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Books > Professional & Technical > Agriculture & farming > Animal husbandry > General
With more than eighty colour and black-and white photographs, this
book rivals the presentation of any coffee table book. A
comprehensive, easy-to-use guide, Chameleons: Their Care and
Breeding shows how to choose a healthy chameleon, house and feed
it, diagnose and treat problems, successfully breed and raise
popular chameleon species, and much more. Professional chameleon
breeder Linda Davison wrote this book with the assistance of the
most-respected breeders in the field.
Stimulating and thought-provoking, this important new text looks at
the welfare problems and philosophical and ethical issues that are
caused by changes made to an animal's telos, behaviour and
physiology, both positive and negative, to make them more
productive or adapted for human uses. These changes may involve
selective breeding for production, appearance traits, or
competitive advantage in sport, transgenic animals or the use of
pharmaceuticals or hormones to enhance production or performance.
Changes may impose duties to care for these animals further and
more intensely, or they may make the animal more robust. The book
considers a wide range of animals, including farm animals,
companion animals and laboratory animals. It reviews the ethics and
welfare issues of animals that have been adapted for sport, as
companions, in work, as ornaments, food sources, guarding and a
whole host of other human functions. This important new book sparks
debate and is essential reading for all those involved in animal
welfare and ethics, including veterinarians, animal scientists,
animal welfare scientists and ethologists.
A striking and famous feature of the English landscape, Dartmoor is
a beautiful place, with a sense of wildness and mystery. This book
provides a new perspective on an important aspect of Dartmoor's
past. Its focus is transhumance: the seasonal transfer of grazing
animals to different pastures. In the Middle Ages, intensive
practical use was made of Dartmoor's resources. Its extensive
moorlands provided summer pasture for thousands of cattle from the
Devon lowlands, which flowed in a seasonal tide, up in the spring
and down in the autumn. This book describes, for the first time,
the social organisation and farming practices associated with this
annual transfer of livestock. It also presents evidence for a
previously unsuspected Anglo-Saxon pattern of transhumance in which
lowland farmers spent the summers living with their cattle on the
moor. Winner of the Devon Book of the Year Award 2013.
A striking and famous feature of the English landscape, Dartmoor is
a beautiful place, with a sense of wildness and mystery. This book
provides a new perspective on an important aspect of Dartmoor's
past. Its focus is transhumance: the seasonal transfer of grazing
animals to different pastures. In the Middle Ages, intensive
practical use was made of Dartmoor's resources. Its extensive
moorlands provided summer pasture for thousands of cattle from the
Devon lowlands, which flowed in a seasonal tide, up in the spring
and down in the autumn. This book describes, for the first time,
the social organisation and farming practices associated with this
annual transfer of livestock. It also presents evidence for a
previously unsuspected Anglo-Saxon pattern of transhumance in which
lowland farmers spent the summers living with their cattle on the
moor. Winner of the Devon Book of the Year Award 2013.
Laboratory animals, including ferrets, play an important role in
biomedical research and advances. The humane care and management of
these animals remains an ongoing concern. Published in color to
provide greater clarity to the techniques and concepts discussed,
The Laboratory Ferret presents basic information and common
procedures in detail to provide a quick reference for
investigators, technicians, and caretakers in the laboratory
setting. The book presents a greater understanding of the use of
the ferret in research, such as in studies on influenza. It is a
valuable, handy reference for experienced individuals and for those
without extensive training in working with ferrets.
This book provides a concise and up to date review of current
knowledge on the biological processes affecting animal welfare, and
the implications emerging from our improved understanding of those
biological principles in terms of options available to assess and
manage the welfare status of individuals and populations.
Biological principles are embedded within wider consideration of
the ethical basis for our concern about animals and their welfare,
in recognition of the fact that concern and responsibility for
welfare is strongly affected by cultural and ethical norms. The
Biology and Management of Animal Welfare covers several topics not
addressed in other texts. Thus it pays attention to the difference
between animal welfare and animal rights and distinguishes between
welfare and evolutionary fitness (which often causes confusion).
The thorny problem of necessary versus unnecessary suffering is
considered; most legislation provides for the prevention of
unnecessary suffering but never defines it. In addition a box
feature explores how human psychological development can affect
attitudes to animals and how psychological dysfunctions (in terms
of attitudes to other humans) can often be detected in advance from
attitudes to animals. The book also includes consideration of
alternatives to animal experimentation with a chapter devoted to
the 3 Rs (Refine, Reduce, Replace). Written by authors who work in
the field and all regularly contribute to postgraduate courses in
animal welfare, in veterinary faculties and elsewhere, the text is
deliberately kept short and concise to emphasise the essential
principles, but is comprehensively referenced throughout in order
to guide the reader in their own wider background reading around
the framework provided by this overview. The book includes a number
of dedicated box features that offer more detailed illustration or
worked examples for some of the topics addressed in the text, or to
focus attention on additional special topics.
