A Seminar in the CEC Programme of Coordination of Research in Animal Husbandry, held in Dublin, Ireland, on October 30-31, 1985. Sponsored by the Commission of the European Communities, Directorate-General for Agriculture, Division for the Coordination of Agricultural Research.

Galapagos Giant Tortoises brings together researchers and conservationists to share the most up-to-date knowledge of Galapagos giant tortoises. Despite being icons of the world-famous Galapagos Archipelago and the target of more than 50 years of conservation research and management, Galapagos giant tortoise evolution and much of their ecology remained unknown until recently. This book documents the history, the pressing conservation issues, and success stories recovering several of the 15 different species of Galapagos tortoises from near extinction. The book begins with an overview of the history of the relationship between humans and Galapagos giant tortoises, starting from initial heavy exploitation of tortoises by pirates and whalers, and extending to the start of the modern conservation era in the 1960s. The book then shifts to biology, describing Galapagos tortoise evolution, taxonomy, ecology, habitats, reproduction, and behavior. Next the decades of conservation efforts and their results are reviewed, including issues of captive breeding, invasive species, introduced diseases, and de-extinction, as well as the current status and distribution of every species. The final portion of the book turns to four case studies of restoration, and then looks ahead to the future of all tortoise populations.The latest volume in the Biodiversity of the World: Conservation from Genes to Landscape series, Galapagos Giant Tortoises is a valuable resource for researchers and conservationists, as well as students of biology, wildlife conservation, and herpetology.

The most joyful emanation produced by a colony of bees is known as the "song of increase"-declaring that the hive is flourishing and the bees are happy in its abundance. Song of Increase takes us inside the world of the honeybee to glean the wisdom of these fascinating creatures with whom humanity has shared a sacred bond for millennia. Within these pages is a bee-centric approach to living with honeybees, rather than advice for simply maximizing the products they provide. Jacqueline Freeman takes us beyond traditional beekeeping and offers a way to work in harmony with honeybees for both their good and ours. "Our way is one of kind observation," she explains, "where we create supportive homes and fields for bees to live in, as well as tend the heartfelt relationships we form by being together." Song of Increase focuses on hidden aspects of apiculture that lead us naturally to more sustainable practices. Freeman illuminates the unity consciousness that guides every action in the colony and how this profound awareness can influence the way we see both the natural world and ourselves. Each chapter presents a wealth of information about the life of bees, including Freeman's personal insights and direct teachings received from the bees themselves. Contents Include: I. The Song of Unity: How Bees See Themselves, Their Colony, and the World II. The Song of Belonging: The Sacred Work of the Queen, Drones, Maidens, and Pips III. The Song of Communion: How Bees Create a Perfect Home IV. The Song of the World: The Communion of Bees and Flowers V. The Song of Increase: The Blessings of the Swarm and the Ascension of a New Queen VI. The Song of Abundance: The Generosity of Bees VII. The Song of Sharing: How We Can Help Our Bee Friends

The global drive towards sustainability and improved animal health means there is a greater need for development of novel functional ingredients for the feed industry. As the requirements for protein for livestock feed and human consumption grows, the use of insect products as animal feed has gained increasing attention. Covering global production systems of insect protein, oil and chitin, as well as co-products from this industry, this book: - Considers in-depth nutritional and safety aspects of insects for feed. - Reviews suitability of insects as feed for different animal species and life stages. - Examines current knowledge of the value of insect-rearing residues as biofertilizers for crop health. - Identifies the challenges related to regulation, legislation, consumer perception and acceptance, and commercialization of insects. - Provides interviews with established and early-stage innovative companies producing insect protein for feed. Including a focus on practices such as waste valorization, this book takes a holistic look at how insects could contribute to the sustainability of livestock production on a global scale. Providing an up-to-date reference for research scientists, nutritionists, and veterinarians, as well as prospective insect farmers, it will also be of interest to those with a broader curiosity towards climate change, sustainability, and the circular economy.

