Animal experimentation is accepted provided that no other means of gaining important knowledge is possible and animal suffering is limited. Each researcher should evaluate the potential harms on the animals and weigh these harms against the benefits expected from the results. There are now grids for assessing pain in many species, including farm animals, and means to know how constraining a situation may be perceived by animals. The 3Rs (replace, reduce, refine) rule calls for minimizing the constraints on animals by refining procedures, reducing animal numbers to the minimum necessary to obtain exploitable results, and using methods not requiring animal experimentation. It remains difficult to balance between constraints for animals and expected benefits from the results. We propose to evaluate the relevance of an experiment using five criteria: i) existence of a 3R strategy; ii) application of the 3R in the planned experiment; iii) constraints imposed on animals; iv) importance of the expected results; v) probability of obtaining exploitable results. We recall current European regulations: approval of establishments housing animals, training of personnel, and setting-up of structures responsible for animal welfare within establishments and of ethics committees to evaluate experimental projects. We provide a few important elements that will help researchers to prepare their applications for authorization of an experiment.
Vitamins are essential nutrients for the proper functioning of mammalian cells, but these cells are generally not able to synthesize them, or not in sufficient quantities to cover the needs of the whole organism. They are involved in most cellular biological functions and at all physiological stages of individuals. Specific needs have to be covered by regular nutritional intake, because of limited body's storage capacity. Epidemiological studies indicate that this is not the case. In addition to the well-known symptomatic pathologies of deficiencies in each of the vitamins (like xerophthalmia due to vitamin A deficiency), the links between these sub-clinical intakes and the risks of developing diseases with age are highlighted. Dairy products can be interesting vitamin sources because of the quantities they contain, their bioavailability, their regular consumption, whether daily or yearly, and their affordability. However, elements to characterize the vitamin content in these products are still far from complete. Some vitamins have not yet been studied (D, K, B-1, B-3, B-5, B-8 and C), some variation factors have been described for others. Grazing ruminants thus seem to produce milk that is richer in vitamins (A, E, B-2, B-9) than in other feeding modes, but this turns out to be to the detriment of vitamin B-12 for which dairy products are important provider in human nutrition. A more detailed knowledge of the qualitative and quantitative relationships between production conditions (species, breeds, nature of the feed in particular) would eventually make it possible to propose ways of producing milk and dairy products whose vitamin content could be optimized.
Zinc and copper are heavy metals that may have short-or long-term environmental risk for agricultural soils on which pig manure is spread. Zinc and copper are essential for pigs and farm performance, and they are added as supplements to the feed. Because of their low retention rate by animals, however, most of the amounts ingested are excreted in manure. Moreover, they are limited natural mineral resources. It is thus essential to characterize their flows better through the continuum of feed - manure - treatment - soils to manage their use better. A literature review of these flows indicates that adapting pig feed is the main mechanism available to decrease the release of zinc and copper into the environment. European Union regulations set maximum dietary concentrations of zinc and copper (e.g. 120 and 25 mg.kg(-1) DM for fattening pigs, respectively). Treating farm waste is another way to derive added value from these wastes and better control the transfer of zinc and copper to soils, by concentrating these elements in products that can be exported from pig farms to regions that need them. Thus, improved knowledge of their distribution through the production chain is necessary to manage their fate and evaluate their environmental risks better. More research is thus needed to refine feeding strategies that include zinc and copper, while maintaining animal performance and health and considering strategies of manure management and treatment, as part of the circular bioeconomy.
The dairy sector occupies an important place worldwide, in terms of contribution to agricultural land use, jobs and wealth creation. Dairy production results from varied production models from one country to another and is based on animal species with different characteristics. It has increased dramatically in recent decades. The future development of milk production is subject to various constraints that question the best ways of achieving sustainability. In this context, the first part of this article presents the dynamics of the dairy sector in terms of consumption and production in various major geographical areas. The second part deals with the sustainability of the dairy sector, mainly in developing countries, through a selection of three themes: i- the social dimension (often forgotten) and the need to mainstream gender issues; ii- the sustainable use of water resources in Morocco and India, chosen to illustrate two contrasting situations; iii- biodiversity and the essential contribution of non-bovine milks to local development. The third part recalls that international trade exchanges make it possible for many countries with a deficit in milk to meet domestic demand.
