Agri-Fishery Arts 2: Animal Husbandry and Technologies

• These are notes on Agri-Fishery Arts 2, focusing on animal husbandry and related technologies.

Animal Husbandry

• This branch of agriculture focuses on the care, breeding, and management of domestic animals.
• The purpose is for food production, labor, and companionship.
• It aims to improve animal welfare and the quality of products like meat, milk, eggs, and fiber through practices like feeding, breeding, health management, housing, and handling.

Artificial Insemination (AI)

• Involves collecting sperm cells from male animals and manually depositing them into a female's reproductive tract.
• Steps include semen collection, semen processing, heat detection in females, insemination using a syringe, and pregnancy monitoring.

Advantages of AI

• Increased breeding efficiency
• Reduced need for physical breeding.
• Improving genetics leads to better quality offspring.
• Reduced risk of disease transmission.

Disadvantages of AI

• High initial costs for specialized equipment, trained personnel, and storage facilities.
• Requires skilled personnel to ensure proper semen handling and successful fertilization.
• If not performed correctly, AI can have a lower success rate than natural mating, especially with poor quality or improperly stored semen.

Embryo Transfer

• An embryo from a high-quality female is placed into another female to carry the pregnancy.
• This allows for more offspring from superior animals without the donor needing to give birth.
• It results in more high-quality animals and speeds up genetic improvement.
• It can help rare or endangered animals.

Cons of Embryo Transfer

• It is an expensive process that needs skilled workers.
• It is not always successful.

In Vitro Fertilization (IVF)

• This is a reproductive technology that enhances breeding efficiency and genetic improvement in livestock by fertilizing an egg with sperm outside the animal's body in a lab.
• Fertilized embryos are transferred to a surrogate or frozen.
• The process is used in cattle, sheep, goats, horses, and exotic species.

Advantages of IVF

• Results in genetic improvement by allowing selective breeding for traits like milk production and disease resistance.
• Increased offspring production, which allows a single high-value female to produce multiple embryos.
• Helps conserve rare breeds by ensuring successful reproduction.
• Overcomes infertility by helping animals with reproductive challenges.

Disadvantages of IVF

• It is expensive with the need for specialized equipment, making it inaccessible for small-scale farmers.
• It requires skilled veterinarians and lab technicians.
• It can cause stress or complications in surrogate mothers.
• IVF enhances breeding efficiency, improves genetic traits, and increases reproductive success in livestock.

Cloning

• This is a scientific method to create genetically identical copies of animals.
• It preserves high-quality livestock, increasing food production, and improving animal genetics.
• Cloning produces an exact genetic copy of an animal.
• It is done with Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer (SCNT), which transfers the nucleus of a donor cell into an egg cell.

Importance of Cloning

• This preserves desirable traits like milk production and disease resistance.
• It increases food production with more meat, milk, and other products.
• It helps conserve endangered breeds by preventing extinction.

Examples of Cloned Animals

• Dolly the Sheep (1996) was the first cloned mammal using SCNT.
• Cloning is now used in cows, pigs, and goats to reproduce high-quality breeds.
• Some horses and dogs are cloned for sports and companionship.

Challenges of Cloning

• It is expensive and not widely used in commercial farming.
• Some cloned animals suffer from genetic defects or shorter lifespans.
• Some believe cloning interferes with natural reproduction.

Genetic Engineering

• The process of directly modifying an organism's DNA using biotechnology.
• This technique alters genetic material to achieve desired traits to improve health, increase productivity, and create disease-resistant species.

Examples of Genetic Engineering in Animals

• Pigs are being genetically modified to resist Classical Swine Fever (CSF) and African Swine Fever.
• Sheep are genetically engineered to increase milk production, improve milk quality, and enhance wool quality.
• Chickens are being developed to resist bird flu and grow faster.

Advantages of Genetic Engineering

• Reduces the spread of illnesses in animals and humans.
• Enhances growth rates, meat yield, and other desirable traits.
• Helps in producing human-compatible organs and valuable proteins.
• Reduces the need for chemical pesticides and antibiotics.

Disadvantages of Genetic Engineering

• Some believe altering DNA is unnatural.
• Changes in genes could create unforeseen health or environmental issues.
• Can cause loss of genetic diversity by replacing original species.
• Research and implementation are costly and require advanced technology.

Precision Livestock Farming (PLF)

• This utilizes technology to monitor and manage farm animals efficiently.
• It detects diseases early, improves animal welfare, increases productivity, and reduces waste and costs.

Automated Feeding System

• Designed to optimize the feeding system in animal husbandry.
• Controlled, programmed, and computerized, dispensing and managing food for animals at predetermined times and quantities.
• It prepares food, sends it to the feeding area, identifies the animal, provides the correct amount of food, and adjusts to ensure everything runs smoothly.

Benefits of Automated Feeding

• Reduces labor costs and minimizes feeding errors.
• Provides consistent and accurate feeding, reducing the risk of disease and illness.
• Promotes animal comfort and well-being through a stress-free feeding environment.
• Provides valuable insights into animal feeding behavior and system performance.

Vaccination and Disease Control Programs

• This program prevents, controls, and eliminates diseases in animals through vaccines.
• The vaccines help build immunity against deadly or contagious infections or diseases.
• Vaccines introduce harmless components of pathogens to trigger antibody production.
• Common diseases include Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) in livestock and Avian Influenza (Bird Flu) in chickens.

Benefits of Vaccination

• Helps reduce/control diseases, improving animal welfare and health.
• Results in more productive, leading to increased milk, meat, and egg production.
• Reduces the financial burden on farmers and the animal industry.
• Creates a safer food supply for human consumption.

Nutrigenomics

• Nutrition provides the food necessary for growth, energy, and overall health.
• Genomics studies an organism's genes and their function in animal husbandry help identify genetic traits that affect the animal.
• Nutrigenomics studies how nutrition and genes interact by understanding how an animal's diet can influence its genes and how its genetic makeup affects its response to food. By doing so, farmers can adjust animal diets to improve health and maximize productivity.