Temple Grandin, North America's most influential advocate of humane
livestock treatment, has spent her life developing stress-free
facility designs and standards of humane management. In an
environment of growing concern regarding large factory-farming
practices, Grandin is a voice of reason explaining the benefits of
keeping animals calm through every phase of their lives -- benefits
that include safer working conditions, higher yields of marketable
meat, better-quality meat, and, of course, more humane conditions
for the animals.
The first half of "Humane Livestock Handling" reviews the natural
behavior and temperament of cattle. Working with the animals'
natural instincts, Grandin describes low-stress methods for moving
cattle on pastures, paddocks, and feedlot pens. Slow, controlled
movement reduces stress and fear, resulting in calmer, healthier
cattle. They eat better, are less likely to become sick, and do not
run into fences and gates, injuring themselves and bruising the
meat. Calm cattle are also far less likely to injure the humans
working with them.
The second half of the book is packed with construction plans,
diagrams and detailed designs for putting Grandin's ideas into
practice. Featuring plans for everything from gate latches to
chutes, corrals, and sorting pens for full-scale facilities, there
are designs that can be used in both large and small operations. In
fact, half of the cattle in North America are already handled in
systems designed by Grandin, and the demand for humanely processed
meat continues to grow.
Temple Grandin's systems are quickly becoming the industry-wide
standard. No livestock operation, small or large, can afford to
ignore "Humane Livestock Handling."
Animal Agriculture: Sustainability, Challenges and Innovations
discusses the land-based production of high-quality protein by
livestock and poultry and how it plays an important role in
improving human nutrition, growth and health. With exponential
growth of the global population and marked rises in meat
consumption per capita, demands for animal-source protein are
expected to increase 72% between 2013 and 2050. This raises
concerns about the sustainability and environmental impacts of
animal agriculture. An attractive solution to meeting increasing
needs for animal products and mitigating undesirable effects of
agricultural practices is to enhance the efficiency of animal
growth, reproduction, and lactation. Currently, there is no
resource that offers specific knowledge of both animal science and
technology, including biotechnology for the sustainability of
animal agriculture for the expanding global demand of food in the
face of diminishing resources. This book fills that gap, giving
readers all the necessary information on important issues facing
modern animal agriculture, namely its sustainability, challenges
and innovative solutions.
A truly unusual and unique resource, this extremely hands-on book
brings together three popular but long-out-of-print classics (THE
MODERN BLACKSMITH; THE RECYCLING, USE, AND REPAIR OF TOOLS; and THE
MAKING OF TOOLS) essential for anyone interested in the making,
repair, maintenance, or arcana of tools. An essential volume in any
serious craftperson's library, this book covers setting up a smithy
(anvil, forge, hammer, tongs, and all), and manufacturing
everything from stone-carving chisels to decorative wall hooks.
Over 400 recent finds associated with horses and excavated in
London, from the utilitarian to the highly decorated, illustrated
and discussed. Whether knight's charger or beast of burden, horses
played a vital role in medieval life. The wealth of medieval finds
excavated in London in recent years has, not surprisingly, included
many objects associated with horses. This catalogue illustrates and
discusses over four hundred such objects, among them harness,
horseshoes, spurs and curry combs, from the utilitarian to highly
decorative pieces. London served by horse traffic comes vividly in
view. The introductory chapter draws on historical as well as
archaeological sources to consider the role of the horse in
medieval London. It looks at the price of horses and the costs of
maintaining them, the hiring of 'hackneys' forriding, the use of
carts in and around London, and the work of the 'marshal' or
farrier. It discusses the evidence for the size of medieval horses
and includes a survey of finds of medieval horse skeletons from
London. It answersthe key questions, how large a 'Great Horse' was,
and why it took three horses to pull a cart. This is a basic work
of reference for archaeologists and those studying medieval
artefacts, and absorbing reading for everyone interested in the
history of the horse and its use by humankind. JOHN CLARK is
Curator (Medieval) at the Museum of London.
