J-F Louf

G Guéna

O Pouliquen

Y Forterre

É Badel

H Cochard

B Moulia

Non-linear poro-elastic coupling in real and artificial branches and its possible link to plants mechano-perception

. Cela suggère l'existence chez les plantes d'un transport rapide de l'information sur une longue distance. Cependant, la nature et le mécanisme de transport de ce signal ne sont pas connus.

. De façon surprenante, la flexion d'une telle poutre génère une surpression dont l'amplitude varie quadratiquement avec la déformation imposée. Pour comprendre l'origine de cette réponse non-linéaire, nous proposons un modèle simple basé sur l'idée qu'une poutre poreuse en flexion tend à comprimer sa section transverse afin de minimiser l'énergie élastique totale du système. Des expériences sur des branches réelles réalisées en collaboration avec l'INRA suggèrent la robustesse de ce mécanisme.

1 Introduction.

Since Darwin, scientists know that plants are able to respond to mechanical stimuli, a process called thigmomorphogenesis [START_REF] Jaffe | Thigmo responses in plants and funghi[END_REF][START_REF] Braam | In touch : plant responses to mechanical stimuli[END_REF][START_REF] Telewski | A unified hypothesis of mechanoperception in plants[END_REF]. This ability is crucial to the survival of plants, who are continuously exposed to mechanical perturbations such as wind, rain, contact with other plants and so on. For example, at the tree scale, the bending of a branch leads to a rapid change of growth not only locally but also far from the stimulated area suggesting the existence of a long-range signal through the plant [START_REF] Coutant | Biomechanical study of the effect of a controlled bending on tomato stem elongation : local strain sensing and spatial integration of the signal[END_REF]. The nature and the mechanism of propagation of this signal is not well known and different hypothesis have been proposed in the literature. One of these is that the signal propagation is purely mechanical [START_REF] Malone | Hydraulic signals[END_REF]8] : an hydraulic pulse could be generated in response to a local mechanical strain, and could propagate rapidly along the water conductive system of the plant. This hypothesis of a purely hydro-mechanical coupling has been recently investigated in the PIAF-INRA laboratory in Clermont-Ferrand, by Éric Badel, Hervé Cochard and Bruno Moulia [START_REF] Lopez | Bending strains generates high hydraulic pulses in trees[END_REF]. To this end, hydraulic pressure measurements have been made in plant stems or branches subjected to a rapid and controlled bending. Their main result is that the bending of a branch leads to an overpressure that spreads through the vascular system. These experiments are the first to evidence the existence and propagation of an hydraulic pressure wave in plants in response to a localised bending. It is tempting to assume that such hydraulic signals could play an important role in the long range signalling in plants mechano-perception. On the other hand, from a purely physical and mechanical point of view, these results point to interesting and non-trivial questions. What are the physical mechanisms responsible for the hydraulic pulse generation ? What set the amplitude of the pressure pulse, its speed of propagation and its damping rate ?

In physics and mechanics, poroelasticity is a natural framework to study the dynamics of a porous deformable solid saturated with a liquid [START_REF] Biot | General theory of three-dimensional consolidation[END_REF][START_REF] Wang | Theory of linear poroelasticity with applications to geomechanics and hydrogeology[END_REF]. From this point of view, one expects that the bending of a stem or a branch saturated with water induces a water flow. When an elastic beam is bent, some parts are stretched while others are compressed. These local changes of volume must be followed by water expulsion or suction. However, in the linear beam theory, both effect compensate exactly for a symmetrical beam and the total change of volume should be zero under pure bending. It is therefore not at all trivial that bending of a branch produces a non-zero mean pressure pulse as observed. While previous theoretical works have studied the linear behaviour of a poroleastic beam e.g. [START_REF] Cederbaum | Poroelastic structures[END_REF][START_REF] Skotheim | Dynamics of poroelastic filaments[END_REF], very few experimental studies have been performed [START_REF] Scherer | Bending a gel rod with an impermeable surface[END_REF]. Moreover, to our knowledge, no study has investigated the poroelastic dynamics of a beam composed of a soft cellular material in the large deformation regime.

