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Study on the rapid decline in groundwater levels

Written by c001os on . Posted in Nutrinfo.

Groundwater levels across the world have shown widespread and “accelerated” decline over the past 40 years, driven by unsustainable irrigation practices as well as climate change, according to a study published at the end of January.

Groundwater is a major source of fresh water for farms, households and industries, and depletion could pose severe economic and environmental threats, including falling crop yields and destructive land subsidence, particularly in coastal areas, said the study, published in the Nature scientific journal.

“One of the most likely major driving forces behind rapid and accelerating groundwater decline is the excessive withdrawal of groundwater for irrigated agriculture in dry climates,” said Scott Jasechko from the University of California, Santa Barbara, one of the paper’s co-authors.

But drought, driven by climate change, was also having an impact, with farmers likely to pump out more groundwater to ensure their crops are irrigated, he said.

Depletion has been particularly pronounced in arid climates with extensive croplands, said the study, which analysed 170,000 wells in more than 40 countries. Northern China, Iran and the western United States were among the worst-hit regions.

More than a third of the 1,693 aquifer systems – bodies of porous rock or sediment holding groundwater- monitored by the study fell by at least 0.1 m per year from 2000 to 2022, with 12% seeing annual declines of more than 0.5 m. Some of the worst hit aquifers in Spain, Iran, China and the United States fell by more than 2 m per year over the period. In around 30% of the aquifers studied, the depletion rate has accelerated since 2000.

Some aquifers did improve over the period, in part as a result of local measures aimed at restricting how much water can be pumped out. Aquifers can also be replenished with water diverted from elsewhere. However, such recoveries were “relatively rare” and much more work still needed to be done, Jasechko said.

The situation of the global synthetic milk market

Written by c001os on . Posted in Cattle, Nutrinfo.

Food-tech start-ups are using precision fermentation technologies for another alternative to cow’s milk. This segment’s future remains vague as conservative consumers are not likely to quickly embrace synthetic products. While lab-grown meat has already been around for some time, lab-grown dairy is something consumers do not frequently hear about.

“Synthetic milk is still a somewhat emerging industry, with many start-ups in their research and development phase. However, some companies are leading the way with products already in the market,” comments Milena Bojovic, a PhD candidate at Macquarie University, Australia. She pointed to the US-based company Perfect Day as one of the examples of a start-up working in this field.

‘We’re changing the process, not the food’ – this is Perfect Day’s slogan, reflecting the key feature of precise fermentation technologies. Ultimately, it will showcase products indistinguishable from cow’s milk. The milk from bioreactors will have the same taste, appearance, mouthfeel and good nutritional value.

Milk obtained through precision fermentation, referred to as ‘synthetic milk’, is environmentally friendly. “Because this novel form of animal protein can be produced without a cow, there is a significant opportunity to reduce methane and carbon emissions, water pollution, land use and animal welfare concerns,” Bojovic explains.

While the short and mid-term outlook of the synthetic milk segment is not yet clear, analysts express confidence that the products obtained through precise fermentation will gain a foothold on the market in due course. As precision fermentation technologies are becoming more advanced, synthetic milk is expected to become more affordable over time. One of the start-ups, Australia-based All G Foods, has rolled out plans to make its synthetic milk cheaper than cow’s milk in the short term. “Novel proteins like synthetic milk offer another pathway to increase sustainable food production.” Bojovic added.

Meat production in Germany falls significantly again

Written by c001os on . Posted in Nutrinfo, Pig.

As the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) reports, according to preliminary results, commercial slaughterhouses produced 6.8 million tons of meat in 2023. That was 4.0% or 280,200 tons less than in the previous year. This means that domestic meat production has fallen for the seventh year in a row since its peak in 2016 (8.25 million tonnes). After comparatively slight declines from 2017, meat production fell by 8.1% in 2022 compared to the previous year, and now meat production fell again significantly in 2023. A total of 47.9 million pigs, cattle, sheep, goats and horses as well as 702.2 million chickens, turkeys and ducks were slaughtered in slaughterhouses in 2023.

With 43.8 million animals slaughtered in 2023, the number of pigs slaughtered fell by 7.0% or 3.3 million compared to the previous year. The number of pigs of domestic origin slaughtered fell by 7.7% to almost 42.3 million animals. The number of imported pigs slaughtered in German slaughterhouses, however, rose by 19.5% to 1.5 million animals. In total, slaughterhouses produced around 4.2 million tons of pork in 2023. That was 6.8% or 306,500 tons less than in 2022. Compared to the record year of 2016, around 1.4 million tonnes less pork were produced in 2023, which corresponds to a decline of over a quarter (-25.1%).