This volume provides a current look at how development of intensive
live stock production, particularly hogs, has affected human health
with respect to zoonotic diseases primarily transmitted by food but
also by water, air and oc cupational activity. While information
presented focuses on the development of increasing livestock
production in Canada, examples are given and compar isons are made
with other countries (Denmark, Taiwan, the Netherlands and the
United States) where the levels of livestock production are much
more intense and where the industry is more mature. Canada is also
searching for solutions to enable handling the growing volume of
its livestock waste properly. Lessons learned from the experience
of those who have gone before are invaluable and are drawn together
in this volume to serve as useful guidance for others in plot ting
the courses of action possible to avoid serious environmental
setbacks and negative human health effects through foodborne
illness. A significant portion of the text is devoted to a
discussion of enteric illness in humans caused by zoonotic
pathogens. The second chapter deals with sur vival of pathogens
(which cause foodborne illness) in manure environments. An
evaluation of the human health hazard likely to occur from the use
of ma nure as fertilizer is important because of the recent trend
toward an increase in foodborne illness from the consumption of
minimally processed fruits and vegetables that may have been
fertilized with animal-derived organic materials."
Prenatal life is the period of maximal development in animals,
and it is well recognised that factors that alter development can
have profound effects on the embryonic, fetal and postnatal animal.
Scientists involved in research on livestock productivity have for
decades studied postnatal consequences of fetal development on
productivity. Recently, however, there has been a surge in interest
in how to manage prenatal development to enhance livestock health
and productivity. This has occurred largely due to the studies that
show human health in later life can be influenced by events during
prenatal life, and establishment of the Fetal Origins and the
Thrifty Phenotype Hypotheses. This book, Managing the Prenatal
Environment to Enhance Livestock Productivity reviews phenotypic
consequences of prenatal development, and provides details of
mechanisms that underpin these effects in ruminants, pigs and
poultry. The chapters have been divided into three parts:
Quantification of prenatal effects on postnatal productivity,
mechanistic bases of postnatal consequences of prenatal development
and regulators of fetal and neonatal nutrient supply.
Managing the Prenatal Environment to Enhance Livestock
Productivity is a reference from which future research to improve
the level of understanding and capacity to enhance productivity,
health and efficiency of livestock in developing and developed
countries will evolve. It is particularly timely given the
development of molecular technologies that are providing new
insight into regulation and consequences of growth and development
of the embryo, fetus and neonate.
Foot and mouth disease (FMD) is currently regarded as one of the
world's worst animal plagues. But how did this label become
attached to a curable disease that poses little threat to human
health? And why, in the epidemic of 2001, did the government's
control strategy still rely upon Victorian trade restrictions and
mass slaughter? This groundbreaking and well-researched book shows
that, for over a century, FMD has brought fear, tragedy and sorrow-
damaging businesses and affecting international relations. Yet
these effects were neither inevitable nor caused by FMD itself but
were, rather, the product of the legislation used to control it,
and in this sense FMD is a 'manufactured' plague rather than a
natural one. A Manufactured Plague turns the spotlight on this
process of manufacture, revealing a rich history beset by
controversy, in which party politics, class relations, veterinary
ambitions, agricultural practices, the priorities of farming and
the meat trade, fears for national security and scientific progress
all made FMD what it is today.
"The book not only has distinguished scientists at its helm but
also in the list of contributing authors from Europe, Australasia,
North and South America...Compiling the newest grassland science,
key features of the book are that it: assesses latest research on
how grasslands function; surveys best sustainable grassland
management; and considers wider aspects of sustainability such as
ecosystem services and biodiversity." Grass and Forage Manager -
British Grassland Society "The comprehensiveness of the book will
make it extremely useful for grassland and pasture students. In
addition, it has value for anyone interested in a wide range of
aspects of cultivated grasslands...it is a valuable source of
information on cultivated grasslands in a single book with a good
balance between detail and subjects covered." African Journal of
Range and Forage Science The shift to more intensive livestock
system has put more pressure on grasslands used for pasture. At the
same time, there is a greater understanding of the role of
grasslands in delivering a range of ecosystems services. This
volume reviews the range of research on more sustainable use of
grasslands to optimise livestock nutrition whilst protecting
biodiversity and delivering a range of broader environmental
benefits. Part 1 assesses grassland functions and dynamics,
including plant-soil and plant-animal interactions. Part 2 reviews
key aspects of grassland management, including sowing, soil health,
irrigation and weed control as well as monitoring. The final part
of the book considers wider aspects of sustainability such as
protecting biodiversity as well as silage processing. With its
distinguished editors and international team of subject experts,
this will be a standard reference for grassland and rangeland
scientists, livestock producers, government and non-governmental
organisations responsible for grassland management.
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