Though no significant effects were observed, the results (Table 3) do reveal that high-level rock’n’roll did cause lower final weight (at the time of the slaughter, the exposed animals were approx. 4% less heavy than the control group) and carcass weight (lower by over 4% compared with the control)
Even if there is a 4% difference, if the statistics did not show anything substantial I don't think it is note worthy
The last finding is contradicted by another study using the same piece (“Four Seasons” by A. Vivaldi) at 75 dB (1 h of music on, 1 h off).
I wonder if the length of the study is responsible for the contradicting results
bnormal PSE meat accounts for 5 to 40% of the total poultry production,
That is a pretty large gap, a lot of this data seems iffy.
Excessive stress induced by noise can lead to decreased pH in the muscles, producing low-quality meat, e.g., PSE (pale, soft, exudative) meat, as well as hyperactivity in birds—e.g., nervous wing-flicking—resulting in DPM (deep pectoral myopathy
It's quite interesting to see the extent of physiologic changes induced by stressors.
In general, classical music is a popular choice for cow farms, as exemplified by Crouch et al. (2019)
directly contradicted by the above table
In another study, music was shown to pacify cattle in a slaughterhouse, with the added benefit of improving working conditions for the employees. The handlers were thus more positively inclined towards their work and less likely to mistreat the animals
I find this to be almost oxymoronic. While I do think that if an animal is going to be slaughtered it should be done in the most ethical way possible, the focus seems a bit strange
Influence of the music genre on basic life parameters, milk yield and cow behavior (N = 10). Own elaboration based on
according to the table, heavy metal produced higher milk yields than those exposed to classical music which seems to be pretty contradicting to what has been stated throughout the summary
The authors concluded that the sounds stimulated behaviors that indicate readiness for milking. Unfortunately, no data were obtained on the genre used or the sound leve
The article seems to be significantly subpar in providing definitive conclusions and seems to have been conducted haphazardly as some of the most important metrics such as tempo, genre, etc were blatantly disregarded
High-yielding cows are taxed by metabolic and psychological processes, which leads to problems such as reduced milk production, as well as lower protein and fat content
This is consistent with the earlier mentions that sustained stress will tap into the bodys glycogen stores.
This assumption proved correct—the species-specific music spurred cats to exhibit increased activity such as purring and rubbing against the source of sound.
There is again correlation of music to non livestock species being made to support music specifically in livestock which I do think can be good correlational evidence but I would still say they're quite limited in that regard.
In the music-treated group, salivary cortisol levels abated much quicker
Is this the best and most accurate way of measuring acute stress?
After an auditory analysis, it was found that relaxing music merges the warmly sounding instruments such as: flute, classical guitar, violin. It is played at a tempo of approx. 60–65 bpm (beats per minute), and the melody line is performed with the use of legato—articulation with which the notes are played smoothly, which creates the impression of a “melody wave” with the use of low rather than high notes.
Was this auditory analysis done with humans or livestock and can they be transferable to one annother regardless of which one the study was done on.
Though livestock species have undergone some degree of selection to better tolerate the rearing/farming environment, each species still has to deal with a number of stress triggers
This somewhat answers an earlier annotation I had made regarding livestock bred in captivity I would assume have a higher degree of tolerance towards the usual stress triggers assocaited with farming livestock.
There are studies that have used relaxing music [57]. While researchers have been unable to find a definition of this type of music, they have analyzed selected compositions defined as the relaxation genre from the repertoire of Enya (“Only Time”), Vangelis (“Conquest of paradise”) and Yanni (“Prelude and Nostalgia”)—the works of these composers were used in the study by Khalfa et al.
This is a question I did have regarding the studies. There is a repeat of the terms "relaxing music" or "slow tempo" but without further elaboration I wonder if there is any specific songs or if there is just a correct tempo in the beats per minute department or any other specifics that can be attributed to calming effects.
Nevertheless, the highest milk yields were recorded for the control group, which was not exposed to any music [
If the highest milk yield was recorded in the control group, perhaps there should be a larger focus on producing quiet environments for the livestock rather than ones filled with music.
Sutton (2005) points out that silence can be a way of promoting engagement in patients under music therapy. Silence is as important to a song as sound—the pauses, known as “rests”, serve to punctuate the musical piece, allowing the musician and the listeners to take a moment to breathe and relax
I never considered this but it makes perfect sense in my mind at least.
Apart from behavioral problems, this can also cause excessive mortality and meat defects in pigs and poultry, e.g., PSE (pale, soft, exudative) or DFD (dark, firm, dry) meat
It seems like it would be in the benefit of the farmers as well to keep livestock healthy as their livestock could likely sell for more without defect.
ACTH is responsible for inducing the adrenal cortex to secrete glucocorticoids-hormones that play an important role in metabolic processes.
If im not mistaken a marked increase in ACTH in the blood is often indicative of Cushings/metabolic dysregulation; I truly think it would be difficult to mark raised cortisol or ACTH levels purely as stess induced.
An additional feature of distress is that it is difficult to diagnose solely through behavioral observations, e.g., subclinical pathological lesions (e.g., hypertension) that are not visible from the outside
The difficulty to diagnose stress/distress from an objective and measurable standpoint is something that I predict to be an area of difficulty in these studies.
Crucially, almost every physiological process is predisposed towards maintaining homeostasis, so the term “stress” should be restricted to unexpected situations that involve loss of control
If an animal is bred and born in captivity I think it owuld not be outside of their usual situation and would somewhat violate this statement.
Walter B. Cannon further expanded this definition to encompass disruption of homeostasis and the body’s attempt to revert to optimal conditions through a series of physiological reactions
I think its important to note that stress does result in physiologic response and is not simply something emotional or mental.
