Poultry producers are always seeking a more efficient chicken that will grow faster using fewer resources. But what are the consequences on the birds themselves? Scientists Tallentire et al. find that the improved efficiency of modern breeds is the result of increased growth rate, particularly of breast meat. They discuss the effects of artificial selection on traits such as metabolic activity. As industrial feed production has a huge environmental impact, is this progress in chicken genetics good news for global food sustainability?

Castration of male piglets is a standard practice used by the pig industry to avoid boar taint, a sensory defect of meat from boars. An initiative to abandon this practice has been undertaken by key stakeholders in European Union, which will greatly impact the pig meat sector and which has stimulated intensive research to find easy implementable alternatives to reduce boar taint. Dietary compounds have shown promising results as potential alternative to reduce boar taint. Research from Bilić-Šobot et al. shows that hydrolysable tannins should prevent boar taint by affecting metabolic pathways of boar taint substances.

Grazing intensification with non-native livestock degrade vegetation cover, particularly, in arid environments where low resource availability in the soil strongly limits plant recovery after damage. However, it remains unclear whether the negative effect of grazing on consumed plants is transmitted to plant offspring. Tadey & Souto analysed whether grazing reduces fruit weight, germination percentage and seedling vigor of consumed vegetation along a grazing gradient. They found that increasing livestock density decreased fruit weight and germination percentage but, unexpectedly, enhanced seedling vigor of dryland shrub species.