Since the early 2000s, the development of genomics provides extensive knowledge of the DNA of living organisms. This innovation has transformed the way in which living organisms are evaluated, selected (genomic selection of plants and animals) and marketed. Coupled with political and regulatory changes, this technology contributes to modify the national institutional arrangements in the field of animal genetic improvement as well as actors' practices. The current liberalization process questions both the collective dimension of genetic progress and the property rights of genetic resources. The objective of this overview is to present the plurality of institutional arrangements regarding genomic selection of the Holstein cattle breed in a comparative perspective involving France, Ireland and The Netherlands. First, it highlights three institutional regimes that reveal different arrangements particularly between public and private organizations. Then, this diversity of arrangements is completed by an analysis of contractual tools developed between breeding companies and animal breeders through models of strategies aiming at the production and exchanges of genetic resources (under their biological and informational forms). These models emphasize various forms of property of genetic resources between companies and breeders and also show that the actors' roles in genetic selection activities are redefined. These results provide a better understanding of the development of a liberal logic (in The Netherlands) in duality with the reinforcement (in Ireland) or weakening (in France) of a cooperative logic for the production of improved animal genetics.
Agrimonde-Terra scenarios of land use and food security in 2050 offer the opportunity to re-examine the on-going debate on the place of animal production in land use and food security, and as a result, of their role in the future of global food systems. The results of Agrimonde-Terra confirm the major role of animal production for land use and food security in 2050. Agrimonde-Terra concludes that a transition to more sustainable food systems will require simultaneous action on the demand side of animal products and on the supply side of plant and animal products, but with some nuances notably the role of animal production for food security in developing countries. Thus, under Agrimonde-Terra's hypotheses all scenarios lead to a significant expansion of agricultural land area in developing regions, especially in Sub-Africa.
Levers to consolidate sustainability deal with the following abilities: i) for the system to maintain its productive abilities and renew its related resources while responding to expectations from the economic sector: efficiency is thus the question; ii) for the activity to cope, beyond its own interests, with those concerns of other stakeholders surrounding it: at that time, interaction at the territory scale becomes central. By analyzing pluridisciplinary research performed in France and abroad, we have identified three main dimensions dealing with livestock and the territory: measuring the impact of livestock farming on landscape, analyzing diversity and dynamics of activities to connect local and global and, studying the interactions among actors at the territory scale to foster innovation that will strengthen territorial sustainability. Four case studies highlight challenges for research on relationships between livestock farming and territories. These studies are split on a gradient between the abilities to deliver objective measures for the impact of human activities and a comprehensive approach, including the subjectivities of actors which is critical for livestock farming in the future. The main stake is to be able to bridge these two research perspectives and to include them in a "territorial transition"research perspective that deals with theoretical frameworks and operating devices that accompany local actors in a changing process.
Livestock production is facing the challenge to adapt to the problem of competition for resources (especially food resources) and to reduce its environmental impact. Improving the efficiency of converting food resources into animal-derived products is an important way to address both issues simultaneously. This review paper addresses the notion of efficiency by placing it in a broader context of the performance triangle composed of relevance, efficiency, and effectiveness. We will show that feed efficiency issues have to be considered at different levels of organization. For the meat and dairy production sectors, we address research that has been carried out to improve feed efficiency through selection of animals that are better capable of transforming feed resources into animal-derived products and through feeding techniques in which the nutrient supply is better adjusted to the animal's requirement. We also discuss progress that has been made to reduce the environmental impact of livestock production. Considering feed efficiency and emission reduction at the animal level is important and offers a considerable prospect for progress. However, it does not guarantee that efficiency is improved and that environmental impact is reduced at higher levels of organization. It is important to ensure that the proposed livestock management strategies are effective and that they achieve the desired objectives using appropriate indicators. Accounting for the effect of scale changes on the overall performance of livestock production is a new challenge for research.