However, it has been shown that appropriately chosen sounds can confer health benefits, e.g., by increasing the level and activity of natural killer (NK) cells—one of the immune system’s lines of defense
I'm curious to know the specific mechanism behind how music can induce raised NK levels.
Breeders and producers achieve this through balanced feeding, constant access to fresh water, use of enclosures, interaction with other animals, and prevention/treatment in accordance with the principles of Five Freedoms
I did not think that the use of enclosures would be in the "principles of Five Freedoms"
However, there is a large segment of price-conscious consumers who tend to choose cage-laid eggs or conventional milk rather than buying organic due to limited household income.
I woud imagine that the cost involved with playing music at opportune times would not be significant.
The present paper explores the effects of music on livestock (cattle, poultry and pigs) on the basis of the available literature.
I wonder if these vastly different animals share similar sensitivies to music or even sound for that matter.
Simple Summary
I cannot think off the top of my head if I have ever seen another article with a "simple summary".
In 1918, an estimated total of 420 buffalofish fingerlings, yearlings, and adults11 arrived by rail to Globe, Arizona, likely from the Fairport Biological Station in Iowa24,25,26, and were stocked in Roosevelt Lake
Given that the fishery for the area of study was stopped in 1970, I wonder if there is an accurate account of the current population of the buffalofish to take appropriate conservatorship measures.
There are five species of buffalofishes in the family Catostomidae1,2, and three species are endemic to the Mississippi or Hudson Bay drainages: bigmouth buffalo I. cyprinellus, smallmouth buffalo I. bubalus, and black buffalo I. niger.
I wonder as to why the other two species were excluded
We now know all species of USA Ictiobus can live more than 100 years, making it the only genus of animal besides marine rockfishes (Sebastes) for which three or more species have been shown to live > 100 years
How many species of Ictibous are there?
transported to locations across the United States to support or establish commercial fisheries, including Roosevelt Lake, Arizona in 1918. During the 1930s–1960s a commercial fishery existed on Roosevelt Lake, ending by 1970.
I wonder if any of the other fisheries are still active, why was this specific location chosen for the study?
Each test began in the morning and the fate of thesalticid was recorded 10 h later. Intermittent obser-vations were made during this period.
Perpahs the ants only chose the spider because there was no other food source for an extended period of time ..
The cleaning routine was a precaution againstany potential influence of chemical traces from pre-vious ants and salticids on test outcomes
We may need to incorporate this since pheromones are a strong force in ants and we did not consider it previously
Prey identification wastaken to the lowest taxonomic level possible. How-ever, working with a poorly known fauna and withprey often being in mediocre condition when col-lected, species determination was often imprecise
This is an issue I've worried about with my experiment in appropriating the correct insects. I feel as though I'm going to have substantial difficulty in this regard as it is not my area of expertise and is difficult for even those that are experts
because ants, in general, lack acute vision,relying primarily on chemical and movement cuesfor prey detection and for discriminating colonymembers from intruders
Perhaps in our experiment it is not entirely necessary to ensure that the ants can see the spider and may help with the design construction.
We compiled recordsof ants feeding on salticids in the field and confirmedin laboratory tests that ants readily kill salticid
It may be an issue for our experiment to find an appropriate species of spider that will be a predator of ants or even have an interest in ants.
This is the stage of decomposition that smells bad. By the end of this stage, most of the maggots have finished development (typically they molt 3 times before pupariation)
I wonder if multiple generations would change the data
I then discuss the process of ecological succession and point out that because colonization and insect development are predictable, this parade of insect colonizers can be used to determine the approximate length of time a person has been dead.
I wonder to what degree the accuracy for this method is
I always include several specimens of maggots that are of the same age and when I cut them, I introduce a little bit of variation in their lengths to simulate natural variation in size
I think this is an important key concept as nature will always have variation and if there are real world applications that will be used in nature it would be ideal to include this variation in experiments.
Because the progression of insect fauna follows a predictable pattern and the developmental rates of flies are relatively predictable, if enough information is known regarding the temperature of the microclimate in which they are found, investigation of the insect community associated with a corpse is used by forensic scientists to estimate the post-mortem interval. This is called forensic entomology.
Having such as specific subset of biology is something that I truly find fascinating as you can nearly make a career studying any one biologicl principal.
queen substancein the honeybee
royalactin and methylation !
The multiple signals used insocial insect communicationprovide shared information andenable the colony (or system)to be more responsive or betterregulated, so that it functionsbetter.
Referring to an earlier annotation made regarding the cost of pheremone production, this offers some insight i feel. As we have discussed in lecture, communication of social species like this will likely decreaes the costs overall.
The short-lived repellentpheromone is a ‘no entry’ signal tounrewarding branches in rewardingtrail sections.
I wonder if this pheremone will be what is secreted when we do our experiment in which they find the spider and will possibly release this short lived repellent to warn other ants.
The use of multipletrail pheromones by a single antspecies means that foragingcommunication can be morecomplex than is possible with asingle pheromone
I assumed that the phermones released by ants specific to foraging would be singular in nature. It seems expensive metabolism wise to create different pheremones for the samt ultimate purpose from different glands even as well. This is surpising to me however I am vertain it must produce benefits for it to be this way.
The pheromone trailprovides only the route to food,whilst recruitment of additionalforagers is caused by otherbehaviours, such as dances ordirect physical contact in the nest
I found this interesting in the fact that there is mutliple forms of communication for signaling food foraging behaviors, I thought it would be mainly pheremone related.
In social insects, workerscollect the food for the colony
This is consistent with what we found in our preliminary data in that only some of the ants went to the food but not all of them!