
The 1st International Electronic Conference on Animals—Global Sustainability and Animals: Science, Ethics and Policy
Part of the International Electronic Conference on Animals series
5–20 Dec 2020
Sustainability, Animal Welfare, Animal Health
- Go to the Sessions
- Event Details
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- Welcome from the Chair
- Conference Secretariat
- Conference Chairs
- Conference Speakers
- Sessions
- List of Accepted Submissions
- IECA 2020 Live Online Session Recording
- IECA Keynote Speakers' Video Presentations
- List of Authors
- Event Awards
- Instructions for Authors
- Special Issue for IECA2020
- Sponsors and Partners
- Editions in this series
Dear Scientists, Researchers, and Authors,
We are delighted to announce that the IECA2020 has been closed successfully. We would like to take this opportunity to express our appreciation to all the participants for their contributions and, to all the chairs and committee members for their excellent work.
Please also note that the winner of the Best Presentation Award has been announced here.
Finally, we would like to remind you that all participants are welcome to submit an extended full paper to the Special Issue for IECA2020 in the journal Animals, with a 20% discount on the Article Processing Charges.
Welcome from the Chair
Welcome to the 1st International Electronic Conference on Animals — Global Sustainability and Animals: Science, Ethics and Policy
Dear scientists, researchers, and authors,
We are pleased to announce that the 1st International Electronic Conference on Animals — Global Sustainability and Animals: Science, Ethics and Policy will open for discussions on 5th December at https://ieca2020.sciforum.net/.
This conference will be a robust common platform for leading scientists working in the field of Animal Science to share and discuss their latest research and to promote the advancement of this exciting and rapidly changing field. We hope to encourage discovery across the discipline as we cover the following five broad themes in sessions A–E:
- Climate change and sustainability of animal systems
- Sustainability of animal use and demand for animal products
- Animal welfare, ethics, policy, and politics
- Animal health and sustainability
- Sustainable animal feeding
Participants will have the opportunity to examine, explore, and critically engage with issues and advances in these areas. We hope to facilitate discussions and exchange within the community. We proudly invite the global community of scholars to join IECA2020 to present their latest animal research and development and share novel ideas about the multidisciplinary aspects of research and development of global sustainability and animals
We hope you will be able to join this exciting event, which is organized and sponsored by MDPI, a scholarly open access publisher (https://www.mdpi.com/). We look forward to your contributions and discussions.
Clive Phillips,
Chair of the 1st International Electronic Conference on Animals — Global Sustainability and Animals: Science, Ethics and Policy.
Conference Secretariat
Ms. Zarol Han
MDPI Branch Office, Beijing
E-Mail: [email protected]
Ms. Melina Wen
MDPI Branch Office, Beijing
E-Mail: [email protected]
Ms. Hellen Wang
MDPI Branch Office, Beijing
E-Mail: [email protected]
Sponsoring Opportunities
For information regarding sponsoring opportunities, please contact the conference secretariat.
Conference Chairs

Dr Clive C.J. Phillips Editor-in-Chief, Animals, and Chair, Queensland Government Animal Welfare Advisory Board E-mail: [email protected]
Interests: animal welfare; animal ethics; captive animal management; heavy metals in animals
[email protected]
Conference Committee

Department of Land, Environment, Agriculture and Forestry, University of Padua, Padua, Italy
[email protected]

Department of Politics and Society, University of Winchester, Winchester SO22 4NR, UK
[email protected]

Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph, 50 Stone Road E., Guelph, ON, Canada, N1G 2W1
[email protected]

Adjunct Professor, Department of Animal Sciences, Université Laval
Adjunct professor, Département de pathologie et de microbiologie, University of Montréal
Adjunct Professor, Department of Biology, University of Sherbrooke
Regular member of the Institute of Nutrition and Functional Foods (INAF), Laval University
Member of the Swine and poultry infec
[email protected]
Keynote Speakers

St Catharine's College and Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Cambridge, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0ES, UK
Will speak on the session: Animal Welfare, Ethics, Policy, and Politics
Emeritus Professor of St Catharine's College and Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Cambridge.
[email protected]

Curtin University Sustainability Policy Institute, Curtin University, GPO Box U1987, Perth, WA 6845, Australia
session: Climate Change and the Sustainability of Animal Systems
[email protected]