Animal production accounts for 16 % of the international agri-food trade. The growing imbalance between supply and demand for animal products in Asian countries, where consumption is growing, particularly in China, is boosting trade for the benefit of the major exporting countries: the European Union (EU), the United States, New Zealand, Brazil and Australia. While this development offers trade opportunities for structurally surplus countries, purchases are not always consistent from year to year and price competition is very strong, although some countries have qualitative requirements. The EU, which has a surplus in dairy products and pig meat, but is deficient (in value) in beef and poultry meat, is the world's largest exporter of animal products (with 22 %of the total, excluding intra-EU trade in 2016). This article deals with the evolution of trade in animal products using customs statistics data (BACI and COMEXT) from 2000 to 2016. It presents the evolution of international trade for different types of goods (dairy products, beef, pig meat, poultry meat) and highlights the trade trajectories of the main deficit countries (China, Japan and Russia) and the main surplus countries (India, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, the United States and the EU).
Biodiversity, and particularly animal diversity chosen by farmers, is seen as a promising lever for the agroecological transition and the resilience of livestock farming systems (LFSs). However, there are few researches on it, and when available they are recent and scattered. This paper aims at developing a conceptual framework to create an integrated view of the management of animal diversity in LFSs and provide some avenues in this research topic. The framework consists of four interrelated components: the forms of animal diversity, the organizational and temporal levels at which it is built and takes place, the forms of its management in LFSs and the benefits from its management for the farmers. The framework was applied on four research studies contrasted in terms of the forms of animal diversity. The crossed case-study analysis showed that articulating the four components enables to manage in an integrated way the animal diversity in LFSs and take advantage of it in the long term. It revealed three novel research directions aiming at deepening the characterization of animal diversity, the understanding of its management in LFSs and the assessment of the various benefits derived from its management. Some avenues for using the framework in research, teaching and advice in LFS were finally suggested.
For 30 years, the journal "INRA Productions Animales" has published mainly review articles on all subjects concerning animal production to a broad audience of users of research results. This article proposes an analysis of the position of the journal and its evolution in the scientific literature at the international, European and INRA level using data from the "Web of Science" (WOS) database and the category "Agriculture, dairy and animal sciences" in which the journal has been indexed since 1997. Between 1997 and 2017, scientific production in this WOS category (9 000 articles in 2017) has been multiplied by two. During this period, the number of articles published each year by INRA (about 250) and by the journal (between 30 and 35) has been stable. France is the seventh largest contributor to the WOS category behind the US, India, China, Brazil, Germany and Canada. The lexical analysis of all the references of the WOS category shows a great stability of the most frequently used terms, which remain dominated by production issues. However, the analysis of the evolution of the publications clearly shows the emergence and the rise of research carried out on livestock production systems, animal welfare and genomic selection, both in Europe and at INRA. In the end, the research conducted by INRA in the field of animal production, and in particular those disseminated by the journal INRA Productions Animales, correspond to research conducted at the European level.
Bioeconomy is defined as the set of activities related to the production of bioresources and their utilization and processing to meet human food requirements and contribute to society's needs of energy and materials, while preserving natural resources and ecosystem services. In this paper, we describe and quantify the different flows of bioresources related to animal breeding. At the national level, animal farming systems are the main users of bioresources (113 Mt) and agricultural land (55 %) for animal feeding. They largely contribute to the supply of human food, mainly proteins (60 %), lipids (40 %), minerals and vitamins. Through their utilisation of agricultural land and the production of organic manure, they contribute to the production of ecosystem services, such as biodiversity and soil fertility. The production of animal manure amounts to about 19.4 Mt organic matter corresponding to a potential methane production equivalent to 45 TWh primary energy, with only a minor part of it produced until now. Due to their importance, animal production systems are thus major factors for balancing or disrupting biogeochemical cycles, ecosystem services and biodiversity. Significant margins of progress exist to improve their contribution to meeting human needs, better close nutrient cycles, improve autonomy, and reduce inputs and losses to the environment. With this in mind, we discuss some challenges and opportunities for a better integration of animal production into a circular bioeconomy.
