Sustainability

Bodenverdichtung

How does compacted soil recover?

It takes mere seconds to compact a soil, but years or even decades for it to recover. Biological activities by plant roots and soil organisms (earthworms) as well as physical effects like drying out and rewetting phases, and freezing-thawing cycles are vital for natural regeneration. Exactly how recovery happens is being investigated in a long-term field trial. For this, an observational infrastructure with hundreds of soil probes – the Soil Structure Observatory (SSO) – was set up in 2014 together with ETH Zurich. After the initial compaction event, a fallow, a permanent grassland and a crop rotation with and without tillage were set up. This allows to analyse e.g. the influence of plants and tillage on recovery.

Bodenfruchtbarkeit und Bodenschutz
SoilStructureObservatory

Regeneration verdichteter Böden


Publikation Arbeitshaltung Melken

Ergonomics in the milking parlour

Milkers frequently suffer from musculoskeletal disorders, especially in the area of the shoulders and arms.  Agroscope therefore investigated whether appropriate working heights can reduce workload in the milking parlour. For this, the angle of flexion of various joints during milking was recorded in one experiment, whilst a second experiment recorded muscle contractions at three different heights. The study showed that although a lower working height in the milking parlour has no effect on forearms or upper arms, it significantly reduces strain on the shoulders. 

Projektnummer: 22.07.17.08.01

Genetische Grundlagen für die Zucht von effizienten Nutztieren

Die Nutztierproduktion hat vielfältige Auswirkungen auf das Klima und den grundlegenden Ressourcen wie Energie, Land und Wasser. Die Genomanalyse von und Wild- und Nutztieren ermöglicht es, diese komplexen Zusammenhänge besser zu verstehen und eine entsprechende nachhaltige Tierzucht auszuarbeiten.

Das Ziel dieses Projektes ist die Erarbeitung von genetischen Grundlagen für eine optimierte Selektion von gesunden, effizienten und robusten Nutztieren, ein besseres Verständnis über die biologischen Prozesse in Nutztieren und die objektive Erfassung von Genotyp (Tier)-Umwelt-Interaktionen. Damit dies erreicht werden kann, erfolgt eine vertiefte Erhebung und Analyse von informativen Phänotypen mittels genetischen, genomischen und metabolomischen Daten. Im Fokus steht die Erarbeitung neuer, verbesserter und nachhaltiger Zuchtmethoden, welche die Erhaltung der genetischen Diversität, die Reduktion von Erbkrankheiten, die Reproduktion und einen langfristigen Zuchtfortschritt von Nutztieren sicherstellen.

Name, Vorname Standort
Bérard Joël Posieux
Eggerschwiler Lukas Posieux
Kasper-Völkl Claudia Posieux
Neuditschko Markus Posieux
Silacci Paolo Posieux

Kuhnert P., Loosli N., Brodard I., Lindtke D., Jores J.
Resistance of zebu cattle (Bos indicus) to colonization by major ruminant hoof pathogens.
Veterinary Microbiology, 296, 2024, 1-6.

Kasper-Völkl C.
Animal board invited review: Heritability of nitrogen use efficiency in fattening pigs, current state and possible directions.
Animal, 18, (8), 2024, 1-18.

Maupomé A., Pastorino N., Schori F., Ampuero S., Kasper-Völkl C.
Methods to estimate genetics parameters related to nitrogen use efficiency and methane emissions in dairy cows.
In: Spring Conference Animal Nutrition. 23 May, Lindau. 2024, 1.

Pastorino N., Maupomé A., Schori F., Ampuero S., Kasper-Völkl C.
Genome-wide association study of nitrogen use efficiency and methane production and intensity on Swiss Holstein cows.
In: Spring Conference Animal Nutrition. 23 May, Lindau. 2024, 1.

Gmel A., Ricard A., Gerber V., Neuditschko M.
Population structure and genomic diversity of the Einsiedler horse.
Animal Genetics, 55, 2024, 475-479.

Lindtke D., Seefried F. R., Drögemüller C., Neuditschko M.
Increased heterozygosity in low‐pass sequencing data allows identification of blood chimeras in cattle.
Animal Genetics, 54, (5), 2024, 613-618.

Démoulins T., Yimthin T., Lindtke D., Eggerschwiler L., Siegenthaler R., Labroussaa F., Jores J.
Temperature impacts the bovine ex vivo immune response towards Mycoplasmopsis bovis.
Veterinary Research, 55, 2024, 1-22.

Gmel A., Haraldsdóttir E., Serra Bragança F., Cruz A., Weishaupt M.
Comparison of speed-dependent time, force and spatial parameters between Franches-Montagnes and European Warmblood horses walking and trotting on a treadmill.
Journal of Equine Veterinary Science, 133, (February), 2024, 1-11.

