The most important causes for quantitative and qualitative losses during breeding and turnover before slaughtering of farm animals

The present review article deals with the current knowledge on the most important reasons of quantitative and qualitative losses during breeding and turnover before slaughtering of farm animals. At present, the profitability of every economic activity of people is an indispensable necessity. As regards farm animals there are many factors, seemingly banal ones, that determine the final economical effect and satisfaction of such activity. Many essential errors are made by producers as a result of ignorance or not complying with the basic needs of their behaviour. The turnover only deepens these neglects. The most essential limitations of these quantitative and qualitative losses are the proper selection and joining of the animals as well as an exact knowledge and complying with their natural behaviour. Such activity decreases animal stress, improves a proper welfare and consequently increases economical effects considerably.     

Resistance to an herbivore through engineered cyanogenic glucoside synthesis

The entire pathway for synthesis of the tyrosine-derived cyanogenic glucoside dhurrin has been transferred from Sorghum bicolor to Arabidopsis thaliana. Here, we document that genetically engineered plants are able to synthesize and store large amounts of new natural products. The presence of dhurrin in the transgenic A. thaliana plants confers resistance to the flea beetle Phyllotreta nemorum, which is a natural pest of other members of the crucifer group, demonstrating the potential utility of cyanogenic glucosides in plant defense.     

Reduced use of antimicrobials after vaccination of pigs against porcine proliferative enteropathy in a Danish SPF herd

The present study explored whether the use of group medication with antibiotics in a Danish pig herd was reduced after vaccination of the pigs against proliferative enteropathy (PE) caused by Lawsonia intracellularis. 7900 pigs originating from a single commercial sow herd were vaccinated against L. intracellularis, whereas 7756 pigs were kept as non-vaccinated controls. The pigs were included batch-wise in the study with every second batch being vaccinated. In the vaccinated batches, the consumption of oxytetracykline to treat PE was reduced by 79%, with a significantly lower number of pigs being treated (P < 0.0001). Vaccination also resulted in a highly significant improvement of average daily weight gain (+ 46 g/day; P = 9.55 × 10^-31) and carcase weight (+ 1.25 kg; P = 4.54 × 10^-05) as well as a shortened fattening period (-8 days; P = 2.01 × 10^-45).