclimation methods familiarize cattle with their environment and, therefore, decrease stress. It was hypothesized that cattle that were acclimated and handled with LSCH techniques would vocalize less and display calmer behavior in a squeeze chute compared to cattle that had not been acclimated and had been handled conventionally. Cattle were assigned to one of two treatments by pen, five control pens and five LSCH pens. Video was recorded, then scored using an ethogram for frequency of vocalizations, chute behavior, exit behavior and whether a calf fell upon exiting. There was no observed difference in vocalization frequencies between control and LSCH (2.04±0.27 and 2.63±-0.47, respectively; p=0.37), nor observed difference in chute scores (p=0.10), exit scores (p=0.39), and probability of falling upon exit (p=0.25). Our results demonstrated no observed effect of acclimation or LSCH on chute behaviors on Day 3 after arrival at the feedlot.

A comparative study of the CowManager tag versus visual observations was conducted to measure the efficacy of cow behavior measuring technologies. The study used 30 Angus cross beef steers grouped into pens of 6. The steers were monitored once a week every other week for a total of 6 days. Each observation period was within 4 hours from the hours of 7am to 11am using the scanning method at an interval of 5 minutes. The behaviors that were monitored by the observer and CowManager technology included time spent ruminating, eating, and being active. Each behavior time was put on an hour time scale and compared. After SAS analysis there was no statistical difference in the time spent ruminating when using observational methods versus those that the CowManager reported. However, there was a statistical difference in time spent eating when comparing observational and CowManager data. The CowManager data appeared to under report the amount of time spent eating. These results indicate that CowManager tags can accurately measure rumination time but are unable to accurately measure feeding time when used in beef cattle production systems. This is significant for beef cattle research and industries looking to use this technology.

During scheduled times throughout the day, zookeepers will give educational presentations. It is important to allow animals to engage in natural behaviors. The objectives of this project were to (a) construct a wagon and (b) to ascertain if the wagon allowed for normal porcupine behaviors to be expressed during formal presentations at the Omaha Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium. A wagon was designed and built, that took approximately 53 hours with two persons. To test the wagon’s effectiveness one North American Porcupine (7.3 kg) was used. Baseline: The porcupine spent ~76% of her time either on the stage or the floor within the Pavilion, spent ~43% eating and ~20% target training. Habituation: With the wagon, floor time decreased (~16%), time on the wagon was ~77% and target training was ~14%. Public: Wagon time was ~79%, stage/floor time decreased to ~19% and target training was ~9%. The porcupine’s eating time also increased from ~43% (baseline) to ~59% (public). In conclusion, the construction of the wagon was successful and it provided her enrichment allowing her to exhibit her natural behaviors in front of the general public.

Increasing feed efficiency in dairy cattle leads to increased profitability. Feed efficiency in dairy cattle represents the balance between milk production and feed intake. It is desirable if a dairy cow can make more milk with less feed input. There is concern, however, that selecting for a more feed efficient cow might lead to cows that suffer extreme body tissue loss to meet the demands of increased milk production. To research this concern, the relationships between body condition score (BCS) observed during the last 130 days of first lactation and the first 45 days of second lactation and two measures of feed efficiency, residual feed intake (RFI) and gross efficiency (GE), measured during mid-lactation were assessed in 98 first lactation Holstein cows to. Residual feed intake was defined as the difference between the amount of feed an animal is expected to eat and how much they actually consume. No significant differences in BCS at 2nd lactation calving, at approximately 40 days in milk (dim), nor in BCS loss during the first 25 and first 45 dim were observed between the 10 most feed efficient and 10 most feed inefficient cows when either RFI or GE was used as the measure of feed efficiency. Our findings suggest that selection based on RFI as a measure of feed efficiency during mid-lactation should not impact change in BCS during early second lactation.

Study objectives were to determine a magnitude of feed restriction which causes “leaky gut” and characterize its temporal consequences on production and blood parameters. Twenty-three lactating Holstein cows (157 ± 46 DIM; 713 ± 54 kg BW; parity 2-4) were enrolled in two experimental periods. Period 1 lasted 5 d and served as baseline for period 2 (P2), which lasted 5 d during which cows received one of five dietary treatments: 100% of ad libitum feed intake (AL; n=3), 80% of ad libitum feed intake (AL80; n=5), 60% of ad libitum feed intake (n=5), 40% of ad libitum feed intake (AL40; n=5), or 20% of ad libitum feed intake (n=5). As feed restriction increased, milk yield and milk urea nitrogen, lactose, and other solids decreased linearly (P