Dairy development plans in Kazakhstan: ambitious or unrealistic?

Written by c001os on . Posted in Cattle, Nutrinfo.

Kazakhstan has rolled out plans to boost the dairy herd by 100,000 and milk production by 725,000 tonnes in the next 4 years. Some market players have expressed skepticism that all projects will eventually see the light. The growth should primarily be fueled by government loans with subsidised interest rates for the construction and modernisation of milk farms and dairy processing infrastructure. In 2023, plans to build 81 milk farms and 17 dairy processing plants were made public in Kazakhstan, many of them with state aid, local news outlet The DairyNews Central Asia estimated. It is yet to be seen, however, whether all these projects will be implemented.

Mikhail Mishenko, director of the Dairy Intelligence Agency, a Moscow-based think tank, expressed doubts that the released figures are realistic. “Frankly speaking, I don’t fully believe that these figures will be achieved given that the official sector in Kazakhstan, according to our estimates, produces 1.9 million tonnes of milk [per year],” Mishenko said, adding that some growth is possible due to a low-base effect.

Daniyar Abitaev, deputy general director of the local dairy firm OAHK, said that only 10% of the announced projects would be implemented. He cited the labour shortage, and primarily a deficit of highly-skilled personnel, as the main constraint for the new dairy projects in Kazakhstan. It will be challenging for Kazakhstan to purchase 100,000 heads of cattle, especially highly productive animals, in a relatively short period, Mishenko said. Moreover, it will take around 10 years to repay investments in the dairy industry, Abitaev said. As a result, investors typically are reluctant to jump into big projects in the dairy sector.

In addition, Mishenko voiced concerns that the disclosed plans say nothing about animal feed. A lack of feed in some cases could heavily weigh on the expansion plans. Besides, Kazakhstan has insufficient processing capacities to deal with 725,000 tonnes of milk, Mishenko said, emphasising that the planned 17 factories will not make a difference.

Over the past few years, the Kazakh authorities and business organisations have shared ambitious goals of ramping up aquaculture and beef production and exports. However, in neither industry have the declared plans led to an actual rise in production performance.

Epidemiological model helps prevent the spread of Aujeszky’s disease in pigs

Written by c001os on . Posted in Nutrinfo, Pig.

Infectious diseases are among the factors that most limit the efficiency of livestock production, since its appearance entails losses associated with increased mortality, a decrease in the feed transformation index, increased veterinary costs and the loss of value of infected carcasses. 

A good example of this can be found in the pork sector, which currently provides the most widely consumed red meat worldwide, and in the health and economic risk that the Aujeszky’s disease, one of the most important swine virus diseases. In Spain, Aujeszky’s disease has been eradicated in domestic pigs, but it is present in wild boar, which carries a significant risk of reinfection of the domestic swine herd. The direct economic losses associated with an outbreak of Aujeszky’s disease for a pig farm free of the disease could be between €350 and €800 per adult female per year.

A new epidemiological model, developed by researchers from the University of Lleida and the Instituto de Investigación en Recursos Cinegéticos (IREC), has revealed the effects of combining management practices and vaccination on the control of Aujeszky’s disease in a standard pig production system under different epidemiological scenarios. It is a computational model of population dynamics (known as the “PDP model” for its acronym in English: Population Dynamics P systems), a novel tool that is especially suitable for studying complex dynamic problems efficiently, since it allows to simultaneously consider a large number of interactions between different processes.

The model results indicate that, once a diagnosis of infection is confirmed on a farm, early vaccination of the majority of the population (we are talking about more than 75%) is critical to reduce the spread of the virus and minimize its impact on pig productivity. For their part, management practices seem to have an insignificant effect on virus control, which could be associated with its great ease of spread.

Peroxide found most effective in hatching egg sanitation

Written by c001os on . Posted in Nutrinfo, Poultry.

Peroxide was found as the most effective egg wash sanitizer to both remove Salmonella from the shell’s surface and to keep the cuticle intact in a recent research study. “Salmonella is frequently found on hatch eggs even after they go through the sanitation process,” said Ted Brown, Cargill Global Food Safety & Scientific Services, at the 2024 International Production and Processing Expo. “So, we conducted research to find a sanitizer that is effective at reducing Salmonella on hatch eggs without damaging the cuticle.”