2 Experiments on artificial branches.

Minimal ingredients for a biomimetic branch : From a mechanical point of view, a very simple picture of a tree branch is an elastic beam perforated with thin channels drilled in the longitudinal direction and filled with a viscous fluid. This original three-dimensional milli-fluidic device is made of a silicone elastomer (Polydimethylsiloxane) and elaborated using moulding techniques. The elastomer is soft, transparent and isotropic (Young modulus E ∼ 2 MPa). The size of the channels is d = 500 µm. Channels are filled with a viscous fluid (silicon oil or Ucon oil/water mixture) (see figure 1 for details). Experimental set-up : All the experiments presented here are performed in the situation of a closed system i.e. there is no exchange of fluid between the inside and the outside of the beam. For practical reasons, we work in the geometry of a cantilever beam : the pressure signal is recorded from one fixed end of the beam while deformation is imposed rapidly by the displacement of the other end of the beam (see figure 2.A). To ensure reproducibility, the displacement of the mobile part of the beam is performed with help of a linear actuator. A picture of the beam is taken afterward from which is extracted the mean curvature : C = ∆Θ/L where L is the length of the beam and ∆Θ is the angle difference between both extremities of the beam. The bending deformation is defined as the maximal longitudinal deformation induced by bending and is given by = (D/2) C where D is the diameter of the beam.

Main characteristics of the pressure signal when bending : A typical hydraulic pressure signal is presented on figure 2.B . We see on this figure that pressure reaches a non-zero value which is maintained stationary as long as bending is imposed. Second the transient regime over which the pressure sets up is well accounted for by the relaxation poro-elastic time of the beam. This is in qualitative agreement with the hypothesis of an hydraulic pulse generated by bending and is coherent with experiments performed on plants. Interestingly, we also find that the amplitude of the overpressure ∆P varies quadratically with the bending deformation (see figure 2.C). These features come up two questions we will now address : (1) Why bending creates an overpressure ? (2) Why the pressure response is non-linear whereas the material is still in its linear response regime ?

3 A simple elastic model for the pressure response to bending.

In contrast with the prediction of the linear elastic beam theory, the observed over-pressure shows that bending leads to a global change of volume in the system. A possible explanation is the following. When an elastic beam is bent, the longitudinal elastic deformations (extension and compression) increase with the distance to the neutral surface. Now, if the beam is composed of a porous media, the system can reduce the bending elastic energy by deforming its cross-section and gather the material closer to the neutral surface. This 'squeezing' of the cross-section is, in turn, associated with a global decrease of the pore area and gives rise to a decrease of the volume of the beam in response to bending (see figure 3).

(1) Minimisation of the total elastic energy. The total elastic energy is given by the sum of the elastic energy associated with bending in the longitudinal direction and squeezing in the transverse direction. The bending elastic energy of a beam of circular cross-section of diameter D, length L, effective Young modulus E, and bent at a constant curvature C, is given by [START_REF] Landau | Theorie de l'élasticité[END_REF] :

U bend = EV 32 D 2 C 2 (1)
C -1 where = (D/2)C is the bending deformation defined in the experiment and V = πD 2 L/4 is the volume of the beam. When the section of the beam is squeezed by a factor δ, the moment of inertia of the beam is reduced (D → D -2δ) and the bending energy can be approximated as :

D-2δ

U bend (δ) ≈ EV 32 (D -2δ) 2 C 2 (2)
We can see in this expression that a transverse compression δ > 0 decreases the bending energy. However, this transverse deformation has a cost in term of elastic energy that we need to estimate. By analogy with the elastic energy stored in a compressed bar [(1/2)EV (d / ) 2 ], we write the squeezing energy U squeeze associated to the deformation of the transverse deformation of the cross-section as :

U squeeze (δ) ≈ EV 2 2δ D 2 (3)
where ⊥ = 2δ/D are the typical transverse deformation (Figure 3). The equilibrium value of δ is found by minimising the sum of the bending energy U bend and the squeezing energy U squeeze , that is : d dδ U bend + U squeeze = 0 . At the lowest order (2δ D), this gives :