Curtin University Sustainability Policy Institute, Curtin University, GPO Box U1987, Perth, WA 6845, Australia
Session: The Sustainability of Animal Use and Demand for Animal Products
[email protected]

Department of Animal Sciences, Food and Nutrition (DIANA), Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Science, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Via Emilia Parmense 84, 29122 Piacenza, Italy
Session: Animal Health and Sustainability
Professor Emeritus of Zootecnica Speciale
[email protected]

College of Veterinary Medicine, University National Autonomia Mexico, Av. Universidad 3000, México D.F. 04510, Mexico
Session:Sustainable Animal Feeding
[email protected]

Department of Land, Environment, Agriculture and Forestry, University of Padua, Padua, Italy
Interests: agricultural and livestock engineering; rural buildings; GHG emissions; agro-environmental sustainability; by-products, biomass and renewable energies
List of accepted submissions (20)
Id | Title | Authors | Presentation Video | Presentation Pdf | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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sciforum-041391 | Keeping dairy cows for longer: a critical literature review on dairy cow longevity in high milk-producing countries | , , , , , , | N/A | N/A |
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The ability of dairy farmers to keep their cows for longer could positively enhance the economic performance of the farms, reduce the environmental footprint of the milk industry, and overall help in justifying a sustainable use of animals for food production. However, there is little published on the current status of cow longevity and we hypothesized that a reason may be a lack of standardization and an over narrow focus of the longevity measure itself. The objectives of this critical literature review were: 1) to review metrics used to measure dairy cow longevity in order to determine those most commonly employed; 2) to describe the status of longevity in high milk-producing countries. Current metrics are limited to either the length of time the animal remains in the herd or if it is alive at a given time. To overcome such a limitation, dairy cow longevity should be first defined as an animal having an early age at first calving and a long productive life spent in profitable milk production. Combining age at first calving, length of productive life, and margin over all costs would provide a more comprehensive evaluation of longevity by covering both early life conditions and the length of time the animal remains in the herd once it starts to contribute to the farm revenues, as well as the overall animal health and quality of life. In addition, this review confirms that dairy cow longevity has decreased in most high milk-producing countries over time and its relationship with milk yield is not straight forward. Increasing cow longevity by reducing involuntary culling would cut health costs, increase cow lifetime profitability, improve animal welfare, and could contribute towards a more sustainable dairy industry while optimizing dairy farmers’ efficiency in the overall use of resources available. |
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sciforum-041562 | Effect of the carbon:nitrogen relationship on the chemical and microbial composition of composts and wormcomposts made with pig manure | , , , , | N/A | N/A |
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Wormcomposting is a useful alternative to recover the organic carbon and nitrogen and to reduce the pathogenic bacteria in animal manure; but, unlike the composting process, there are no recommendations available about the best initial carbon:nitrogen relationship (CRN) to maximize the nutritional value or to minimize the microbial load of the final wormcompost product. The objective of the study was to evaluate the changes over time on the content of organic carbon (OC), total nitrogen (TN), total aerobic bacteria (TAB), coliforms (Coli) and fungí and yeast (FandY) in composts and wormcomposts prepared with pig manure using different initial CNR. Pig manure, corn stover and water were mixed in different amounts to produce 50 kg heaps that were subjected to a thermophilic process during 28 days under greenhouse conditions. After that, some heaps were inoculated with red worms to produce the wormcomposts. The initial analyzed CNR for composts were: 22, 26, 34 and 46, and for wormcomposts were: 15, 31, 46 and 70. Samples for chemical analysis were taken on days 1, 28 and 140 and samples for microbiological analysis were taken on days 1, 7, 28, 56, 84 and 140 of the study. The data was analyzed using the MIXED procedure with repeated observations over time. In composts, the OC and CNR diminished over time but increased within each time as the initial CNR increased (P < 0.01). The TN rose over time but within each time was lowest at the highest CNR (P < 0.01). The TAB, Coli and FandY counts showed cubic responses over time and showed interactions with the initial CNR (P < 0.01). The TAB, Coli and FandY counts were similar among treatments at 140 days. In wormcomposts, the OC diminished over time but within each time was highest at the highest initial CNR (P < 0.05). The TN rose over time but within each time was lowest at the highest CNR (P < 0.05). At 28 and 140 the CNR dropped compared to the initial CNR and was similar among treatments. The BT, Coli and FandY counts showed cubic patterns over time and showed interactions with the initial CNR (P < 0.05). The TAB, Coli and FandY counts were similar among treatments at 140 days. In summary, the OC and CNR diminished and the TN increased over time in composts and wormcomposts with different initial CNR. Composts and wormcomposts were effective in reducing the microbial load over time regardless of the initial CNR, but the final OC content was greater in the wormcompost. Wormcomposts made from composts with a wide range of initial CNR were highly effective in converting pig manure in a high quality organic fertilizer with a lower load of potential pathogenic bacteria. |
