The inflammatory response evokes changes in behaviour including increased thermoregulatory activities and sleep, reduced social exploration and appetite, and altered food preferences. This sickness response also includes feelings of lethargy, depression, and pain, collectively referred to as ‘malaise’. Recent experiments involving laboratory rodents reveal information about proximate mechanisms of sickness behaviour, but scant information exists about how sickness behaviour is expressed by farmed species or within social environments. The behavioural needs of ill individuals differ from those of conspecifics, and failure to accommodate the needs of ill individuals may exacerbate suffering. Policy makers, industry and animal welfare certification programs recommend hospital pens to address the housing and handling needs of ill livestock and to reduce risks of disease transmission. However, a survey of swine farms in Ontario, Canada revealed deficiencies in the use of hospital pens and gaps in knowledge about best management practices for this vulnerable population. There is considerable scope to improve the welfare and husbandry of ill and at risk animals through effective use of hospital pens and supportive therapies.

Anomaly detection in asset condition data is critical for reliable industrial asset operations. But statistical anomaly classifiers require certain amount of normal operations training data before acceptable accuracy can be achieved. The necessary training data are often not available in the early periods of assets operations. This problem is addressed in this paper using a hierarchical model for the asset fleet that systematically identifies similar assets, and enables collaborative learning within the clusters of similar assets. The general behavior of the similar assets are represented using higher level models, from which the parameters are sampled describing the individual asset operations. Hierarchical models enable the individuals from a population, comprising of statistically coherent subpopulations, to collaboratively learn from one another. Results obtained with the hierarchical model show a marked improvement in anomaly detection for assets having low amount of data, compared to independent modeling or having a model common to the entire fleet.

Strongyle infection is an important issue in horse breeding. It impairs horse health and performance, with young horses being the most sensitive. Strongyle control has long relied on the systematic use of chemical treatments. However, expanding anthelmintic resistance among strongyles calls for alternative options. Mixed grazing is assumed to reduce strongyle load on the pasture as the result of a dilution effect. This has been shown in small ruminants grazing with cattle, but the putative benefits of co-grazing between horses and cattle have not yet been evaluated. Here, we conducted field surveys and face-to-face interviews on 44 farms from two contrasted saddle-horse production areas, Normandy and northern Massif Central, to compare equine strongyle management practices between specialized systems and mixed horse-cattle systems. Our goals were (i) to quantify breeders’ awareness of the putative benefits associated with the co-grazing of horses and cattle, (ii) to establish whether mixed farming was associated with different strongyle management strategies and (iii) to test whether strongyle egg excretion was reduced in horses grazed with beef cattle. Every breeder relied on systematic calendar treatments, and only 8 out of the 23 mixed breeders were aware that co-grazing of horses with cattle could be used as part of their strongyle control strategy. Management practices were similar across both systems in Normandy. In Massif Central, mixed breeders formed a distinct cluster from their specialized counterparts: deworming was less frequent and stocking density was higher in mixed farms, while specialized breeders seemed more willing to integrate herd and plot management into control strategies. Faecal egg counts measured in horses from Massif Central were significantly reduced when horses were grazed with cattle. This was the result of an increased reliance on macrocyclic lactones in mixed farms (P < 0.01) and a significant dilution effect (P < 0.01). When considering a subsample of horses treated with macrocyclic lactones only, young horses grazed with cattle had 50% fewer strongyle eggs excreted in their faeces than horses grazed in equine-only pastures (P < 0.01). This is the first evidence of the benefits of mixed grazing with cattle as an alternative to control strongyle infection in horses, although this promising alternative remains largely unknown by horse breeders.

Jalauni sheep are found in the Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh states in India. About 37% of the geographical area of this region is under cultivation and about 86% of the population, mostly directly or indirectly dependent on agriculture, live in villages. Forests, cultivable waste and barren land occupy more than 50% of the area, permanent pasture and other grazing lands about 9% and miscellaneous tree crops and grasses about 0.7%. The livestock census figures of 1977 and 1997 indicate an annual declining trend of 0.04 % in the sheep population in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh states. Characterization and evaluation of Jalauni sheep under field conditions were undertaken to establish the norms, morphological characteristics and performance parameters of this breed. A total of 78 households were visited in 29 villages in five districts. Information on feeding, breeding and management practices, utility patterns etc. and production and reproductive performance was collected through personal observations and interaction with the farmers. Body weight and/or body measurements were recorded for 374 animals. Average adult body weights of male and female Jalauni sheep were 35.5±2.1 and 27.2±0.7 kg respectively. Age at first lambing was 1.5 to 2 years and lambing interval one year. A ewe, on an average, delivers 7–9 lambs in her lifetime.