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Pet ownership is common in modern society. In Portugal, 38% and 31% of all households own at least one dog or cat, respectively. Few studies have ascertained the knowledge of pet owners on pet ownership and zoonoses, and none have been carried out in Portugal. The aim of the present study was to assess household knowledge and practices related to pet ownership and zoonoses in northern Portugal. A face-to-face questionnaire was completed by 424 pet owners, from November 2019 to February 2020. Most respondents (97.2%) considered pets as an important part of the family, especially women (p = 0.036); 73.1% allowed their pets to live an indoor/outdoor life; 41.3% denied sharing the bed with their pets while 29% assumed they did it daily; 20.3% reported never kissing their pets/pets licking their faces. Furthermore, 73.6% considered animals as potential sources of human diseases, but only 25.9% reported knowing the definition of zoonoses; 96.9% considered the role of veterinarians important in protecting public health. The low level of knowledge of pet owners and the occurrence of high-risk behaviors indicates a need to strengthen communication between veterinarians, physicians, pet owners, and the general public towards reduce the risk of acquisition and transmission of zoonoses.Heat stress is detrimental to well-being and growth performance in livestock, and systemic inflammation arising during chronic heat stress contributes to these poor outcomes. Sustained exposure of muscle and other tissues to inflammation can impair the cellular processes that facilitate muscle growth and intramuscular fat deposition, thus reducing carcass quality and yield. Climate change is expected to produce more frequent extreme heat events, increasing the potential impact of heat stress on sustainable livestock production. Feedlot animals are at particularly high risk for heat stress, as confinement limits their ability to seek cooling from the shade, water, or breeze. Economically practical options to circumvent heat stress in feedlot animals are limited, but understanding the mechanistic role of inflammation in heat stress outcomes may provide the basis for treatment strategies to improve well-being and performance. Feedlot animals receive formulated diets daily, which provides an opportunity to administer oral nutraceuticals and other bioactive products to mitigate heat stress-induced inflammation. In this review, we examine the complex associations between heat stress, systemic inflammation, and dysregulated muscle growth in meat animals. APD334 nmr We also present evidence for potential nutraceutical and dietary moderators of inflammation and how they might improve the unique pathophysiology of heat stress.Eggs are the crucial component of daily meals for almost everyone in Taiwan, while the multi-attributes of fresh egg products generate the challenges of marketing and promotions in supermarkets. This study analyzes the market segmentation and consumer willingness-to-pay (WTP) for fresh egg attributes (i.e., color, traceability, animal welfare, brand, and price). In particular, the effect of the unrealistic choice set is considered in this study. The data collection was distributed near markets, schools, and train stations across Taiwan from July to September in 2020. A total of 1115 valid responses were collected, and the Latent Class Model was used. Results show that fresh egg products in supermarkets reveal a strong preference for animal welfare label with the highest WTP, which is about 64.2 NT$ (≈US$ 2.29). Furthermore, traceability label, farm brand, and brown-color egg still exhibit positive WTP of about 33.4 NT$ (≈US$ 1.19), 32.6 NT$ (≈US$ 1.16), and 32.5 NT$ (≈US$ 1.16) in supermarkets, respectively. However, including the unrealistic choice set can potentially alter the final outcomes, and it provides a good example for researchers who may have the same situation. This research helps to know more about the complexity of attributes for fresh egg products in supermarkets, so marketers would be able to adopt the effective marketing strategies for fresh egg products in supermarkets.Display, wherein males attempt to maximize fitness by attracting sexually mature females to mate, is known to drive speciation by Sexual Selection. We researched the Red Sea Ghost Crab (Ocypode saratan; RSGC), in which males build display pyramids to attract females. The study was conducted at the beach in Eilat, Israel. At each session, we measured the height (in cm) of all pyramids and the dimensions (height, breadth; in cm) of the burrow entrance. We assumed that the size of the entrance represented the relative size of the carapace width of the occupant. The mean (± SE) entrance volume was 230.8 ± 11.7 cm, and the height of the pyramid was 11.8 ± 0.49 cm (n = 54). The results of our study did not support our hypothesis because we had expected to find a linear correlation between body size and pyramid height, i.e., the larger the male, the larger the pyramid. However, our results show that the largest males in the population either built small pyramids or not at all, and the cut-off of the larger crab’s body size appears to be around 350 cm3. We discovered a step-wise function in the data in that crabs with the smallest body size of ca. 250 cm3 constructed the highest pyramids, with a declining tendency between 250-350 cm3 and extremely low pyramids beyond 350 cm3. However, our findings need to be further studied with a stress on the ambiance and elucidate whether the habitats differ in temperature, humidity, prey-base, etc., before concluding as to why the larger males desist from building pyramids. This study underwrites the importance of studying the mating systems of the macro-fauna of the beaches that are fast disappearing owing to anthropogenic development.Methane (CH4) from enteric fermentation accounts for 3 to 5% of global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, which contribute to climate change. Cost-effective strategies are needed to reduce feed energy losses as enteric CH4 while improving ruminant production efficiency. Mitigation strategies need to be environmentally friendly, easily adopted by producers and accepted by consumers. However, few sustainable CH4 mitigation approaches are available. Recent studies show that the chemically synthesized CH4 inhibitor 3-nitrooxypropanol is one of the most effective approaches for enteric CH4 abatement. 