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sciforum-041526 | Identification and validation of operational welfare indicators appropriate for small-scale goat farming in Chile | , , | N/A | N/A |
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Goat production in Chile is carried out by poor small-scale farmers in semi-arid to arid agricultural conditions. Milk and cheese are the main products obtained using artisanal, cultural and traditionally preserved methods where women and children are usually in charge of production. The products are directly consumed by the family or sold to by-passers at relatively high prices. The welfare of goats under these type of production systems is currently unknown and no appropriate validated operational welfare indicators are currently available. The incorporation of a welfare assessment system may increase milk yield and cheese production, and may provide added-value. We identified 48 welfare indicators in the peer-review literature. Only 40 of the initial welfare indicators were validated by goat production stakeholders (farmers, veterinarians, technician, welfare experts) using the European Food Safety Agency guidelines. Further on-farm validation was carried out to select only those indicators that were operational under the production systems. A final 37 operational welfare indicators were obtained. A welfare scoring system was developed from all the indicators and validated under normal production conditions. The use of these validated indicators and the welfare score is appropriate to Chilean goat production systems and may successfully increase the sustainability of goat milk production and goat farmers in Chile. |
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sciforum-041927 | Assessing sustainability in cattle silvopastoral systems in the Mexican using the SAFA framework |
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Abstract Cattle production is one the main causes of land use change in the tropics. The demand for meat and milk are increasing globally and as a result, it is urgent to work on sustainable livestock production systems that satisfy food security and protect the environment. Silvopastoral systems (Ssp) are an alternative for more sustainable forms of production. Hence, their sustainability performance compared to conventional systems need to be evaluated. The SAFA framework is a tool to assess sustainability performance in agricultural systems that has not been used in livestock production. The objective of this study was to use this framework to compare silvopastoral, native (NSsp) and intensive (SSPi) and monoculture (Mc) cattle farms in the state of Yucatan, Mexico. Animal welfare was assessed using the Welfare Quality tool. Species Diversity and Richness was also obtained, as well as soil variables. Questionnaires were created using the SAFA Guidelines version 3.0 and applied in 9 farms of the local communities in 3 municipalities. Responses were fed to the application SAFA tool version 2.1.50 and sustainability polygons were produced. Native farms had positive ratings for Participation, Land, Biodiversity and Cultural Diversity, and SSPi for Holistic Management. Native farms had limited ratings for Decent Livelihood, due to poor training and underpay. NSsp farms and one Sspi farm had the highest percentages of themes positively valuated (NSsp1- 67%, Sspi- 62%, NSsp2- 57%) compared to monocultures and with one SSpi farm ranged as the lowest in positive valuations (Mc3- 33%, SSpi3- 33%, Mc2- 24%). Positive evaluations identified native systems as an option for sustainable production, however, it was also recognized that group participation, environmental knowledge and awareness, identification of potential business risks, technical support and training were key factors to improve sustainability in all farms. This study is a novel approach to the SAFA protocol, as it validates its efficiency in the conditions present in the Mexican tropics and compares the sustainability performance of Ssp systems, which have never been evaluated using this tool. Transdisciplinary research is needed to integrate measurements on sustainability criteria in different livestock production systems to design more efficient policies and incentives for producers. |
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sciforum-040951 | Post-mortem energy metabolites, glycolytic potential and meat quality attributes from of Dorper and Merino lambs | , | N/A | N/A |
