In 1989, the National Research Council (NRC) Subcommittee on Horse Nutrition defined three categories of exercise: light, moderate or intense. In the 6th revised edition of “The Nutrient Requirements of Horses” (NRC, 2007), there are four categories for exercising horses: light exercise, moderate exercise, heavy exercise and very heavy exercise. Light exercise is described as 1 to 3 hours/week of mostly walking and trotting. Many horses kept for recreational riding would be included in the light exercise category. Moderate exercise […]

A mechanistic model that predicts nutrient requirements and biological values of feeds for sheep (Cornell Net Carbohydrate and Protein System; CNCPS-S) was expanded to include goats and the name was changed to the Small Ruminant Nutrition System (SRNS). The SRNS uses animal and environmental factors to predict metabolizable energy (ME) and protein, and Ca and P requirements. Requirements for goats in the SRNS are predicted based on the equations developed for CNCPS-S, modified to account for specific requirements of goats, […]

Initial success in sperm cryopreservation occurred at about the same time for aquatic species and livestock. However, in the 50 plus years since then cryopreserved sperm of livestock has grown into a billion-dollar global industry, while cryopreserved sperm of aquatic species remains a research activity with little commercial application despite work in more than 90 species and more than 200 published reports. Most research work has focused on large-bodied culture and sport fishes, such as salmon, trout, carp, and catfish, […]

Small ruminants have been one of the first domesticated species and from their origins have produced multiple benefits to humans. In the last two centuries, world sheep production has become more and more specialised upon geographical areas. But, recent changes in consumer attitudes, together with the increment in artificial fibre industries and human world population, some crisis related with the international wool market and some increments in lamb prices, have provoked that lamb meat has increased its relative importance inside […]

Quantitative genetics can be used to understand how traits will respond to artificial selection regimes, and therefore, it can be an important tool in the development of selective breeding programs for animal improvement. In order to predict the response to selection, the traditional approach in quantitative genetics partitions phenotypic variation into a heritable genetic component that contributes to the response and a non-heritable environmental component that does not. However, there is an increasing recognition that environmental variation contributed by the […]

This research was carried out in the gestation facility, with 24 gilts, 12 females housed in individual cages and 12 housed in collective pens, to evaluate different housing systems (individual cages, collective pens) for pregnant sows, aiming to describe quantitative and qualitative aspects of environment and the characteristics that influence the production system. This work was divided in two stages in function of the way chose for data analysis: bioclimatic and housing system analysis. Bioclimatic evaluation was realized by registering […]

This experiment was carried out to evaluate productive performance, dry matter and nutrient digestibility, and milk composition of Saanen goats fed rations with soybean hulls (SBH) as a corn ground replacement (0, 50 and 100%SBH), during lactation until prepartum (30 days). Eighteen goats were used (75.70 ± 10.59 kg) in a completely randomized design. The rations presented 14.82% CP and 2.28 Mcal ME/kg DM intake. The animals were confined in individual pens, with daily control of ration intake and milk […]

This research was carried out to evaluate the intake, total and ruminal digestibilities, microbial efficiency synthesis, nitrogen balance (NB) and ruminal parameters of beef heifers, fed sugarcane treated or not with calcium oxide (CaO – 1.0%) and different concentrate levels (CL), in feedlot. Six animals (170.0 kg BW) were allotted to a 6 × 6 Latin square design in a 2 × 3 factorial arrangement (sugarcane in nature treated or not with 1.0% CaO and three CL 0.0, 0.5 and […]