The beef sector of China and Southeast Asia has undergone dramatic change over the past 20 years, with important implications for rural development, biosecurity, food security and trade. Beef production in the region is lower than has been officially reported, has not kept pace with burgeoning consumption, and has not responded to price increases, which has led to a surge in trade of 16% per year, the majority of which is informal imports. The paper quantifies and explains these macro trends so as to improve decision-making of scientists, policy-makers, companies and development agencies working in the region.

This study explored whether breeding values for bodyweight are equally expressed in lambs with different birth or rearing type. The correlation between breeding values for early growth of lamb when expressed in single or twin birth types was less than one whereas different rearing type influenced expression of breeding value at late growth. However, this interaction between genotype and birth or rearing type did not affect ranking of sire’s breeding value in these two different environments, implying that there is no need to account for the effect of genetic evaluation.

Several small populations of cattle are important genetic resources for the milk production systems, mainly in the Tropics. Obtaining accurate evaluation of the genetic merit of the animals in these populations requires consideration of some particularities. We compare alternatives to include the contemporary group in the model for genetic evaluation and our results showed that consider the contemporary group as a fixed effect without clustering herds is a better option than clustering herds to increase the size of contemporary groups.

Knowledge of genetic parameters for mastitis and its indicator traits is essential for the prediction of response to selection. The aim of the present study was to estimate genetic correlations between milk production traits, mastitis and different measures of somatic cells in Holstein cows. Genetic correlations between milk production and udder health traits were unfavourable, which implies that breeding programs with an emphasis on milk production will experience deterioration in udder health.

The present study aimed to introduce a sinusoidal function into dairy research and production by applying it to bodyweight records from six dairy cow breeds reported by the Dairy Heifer Evaluation Project of Penn State Extension (USA) from 1991 to 1992. The function was evaluated to describe the weight–age relationship in dairy heifers, and then compared to seven standard growth functions, namely monomolecular, logistic, Gompertz, von Bertalanffy, Richards, Schumacher and Morgan. The sinusoidal function introduced here could be considered as an appropriate alternative for standard growth functions when modelling the growth pattern in dairy cows.

Exogenous melatonin, inserted at different times during the year, induces ovarian activity in goats in the absence of males. The best results are obtained in females with a high body condition score (≥3.00).

The increasing litter sizes in modern pig breeds have led to a significant number of pigs being born undersised. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of piglet head shape as an identification method on performance indices during the suckling period, organ weight at birth and mortality. The present study showed that piglets born with a ‘dolphin-like’ head shape have an impaired growth and increased risk of dying in the suckling period.

There is a growing interest in diverse pastures containing grasses, legumes and herbs, especially those with a greater tolerance for dry conditions and those that decrease nitrogen excretion from dairy cows. However, the effect of grazing these diverse pastures on the main agricultural greenhouse gas, enteric methane, is not known. Milk solids production was greater in cows grazing diverse pasture than those grazing ryegrass-based pasture, whereas methane production was similar.

Farmers need forages that are tolerant of dry conditions, so fescue grass was fed to dairy cows as a sole diet, and with either lucerne or lucerne and plantain. The best combination was fescue with lucerne and plantain because digestibility and production were highest and the urine nitrogen concentration was lowest. This combination of three forages will enable dairy production in dry conditions with less urinary nitrogen pollution than feeding fescue alone or with lucerne.

Ruminants given high-concentrate diets are at risk of acidosis. Use of tannin extracts as dietary additives may slow down the fermentation rate, thus reducing the pH drop. The magnitude of the effect depends on the type of tannin but is not related to its chemical classification. Effect on fermentation is not dose related.

Due to the negative effects of high calcium diets on nutrient utilisation, it is highly important to determine the upper limits of broiler chickens to dietary calcium concentration. We evaluated the effects of concentration and sources (oyster shell and limestone) of calcium in broiler chickens. The results suggest that reducing dietary calcium concentration from both sources to below the current recommendations has beneficial effects on performance, but severe reduction may have a detrimental influence on performance and bone mineralisation.