The ostrich is a relatively new agricultural animal in many parts of the world, and even in South Africa it was domesticated only a little over a century ago. Recently however there has been a huge growth in interest in ostrich farming, and production of ostriches for low-fat meat and leather is now a reality in many parts of the world. This book is the first comprehensive volume to review the world scientific literature on ostrich biology, production and health.* Written by leading authors from South Africa, Europe, Israel and the USA* Deals with the ostrich in farmed and natural environments* Essential reading for those interested in avian and poultry science

At the heart of every bee hive is a queen bee. Since her well-being is linked to the well-being of the entire colony, the ability to find her among the residents of the hive is an essential beekeeping skill. In QueenSpotting, experienced beekeeper and professional "swarm catcher" Hilary Kearney challenges readers to 'spot the queen' with 48 fold-out queenspotting puzzles - vivid up-close photos of the queen hidden among her many subjects. QueenSpotting celebrates the unique, fascinating life of the queen bee chronicles of royal hive happenings such as The Virgin Death Match, The Nuptual Flight - when the queen mates with a cloud of male drones high in the air - and the dramatic Exodus of the Swarm from the hive. Readers will thrill at Kearney's adventures in capturing these swarms from the strange places they settle, including a Jet Ski, a couch, a speed boat, and an owl's nesting box. Fascinating, fun, and instructive, backyard beekeepers and nature lovers alike will find reason to return to the pages again and again.

Before crude oil and the combustion engine, the industrialized world relied on a different kind of power - the power of the horse. Horses in Society is the story of horse production in the United States, Britain, and Canada at the height of the species' usefulness, the late nineteenth and early twentieth-century. Margaret E. Derry shows how horse breeding practices used during this period to heighten the value of the animals in the marketplace incorporated a intriguing cross section of influences, including Mendelism, eugenics, and Darwinism. Derry elucidates the increasingly complex horse world by looking at the international trade in army horses, the regulations put in place by different countries to enforce better horse breeding, and general aspects of the dynamics of the horse market. Because it is a story of how certain groups attempted to control the market for horses, by protecting their breeding activities or 'patenting' their work, Horses in Society provides valuable background information to the rapidly developing present-day problem of biological ownership. Derry's fascinating study is also a story of the evolution of animal medicine and humanitarian movements, and of international relations, particularly between Canada and the United States.

Does animal welfare have a place in sustainable farming, or do the demands of a rising human population and the threat of climate change mean that the interests of animals must be put aside? Can we improve the way we keep animals and still feed the world - or is it a choice between ethics and economics?

The aim of this book is to challenge the "them-and-us" thinking that sets the interests of humans and farm animals against each other and to show that to be really "sustainable," farming needs to include, not ignore, animal welfare. The authors of this remarkable book come from a diversity of backgrounds: industry, animal welfare organizations, academic institutions, and practical farming. They are united in arguing that farm animals matter and that sustainable farming must have animal welfare at its ethical core, along with the production of healthy, affordable food and care for the environment.

"Storey's Guide to Raising Ducks" provides vital information for anyone wanting to keep ducks. It covers everything - choosing the right breed, including rare breeds and hybrid ducks; breeding and rearing practices; feeding; butchering; and, a comprehensive resource section for both the novice and the veteran farmer. New and Expanded features include: expanded breed section; more information on facilities for ducklings, health, and disease treatment; a compendium on marketing and record keeping; section on colour genetics; and, new information on rarer breed conservation.

Rabbits are versatile animals, farmed for their meat and fur, as laboratory and show animals, and also as pets. This well-established book continues to provide an overview of domesticated rabbit production, covering topics such as breeding, management, feeding and health. Now in its fully updated tenth edition, it includes an expanded consideration of important issues such as animal behavior and welfare and sustainable methods of small-scale rabbit production. With chapters relating specifically to international and backyard family rabbit production, pet rabbits, rabbit shows, and angora wool production, this new edition: - Includes new information on the latest methods of rabbit reproductive management, including applications of artificial insemination, estrous synchronization, embryo transfer, cloning, and molecular genetics; - Tackles globally prevalent health issues such as mucoid enteropathy (ME), epizootic rabbit enteropathy (ERE) and rabbit hemorrhagic disease (RHD); - Reviews up-to-the-minute developments such as the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on food production, opportunities of selling rabbits at farmers markets, organic rabbit meat, raising of pastured rabbits, as well as new projects addressing poverty alleviation and food security. Providing updates on worldwide production trends, breeds, and figures, as well as use of color photos throughout, this book is an essential resource for anyone involved in rabbit production - from novice to experienced breeders, trainers and managers of rabbit projects, veterinarians and industry professionals.

The first descriptive treatise of modern bee management. In a reader-friendly, enthusiastic style, Langstroth addresses every aspect of beekeeping: bee physiology; diseases and enemies of bees; the life-cycles of the queen, drone, and worker; bee-hives; the handling of bees; and many other topics. 25 plates.