2δ D ≈ D 2 C 2 16 or ⊥ ≈ 2 4 ( 4
)
This analysis therefore shows that the transverse deformation of the beam cross-section ⊥ varies with the power 2 of the bending deformation . Now, in the 2D cross-section plane, we can write that the relative change of the pore area associated with this transverse compression writes :

∆A c /A c = -(1 -ν c ) ⊥ ≈ -(1 -ν c ) 2 /
4where A c is the pore area and ν c is a 2D surface area Poisson ratio characterising the change of pore area for a given 2D deformation. In the case of a 2D sheet containing holes, the prefactor (1 -ν c ) is of the order of unity [START_REF] Day | The elastic moduli of a sheet containing circular holes[END_REF]. In our parallel channel geometry, this pore area change is equal to the pore volume change :

∆A c /A c = ∆V c /V c
, where V c is the pore volume. Therefore :

∆V c V c ∼ - 2 4 (5)
This simple model then predicts that bending a porous beam leads to a global volume change of the channel that is proportional to the square of the bending deformation. This non-ovalisationlinear effect comes from the flattening of the cross-section when the porous beam is bent, due to a competition between the longitudinal bending deformation and the transverse cross-section deformation. This effect is reminiscent of the ovalisation phenomenon observed in bent elastic tubes and first described by Brazier [START_REF] Brazier | On the flexure of thin cylindrical shells and other "thin" sections[END_REF]. When a tube of circular section is bent, its section flattens before collapsing at large deformation. We shall now take into account the presence of an incompressible fluid in the porosity of the beam to express the relation between the relative change of the total volume of the channels expected in an open system and the overpressure observed in a closed system.

(2) Relation between volume change with pressure change. In the situation where liquid can not be exchanged with the outside (what we have called a closed system), bending a porous beam at constant volume can be divided in two steps : in the first step, the beam is bent slowly up to C, and the fluid is let free to be drained out from the beam. In this case, a volume -∆V c < 0 is removed from the beam according to equation ( 5) while the pore pressure remains zero. In the second step, we maintain the bending curvature C constant and inject the volume of liquid ∆V c in order to recover the initial volume of the system (∆V c = 0). This injection of fluid is then associated to an increase of the pore pressure ∆P , which is the quantity we are looking for. The relation between ∆P and ∆V c is given by the "pore bulk modulus" B defined by : ∆P = -B∆V c /V c . which combined with equation [START_REF] Coutant | Biomechanical study of the effect of a controlled bending on tomato stem elongation : local strain sensing and spatial integration of the signal[END_REF] gives the relation between the bending deformation and the pressure response ∆P :

∆P ∼ B 2 4 (6)
Our model therefore recovers the quadratic relation between the pressure and the bending deformation observed experimentally. In this model, the overpressure ∆P is essentially controlled by the pore bulk modulus B of the porous beam. The measured bulk modulus of the PDMS branch is B = 2.5 10 5 Pa. Equation ( 6) then predicts that a 10 % curvature deformation will generate an overpressure of order ∆P ∼ 10 3 Pa, in good agreement with the experiments (see figure 2.B).

Comparison between real and artificial branches.

In order to test the naive picture we used to design artificial branches, the same experiment has been performed on real branches. Even though experiments on real branches is much more difficult than on artificial branches because of the intrinsic variability of living systems, we observed the same quadratic pressure response to bending as for artificial branches (see figure 4). This suggests that we have captured with our naive model the basic features involved in the generation of the hydraulic pulse that was already observed in plants and that the mechanisms involved in the process are robust. Moreover, for a given geometry, the bulk modulus of a material B depends on the Young module E : B = E × f (φ) where f (φ) is a function of the geometry of the beam. Wood being much harder than the elastomer we used for the elaboration of the artificial branches (E wood ∼ GPa whereas E elastomer ∼ MPa) we expect that the amplitude of the steady overpressure measured in both systems scales like the young modulus of the material which is indeed the case.

Figure 1 .Figure 2 .

