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OIE’s Global Burden of Animal Disease (GBAD) research programme secures more funding
Animal health researchers from the GBADs programme have secured $7 million in funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the UK’s Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office to explore and measure animal health burdens and their impacts on human lives and economies. The inform...Read more -
Next Few Months Critical to Spring Fertility
Getting management of the suckler cow right in the January to April period will be critical in determining the success of the 2021 breeding season. Most Spring calving suckler cows are either just freshly calved or will calve in the next 8-12 weeks. Aidan Murray Beef Specialist has all the advice...Read more -
Meet Cosmo, a bull calf designed to produce more male offspring
Using the genome-editing technology CRISPR, researchers can make targeted cuts to the genome or insert useful genes, which is called a gene knock-in. In this case, scientists successfully inserted or knocked-in the cattle SRY gene, the gene that is responsible for initiating male development, int...Read more -
Livestock’s Role In a Change Climate
Edward Bork’s research surrounding how livestock grazing affects soil carbon has made him a believer in the beneficial role cattle can potentially play in a changing climate. “Because their grazing contributes to the concentration of carbon in the soil – a helpful process – livestock can be a too...Read more -
How to achieve optimum feed performance in a volatile market
During the production cycle of a broiler, many factors influence a bird’s ability to achieve the full metabolisable energy (ME) potential of the feed Changes in diet and environment, as well as its genetics, can play a role. However, poultry producers’ main challenge is the variance in feed diges...Read more -
Eating fly larvae can improve broilers welfare by facilitating natural behaviour
Research presented by Wageningen University & Research (WUR) has shown that if broilers have to forage and peck the larvae, they move more, which improves their welfare During the research, live black soldier fly larvae were offered in different quantities and at different times during the da...Read more -
Daylight study reveals how animals adapt between seasons
Scientists have discovered how a biological switch helps animals make the seasonal changes crucial for survival, such as growing a warm winter coat and adjusting body temperatures. The findings reveal how the brain responds to short and long days to allow animals to adapt to changing conditions a...Read more -
Cobb broiler breeder management guide helps customers optimise flock performance
The new Cobb broiler breeder management guide includes expanded, updated and newly added technical expertise in broiler breeder production management to help customers succeed The company’s latest recommendations in the influential handbook are intended to help support more yield, better feed co...Read more -
Cattle Lice Control
Hair loss on your cattle is a good indication they have a lice problem. The bites cause itching and irritation, so cattle rub, lick, and chew on themselves. This can cause damage to fence posts and other items they rub on for relief. Lice also affect performance. When the cattle are rubbing and...Read more -
Young poultry farmer thrives despite setbacks
Asiphe Pentu runs a poultry farming operation from his home in Beshwana village in Mount Ayliff near Kokstad, in the Eastern Cape. One of six siblings, Pentu started his business, Khawulela Poultry Farming, in 2014, when he was just 17 and still in Grade 9, due to poverty faced by his family. His...Read more -
Securing a market for your chickens
Emerging poultry farmers should first find a market for the eggs or chickens they will be producing. However, these farmers shouldn’t try to compete with the large commercial producers for a place on the supermarket shelves. These big producers use specially selected chicken breeds to produce egg...Read more -
Reduce antibiotic usage with these management tips
Lowering antibiotic usage is easier said than done, as it usually coincides with a drop in farm margins. Dr John Patience, a professor in animal science specialising in pig nutrition at Iowa State University in the US, says this is primarily due to higher mortalities, but also because, as product...Read more -
How to start a pig farming business
Kgadi Senyatsi, head of business development at the South African Pork Producers’ Organisation (SAPPO), says that farmers wanting to enter the pig industry should begin by conducting thorough research. “The pig industry is a complex, costly industry,” she warns. SAPPO recommends that a farmer sta...Read more -
Harnessing the dual-purpose potential of Merino ewes
“Merinos are our pride and joy,” says Matthew Morgan (35), who returned home to farm near Tarkastad in the Eastern Cape with his late father, Jonathan, in 2009 before establishing his first pastures a year later. “With the pastures, I tried to maximise the potential of existing land so that I cou...Read more -
Free-range duck farming in KZN Why less is more
Vanessa Collocott raises free-range Pekin ducks for meat on her 20ha smallholding, The Blue Orange Farm, in Curry’s Post, between Mooi River and Howick in KwaZulu-Natal. Her government-certified, free-range duck production enterprise started with only 60 day-old Pekin ducklings back in 2012. She ...Read more -
Veterinary Medicine Needs New Green Antimicrobial Drugs
Given that: (1) the worldwide consumption of antimicrobial drugs (AMDs) used in food-producing animals will increase over the coming decades; (2) the prudent use of AMDs will not suffice to stem the rise in human antimicrobial resistance (AMR) of animal origin; (3) alternatives to AMD use are not...Read more -
Dealing with external parasites on chickens
External parasites (ectoparasites) that target poultry include lice, mites, ticks, fleas and flies. They live on or around the birds, and can disturb them, affect their growth and egg production, and spread disease. Lice Chickens are infested mainly with biting lice. These irritate the birds, slo...Read more -
Chicken housing – get the basics right!
The purpose of poultry housing is to provide chickens with a healthy and comfortable environment that’s clean, dry and secure. The most affordable type is a naturally ventilated house scalable to any size. This doesn’t make use of costly air-conditioning to control the climate insid...Read more -
Caring for the sow and piglets at farrowing
‘Farrow’ originally meant ‘young pig’. In the early 1400s it came to refer to the birth process in pigs. The sow’s litter is also called a ‘farrow’. The most critical period in the life of a pig is from birth to weaning. On average, about two pigs per litter are lost during this time. Good manage...Read more -
Breeding top-performing Dohne Merino on 95ha
“Over five decades ago, my late father-in-law, Japie Patience, started farming 10 Ile de France sheep on a 95ha piece of rented commonage land in Saron, near Porterville. He also had a few calves that he bought from dairy farmers in the area,” recalls Therecia Patience. She took over the farm in ...Read more -
Biosecurity your first line of defence against disease
Dr Fambies van Biljon, veterinarian at Sovereign Foods, talks to Glenneis Kriel about the crucial need to establish a well-run biosecurity programme at a poultry production facility. Why is biosecurity so important? Why can’t birds simply be medicated when they fall ill? The problem with poultry ...Read more -
Still Serious Shortage of International Shipping Containers
Since the second half of 2020, there has been a serious shortage of international shipping containers. A series of factors have affected the cost and price of international shipping. The price has changed the relationship between supply and demand, breaking the previous relatively stable process....Read more -
Researchers reveal switch used in plant defense against animal attack
For decades, scientists have known that plants protect themselves from the devastation of hungry caterpillars and other plant-munching animals through sophisticated response systems, the product of millions of years of evolution. The biological mechanisms underlying this attack-counter defense pa...Read more -
Replacing animal testing with synthetic cell scaffolds
In the field of cancer research, the idea that scientists can disrupt cancer growth by changing the environment in which cancerous cells divide is growing in popularity. The primary way researchers have tested this theory is to conduct experiments using animals. Smitha Rao’s cell scaffoldin...Read more
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