Mbuthia J., Kasper-Völkl C., Zenk M., Bee G., Metges C., Das G.
Prediction of piglet survival based only on birth weight or within-litter birth weight variability.
In: Book of Abstracts of the 74th Annual Meeting of the European Federation of Animal Science. 26 August - 1 September, Hrsg. EAAP European Federation of Animal Science, Lyon (FR). 2023, 214.

Kasper-Völkl C., Schori F., Ampuero S., Hayoz B., Siegenthaler R., Eggerschwiler L.
The genetic background of nitrogen use efficiency and methane emissions in Swiss dairy cows: Ongoing activities at Agroscope.
In: Agro-Vet Strickhof-Tagung. 7. November, Lindau. 2023, 1.

Kasper-Völkl C., Lepori A., Gutiérrez J. P., Formoso-Rafferty N., Sell-Kubiak E., Cervantes I.
Breeding for uniformity in piglet birth weight to improve survival.
In: Book of Abstracts of the 74th Annual Meeting of the European Federation of Animal Science. Hrsg. EAAP European Federation of Animal Science. 2023, 210.

Kasper-Völkl C., Lepori A., Gutiérrez J. P., Formoso-Rafferty N., Sell-Kubiak E., Cervantes I.
Genetic parameters for genetic variance uniformity in Swiss pigs’ birth weight.
In: Book of Abstracts of the 74th Annual Meeting of the European Federation of Animal Science. Hrsg. EAAP European Federation of Animal Science. 2023, 204.

Gmel A., Stefaniuk-Szmukier M., Klecel W., Martin-Gimenez T., Cruz A., Weishaupt M.
Differences in joint angles from photographs between six European breeds: Preliminary results.
In: The 9th International Conference on Canine and Equine Locomotion. 30. August, Utrecht (NL). 2023, S14.

Gmel A., Haraldsdottir E., Neuditschko M., Weishaupt M.
Differences in gait quality parameters between Franches-Montagnes and Swiss Warmblood horses.
In: The 9th International Conference on Canine and Equine Locomotion. 30. August, Utrecht (NL). 2023, 14.

Kasper-Völkl C., Lepori A., Gutiérrez J.P., Formoso-Rafferty N., Sell-Kubiak E., Cervantes I.
Breeding for uniformity in piglet birth weight to improve survival.
In: EAAP. 27 August, Lyon. 2023, 1.

Kasper-Völkl C., Lepori A., Gutiérrez J.P., Formoso-Rafferty N., Sell-Kubiak E., Cervantes I.
Genetic parameters for genetic variance uniformity in Swiss pigs’ birth weight.
In: EAAP. 27 August, Lyon. 2023, 1-16.

Kasper-Völkl C., Schori F., Ampuero S.
Current study investigating the genetic background of nitrogen use efficiency and methane emissions in Swiss dairy cows.
In: Interbull Meeting. 26. August, Lyon. 2023, 1-14.

Roch L., Ewaoluwagbemiga E., Kasper-Völkl C.
Phenotypic link between protein efficiency and pig welfare suggests no apparent trade-offs for mitigating nitrogen pollution.
Scientific Reports, 13, 2023, 1-13.

Kasper-Völkl C., Schori F., Ampuero S., Hayoz B., Siegenthaler R., Eggerschwiler L.
Ongoing research to investigate the genetic background of nitrogen use efficiency and methane emissions of Swiss dairy cows.
In: ICAR Meeting. 24. May, Toledo. 2023.

Ewaoluwagbemiga E., Bee G., Kasper-Völkl C.
Genetic analysis of protein efciency and its association with performance and meat quality traits under a protein-restricted diet.
Genetics Selection Evolution, 55, 2023, 1-16.

Roch L., Ewaoluwagbemiga E., Kasper-Völkl C.
Social interactions, precursors of damaging behaviours, object manipulation, straw rooting, and activity: A detailed data set in undocked pigs under protein restriction.
Animal Open Space, 2, 2023, 1-7.

Gmel A., Brem G., Neuditschko M.
New genomic insights into the conformation of Lipizzan horses.
Scientific Reports, 13, 2023, 1-9.

Kasper-Völkl C., Schori F., Ampuero S., Hayoz B., Siegenthaler R., Eggerschwiler L.
Laufende Untersuchungen zu genetischen Grundlagen von Stickstoffnutzungseffizienz und Methanemissionen von Schweizer Milchkühen.
In: Spring Conference 2023. 19.April, Hrsg. SCHWEIZERISCHE VEREINIGUNG FÜR TIERWISSENSCHAFTEN, Zollikofen. 2023, 1.