 12 Figure 1. (A) Moulding set-up. (B) Picture of a poroelastic beam

Figure 3 .

 3 Figure 3. Ovalisation process : the elastic energy associated with the curvature of the beam (left) is decreased by the squeezing of the section of the beam (right)

Figure 4 .

 4 Figure 4. Stationary overpressure normalised by the young modulus for artificial and real branches (hybrid poplar and green oak). Rescaling gives ∆P E = 0.06 × 2 for artificial branches and ∆P E = 0.02 × 2 for real branches.

c Non Linéaire Publications, Avenue de l'Université, BP 12, 76801 Saint-Étienne du Rouvray cedex


domain: sdv info shs

text:
Jérémy Tournayre
email: jeremy.tournayre@clermont.inra.fr

Isabelle Cassar-Malek

Matthieu Reichstadt

Brigitte Picard

Nicolas Kaspric

Muriel Bonnet
email: muriel.bonnet@clermont.inra.fr

Fat&MuscleDB: A database to understand tissue growth processes contributing to body or muscle composition

Keywords: database, adipose tissues, skeletal muscle tissues, genomic expression

To minimise unnecessary redundancy in research efforts by a better use of available data, we present a web-based database and data-mining platform named Fat&MuscleDB. Genomics on muscle and adipose tissue growth has generated huge amount of data which are available in journals and in databases. Unfortunately these data are scattered on the Internet in a heterogeneous format. Thus, it is difficult to exploit them efficiently. We hypothesise that these data can allow identifying genes or proteins involved in adipose and muscle tissues development contributing to body or muscle composition, two key criteria of carcass and meat quality. Currently, Fat&MuscleDB contains genomic expression data and differential abundance data from about 100 publications and 75 GEO datasets. These data can be queried, visualised, and downloaded in different ways: the data visualisation of each reference, the search of transcripts or proteins in references, and the data aggregation based on criteria of adipose and muscle growth. The aggregation function of Fat&MuscleDB is illustrated through two questions: ''What are the proteins secreted by muscles?" and ''What are the transcripts and proteins involved in the growth of muscle tissue from genetic origins of bovine?''.

Introduction

Increasing the amount of meat produced while preserving a high quality is an economic challenge for the beef industry. The characterisation of meat quality depends on several criteria: tenderness, juiciness, texture, and flavour. These criteria are related to the amount of muscle tissue relative to the amount of adipose tissue: the lean-to-fat ratio. Thus, many studies have been done on the changes of this ratio according to different Fat&MuscleDB: Une base de données pour comprendre les processus de croissance des tissus contribuant à la composition corporelle ou musculaire

Mots-clés base de données, tissus adipeux, tissus musculaires squelettiques, expression génomique

animal breeds and animal husbandry practices. Genomic studies have identified genes and proteins which control tissue physiology and growth. These genomic data are published in many journals available in public databases such as PubMed [START_REF] Bonnet | Database resources of the National Center for Biotechnology Information[END_REF] and Web of Science (www.webofknowledge.com) whose the transcriptomic data can be filed into the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database [START_REF] Barrett | NCBI GEO: archive for functional genomics data sets-update[END_REF]. Some people have developed databases that aim to integrate these data in other contexts of research. For example, databases like Oncomine [START_REF] Rhodes | ONCOMINE: a cancer microarray database and integrated data-mining platform[END_REF] and EURRECA [START_REF] Claessens | EURRECA-Principles and Future for Deriving Micronutrient Recommendations[END_REF] are dedicated to identification of cancer biomarkers and micronutrient status respectively. Concerning our topics, several published transcriptomic data from the muscle were processed in the MADMUSCLE [START_REF] Baron | Meta-analysis of muscle transcriptome data using the MADMuscle database reveals biologically relevant gene patterns[END_REF] database, but it is not maintained and not updated anymore. We can also use the StemBase [START_REF] Porter | StemBase: a resource for the analysis of stem cell gene expression data[END_REF] database which lists transcriptomic data from the muscle and adipose stem cells from 62 experiments, without any access to lists of genes absent, present or differentially expressed between two samples. Thus, there is no database that aims at integrating transcriptomic and proteomic data for muscle and adipose tissues growth. The integration and the aggregation of these data could help answering to other questions than those raised by their authors, e.g. the emerging issue: what are the developmental and functional links between muscle and adipose growth? This question is suggested by the successive waves of muscle and adipose tissues growth as well as the wide plasticity of body composition depending on age or genotype in cattle [START_REF] Bonnet | Ontogenesis of muscle and adipose tissues and their interactions in ruminants and other species[END_REF]. Currently, little functional links are reported in monogastrics thanks to in vitro studies [START_REF] Romacho | Adipose tissue and its role in organ crosstalk[END_REF].