Poultry meat is probably the healthiest and nutritional strategies to improve this quality and increase poultry production is crucial in animal studies. This study examines the effect of high dietary niacin supplementation on health and performance of turkeys. High niacin supplementation increased bodyweight gain, resistant to stress ability, and decreased cholesterol deposition in meat tissue of the turkeys. The result has implications for producing animals with improved bodyweight, health, and reduced meat fat accumulation. Furthermore, these results could suggest that increased niacin supplementation might be required for modern strains of turkeys.

Consumers demand animal products from grazing animals and that such products are guaranteed. The effects of the type of forage and the inclusion of quebracho, as a natural additive, in the concentrate during the lactation period on the FA profiles of milk and the meat of suckling lamb were evaluated. The FA profile of milk was mainly affected by the type of forage and can be used to trace ewe diet more accurately than can the FA profile of the meat of suckling lambs.

In the search for new alternatives in the treatment against gastrointestinal parasites of ruminants, Bacillus thuringiensis was highlighted by its nematicidal activity, related to the presence of toxic crystals. The rumen provides a favourable environment for the development of the microbial population and the inclusion of Bt 2036 spores in the sheep diet did not cause changes in the health of the animals. In this way, the supplementation of Bt 2036 spores, which contain toxic proteins, can be safely included in ruminant feed.

Optimal marketing decisions on the grower farms were explored. The analysis of key factors such as transportation cost, when and how many pigs to deliver to the abattoir and weight homogeneity, permitted to gain insight into marketing decisions. A time window of 4 weeks was deemed as optimal for deliveries to the abattoir and the subsequent revenue was 15% higher than with traditional marketing rules.

Crossbreeding pattern is an effective measure for improving total production performance of native pig breeds. Here, the crossbreeding of Chinese Yanan pigs with Duroc and Berkshire breeds improved growth and carcass parameters, while maintaining superior meat quality. The results indicated that the two crossbred pigs, especially DBY crossbred pigs, could be extensively used in commercial pig production to provide superior pork.

Post-mortem pH has been implicated as a major factor affecting pork quality. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the effects of muscle pH on pork quality and to identify some relationships with eating quality using physical and chemical characteristics of pork. Results suggest that the muscle pH might be an indicator of pork quality and flavour that is affected by pH, water-holding capacity, nucleotides, free amino acids, fatty acids, and the interactions among these constituents.

Non-protein nitrogen and free amino acids were compared in dry-cured loin obtained from the native pig breed Chato Murciano and from a modern crossbreed pig genotype during processing. The breed affected proteolytic activity in dry-cured loin. The results suggest that, from the point of view of proteolysis, the optimum processing time for Chato Murciano dry-cured loin is 45 days.

Early maturing lambs that are excessively fattened could be rejected by consumers. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of increases in carcass weight in 1-kg steps on carcass characteristics and meat colour, and intramuscular fatty acid composition. The increases in lamb carcass weight increased fat depots, but the percentage increase in renal fat weight was twice that of fat scores.

The limited domestication and pre-slaughter management of farmed deer may lead to high ultimate pH, especially within some muscles types. The aim of the research was to analyse the effect of the ultimate pH value on the quality of three muscles of farm-raised fallow deer. The high pH limits the use of venison for packaging, which is the major method involved in the distribution of this product.

The price that can be obtained for a pig carcass depends on the amount of meat. A method for quick assessment of meat content in the most valuable parts of the carcass (i.e. ham, loin, belly and shoulder) was developed. There is a need to modify the classification method towards obtaining more information on the percentage of main carcass cuts.

Optical techniques measurements have the advantage over traditional methods of being faster, non-destructive and applicative on-farm. In this work visible and near-infrared spectroscopy coupled with chemometrics was used to discriminate between milk samples and to predict milk’s fat, protein and lactose content. Visible and near-infrared spectroscopy was a useful technique applicative on-farm for measurement with low cost.