NEWS & EVENTS
Animal Science was well represented on March 23rd at the Golden State Dairy Management Conference, the first in-person conference since COVID began.
https://ucanr.edu/sites/CAdairyconference/Agenda/
The presenters and topics listed below:
- Pedro Carvalho - Feeding and managing dairy cattle genetics for beef
- Anna Denicol - Effects of the SLICK mutation to reduce the negative impact of heat stress in Holstein cattle
- Ed DePeters - Almond hulls for lactating dairy cows: feeding amounts and composition
- Deanne Meyer - Where to get AMMP (Alternative Manure Management Program) resources
- Cassandra Tucker - Mitigating heat stress: insights & ideas
- Alison Van Eenennaam - Improved cattle through genomic selection, assisted reproductive technologies and gene editing
CONFERENCES AND OUTREACH
Tina Horback gave a talk about “How to prepare for Proposition 12” to swine producers and industry professionals across the U.S. as a part of SowBridge (Iowa State University).
Tina Horback, Russ Hovey, and Frank Mitloehner gave talks at the Ag Expo for Sigma Alpha, UC Davis’ professional agricultural sorority.
Tina Horback and Catie McVey (PhD Animal Biology) published a paper on a new Livestock Informatics Toolkit (LIT) to identify complex behavioral patterns from Precision Livestock Farming (PLF) data streams using novel unsupervised machine learning and information theoretic approaches (Sensors 22(1))
Cassandra Tucker co-led a 4-day virtual training for Dairy Welfare Auditors in partnership with PAACO (Professional Animal Auditors Certification Organization). http://www.paacodairywelfareauditortraining.com/
Cassandra Tucker gave two invited talks at the Herd Health and Nutrition Conference, hosted by Cornell and Pro-Dairy. They were about “Heat stress in dairy cattle: insights and ideas” and “Lying time in dairy cattle: what we know and next steps in cow comfort”
Maja Makagon gave an invited talk about "The Role of Early Experience on the Behavior and Bone Integrity of Hens Housed in Cage-free Aviaries "as part of the Midwest Poultry Federation's Education Program
Amy McLean was invited to chair the In-Depth session: Advances in Donkey and Mule Medicine at the 67th Annual Convention for the American Association of Equine Practitioners in Nashville, TN and presented two oral presentations:
- Updates on Diagnostic Approach and Treatment of Select Donkey and Mule Diseases
- Improving the Understanding of Normal and Pain Related Donkey and Mule Behavior
AWARDS AND GRANTS
Ph.D. student Amy Gu in Molecular and Cellular Integrative Physiology program from Zhou Lab received Graduate Research Award from the Office of Graduate Studies, UC Davis
Nicole Ng (Makagon Lab) was awarded 2nd place in the Undergraduate Poster Competition at the Annual MANNRS Conference. Nicole presented preliminary results of her independent research project, conducted in collaboration with department members Maja Makagon. Richard Blatchford and Allison Pullin, among others
Three ANS members received NEXT GEN LEADERSHIP AWARDS at AGBT (Advances in Genome Biology and Technology) Agriculture 2022 – Maci Mueller, PhD candidate in Animal Biology, Alba Ledesma, postdoc both in the Van Eenennaam lab and Tianjing Zhao, PhD candidate in Statistical & Quantitative Genetics Cheng Lab.
PUBLICATIONS FROM ANIMAL SCIENCE
Ryan Bourbour (Hull lab), Breanna Martinico and others published "Breeding ecology of the Hook-billed Kite (Chondrohierax uncinatus) in Belize, Central America" in the Journal of Raptor Research https://doi.org/10.3356/JRR-21-12
Carmen Marin Navas, Juan Vicente Delgado Bermejo, Amy Katherine McLean, Joes Manuel Leon Jurado, Antonio Rodriguez de la Borbolla y Ruiberriz de Torres, and Francisco Javier Navas Gonzalez. One hundred years of coat colour influences on genetic diversity in the process of development of a composite horse breed. Vet Sci. 9, 68, 2022 (February). doi.org/10.3390/vetsci9020068.
Marilena Bazzano, Andrea Marchegiani, Alessandro Troisi, Amy McLean, and Fulvio Laus. Serum amyloid A as a promising biomarker in domestic animals’ reproduction: Current knowledge and future perspective. 15 (589). Animals, 2022 (January). https://doi.org/10.3390/ani12050589
Finger, A. J., Benjamin, A., Crookshanks, C., Campbell, M. A., & Sağlam, İ. K. (2022). Broad‐and fine‐scale structure across the distribution of the relict dace (Relictus solitarius) in the Great Basin desert, USA. Conservation Science and Practice, e12672