Our objective is to retrieve all the data which could help us to understand the mechanisms underlying fat and muscle hypertrophy and hyperplasia. In order to achieve this, we created a web-based database and data-mining platform called Fat&MuscleDB. The data come from in vivo and in vitro experiments in ruminants and model species such as rodents, humans, and cell lines. They were collected at various ages since muscular hypertrophy and fat hypertrophy occur during foetal life and in postnatal life. We defined criteria relative to the experiments and the stages of adipose tissue and muscle growth in order to record and classify data. Our final aim is their aggregation to highlight transcripts or proteins which may be biomarkers of the lean-to-fat ratio. To construct Fat&MuscleDB, a data collection was created and was semi-automatically processed to extract and import the data in the database. We developed an interface which provides the view of all data, the search of transcripts or proteins in the database, and the aggregation based on classification criteria.

Methods a. Data collection

For the collect of data on our topics, we listed keywords related to cellular and tissue traits linked to muscle and adipose tissues growth, species and cell lines, methods, and keywords for irrelevant references exclusion. All combinations of these keywords were submitted to NCBI on GEO and Pubmed, and also on Web of Science. The querying of Pubmed and GEO databases on the NCBI was made with Perl and the LWP::Simple library (http://search.cpan.org/~ether/libwww-perl-6.13/lib/LWP/Simple.pm), whereas querying Web of Science was done with Selenium Remote-Control (http://www.seleniumhq.org/) controlled by a Perl script which allowed us to use the Firefox browser in order to interpret the JavaScript language. To avoid overload of the queried servers, we used the NCBI web service and put a waiting time between the display of each page of Web of Science without parallelisation. We created our own website to view and manipulate this data collection.

b. Data processing

We extracted data from publications and supplementary data to retrieve all genes or proteins names together with the fold change. For the extraction of these columns from Portable Document Format (PDF) two tools was used: Tabula (www.tabula.technology) and pdftotext (www.glyphandcog.com). By this way, the genomic expressions were extracted and classified as "Absence" or "Presence". In addition, the differentially abundant genes or proteins between two samples were extracted and classified as "Increased", "Decreased" or "Stable". For data related to the secretome assayed with cell culture the authors may have used tools such as SignalP [START_REF] Petersen | SignalP 4.0: discriminating signal peptides from transmembrane regions[END_REF] to eliminate results from contamination due to cell death and to identify accurately proteins that are secreted. If this was not done, SignalP was used from the website ProteINSIDE (www.proteinside.org, see abstract from N. Kaspric) to remove falsely predicted proteins which were the result of a contamination.