3-nitrooxypropanol specifically targets the methyl-coenzyme M reductase and inhibits the final catalytic step in methanogenesis in rumen archaea. Providing 3-nitrooxypropanol to dairy and beef cattle in research studies has consistently decreased enteric CH4 production by 30% on average, with reductions as high as 82% in some cases. Efficacy is positively related to 3-NOP dose and negatively affected by neutral detergent fiber concentration of the diet, with greater responses in dairy compared with beef cattle when compared at the same dose. This review collates the current literature on 3-nitrooxypropanol and examines the overall findings of meta-analyses and individual studies to provide a synthesis of science-based information on the use of 3-nitrooxypropanol for CH4 abatement. The intent is to help guide commercial adoption at the farm level in the future. There is a significant body of peer-reviewed scientific literature to indicate that 3-nitrooxypropanol is effective and safe when incorporated into total mixed rations, but further research is required to fully understand the long-term effects and the interactions with other CH4 mitigating compounds.Taiwan tilapia is one of the primary species used in aquaculture practices in Taiwan. However, as a tropical fish, it is sensitive to cold temperatures that can lead to high mortality rates during winter months. Genetic and broodstock management strategies using marker-assisted selection and breeding are the best tools currently available to improve seed varieties for tilapia species. link2 The purpose of this study was to develop molecular markers for cold stress-related genes using digital gene expression analysis of next-generation transcriptome sequencing in Taiwan tilapia (Oreochromis spp.). We constructed and sequenced cDNA libraries from the brain, gill, liver, and muscle tissues of cold-tolerance (CT) and cold-sensitivity (CS) strains. Approximately 35,214,833,100 nucleotides of raw sequencing reads were generated, and these were assembled into 128,147 unigenes possessing a total length of 185,382,926 bp and an average length of 1446 bp. A total of 25,844 unigenes were annotated using five protein databasesnvironmental temperature stress.The follicle development (FD) is an important factor determining litter size in animals. Recent studies have found that noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs) play an important role in FD. In particular, the role of the regulatory mechanism of competing endogenous RNAs (ceRNAs) that drive FD has attracted increasing attention. Therefore, this study explored the genetic basis of goat FD by obtaining the complete follicular transcriptome of Dazu black goats at different developmental stages. Results revealed that 128 messenger RNAs (mRNAs), 4 long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs), 49 microRNAs (miRNAs), and 290 circular RNAs (circRNAs) were significantly differentially expressed (DE) between large and small follicles. Moreover, DEmRNAs were enriched in many signaling pathways related to FD, as well as GO terms related to molecular binding and enzyme activity. link3 Based on the analysis of the ceRNA network (CRN), 34 nodes (1 DElncRNAs, 10 DEcircRNAs, 14 DEmiRNAs, and 9 DEmRNAs) and 35 interactions (17 DEcircRNAs-DEmRNAs, 2 DElncRNAs-DEmiRNAs, and 16 DEmRNA-DEmiRNAs) implied that the CRN could be involved in the FD of goats. In conclusion, we described gene regulation by DERNAs and lncRNA/circRNA-miRNA-mRNA CRNs in the FD of goats. This study provided insights into the genetic basis of FD in precise transcriptional regulation.We herein report the result of a large-scale reverse genetic screen in the Swiss Simmental population, a local dual-purpose cattle breed. We aimed to detect possible recessively inherited variants affecting protein-coding genes, as such deleterious variants can impair fertility and rearing success significantly. We used 115,000 phased SNP data of almost 10 thousand cattle with pedigree data. This revealed evidence for 11 genomic regions of 1.17 Mb on average, with haplotypes (SH1 to SH11) showing a significant depletion in homozygosity and an allele frequency between 3.2 and 10.6%. For the proposed haplotypes, it was unfortunately not possible to evaluate associations with fertility traits as no corresponding data were available. For each haplotype region, possible candidate genes were listed based on their known function in development and disease. Subsequent mining of single-nucleotide variants and short indels in the genomes of 23 sequenced haplotype carriers allowed us to identify three perfectly linked candidate causative protein-changing variants a SH5-related DIS3p.Ile678fs loss-of-function variant, a SH8-related CYP2B6p.Ile313Asn missense variant, and a SH9-related NUBPLp.Ser143Tyr missense variant. None of these variants occurred in homozygous state in any of more than 5200 sequenced cattle of various breeds. Selection against these alleles in order to reduce reproductive failure and animal loss is recommended.