The usual approach in livestock genetic improvement is to consider the phenotype as a sum of a heritable component and a residual non-genetic component, referred to as environment, P = A + E. However, when individuals are kept in groups, the environment that an individual experiences contains a social component due to its group members. In contrast to the physical environment, this social component may have a heritable basis and therefore respond to selection. Thus, for traits affected by social interactions among individuals, current selection strategies can be improved by including the social effects of individuals in the selection decisions. Here we present some basic theory for improving traits affected by interactions, and first empirical results in three populations of layer chickens.

Dietary lipids have the capacity to regulate many aspects of metabolism in a manner depend on chain length and the number, and position, of double bonds in the fatty acids they contain. For example, while long chain saturated fatty acids increase plasma cholesterol, polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) have the opposite effect. PUFA also have a major impact on the activity of enzymes associated with carbohydrate metabolism and lipid biosynthesis and oxidation. The role of fatty acids as substrates in these pathways, and their conversion to eicosanoids, with different levels of activity depending on the parent molecule, represents two mechanisms whereby they exert such effects. However, more recently it has been established that fatty acids and/or their derivatives also have direct effects on the expression of genes for proteins regulating carbohydrate and lipid metabolism.

This paper reviews research on consequences of cattle nutrition and growth during foetal and neonatal life for subsequent growth, efficiency, carcass, yield and beef quality characteristics (Greenwood and Cafe 2007). It includes findings from our recent studies on consequences of growth during pregnancy and to weaning (Greenwood et al., 2006). The reader is also referred to reviews on consequences of prenatal development in livestock by Bell (2006), and on consequences of bovine foetal, pre-weaning and early post-weaning nutrition and growth by Greenwood et al., (2005).

In the context of increased globalisation and competitiveness, producers of animal products have been the most affected with considerable reductions in profit margins. Research on nutrition in farm animals is thus still needed to reduce the costs of production by increasing metabolic efficiency. To achieve this goal, the objective is always to control animal performance accurately by improved quantification of animal requirements and by precise feed evaluation. At the same time, the farming and agri-food sectors are faced with a general saturation of food markets in Europe and with an increasing demand by consumers for high-quality meat and dairy products. This has also led to specific research in nutrition which aims to optimise metabolic activity of muscle and mammary gland to produce meat and dairy products of the desirable composition. This paper aims to address this important question: how animal nutrition may help to optimise metabolic efficiency and product quality. Today this needs better knowledge of tissue and organ requirements and of nutrient fate within tissues and organs as well as of their contribution to the quality of animal products. Furthermore, in order to achieve this goal of greater understanding of animal response to nutrition, new concepts and techniques are available to decipher mechanisms that were impossible to address adequately a few years ago. In this connection, emerging approaches such as genomics and modelling provide the means for a better insight into the mechanisms which regulate metabolism at tissue or whole body level.

In the region of 90 million tonnes of farm manures, supplying 450,000 tonnes of nitrogen (N) and 119,000 tonnes of phosphorus (P) are applied to agricultural land in the UK each year. These applications are a valuable source of plant nutrients but they are also recognised as the largest source of controllable pollution in present day farming systems. Over 70% of nitrate entering water systems is estimated to originate from agricultural land and the transfer of particulate and soluble P from agricultural land has been estimated to contribute 40-50% of P loads in watercourses. Ammonia (NH3) emissions from UK agriculture contribute c.80% of total UK emissions with losses following the land spreading of farm manures responsible for c.96,000 tonnes of NH3 each year.

Projected increased demand for food in developing countries over the next 30 years implies a correspondingly great need for additional agricultural water unless integrated research and development can achieve much higher water-use efficiencies. Without appropriate innovations in water management, poor access, quality and supply will continue to constrain food production. A global consortium recently completed the Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management and Agriculture (CA 2007) and identified many options for overcoming water-related constraints to sustainable food production in developing countries. Historically, research and development of water resources has neglected the potential benefits and impacts of livestock. Apart from drinking water, livestock professionals have not given adequate attention to the use of and impact of domestic animals on water and related environmental health. In the absence of good science, popular literature is often highly critical of livestock production because of its perceived excess depletion of vital water resources. The CA uniquely attempted to address this issue (Peden 2007). This paper summarizes the CA’s findings about livestock for the benefit of the British Society of Animal Science (BSAS) and the wider livestock research community.

Research into the biology and physiopathology of the bovine claw has become interdisciplinary employing epidemiology, cellular and molecular biology. Foot disorders in cattle are a global problem causing substantial economic losses to farmers. New hypotheses demonstrate possible links between systemic problems and local damage in the claw. Tissue explant and cell culture studies have already provided important insights into regulation of differentiation in healthy and diseased claw tissue (Hendry et al 1997, 2003; Nebel et al 2002, 2004). Detailed knowledge of the links between systemic events and the claw tissue as well as knowledge on the local regulatory cascades in response to metabolic and biomechanical challenges provide the key to understanding of the development of claw diseases. The development and experimental application of novel organotypic in vitro culture systems and an ex vivo isolated haemoperfused distal cow limb model (Wüstenberg 2004) was a major task and outcome of the EU framework 5 project Lamecow (http://www.abdn.ac.uk/lamecow).

In this presentation I review recent results from our research group on the assessment and prevention of lameness in dairy cows.