On the other hand, intensities of transcripts were extracted from GEO microarray data. Here we wanted to identify differentially expressed genes between two samples. They can be together on the same chip (two channels) or on separate chips (one channel or two channels with a reference on the second channel). Each microarray dataset was verified manually to take into account if there was a dye swap or a dye switch, if the data were paired, if the data were normalised and if the data were log-transformed. An R script which took into account these indications was made. This script downloaded GEO data as a data.frame thanks to the GeoQuery library [START_REF] Davis | GEOquery: a bridge between the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) and BioConductor[END_REF]. Then, for each type of chip used, according to our indications, the script normalised values, converted them into log base 2 and reversed the signs of the values in the case of a dye swap or dye switch. Then, the values of replicated probes for each chip were averaged as well as the microarray technical replicates. The column indicating the probes name was selected automatically but could be handpicked manually if the selected column was not correct. Indeed, this column does not have the same name and was not at the same location in each microarray dataset. However, we were able to set some rules to address automatically the probes column: if a column was named "ReporterID", if a column had no missing value and had no more than 15% of identical identifiers (which may correspond to a "block", "row", or "column" of a chip) and the average size of string was less than 30 (above this number it may be sequences or descriptions of transcripts). Among these columns the script chose the column whose identifiers ending with "_at" (this is the end of an identifier of Affymetrix chip), or the column whose name was "INT_ID" and strings began with "C" (this is a clone identifier of GenBank), or the column which had the most unique identifiers among all. To finish and to identify differentially expressed transcripts, a variance mixture was performed thanks to the R library Anapuce (http://cran.rproject.org/web/packages/anapuce/) which is dedicated to microarray data analysis. The "DiffAnalysis" function was chosen if the data were paired. It took into account only samples on a same chip; so if samples were biologically paired and were on different microarrays the R script calculated each value of the first sample minus the second sample. The "DiffAnalysis.unpaired" function was selected for the unpaired data. These functions allowed obtaining over-expressed, under-expressed, and stable genes lists. A Benjamini and Hochberg p-value threshold of 0.15 was chosen because the stringency of this test strongly reduced the number of regulated transcripts identified. We slightly changed the Anapuce functions to solve rare bugs and to only perform the variance mixture. For example, an error was caused if the value of Bayesian Information Criterion was greater than 10 7 in the first iteration of variance mixture. Also, the ''lowess'' function was stopped if there were missing values in the vector. We also treated genomic expressions data within a sample. For that, genes were classified in "Absence" or "Presence" if for each chip the probe was recorded as "A" or as "P" respectively.

We chosen to distinguish the data analysed by our methods (e.g. by Anapuce or a SignalP analysis) of the data extracted as they were published. The firsts were annotated by "Analysed by Fat&MuscleDB" while the others were annotated by "Not analysed by Fat&MuscleDB". To aggregate these data it was necessary to have a unique identifier for each imported data. Thus, all names or identifiers were chosen to be converted into UniProt accessions from UniProt [START_REF]Activities at the Universal Protein Resource (UniProt)[END_REF] which is a protein database regularly updated and curated by experts. For this, we chose the names to be converted according to the species studied using the UniProt or NCBI search engine depending on their nomenclature. We retrieved the "Entry" (e.g. "Q15848"), the "Gene names" (e.g. "ADIPOQ"), the "Entry name" (e.g. "ADIPO_HUMAN") and the information that the accession was reviewed by UniProt or not for each UniProt accession. This was done automatically through a Perl script using the tabulated format of the UniProt research results for only get the desired information (e.g.: "http://www.uniprot.org/uniprot/?query=adipoq+AND+organism%3Ahuman&sort=score&limit=10&f ormat=tab&columns=id,entry%20name,reviewed,genes"). Finally, the aggregations were performed on the "Gene names" because these accessions were not linked to species contrary to the "Entry name" and the "Entry". To classify all extracted data we defined criteria related to muscle or adipose tissues growth from both in vivo and in vitro experiments and criteria related to species, breeds, genders, ages, tissues, and cell lines. These criteria were selected for each extracted data based on the information described in the experimental protocols indicated by the authors. To finish, these data were imported in a MySQL database.

c. Web interface

The web interface was programmed in PHP, HTML, and JavaScript, which means that it works on the most used browsers (kept up to date) (Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer...). Tables on the web interface were created using Google Charts (developers.google.com/chart) that enables to create easily interactive tables with search field. The website offers three types of searches: viewing all data, searching for a list of genes or proteins in the database, and aggregation of the data based on the criteria of hypertrophy or atrophy in muscle or adipose tissues as defined in the classification. Each search results can be downloaded in Excel format (.xlsx). The aggregation was processed by a Perl script on the user request. This produced a table that merged results from all experiments sharing a same criterion. Each accession was counted once by reference in order to identify the redundancy of identification of a gene or a protein. Each aggregation result produced a code for easy retrieval in the web site. The search for genes or proteins lists can be done with these UniProt accessions: "Entry", "Entry name" or "Gene names". We used a denormalised table where each UniProt accessions was connected to their reference to offer a quick search among all the data. Data imported from references and aggregation results were precalculated for a quick display of data on a web page and also a quick download of Excel files.

