This book is about resource allocation matters with the aim to further development thoughts and models on resource allocation applied to livestock production. It contains 18 chapters divided into 4 parts which discuss resources and resource allocation patterns, trade-offs, metabolic constraints to resource allocation and the process of homeorhesis with a special emphasis to homeorhesis during heat stress; the relationship between food intake and resources allocated to body maintenance, growth, reproduction and the immune response; the consequences of high production efficiency in pigs, poultry and dairy cattle and the consequences of improved production by means of biological engineering and options to include resource allocation matters in the breeding objective, animal welfare and in resource allocation modelling.

Livestock Health and Farming provides a detailed description of key aspects of livestock health issues and farming practices. Chapters cover such topics as antimicrobial resistance in livestock, nutrition and its role in animal health and farming, nutrition and health management in dairy animals, and livestock feeding in semi-arid regions.

Biological and physiological systems: animal sciences. Plant-animal interactions in northern temperate sown grasslands and semi-natural vegetation. Exploitation of the systems approach in technical design of agricultural enterprises. Application of systems theory to farm planning and control: modelling resource allocation. Optimising the mixture of enterprises in a farming system. Farming systems research-extension. Food policy and food security planning: institutional approaches to modelling grain markets and food security in Sub-Saharn Africa. A systems view of commercial supply and marketing links. Agroecosystems. Understanding and managing changes in agriculture. Agricultural sector modelling for policy development. Of agricultural systems and systems agriculture: systems methodologies in agricultural education. Extension education: Top(s) Down, Bottom(s) Up and Other Things.

Recent advances in quantitative genetic and genomic studies have shed light on the important role of genetic control strategies for reducing disease risk and severity in livestock populations. There are two alternative host defence strategies to infectious pathogens that could be enhanced by genetic selection: improvement of host resistance versus improvement of host tolerance to infectious pathogens. Resistance refers to mechanisms that restrict the reproduction rate of a pathogen within a host, whilst tolerance mechanisms focus on minimising the damage that a pathogen inflicts on the host. Both strategies may have a similar impact on individual host fitness and performance, but can have contrasting effects on population performance and disease risk and severity. For example, improving host resistance may result in successful eradication of a disease from a livestock population, whereas disease eradication may be difficult if hosts are tolerant as these can harbour the pathogen without showing obvious or severe symptoms. On the other hand, it has been argued that increasing host resistance would fuel the arms race between host and pathogen and stimulate pathogen evolution towards higher virulence. Increasing tolerance, in contrast, imposes no or little selection pressure on the pathogen. Further, whereas disease resistance mechanisms may be specific to a particular pathogen (e.g. development of specific antibodies), tolerance mechanisms that repair damaged tissues are associated with the host rather than the pathogen, and are thus more likely to be generic to a range of pathogens. Hence, improving tolerance may be beneficial if individuals are exposed to a variety of pathogens or pathogen strains, and disease eradication has proven difficult. In contrast to evolutionary biology and plant breeding, animal breeding has only recently started to seriously consider a distinction between disease resistance and tolerance and their consequences. However, a deeper understanding of the underlying mechanisms and implications of improving either or both of the host defence mechanisms on future disease risk and severity is urgently needed by animal scientists, veterinarians and breeders to make informed decisions that help to maintain healthy livestock populations and guarantee food security. The topic ‘genetic improvement of disease resistance v tolerance’ would lend itself to research papers covering a variety of aspects that need to be considered, such as ‘how to obtain genetic parameter estimates and genomic breeding values related to disease resistance / tolerance’, ‘evidence for host genetic influence of resistance or tolerance’, ‘genetic, genomic and immunological understanding of resistance / tolerance mechanisms’, ‘epidemiological consequences of improving disease resistance / tolerance’. I believe that this research topic is both timely and relevant, and that sufficient knowledge is available across disciplines for composing valuable research / review articles that stimulate interest to a wide range of readers of Frontiers, and thus promote the growth of this journal.

This newly updated and revised volume of the Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology (ESST) details the role of Animal Breeding and Genetics in the sustainability of animal agriculture. The volume covers scientific principles and applications includes the current science used to advance cattle, poultry, swine,sheep, and equine populations, as well as the future role of techniques such as gene editing. International leaders in the field explain foundational concepts such as heritability, the covariance between relatives, statistical approaches to predicting the genetic merit of individuals, and the development and advancement of molecular techniques to elucidate changes in the DNA sequence that underly phenotypic variation. The use of genetic-based tools to improve animal agriculture and meet consumer demands across species is treated in detail. Readers will gain an understanding of how global livestock producers have implemented advanced genetic selection tools and used them to improve reproduction, production, efficiency, health, and sustainability. The interactions of genetics and production environments, and the genetic components of the complex interactions among animals are also discussed. The future of Animal Breeding and Genetics, including the challenges and opportunities that exist in feeding a growing world population, are addressed.

Feed Efficiency in the Beef Industry provides a thorough and concise overview of feed efficiency in beef cattle. It frames the great importance of feed efficiency to the industry and details the latest findings of the many scientific disciplines that intersect and aim to improve efficient and sustainable production of nutritious beef. The vast majority of production costs are directly tied to feed. With increased demand for grains to feed a rapidly increasing world population and to supply a new demand for alternative fuels, feed costs continue to increase. In recent years, the negative environmental impacts of inefficient feeding have also been realized; as such feed efficiency is an important factor in both economic viability and environmental sustainability of cattle production. Feed Efficiency in the Beef Industry covers a broad range of topics ranging from economic evaluation of feed efficiency to the physiological and genetic bases of efficient conversion of feed to high quality beef. Chapters also look at how a fuller understanding of feed efficiency is leading to new selective breeding efforts to develop more efficient cattle. With wide-ranging coverage from leading international researchers, Feed Efficiency will be a valuable resource for producers who wish to understand the complexities, challenges, and opportunities to reduce their cost of production, for students studying the topic and for researchers and professionals working in the beef industry.

Air Emissions from Animal Feeding Operations: Current Knowledge, Future Needs discusses the need for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to implement a new method for estimating the amount of ammonia, nitrous oxide, methane, and other pollutants emitted from livestock and poultry farms, and for determining how these emissions are dispersed in the atmosphere. The committee calls for the EPA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to establish a joint council to coordinate and oversee short - and long-term research to estimate emissions from animal feeding operations accurately and to develop mitigation strategies. Their recommendation was for the joint council to focus its efforts first on those pollutants that pose the greatest risk to the environment and public health.