During 2004, a survey of Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (map) was conducted in 101 randomly selected dairy herds to investigate associations between the infection status of the herds, different management practices, and possible disease indicators, such as indices of mastitis and reproductive performance. Data were collected by means of a questionnaire through personal interviews with the farmers and veterinarians in charge of each farm. At the same time, blood samples were taken from cattle over one year old and analysed with a commercial elisa to detect antibodies to map. Statistical analyses indicated that the following management practices constituted major risk factors: utilisation of colostrum from cows with a previous positive map diagnosis, and housing replacement calves with adult cattle before they were six months old. Seropositivity to map was related to the herds' bulk tank somatic cell counts and incidence of clinical mastitis, but not to their reproductive performance.

All over the world, farmers have to face up to increasing uncertainties (market and climate). They have to adapt their activity to the new contexts and challenges of livestock farming (producing more and better, and satisfying the expectations of society, consumers, and of downstream operators), while at the same time responding to their own expectations in terms of income, quality of life, and working conditions. In order to understand these changes and consider the future, work organization must be taken into account. The Work Assessment Method, developed by French livestock researchers, provides a framework able to capture work organization, taking into account the specifics of the livestock activity. Based on a comparative analysis of nine case studies that used the Work Assessment Method from six contrasted countries, this review (1) gives generic ideas on work organization indicators and their variation; (2) identifies four generic patterns of work organization which are not linked to the local context but marked by the workforce composition; (3) demonstrates that the relevance of the Work Assessment Method to tackle work issues, and its capacities to be adapted to a variety of livestock farming contexts throughout the world, is linked to the properties of its framework, which was developed by combining different disciplinary approaches; (4) highlights the principal limits of the method: lack of coordination with other dimensions of work (labor productivity; sense of the job), and limited characterization of the work organization flexibility; and (5) proposes some possibilities of change to better respond to the diversity of work situations and questions about work, and take better into account the evolutions of livestock farming systems.

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This research aimed to describe the phenotypic characteristics of local hen varieties. The study sample consisted of twenty 18 week-old hens of the following types: Cemani, black Kedu, white Kedu, and Balinese (Olagan). They were randomly selected from the "Makukuhan" farm in Kedu Temanggung, Central Java Indonesia. The results, which were analyzed using analysis of variance (ANOVA) test, showed significant differences in the quantitative characteristics of body height, body length, and tarsometatarsus length. No significant differences were found in wing length, beak length, femur length, tibiotarsus length, or body weight. Qualitative characteristics of Cemani hens differed from those of black Kedu, white Kedu, and Balinese (Olagan) hens because of their predominantly black body color. The black Kedu hens share similarities with the white Kedu hens in the colors of the tongue, comb, eyeballs, and soles of the feet. In contrast, their beak color and skin color are similar to those of the Balinese (Olagan) hens. The white Kedu hens have predominantly white feathers, and the Balinese (olagan) hens have neither comb nor neck feathers.