Results and discussion a. Data collection

To create the database collection, references were searched on Web of Science, Pubmed, and GEO databases. This research was done automatically using a combination of three lists of keywords: 86 keywords describing cellular and tissular traits linked to muscle and adipose tissues growth (including adipose tissue, muscle, marbling, double-muscled, carcasses, meat qualities...), 26 on species and cell lines (bovine, foetus, 3T3-L1, C2C12...), and 12 on methods (transcriptome, proteome...). Furthermore, a list of negative keywords (diseases, carcinoma...) has been added on each of these combinations in order to discard data from abnormal conditions of tissues growth. This generated about 26,000 queries on each database which allowed us to retrieve about 17,000 publications and 2,500 GEO. We currently view these references through our private website to facilitate the selection of the most relevant studies about muscle and adipose tissues growth. Presently, we validate 345 publications and 162 GEO datasets to extract. We reject about 4,500 publications and about 1,200 GEO datasets for multiple reasons: they may not contain table, they can deal with a too specific tissue growth (for example, a knockdown of a gene contributed to adipose or muscle tissues growth). Also, the NCBI and Web of Science search engines retrieved publications related to diseases despite the list of negative keywords. So, we automatically reject references which contain, in their title, one of the negative keywords without positive keywords like "adipo*". More than 2,000 references have been rejected by this way.

For the moment, we extract and import into the database about 100 publications and about 75 GEO datasets. The time of analysis is substantial because we want to classify data accurately which require a good understanding of the material and methods. During the data classification it happened that finally we rejected the reference after careful consideration on the methods or the data. For example, sometimes there were no biological replicates in a GEO dataset which prevented us from achieving statistical analysis of variance mixture. Mistakes were often found in the literature: e.g. the age of one animal is different between summary and methods, a gene in a table can be specified as over-expressed and also described under-expressed later in the same table for the same sample... Also, it is difficult to accurately extract the data automatically from publications because each researcher put his own nomenclature: for example, for column header title indicating gene names we can have "Accession", "Gene", "ID"... or even no title. In a similar way as publications there is heterogeneity in the description of GEO transcriptomic data despite of the NCBI rules. For example, the intensity values may be normalised or not, in a log base 2 or in a log base 10 or even not in a logarithmic form, the dye swaps are indicated in different ways, sometimes there are uninformative terms e.g. a date can be specified only by "time 1", "time 2"... We identify data from RNA-seq which are represented by about 200 GEO datasets in our data collection. In a second step, it might be interesting to take them into account with a statistical method, such as given by the R libraries DESeq [START_REF] Anders | Differential expression analysis for sequence count data[END_REF] or NOIseq [START_REF] Tarazona | Differential expression in RNA-seq: A matter of depth[END_REF]. In order to aggregate the data thanks to unique identifier, the names given by the authors are converted into "Entry", "Entry name", and "Gene Names" of UniProt through UniProt or NCBI search engines (depends on the used nomenclature). During this conversion we retrieve the "Gene names" with some troubles. UniProt uses space as delimiter field for the "Gene names" which causes poor retrieval because few "Gene names" can contain spaces.

