Small mammals in northern Australia have been rapidly vanishing for the last 30 years, and scientists weren’t sure why. Now, a major new study found feral livestock are largely to blame.
Workers wait to enter a Tyson Foods pork processing plant in Logansport, Indiana. The plant had been closed after nearly 900 employees tested positive for the coronavirus.
AP Photo/Michael Conroy
Being able to identify communities that are susceptible to the pandemic ahead of time would allow officials to target public health interventions to slow the spread of the infection and avoid deaths.
A camel herder in Kenya.
TONY KARUMBA/AFP via Getty Images
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, some critics say livestock farms promote diseases that spread from animals to humans. An animal scientist explains how well-run farms work to keep that from happening.
Welsh mountain sheep face an uncertain future.
Jon Moorby
We all need to eat. Experts imagine how the next agricultural revolution can feed us while fighting climate change and habitat destruction, instead of accelerating it.
Sonoma County, California hired this herd of sheep from Sweetgrass Grazing to reduce invasive plants and flammable fuels and make room for native plants on protected land.
Sonoma Open Space
A new generation of ranchers is exploring sustainable ways to raise cattle, sheep and goats in California. Some are grazing herds on fire-prone lands, reducing wildfire risks and improving soils.
According to some, meat “grown” in a laboratory would only have advantages: an end to animal abuse, preservation of the environment… But the reality is less idyllic.
Game farms in South Africa often supply the canned hunting sector.
Shutterstock
During an emergency it’s vital you know what your animals need, where you can take them and what your local rules are. Fortunately, there are plans in place and guidelines to help.
The Yorkshire Dales, England.
Jakob Cotton/Unsplash
Much of the UK’s farmland is unproductive. It could be put to better use storing carbon, offering recreation and providing wildlife habitat.
The ban followed revelations of sheep suffering and dying from heat stress on voyages from Australia to the Middle East after a disturbing video was revealed.
AAP Image/ Trevor Collens
Independent observers will be on board the ships exporting live sheep to keep an eye on animal welfare.
Montse Barado, casa Armengol (Sorpe). In summer, once a week, cattle ranchers and shepherds climb to the communal lands to have a look at the animals and give them some salt.
David Tarrasón i Cerdá,
Federica Ravera, Universitat de Vic – Universitat Central de Catalunya
In the Catalan Pyrenees, women shepherds and cattle ranchers try to valorise the ancestral agropastoral culture to save the mountains from climate change.
Understanding happiness in chickens could tell us how to improve their housing.
A bull grazes in a pasture on a farm near Cremona, Alta., after the Chinese announced a ban on Canadian meat imports. The ban could hit the Canadian beef and pork sector hard given China is a huge market.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh
Canadian beef and pork exporters have become increasingly reliant on China. That’s why the latest salvo in the Canada-China diplomatic dispute is so ominous for the agri-food sector.
Livestock, like these goats in the Rift Valley of Tanzania, are critical to household economies in East Africa.
Katherine Grillo
Pastoralism is a central part of many Africans’ identity. But how and when did this way of life get started on the continent? Ancient DNA can reveal how herding populations spread.