Papers by Dominique Blache
Applied Animal Behaviour Science, Dec 1, 2012
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Animal Production Science, 2010
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Journal of Neuroendocrinology, Jun 1, 1994
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Animal welfare, 2016
Extensive systems present herbivores multiple biotic and abiotic challenges such as temporal and ... more Extensive systems present herbivores multiple biotic and abiotic challenges such as temporal and spatial variation in the availability and quality of food and water, changes in the chemical and morphological defenses of plants, thermal stress, disease, predation, and competition. Due to variability in resource abundance and quality, food intake might not always satisfy their appetite or hunger. Animals can adapt by increasing their grazing time and/or by dispersing more widely. These changes in behaviour may improve the use of poor quality pastures, but may also have negative effects on productivity and welfare. For instance, poor pasture conditions lead to reductions in mating activity and reproductive performance, decrease the efficiency of behavioural strategies aimed at decreasing parasitic loads, and increase energetic costs. Thermoregulation has an energetic cost, which decreases animal production. However, a lack of exposure to thermal stress may not necessarily imply adequate animal welfare. Plant secondary compounds (PSC) can inhibit food digestion, increase metabolic costs, and potentially have toxic effects on animal tissues and metabolic processes, but at appropriate concentrations certain PSC may improve nutrition and immunity and alleviate some of the diseases that challenge herbivores in extensive systems. Predators have both a direct lethal impact on herbivores and indirect effects that challenge animal nutrition and welfare. They may restrict the use of high-quality habitats and increase the time invested in vigilance, which restricts foraging time. In contrast to this, facilitative interactions among animals with contrasting foraging strategies may positively impact on nutrition and welfare. In conclusion, some relationships between the variables described in this chapter (thermoregulation, PSC, animal–animal interactions) and welfare do not always vary in a uniform direction. Many of the challenges described in this chapter stem from variability and unpredictability of the environment, which is largely a function of natural—instead of managerial—influences. The challenge of managers is to provide the conditions and flexibility in their operations to allow animals to express their behaviour to cope with these challenges in a way that production and welfare are maximised within the constraints imposed by an ever-changing environment.
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Nutrition Research Reviews, Dec 1, 2008
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... 1, LIN KUN-WEI AND WANG CHIH-CHUN(Department of Physiology, Peking Medical College, Peking);E... more ... 1, LIN KUN-WEI AND WANG CHIH-CHUN(Department of Physiology, Peking Medical College, Peking);EFFECT OF STIMULATION OF THE PERIPHERAL ENDS OF SUBDIAPHRAGMATIC VAGUS NERVES UPON PLASMA FREE FATTY ACID LEVEL IN RABBIT[J];Acta ...
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American Journal of Physiology-regulatory Integrative and Comparative Physiology, 2007
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Journal of Neuroendocrinology, Jun 1, 2007
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HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), Sep 25, 2007
National audienc
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Springer eBooks, 2016
By around 2050, it is estimated that the demand for meat and milk will be 60–70 % greater than it... more By around 2050, it is estimated that the demand for meat and milk will be 60–70 % greater than it is today. Production from ruminants in dryland areas is expected to play an important role in the responses to this challenge. However, livestock production in dryland areas is risky because of a number of uncertainties, the majority of which can be attributed to variation in key climatic factors that can limit productivity and also fuel societal opinions about the ethics of animal production. In this chapter, we have described and analysed the risks and problems for livestock production in difficult environments, and have proposed management options. Based on the work done with Australian native shrubs and pasture species, we have shown how silvopastoral systems can offer innovative and versatile options for livestock production in dryland regions if animal behaviour is managed to influence diet and habitat selection. Versatile livestock systems that include compatible livestock genotypes, forage species and management strategies, can maximise productivity and improve ecosystem health while providing food for humanity.
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Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 2013
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Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science, Feb 19, 2015
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Animal Production Science, 2011
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Animal Production Science
Shade and shelter may provide protection from cold and heat stress, a source of feed during prolo... more Shade and shelter may provide protection from cold and heat stress, a source of feed during prolonged or seasonal drought, specific essential nutrients, increased pasture and crop production and improved landscape health. Cold stress contributes to the average of 8% (single) and 24% (twin) of lambs that die within 3 days of birth in Australia and the estimated 0.7% of the Australian flock that die post-shearing during extreme or unseasonal weather. Shelter has resulted in an average reduction in mortality of 17.5% for twin-born lambs and 7% for single-born lambs according to Australian studies and decreases the susceptibility of ewes to metabolic disease and possibly dystocia. Because many of the published studies are from research areas where cold stress is expected, they are not indicative of industry-wide responses, a research priority is to determine the probability of lamb and ewe deaths from cold stress across different sheep production areas. Although shelter may improve lamb...