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This study was conducted to evaluate the susceptibility of the Dorper and Merino breeds to pre-slaughter conditions stress at a commercial abattoir and how it affects the quality of the meat produced. The objective of this study was to investigate differences in post-mortem energy metabolites, glycolytic potential and meat quality attributes from Muscularis longimissius thoracis et lumborum (LTL) between Dorper and Merino lambs slaughtered at a commercial abattoir. Meat samples (~50 grams of LTL) harvested from 100 female eight-month old of the Dorper (n=50) and Merino (n=50) lambs were used in this study. For measuring post-mortem energy metabolites (glycogen, lactate, glucose-6-phosphate and glucose content) sampling was done on each carcass ~ 30 minutes post-slaughter and the samples were immediately frozen (-196 °C) in liquid nitrogen to prevent further glycolysis. The pH and temperature were measured 45 minutes, 6 and 24 hours post-slaughter, and carcass measurements were taken. Colour coordinates (lightness (L*), redness (a*), yellowness (b*)) were measured at 24 hours after slaughter and hue angle (H*) and chroma (C*) were calculated. Furthermore, thawing loss (TL), cooking loss (CL) and Warner Braztler Shear Force (WBSF) were measured after 7 days post-slaughter storage (-20 ºC). The Dorper had lower glycogen levels thus produced meat with a high ultimate pH and tougher meat compared to the Merino breed. The relationships observed between post-mortem muscle metabolites, glycolytic potential and meat quality attributes indicate that meat quality is affected by glycogen levels at slaughter. The results indicate that the Dorper breed was more susceptible to pre-slaughter stress and thus produced meat with reduced quality compared to the Merino breed. |
IECA 2020 Live Online Session Recording
The Opening Ceremony of the MDPI “1st International Electronic Conference on Animals—Global Sustainability and Animals: Science, Ethics and Policy” was held on Monday 2 November 2020. This online seminar was chaired by Professor Clive J. C. Phillips and Professor Donald Broom give very interesting presentations. Both talks were followed by a Q&A session to answer any questions submitted by the live online audience. The live session was offered via Zoom and registration was required for attendance. The full recording can be found below.
IECA Keynote Speakers' Video Presentations
You can find the video presentations of the keynote speakers below. We hope you enjoy the videos and share your opinions with them!
You may also find their presentations and communicate with the speakers on the session "Submission".
Keynote Speaker: Professor Dora Marinova
Keynote Speaker: Professor Emeritus Giuseppe Bertoni
Keynote Speaker: Dr. Diana Bogueva
Keynote Speaker: Dr. Francisco Galindo Maldonado
Keynote Speaker: Dr. Andrea Pezzuolo
List of Authors (53)
Event Awards
Best Presentation Award-Winner Announcement
We are pleased to announce the winners of the Best Presentation Award for IECA 2020 . The winner will receive 500 CHF.
The winner is as follow:
Enabling behaviour change in laying hen farmers using Motivational Interviewing (MI)
Paula Baker, Jessica Stokes, Claire Weeks
session Sustainable animal welfare, ethics, policies and politics
Best Speaker Award-Winner Announcement
Professor Donald Broom
St Catharine's College and Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Cambridge, UK
Session: Sustainable animal welfare, ethics, policies and politics
Congratulations to the winners for their excellent work!
The Awards
Number of Awards Available: 1
Animals offers one award to our participants at the conference: Best Presentation Award (1): 500 CHF The winner will be assessed by the Conference Committee.Number of Awards Available: 1
Animals offers one award to our participants at the conference: Best Speaker Award (1): 300 CHF . The winner will be assessed by the Conference Committee.Instructions for Authors
- Scholars interested in participating with the conference can submit their abstract (about 200-300 words covering the areas of manuscripts for the proceedings issue) online on this website until 11 October 2020 20 November 2020.
- The Conference Committee will pre-evaluate, based on the submitted abstract, whether a contribution from the authors of the abstract will be welcome for the 1st International Electronic Conference on Animals—Global Sustainability and Animals: Science, Ethics and Policy. All authors will be notified by 16 October 2020 25 November 2020 about the acceptance of their abstract.
- If the abstract is accepted for this conference, the author is asked to submit the manuscript, optionally along with a PowerPoint and/or video presentation of his/her paper (only PDF), until the submission deadline of 31 October 2020 30 November 2020.
- The conference proceedings papers and presentations will be available on https://ieca2020.sciforum.net/ for discussion during the time of the conference 2–27 November 2020 5–20 December 2020 and will be published in Journal Proceedings.
- The Open Access Journal Animals will publish Special Issue of the conference and accepted papers will be published in the proceedings of the conference itself. After the conference, the Conference Committee will select manuscripts that may be included for publication in the Special Issue of the journal Animals.
- (the submission to the journal is independent of the conference proceedings and will follow the usual process of the journal, including peer-review, APC, etc.).
First page:
- Title
- Full author names
- Affiliations (including full postal address) and authors' e-mail addresses
- Abstract (200-250 words)
- Keywords
- Introduction
- Methods
- Results and Discussion
- Conclusions
- (Acknowledgements)
- References