The study evaluated how multiple egg wash sanitizers, including thymol, peracetic acid (PAA), bromine, peroxide and quaternary ammonium, reduced Salmonella levels on the surface of inoculated eggs, without damaging the egg cuticles, when compared to an unwashed treatment. Specifically, the peroxide product was the most effective egg sanitizer, reducing Salmonella prevalence on the egg surface by over 73%. The thymol product was the least effective sanitizer and only reduced Salmonella prevalence by less than 5%.

Brown explained that the project was conducted to update producers on new and current egg wash processes. Currently, chlorine is the primary sanitizer used by breeders for egg sanitation in the processing plant, explained Brown. However, chlorine dissociates quickly in the presence of organic loads, can be corrosive to equipment and requires strict management to use effectively.

In the future, Brown said that he hopes to conduct an additional study to ensure that the hatch rate is not negatively affected by the sanitizers.

Better pig performance with seaweed polysaccharides

Written by c001os on . Posted in Nutrinfo, Pig.

A team of Chinese researchers supported by a US-based researcher investigated whether weaner pigs are provided with polysaccharides from a Japanese seaweed known as “kombu” or Laminaria japonica. The team published about their findings in the Journal of Veterinary Sciences in a research article published in December 2023. They investigated the effects of adding L. japonica polysaccharides to the diet on growth performance, faecal digestive enzyme activity, serum biochemical indices, and free amino acids in weaned piglets. The team looked into these kombu polysaccharides as they are comprised of a combination of different sugar residues. Those compounds exhibit a variety of beneficial biological functions.

The research team selected 120 healthy barrows for this study, which lasted 21 days. They assigned all piglets randomly assigned to 4 treatments according to the initial body weight. The team supplemented each concentration of L. japonica polysaccharides (0, 100, 200, or 400 mg/kg) to the basal diet. The research team computed average daily gain (ADG), average daily feed intake (ADFI) and gain-to-feed ratio (G:F). At the end of the experiment, a single piglet from each pen, with a body weight closely aligned with the pen’s average, was selected, and the team obtained blood as well as faecal samples.

The results showed that polysaccharide supplementation at dosages of 200 and 400 mg/kg showed a significant enhancement in the ADG and ADFI of weaners during days 0-21.  Better growth performance was due to the improved digestive enzyme activities in the faeces and increased appetite and energy absorption of piglets. Polysaccharide supplementation at dosages of 200 and 400 mg/kg significantly increased the faecal amylase activity of piglets, due to the polysaccharide’s prebiotic activity, which promotes starch digestion and absorption. In addition, the polysaccharides linearly increased faecal amylase and lipase activities.

Regarding amino acid content in serum in the 400 mg/kg group increased levels of histidine and asparagine were observed in piglets due to increased protein digestion and absorption. In addition, polysaccharide supplementation at a dosage of 200 mg/kg reduced serum methionine and phenylalanine contents compared to piglets supplied the polysaccharides at a dosage of 100 mg/kg. At all levels (100, 200 and 400 mg/kg), polysaccharide supplementation did not impact the serum levels of e.g. glucose, total cholesterol and ammonia of weaned piglets. That is probably due to the short experimental period.

The authors concluded that supplementation of 200 and 400 mg/kg of L. japonica polysaccharides to the feed could increase growth performance and the amylase activity in the faeces of weaned piglets. They expect this to improve the nutrient metabolism ability of weaned piglets.

Calls for EU lawmakers to ban cages for layers

Written by c001os on . Posted in Nutrinfo, Poultry.

Calls for the European Union to deliver on its promised ban on the use of cages for farmed animals have been made by animal welfare charity Compassion in World Farming in its latest EggTrack 2023 report. The report shows that food companies are focused on providing a cage-free life for egg-laying hens, despite the ongoing challenges posed by avian influenza, inflation and the war in Ukraine. But it says that without their actions being reinforced by legislators, there will not be a final eradication of cages.

Such legislation, it argues, would broadly reflect consumer attitudes, pointing to the 1.4 million EU citizens that signed the ‘End the Cage Age’ initiative in 2020 and the 2023 Eurobarometer report which found that 91% of European believe that protecting the welfare of farmed animals is important and 84% saying animals should be better protected than they are currently.

During the year, 444 companies were monitored by Egg Track. Between them they have made 715 cage-free commitments of which 511 (71%) are reporting progress, with an average of 75% transition to cage-free eggs. They straddle all sectors: 51 manufacturers, 195 retailers and meal kit providers, 111 restaurants, 13 producers and 74 food service and hospitality companies are represented.

Figures differ across the globe. The highest average transition to cage-free eggs in Europe was 80%, while in the US it was 73% and in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region the figure was 57%. A total of 9 companies made new global cage-free commitments.