Sociological studies have identified several points of dispute regarding animal farming in France. Furthermore, the consumption of meat products is decreasing except for poultry meat. In this paper, the possible reasons for this trend are analyzed by taking into consideration the views of citizens on animal farming without denying the influence of product prices and household incomes on customers' buying decisions. The evolution of animal status is examined by considering the historical background. Then, various factors which could be involved in developing points of views are considered: economical weight of the animal farming sector, farming and slaughter methods, philosophical debates, religious options, food choices, cultural attitudes, animals in the city, information sources and activism. Finally, some new strategies of agricultural research are highlighted. Interdisciplinary generic knowledge is produced both in animal biology and the livestock farming systems in order to decipher complex mechanisms to propose innovative solutions. In addition, various evaluation methods are developed to improve diagnostics, anticipate the effects of technological innovations, follow the evolution of farming systems according to improvement objectives, and analyze the impact of agricultural research on society.
Meeting the issues related to sustainable development of livestock farming requires innovations in genetics. In every sector, this is all about improving the robustness of animals by enhancing their abilities to adapt by including numerous efficiency traits in the breeding goals of selection programs particularly regarding health and adaptability to less standardized feed resources and of fluctuating nutritional value, changing and varied environments, and climate change. This leads to consider genotype-by-environment interactions within genetic evaluation procedures and to assess the performances of animals in low input systems, especially regarding feed and drug use. Since the end of the 2000s, the method that has been progressively used in all livestock breeding sectors is genomic selection, which, by disconnecting the computation of genetic values of selection candidates from phenotype recordings, makes it easier to select new traits and to take into account genotype-by-environment interactions. in the relatively near future, it will be technically possible to use strategies of targeted modification and selection of genomes that could substantially increase genetic gains, in comparison with those obtained with current genomic selection programs. However, the use of these new breeding techniques raises numerous issues on scientific, operational, ethical, and political levels.
The image of livestock production, and animal food products, has steadily deteriorated following successive health crises, pollution problems, and more recently the denunciation of practices of breeding/slaughter not respecting animal welfare. 'Alternative" modes of consumption are thereby developing, ranging from flexitarism to veganism. However, it must be remembered that because of the quality of their protein and mineral supply, and their specificity in the supply of vitamin B12 and long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids, the presence of animal products in the diet secures an optimal coverage of our nutritional requirements. Although often attacked in terms of public health issues, it should also be remembered that epidemiological studies do not show any negative effect of their consumption when it is moderate (less than 50 % of the daily protein intake, less than 500 g of red meat per week). It is clear, however, that in Western countries, excessive consumption of animal products may have led to unbalanced diets, and favored the emergence of non-communicable diseases. Thus, for those consuming the largest amounts of animal products, a reduction in consumption is necessary. This would lead to a significant reduction (- 30 %) in the environmental impact of livestock production. Animal-friendly livestock farming, minimizing greenhouse gas emissions and nitrogen emissions and maximizing the use of non-edible plant products, coupled with reasonable eating behaviors, will ensure the maintenance of animal products in tomorrow's diet.
The ambition of the foresight on livestock farming was to rethink the place, the roles of livestock and how it should be transformed to fully contribute to the development of more sustainable agri-food systems. It was also to identify cross-disciplinary research themes that explore promising fronts of science or methodologies to solve knowledge locks. The foresight was managed by a group of 15 researchers and mobilized a hundred researchers. Based on an analysis of the context and the drivers for the evolution of the systems, we propose a new conceptual framework to think about innovations. Livestock farming must be part of circular agri-food systems in which it must contribute, beyond an increased efficiency of production factors, to the preservation of the quality of the resources and to the production of a food at an affordable price. Systems need to be rethought to be climate-smart and to respond to the health and welfare challenges of animals and people, rethink the linkages between livestock, crop production and territories to maximize recycling and rethink livestock linkages, processing and consumption of livestock products. Innovations should be based on the principles of agro-ecology supplemented by those of the circular economy and mobilizing levers of (bio) technologies and organizational innovation. The text describes 4 major scientific priorities with their research issues and produces recommendations for an action plan.
