The maintenance of phenotypic variation is a central question in evolutionary biology. A commonly suggested mechanism is that of local adaptation, whereby different phenotypes are adapted to alternative environmental conditions. A recent study in the European barn owl (Tyto alba) has shown that natural selection maintains a strong clinal variation in reddish pheomelanin-based coloration. Studie...

Escalating energy and fertilizer N prices have renewed farmer interests in methods that reduce manure management costs and enhance the fertilizer value of manure. At the same time, air quality legislation seeks to mitigate ammonia loss from animal operations. We compared two dairy heifer management practices on manure N capture and recycling through crops: the conventional practice of barn manu...

Transfer of cattle to an unknown barn may result in a reduction in its welfare. Housing and management practices can result in signs of stress that include a long-term suppression of milk efficiency. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the influence of moving cows from the stanchion-stall housing to free-stall housing on their behaviour and production. The Holstein cows were moved into th...

BACKGROUND Organic hog barn dust (HDE) exposure induces lung inflammation and long-term decreases in lung function in agricultural workers. While concentrations of common gasses in confined animal facilities are well characterized, few studies have been done addressing if exposure to elevated barn gasses impacts the lung immune response to organic dusts. Given the well documented effects of hyp...

Animal bodies are inhabited by a taxonomically and functionally diverse community of symbiotic and commensal microorganisms. From an ecological and evolutionary perspective, inter-individual variation in host-associated microbiota contributes to physiological and immune system variation. As such, host-associated microbiota may be considered an integral part of the host's phenotype, serving as a...

Concentrations and emissions of particulate matter with aerodynamic diameters = 10 μm (PM10) were continuously measured in a mechanically ventilated turkey grow-out barn in central Iowa. The PM concentrations were measured with Tapered Element Oscillating Microbalance (TEOM) units; and ventilation rate (VR) of the barn was measured by monitoring the runtime of calibrated ventilation fans. Bird ...

For prey capture in the dark, the barn owl Tyto alba has evolved into an auditory specialist with an exquisite capability of sound localization. Adaptations include asymmetrical ears, enlarged auditory processing centers, the utilization of minute interaural time differences, and phase locking along the entire hearing range up to 10 kHz. Adaptations on the molecular level have not yet been inve...

Barn swallows Hirundo rustica often have characteristic feather holes on wing and tail feathers. During the past 15 yr, several influential papers have been based on the assumption that these holes were chewed by the louse Machaerilaemus malleus. We gathered feather-hole data from barn swallows and other passerines at 2 sites in Hungary and correlated the presence of holes with louse infestatio...

Swine confinement workers are at increased risk of airway diseases, including mucus membrane irritation syndrome, chronic rhinosinusitis and chronic bronchitis. Dust extracts from swine confinement facilities stimulate the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines in bronchial epithelial cells, including interleukin (IL)-8. As IL-8 is capable of blocking beta-agonist-stimulated increases in cili...