How can we learn from previous food production mistakes and pave a way for producing sustainable, nutritious, local meat? The Covid-19 pandemic exposed the vulnerabilities of our globalised food system and highlighted the desperate need for local and regional supplies of healthy meat. We must replace industrial feed models, which are responsible for significant climate emissions, nitrogen pollution and animal suffering. Grass-Fed Beef for a Post-Pandemic World outlines a hopeful path out of our broken food system via regional networks of regeneratively produced meat. In 2017, Ridge Shinn and Lynne Pledger went to market with Big Picture Beef, a company that partners with farmers across the northeastern United States to provide high-quality, 100% grass-fed beef. Their model has increased participating farmers' access to wholesale markets, and their holistic grazing management techniques offer multiple benefits for the health and wellbeing of consumers, the environment and livestock. In Grass Fed-Beef for a Post-Pandemic World, you'll find information assembled from the fields of ecology, climate science, nutrition and animal welfare, along with stories from Ridge's travels as a consultant on farms all over the world. You'll discover how regenerative grazing can: restore degraded farmland protect against droughts and floods increase biodiversity combat climate change by reducing emissions and sequestering carbon contribute to regional economic development produce nutrient-dense, healthy meat for consumers Grass-Fed Beef for a Post-Pandemic World is not just for beef producers, but for anyone wondering how our farmers can raise cattle while caring for the local and global environment.

In today's world, we are witnessing simultaneous breakthroughs in reproductive technologies, genomics, and molecular biology. Advances in molecular genetic technology and understanding of the bovine genome have led to the development of tools that can be used to enhance profitability on cow-calf enterprises. Factors Affecting Calf Crop: Biotechnology of Reproduction provides a detailed compilation of current and forthcoming technology for managing reproduction in cattle. The book discusses topics such as: approved techniques for controlling the estrous cycle in cattle; managing follicular growth with progesterone, estrogens, and prostaglandins; freezing, thawing, and transfer of cattle embryos; application of embryo transfer to the beef cattle industry; embryo transfer in topically adapted cattle; new factors affecting bull fertility; embryo collection and utilization technology, in vitro fertilization, somatic cell cloning, and genetic technologies; uses of real-time ultrasound; and sexed semen. Over 25 leading animal scientists have combined their expertise to produce the first single-source reference that covers successful reproductive techniques that will, most likely, be the wave of the future. Expansive in scope, the book addresses current biotechnologies as they impact the production of beef cattle. Written at a level to appeal to the researcher, commercial producer, or student, Factors Affecting Calf Crop: Biotechnology of Reproduction presents you with a wealth of technologies applicable to animal agriculture.

This book provides empirical evidence from Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique and from different production systems of the importance of livestock as an asset to women and their participation in livestock and livestock product markets. It explores the issues of intra-household income management and economic benefits of livestock markets to women, focusing on how types of markets, the types of products and women's participation in markets influence their access to livestock income. The book further analyses the role of livestock ownership, especially women's ownership of livestock, in influencing household food security though increasing household dietary diversity and food adequacy. Additional issues addressed include access to resources, information and financial services to enable women more effectively to participate in livestock production and marketing, and some of the factors that influence this access. Practical strategies for increasing women's market participation and access to information and services are discussed. The book ends with recommendations on how to mainstream gender in livestock research and development if livestock are to serve as a pathway out of poverty for the poor and especially for women.

From crayons to cough drops, cookies to candles, Beehive Alchemy offers a comprehensive introduction to incorporating the miracle of bees into everyday life. Beehive Alchemy is a continuation of Petra Ahnert's best-selling Beeswax Alchemy. With this new book, beekeepers (and bee lovers) will learn about the benefits and attributes of beeswax, honey, propolis, and more alongside a full range of projects and techniques to process and harness the amazing gifts of bees. Inside, you'll find instructions to make Ahnert's award-winning hand-dipped birthday candles, the classic French dessert canele bordelais, and much more, including: Alchemy for the Body Liquid soap with honey Beard balm Olive and honey lotion Alchemy of Light Taper candles Tea lights Pillars Alchemy for the Home Furniture polish Waxed cotton food wraps Woodcutter incense Alchemy in the Studio Beeswax crayons Encaustic Batik Alchemy in the Kitchen Cookies and candies Beverages Fermentations Whether you keep bees or just love them, Beehive Alchemy will become your go-to comprehensive guide for hive-to-home creations.