As regards legislation, France has banned the installation of new cages and all cage systems for hens are already banned in Austria, Luxembourg and Switzerland. Germany, the Czech Republic and Slovakia have enacted bans that will come into force in the coming years. The US is also making strides with bans on battery cages across 11 different states.

Role of three key molecules identified in the immune system of pigs against PRRSV

Written by c001os on . Posted in Nutrinfo, Pig.

The porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) is one of the most dangerous pathogens for the swine sector. In addition to affecting the reproductive system in breeding sows and the respiratory tract in young animals, it is usually associated with other secondary diseases, which is why it has become the health problem that generates the most economic losses in the swine industry worldwide.

In their research on PRRSV, researchers from the University of Córdoba (UCO) in Spain investigated the role of so-called ‘transcription factors’, which are molecules responsible for the differentiation of cells of the immune system, and concludes that three of these molecules are expressed with greater intensity in the most virulent strains of the pathogen.

The UCO research team led by Librado Carrasco has managed to identify the role of three key molecules in the immune defense against this pathogen in three target organs of the pig: the lung, thymus and tracheobronchial lymph node. Precisely, three fundamental organs in triggering the immune response and in which the virus replicates the most once it comes into contact with the body.

To do this, the research work has analyzed these organs from 70 pigs in three different groups, one of them not infected by this pathogen, which functions as a control group, and two other groups infected with two strains of different virulence of the virus. Specifically, the study has focused on what is known as ‘transcription factors.’ Again, these molecules regulate the differentiation of cells involved in the immune system. In this sense, as highlighted by researcher Inés Ruedas-Torres, one of the main authors of the study, the results indicate that three of these molecules (called T-BET, FOXP3 and EOMES) are expressed with greater intensity and earlier in the strain analyzed with the highest virulence.

“Immune defense is not based on a single response but on a sum of several elements,” said Irene Rodríguez-Gómez, another of the researchers who participated in the work. Along these lines, as reflected in the study, each of these three proteins that research has revealed as fundamental in the immune response plays a different role in the body’s defense. While the first of the three molecules analyzed (T-BET) is related to the activation of macrophages that phagocytize the virus, the second (FOXP3) prevents, among other functions, the inflammatory response of the infected organism from being too intense. For its part, the third molecule (EOMES) is responsible for the activation of lymphocytes responsible for inducing the death of cells infected by the virus.

Currently, there are several types of commercial vaccines against PRRSV, but none of them, the researcher emphasizes, prevents secondary infections or offers complete protection due to the high mutation of the virus. The long-term objective, therefore, is to develop new vaccine candidates that offer total immunity against the different strains of the pathogen.

Cameras monitor bovine respiratory disease

Written by c001os on . Posted in Cattle, Nutrinfo.

Bovine respiratory disease (BRD), also known as shipping fever, is one of the most common and costly diseases that affect the North American beef cattle industry. Mainly affecting the lungs of cattle, BRD is highly prevalent during the first week or two after animals arrive at a feedlot. Weaning and shipping — two of the high-stress events that happen before calves arrive at feedlots — can depress their immune systems and increase their chance of developing disease. However, an accurate and timely diagnosis of BRD can maximize the effectiveness of subsequent antibiotic treatments.

Precision technological advancements allow beef cattle feedlot employees the opportunity to monitor and flag cattle showing signs of illnesses like BRD. “The huge challenge with all of these [precision technologies] is you can invent a system to track behaviour, but you still have to come up with an algorithm for the behaviours that accurately predict respiratory disease”, says Dr. John Campbell, a professor and beef cattle specialist at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine (WCVM). 

Using cameras placed above the pen of the subjects, the researchers at WCVM observed any behavioural changes that occurred in the cattle following treatment for BRD. Since the cameras allowed for continuous video collection, team members completed analyzing all of the footage with the goal of identifying the specific behaviours indicative of recovery. “All cattle are somewhat prey animals, so they are good at disguising when they feel sick. You’re looking for fairly subtle signs. [But] the current case definition is very vague: ‘They look sick and have a fever.’”

The common observable clinical signs of BRD include nasal discharge, depression, reduced feed intake, separation from herd, changing respiratory rates and coughing. Since some of these behaviours last only a short time, they can be easily missed during routine pen checks.

“I think we will gradually see more and more as some of these systems get cheaper. We are seeing adaptations coming in industries such as dairy already, so it is probably just a matter of time [for the beef cattle sector],” says Campbell. “At the end of the day, it does come down to cost though. You are still going to need people to go in and select the sick cattle and bring them out of the pen and treat them, so you cannot completely eliminate your labour costs.”