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Journal of Thermal Biology, 2021
Temperature rhythms can act as potent signals for the modulation of the amplitude and phase of cl... more Temperature rhythms can act as potent signals for the modulation of the amplitude and phase of clock gene expression in peripheral organs in vitro, but the relevance of the circadian rhythm of core body temperature (Tc) as a modulating signal in vivo has not yet been investigated. Using calorie restriction and cafeteria feeding, we induced a larger and a dampened Tc amplitude, respectively, in male Wistar rats, and investigated the circadian expression profile of the core clock genes Bmal1, Per2, Cry1, and Rev-erbα, the heat-responsive genes heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90) and cold-inducible RNA binding protein (Cirbp), and Pgc1α, Pparα/γ/δ, Glut1/4, and Chop10 in the liver, skeletal muscle, white adipose tissue (WAT), and adrenal glands. Diet-altered Tc rhythms differentially affected the profiles of clock genes, Hsp90, and Cirbp expression in peripheral tissues. Greater Tc amplitudes elicited by calorie restriction were associated with large amplitudes of Hsp90 and Cirbp expression in the liver and WAT, in which larger amplitudes of clock gene expression were also observed. The amplitudes of metabolic gene expression were greater in the WAT, but not in the liver, in calorie-restricted rats. Conversely, diet-altered Tc rhythms were not translated to distinct changes in the amplitude of Hsp90, Cirbp, or clock or metabolic genes in the skeletal muscle or adrenal glands. While it was not possible to disentangle the effects of diet and temperature in this model, taken together with previous in vitro studies, our study presents novel data consistent with the notion that the circadian Tc rhythm can modulate the amplitude of circadian gene expression in vivo. The different responses of Hsp90 and Cirbp in peripheral tissues may be linked to the tissue-specific responses of peripheral clocks to diet and/or body temperature rhythms, but the association with the amplitude of metabolic gene expression is limited to the WAT.
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Reproduction, Fertility and Development, 2019
The neuroendocrine response of female sheep to a novel male involves neural activation in the hyp... more The neuroendocrine response of female sheep to a novel male involves neural activation in the hypothalamus. However, if males are removed, the gonadotrophic signal declines, so the neural activity is likely to change. We examined Fos-immunoreactive (IR) cells in hypothalamic tissues from seasonally anovulatory female sheep exposed to males for 2 or 6h, or for 2h followed by 4h isolation from males. Control females were killed in the absence of male exposure. Male introduction increased LH secretion in all females; male removal was associated with a reduction only in mean and basal LH concentrations. Females exposed to males for 2h had more Fos-IR cells in the arcuate nucleus (ARC), ventromedial nucleus of the hypothalamus (VMH) and organum vasculosum of the lamina terminalis (OVLT) than control females. Fos-IR cells in the preoptic area (POA) were only greater than in control females after 6h exposure to a male. Removal of males decreased the number of Fos-IR cells in the ARC, VMH a...
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Reproduction, fertility, and development, Jan 16, 2018
Phyto-oestrogens such as isoflavones are natural compounds that can profoundly affect reproductiv... more Phyto-oestrogens such as isoflavones are natural compounds that can profoundly affect reproductive function. In the present study, we tested whether including isoflavone compounds (genistein, biochanin A, formononetin) in the maturation medium would affect the outcomes for ovine oocytes in vitro. Each isoflavone compound was evaluated at five concentrations (0, 2.5, 5, 10, 25µgmL-1) and the entire protocol was repeated four times. Cumulus-oocyte complexes were randomly allocated to the treatments, then fertilised and cultured in vitro. Compared with control (0µgmL-1), the lower concentrations of isoflavone (2.5, 5 and 10µgmL-1) had no detectable effect on the rates of cleavage or embryo development, or on embryo total cell counts (TCC). However, the highest concentration (25µgmL-1) of all three isoflavones exerted a variety of effects (P<0.05): genistein decreased cleavage rate, blastocyst rate and blastocyst efficiency (blastocysts produced per 100 oocytes); biochanin A decrease...
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animal, 2015
Given the capacity of ruminants to modify diet selection based on metabolic needs, we hypothesise... more Given the capacity of ruminants to modify diet selection based on metabolic needs, we hypothesised that, when given a choice, lambs experiencing a vitamin E deficiency would consume more of a vitamin E-enriched feed than lambs not deficient in vitamin E. Fifty-six Dohne Merino lambs were divided into two groups and fed either a vitamin E-deficient diet over 40 days to induce low plasma vitamin E or a vitamin E-enriched diet to induce high plasma vitamin E. The lambs were then offered a choice of vitamin E-enriched and vitamin E-deficient pellets. For half of the animals, the enriched diet was paired with strawberry flavour and the deficient diet was paired with orange flavour, while the reverse pairings were offered to the others. Lamb preference for the diets was measured daily for the following 15 days. There was a three-way interaction between the high and low vitamin E treatment groups×vitamin E content and type of flavour in the feed×time (days). The lambs preferred pellets fla...
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Reproduction in Domestic Ruminants, 2007
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Papers by Dominique Blache