DIMOVA, N., I. IVANOVA, M. MIHAILOVA, N. TODOROV and N. NAYDENOVA, 2009. Wheat distiller’s grains as a source of protein in dairy sheep. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 15: 574-582 The aim of the experiment was to test a simple and cheap system of ewe feeding with forages supplemented with dry distiller’s grain with soluble (DDGS), as a source of protein and whole grains, as the source of energy, compare...

Conventional livestock farming provides consumers with cheap and reliable sources of milk and meat. Yet the inevitable by-product, i.e. livestock faecal matter, represents a potential source of pathogenic microorganisms. This paper applies the Faecal Indicator Organisms Costing Assessment Tool (FIOCAT), which was designed as part of the RELU project ‘sustainable and holistic food chains for rec...

The ability of mathematical models to represent the lactation process varies according with their structure and database characteristics. aim current study was evaluated goodness fit empirical mechanistic applied dairy sheep curves different shapes. A total 4,494 weekly test day records were analyzed. All lactations individually fitted using two (Wood Wilmink) (Dijkstra, Pollott) models. Dijkst...

Maedi-Visna Virus (MVV) seroprevalence and its relationship with housing and mode of rearing of replacement ewe-lambs was investigated in 38 non-randomly selected sheep-flocks in Spain. They included extensive lamb-producing Manchega cross-bred flocks raised almost permanently at pasture, semi-intensive Latxa dairy flocks housed 2-8 months/year and intensively raised Assaf dairy flocks housed m...

Staphylococcus aureus mastitis in dairy sheep ranges from subclinical mastitis to lethal gangrenous mastitis. Neither the S. aureus virulence factors nor the host-factors or the epidemiological events contributing to the different outcomes are known. In a field study in a dairy sheep farm over 21 months, 16 natural isolates of S. aureus were collected from six subclinical mastitis cases, one le...

Heat stress causes infertility in farm animals and represents a major source of economic loss. In response to heat stress, managers can attempt a variety of approaches to improve reproduction. These approaches usually involve modifying the environment (i.e., attempting to cool cows during reproduction), modifying the genetics of the animal (i.e., breeding to heat tolerant breeds) or intensifyin...

Infections with Schmallenberg virus (SBV) are associated with congenital malformations in ruminants. Because reporting of suspected cases only could underestimate the true rate of infection, we conducted a seroprevalence study in the Netherlands to detect past exposure to SBV among dairy cattle. A total of 1,123 serum samples collected from cattle during November 2011-January 2012 were tested f...

Methane (CH4) from enteric fermentation is one of the main anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in South Africa. Livestock population data from 1990 to 2014 and emission factors were utilized in estimating CH4 emissions as per the 2006 IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) guidelines. CH4 emissions originating from country-specific emission factors were compared with those ca...