Manuscripts should be prepared in MS Word or any other word processor and should be converted to the PDF format before submission. The publication format will be PDF. The manuscript should count at least 3 pages (incl. figures, tables and references) and should not exceed 6 pages.
You are also and only allowed to submit a Poster(Presentation PDF) instead of the proceedings paper. Posters can be presented without an accompanying proceedings paper and will be available online on this website during and after the e-conference. However, they will not be added to the journal Proceedings of the conference.
Video---Authors are also encouraged to submit video presentations. If you are interested in submitting a video presentation, please contact the conference organizer at [email protected] to find out more about the procedure. This is a unique way of presenting your paper and discussing it with peers from all over the world. Make a difference and join us for this project!
• The video should be no longer than 10 minutes and be prepared with the following formats: .MOV; .MPEG4; .MP4; .AVI; .WMV; .MPEGPS; .FLV.
• The video should be submitted via [email protected] before 31 October 2020.
Submission: Manuscripts should be submitted online at https://ieca2020.sciforum.net/ by registering and logging in to this website.
Accepted File Formats
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MS Word: Manuscript prepared in MS Word must be converted into a single file before submission. When preparing manuscripts in MS Word, the IECA 2020 Microsoft Word template file (see download below) must be used. Please do not insert any graphics (schemes, figures, etc.) into a movable frame which can superimpose the text and make the layout very difficult.
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LaTeX: Manuscripts prepared in LaTeX must be collated into one ZIP folder (include all source files and images, so that the Conference Secretariat can recompile the submitted PDF). When preparing manuscripts in LaTeX, please use THE IECA 2020 LaTeX template files.
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Paper Format: A4 paper format, the printing area is 17.5 cm x 26.2 cm. The margins should be 1.75 cm on each side of the paper (top, bottom, left, and right sides).
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Paper Length: The conference proceedings paper should not be longer than 6 pages. The conference manuscript should be as concise as possible.
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Formatting / Style: The paper style of the Journal Proceedings should be followed. You may download the template file to prepare your paper (see above). The full titles and the cited papers must be given. Reference numbers should be placed in square brackets [ ], and placed before the punctuation; for example [4] or [1-3], and all the references should be listed separately and as the last section at the end of the manuscript.
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Authors List and Affiliation Format: Authors' full first and last names must be given. Abbreviated middle name can be added. For papers written by various contributors a corresponding author must be designated. The PubMed/MEDLINE format is used for affiliations: complete street address information including city, zip code, state/province, country, and email address should be added. All authors who contributed significantly to the manuscript (including writing a section) should be listed on the first page of the manuscript, below the title of the article. Other parties, who provided only minor contributions, should be listed under Acknowledgments only. A minor contribution might be a discussion with the author, reading through the draft of the manuscript, or performing English corrections.
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Figures, Schemes and Tables: Authors are encouraged to prepare figures and schemes in color. Full color graphics will be published free of charge. Figure and schemes must be numbered (Figure 1, Scheme I, Figure 2, Scheme II, etc.) and a explanatory title must be added. Tables should be inserted into the main text, and numbers and titles for all tables supplied. All table columns should have an explanatory heading. Please supply legends for all figures, schemes and tables. The legends should be prepared as a separate paragraph of the main text and placed in the main text before a table, a figure or a scheme.
Special Issue for IECA2020
Special Issue "Special Issue for IECA2020"
Selected Papers from The 1st International Electronic Conference on Animals—Global Sustainability and Animals: Science, Ethics and Policy(IECA2020)
Edited by Prof. Clive J. C. Phillips(Curtin University Sustainable Policy (CUSP) Institute, Australia)
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 2 April 2021.
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
This special issue is open for submissions of papers presented at 1st International Electronic Conference on Animals (IECA2020), 2-27 November 2020.
Prof. Clive J. C. Phillips
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Animals is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
A. Climate change and effects on the sustainability of animal systems
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B. Sustainability of animal use and demand for animal products
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C. Sustainable animal welfare, ethics, policies and politics
D. Sustainable animal health
E. Sustainable animal feeding
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