Kasper-Völkl C., Schori F., Ampuero S., Hayoz B., Siegenthaler R., Eggerschwiler L.
Laufende Untersuchungen zu genetischen Grundlagen von Stickstoffnutzungseffizienz und Methanemissionen von Schweizer Milchkühen.
In: Schweizerische Vereinigung für Tierwissenschaften-Tagung 2023. 19. April, Hrsg. HAFL, Zollikofen. 2023.

Gmel A., Guichard M., Dainat B., Rhys Williams G., Eynard S., Vignal A., Servin B., the Beestrong Consortium, Neuditschko M.
Identification of runs of homozygosity in Western honey bees (Apis mellifera) using whole-genome sequencing data.
Ecology and Evolution, 13, (1), 2023, 1-13.

Parmentier J. I. M., Bosch S., van der Zwaag B. J., Weishaupt M. A., Gmel A. I., Havinga P. J. M., van Weeren P. R., Serra Braganca F. M.
Prediction of continuous and discrete kinetic parameters in horses from inertial measurement units data using recurrent artificial neural networks.
Scientific Reports, 13, 2023, 1-14.

Couteller L., Roch L., Kasper-Völkl C.
Distinctive gene-expression profiles characterise tail-biting precursors in pigs under dietary protein restriction.
In: Proceeding of 12th World Congress on Genetics Applied to Livestock Production (WCGALP). Hrsg. Wageningen Academic Publishers, Wageningen (Netherlands). 2023, 3270-3273.

Pick J. L., Kasper-Völkl C., Allegue H., Dingemanse N. J., Dochtermann N. A., Laskowski K. L., Lima M. R., Schielzeth H., Westneat D.F., Wright J., Araya-Ajoy Y. G.
Describing posterior distributions of variance components: Problems and the use of null distributions to aid interpretation.
Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 14, (10), 2023, 2557-2574.

Ewaoluwagbemiga E., Bee G., Kasper-Völkl C.
Protein efficiency is heritable but not genetically correlated with meat quality in pigs.
In: Proceeding of 12th World Congress on Genetics Applied to Livestock Production (WCGALP). Wageningen Academic Publishers. 2022, 352-355.

Gmel A., Haraldsdóttir E. H., Bragança F. M. S., Cruz A. M., Neuditschko M., Weishaupt M. A.
Determining objective parameters to assess gait quality in Franches-montagnes horses for ground coverage and over-tracking: Part 2: At trot.
Journal of Equine Veterinary Science, 120, 2022, 1-9.

Couteller L., Roch L., Kasper-Völkl C.
Tail biting and its precursors have distinctive gene-expression profiles in protein-restricted pigs.
In: 73rd Annual Meeting of the European Federation of Animal Science. 5-9 September, Hrsg. EAAP, Porto. 2022, 325.

Gmel A., Burren A., Neuditschko M.
Estimates of Genetic Parameters for Shape Space Data in Franches-Montagnes Horses.
Animals, 12, (17), 2022, 1-16.

Couteller L., Roch L., Kasper-Völkl C.
Tail biting and its precursors have distinctive gene-expression profiles in protein-restricted pigs.
In: EAAP-Konferenz. 06. September, Porto. 2022.

Couteller L., Roch L., Kasper-Völkl C.
Distinctive gene-expression profiles characterise tail-biting precursors in pigs under dietary protein restriction.
In: World Congress on Genetics Applied to Livestock Production. 08. Juli, Rotterdam. 2022.

Ewaoluwagbemiga E., Bee G., Kasper-Völkl C.
Protein efficiency is heritable but not genetically correlated with meat quality traits in pigs.
In: World Congress on Genetics Applied to Livestock Production. 04. Juli, Rotterdam. 2022.

Gmel A., Haraldsdottir E., Serra Bragança F., Cruz A., Neuditschko M., Weishaupt M.
Determining objective parameters to assess gait quality in Franches-Montagnes horses for ground coverage and over-tracking: Part 1: At walk.
Journal of Equine Veterinary Science, 115, 2022, 1-10.

Roepstorff C., Gmel A. I., Arpagaus S., Serra Bragança F. M., Hernlund E., Rhodin M., Roepstorff L., Weishaupt M. A.
Modelling fore- and hindlimb peak vertical force differences in trotting horses using upper body kinematic asymmetry variables.
Journal of Biomechanics, 137, (May), 2022, 1-11.

Gmel A. I., Gmel G., Weishaupt M. A., Neuditschko M.
Gait quality scoring data of Franches-Montagnes stallions at walk and trot on a treadmill by experts of the breed and their reliability.
Data in Brief, 42, 2022, 1-11.

Rinder Fuetterung

Optimised feed reduces environmental impacts

On behalf of Micarna SA, Agroscope analysed the environmental impacts of beef, pork and poultry production. With beef production, feed intensity was crucial. In the case of pork and poultry production, the quantity of feed used per kg of meat had the greatest influence on environmental impacts. The use of European soya with its shorter transport distances had a positive effect.