This book describes the methodology for predicting the genetic merit of animals in the context of genetic improvement in an animal breeding programme. Information on an animal and its relatives, on either the characteristic to be improved or from other traits, can be used to predict the animal's genetic merit, taking account of the relationships between measurements and the economic values of traits. The methodology is developed from first principles, without unnecessary detail or complexity, and all the required statistical and mathematical concepts are fully described in the book. The text discusses the methods for combining different sources of information and illustrates their use with examples of breeding programmes in cattle, sheep, pigs and poultry. A series of questions with detailed answers is included in the book, to help reinforce the ideas and provide some practical experience in the prediction of genetic merit. The text is aimed at final year undergraduate and first year postgraduate students of quantitative genetics and animal breeding.

The pig played a key role in the German Democratic Republic's attempts to create a modern, industrial food system built on communist principles. By the mid-1980s, East Germany produced more pork per capita than West Germany and the UK, while also suffering the unintended consequences of manure pollution, animal disease, and rolling food shortages. The pig is a highly adaptive animal, and Thomas Fleischman uncovers three types of pig that played roles in this history: the industrial pig, remade to suit the conditions of factory farming; the wild boar, whose overpopulation was a side effect of agricultural development; and the garden pig, reflective of the regime's growing acceptance of private farming within the planned economy. Fleischman chronicles East Germany's journey from family farms to factory farms, explaining how communist principles shaped the adoption of industrial agriculture practices. More broadly, Fleischman argues that agriculture under communism came to reflect the practices of capitalist agriculture, and that the pork industry provides a clear illustration of this convergence. His analysis sheds light on the causes of the country's environmental and political collapse in 1989 and offers a warning about the high cost of cheap food in the present and future. Communist Pigs was a finalist for the Turku Book Award, European Society for Environmental History.

The updated bestselling guide to laid-back beekeeping for all, naturally! Are you a beginner beekeeper curious about bees or a practicing beekeeper looking for natural alternatives that work? Then this book is for you! In the second edition of the bestselling beekeeping guide Keeping Bees with a Smile, Fedor Lazutin, one of Europe's most successful natural beekeepers, shares the bee-friendly approach to apiculture that is fun, healthful, rewarding, and accessible to all. This new edition includes dozens of color photographs, new hive management techniques, and an updated version of "Lazutin hive" plans. Additional coverage includes: Keeping bees naturally without interfering in their lives Starting an apiary for free by attracting local bee swarms Building low-maintenance hives that mimic how bees live in nature Keeping colonies healthy and strong without any drugs, sugar, or gimmickry Helping bees to overwinter successfully even in harsh climates Enhancing local nectar plant resources Producing truly natural honey without robbing the bees Reversing the global bee decline... right in your backyard! Keeping Bees with a Smile is an invaluable resource for apiculture beginners and professionals alike, complete with plans for making bee-friendly, well-insulated horizontal hives with extra-deep frames, plus other fascinating beekeeping advice you won't find anywhere else.

As textbooks go, this is one of the few that I may actually choose to read in a spare moment, not just when madly researching what could possibly be the problem when I get called to a goat farm. It contains interesting information on the background of goat farming, goat behaviour, nutrition and husbandry in the introductory section... This hardback, logically presented book will live on a handy shelf to be used on a regular basis. - Pam Brown, mixed practice vet at Alnorthumbria Vets, Wooler, in Veterinary Record, 27 April 2019 Key features: Covers both goat medicine and surgery Covers basic anatomy, commons breeds and husbandry Includes new and emerging diseases Goats are one of the most widely kept domestic animals globally, mainly as a result of the relative ease with which they can be kept and the obvious benefits provided to those who keep them. Goat Medicine and Surgery describes the key diseases that can have an impact on goat health and welfare worldwide, providing information on diagnosis, treatment, prognosis, management and control. Covers basic anatomy, common breeds and husbandry. Divided into chapters covering each body system Offers the common differential diagnoses, followed by the specific diagnosis and recommended treatments Covers a wide range of disorders, including new and emerging diseases Modern goat keeping gives us a full spectrum of activity from nomadic tribes moving with their animals, to the range-keeping in Australia, to units fattening goat kids for meat and to intensive goat dairy production systems. Alongside these production systems are those in which goats are kept in small numbers as a hobby, as pets and at public attractions. This book deals with the diseases and challenges impacting all kinds of goats and their owners. It will be invaluable to veterinarians in practice and training, animal scientists and agricultural advisors, as well as scientists interested in animal welfare.