Farm animals face multiple environmental constraints to which they must adapt. More and more studies are investigating the impact of the early environment on animal phenotypes and their ability to adapt to the various challenges encountered later. Here we review current knowledge on the influence of the early environment on the construction and variability of phenotypes and adaptation of farm animals to their environment, taking examples from different species. We focus on the roles of three major contributors to the construction of phenotypes: epigenetic mechanisms, microbiota, and behavioural processes. Epigenetic mechanisms, which modulate genome expression under the influence of environmental disturbances during development, can induce a variety of phenotypes whose characteristics can persist into adulthood, or even be transmitted to the next generation. The constitution of the digestive microbiota is also highly dependent on the early environment, and plays an important role in the expression of phenotypes, especially in the field of animal health. Finally, early experiences greatly influence an animal's behaviour, especially its learning abilities, which can give it a better chance of adapting to new situations later on. The studies carried out in these fields make it possible to define new levers for action to try to optimise the adaptability of our animals, in particular through the feeding of young animals or their parents or even grandparents, acclimatisation during development, or more generally through changes in the environment, in particular the social environment.
The consumption of animal products is a crucial issue for global food security. The high consumption of animal proteins in France is now at the heart of sustainability issues, faced with less favourable public recommendations, after having followed an increasing trend over the past decades. Major changes have taken place behind this evolution, both between and within major food categories, as shown by the analysis of purchasing data over 4 decades. Now in a context of saturation of protein needs, and in particular from animal sources, households have to consider re-orientating their consumption patterns. Incentives are proposed via price increase simulations, the consequences of which are examined in terms of sustainability: reduction of environmental emissions, nutritional quality of food, and equity. The compatibility of these three dimensions provides the terms of trade-off for decision-makers.
The European Union (EU) has, since a long time, an important role in the international livestock industry chains, both in terms of production and trade. In spite of a strong restructuring movement, mainly due to factor productivity gains, European livestock brings together farms that are still very heterogeneous in terms of productive combinations, size, social structuring, intensification and economic performance. To report on it, and based on data issued from the Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN), an analysis of the diversity of structural and economic situations is conducted for farms specializing in the production of milk, beef and pigs/poultry, for the ten most productive EU Member States in animal production. This stage is a prerequisite for reflection, which begins after on the main levers of the economic performance of European animal productions. Two types of levers are then distinguished. The first concerns "cost competitiveness': It successively discusses the substitutions between factors of production, the economies of scale, the geographical concentration of production, the structuring of sectors and the influence of agricultural policies. The second concerns "non-cost competitiveness': It deals with the sanitary quality of animal productions, the differentiation of products and production processes, and the conditions for the capturing of added value induced by producers.
Precision Livestock Farming techniques have been developed essentially to increase profitability and reduce workload by applying automatic processes to monitor animals and their environment. For instance detecting oestrus allows timely insemination, while detecting lameness at an early stage or imbalance in the nutritional status or even abnormal ambiance parameters in the barn can help take remedial actions quickly. The data generated by Precision Livestock Farming sensors could also support animal welfare. A system detecting health problems (e.g. mastitis, ketosis in dairycows)can be part of welfare management. In addition and maybe more importantly, some Precision Livestock Farming devices are based on animal behaviour detection directly, or indirectly through the position of animals: time spent feeding, ruminating, resting, walking, etc. Subtle changes in behaviour can indicate the mental state of an animal hyper-reactivity vs. apathy, social isolation, changes in the daily rhythm of activity, reduction in play behaviour and grooming, hyper-agressivity. These changes can be all signs of malaise due to disease, stress, social instability, etc. We argue that Precision Livestock Farming techniques offer a wide range of possibilities to use animal behavioural signs to address animal welfare in modern livestock farming, be the welfare related to health status, social relations, human-animal relationship or more general effects of a stressful environment. At present, these possibilities have been little explored, and they deserve more research. In addition, the use of Precision Livestock Farming is changing farmers' work and potentially their interactions with animals. It is necessary that the animals remain at the centre of attention if one wants to address adequately their welfare in harmony with the farmer.