For example, the "Entry" Q91VB8 have these "Gene names": "Hba-a1", "haemaglobin alpha 1", "haemaglobin alpha 2", and "Hba-a2" (see: "http://www.uniprot.org/uniprot/?query=Q91VB8&sort=score&limit=10&format=tab&columns=id,entry%2 0name,reviewed,genes" (this search was verified the 03/17/2015)). Thus, "haemaglobin alpha 1" is retrieved as "haemaglobin", "alpha", and "1" in our database. Consequently, these rare genes names cannot be searched in the database and they are displayed and aggregated incorrectly in the results files. We contacted the UniProt staff to ask them if they could solve this field separator problem. They answered us that indeed there is a field separator problem and that it could take a lot of time to be resolved because they have to find a suitable field separator. The data heterogeneity, the data errors and the lack of precision on the data context as we have shown were already raised [START_REF] Hamid | Data Integration in Genetics and Genomics: Methods and Challenges[END_REF]. Communities propose to improve the sharing of biological data by defining standards, such as the standard "Minimum Information About a Microarray Experiment" (MIAME) (www.fged.org) which is required to deposit microarray data in GEO.

b. Classification

Up to now, we have defined 83 criteria to classify experiments and stages of adipose and muscle tissues growth. These criteria are grouped as: "In Vitro", "In Vivo", and "Others" main criteria. In "In Vitro" we decided to distinguish the mouse cell lines (3T3-L1, C2C12, C3H10T/2) from the primary foetal cells (Embryonic Stem Cell) and adult cells (Adult Mesenchymal Stem Cell, Adult Mesenchymal Stem Cell Adipogenic, Adult Mesenchymal Stem Cell Myogenic, Adipogenic progenitors, Myogenic progenitors), and from the secretome. Each cell types were classified according to the different stages of proliferation or differentiation. In "In Vivo" we distinguished fat from muscle, hypertrophy from atrophy induced by genetic (breed, gender, and genetic mutation), diet, and also from the secretome described from biological fluids or predicted from tissues or cell cultures. Finally, we classified in "Others" the comparisons between anatomical site and cell types namely, brown, beige and white adipocytes, and myocytes. Visualisation of transcriptomic data from the publication "Target genes of myostatin loss-of-function in muscles of late bovine foetuses" [START_REF] Cassar-Malek | Target genes of myostatin loss-of-function in muscles of late bovine fetuses[END_REF] classified as "Muscular hypertrophy from genetic origin". This is an extract of the list of transcripts whose expression increases in double-muscled Charolais compared to normal-muscled Charolais as reference. Each line corresponds to a transcript and brings various information (from left to right): if it was retrieved by us ("Yes") or according to authors' interpretation ("No"), its UniProt accessions: "Entry", "Entry name", "Gene Names", if it were reviewed by the UniProt consortium or not. In the other columns (e.g. "Gene Symbol", "Gene name", and "Fold") the data were extracted from the publications. The list of transcripts with a decreased expression in double-muscled Charolais can be downloaded by clicking the "Decreased" button on the upper left. Each column can be filtered and sorted.

c. View

It is possible to view and download all the data of Fat&MuscleDB. For example, the transcripts from the publication "Target genes of myostatin loss-of-function in muscles of late bovine fetuses" [START_REF] Cassar-Malek | Target genes of myostatin loss-of-function in muscles of late bovine fetuses[END_REF] are classified as over-and under-expressed in double-muscled Charolais with the criterion "Muscular hypertrophy from genetic origin" by comparison with normal-muscled Charolais. In addition, to the data we add a column named "Analysed by Fat&MuscleDB" which indicates whether the data were retrieved as described in the publication or if we used a variance mixture from Anapuce or another of our methods. Also, the result of UniProt conversion is given in the columns "UniProt conversion", "Entry Name", "Gene Names", and "Reviewed" of the output table (Figure 1).

d. Search accession

In order to find publications and GEO datasets where a gene or a protein are identified, the search of accessions is possible through the following types of identifiers: "Gene name", "UniProt accession" or "Entry Name". The example of adiponectin with the "ADIPOQ" gene name search shows, as expected, that the protein is present among the proteins secreted by adipose tissues in rats and humans (Figure 2). Also, it is found increased in adipose hypertrophy induced by diet and by growth, and is decreased in intramuscular fat relative to omental adipose tissue. Visualisation of references which contain ADIPOQ in their dataset. This is an extract of the list of references retrieved from the search of ADIPOQ in Fat&MuscleDB. These two references indicate that ADIPOQ is present in the adipose tissue secretome in humans and rats.

e. Aggregation

The final aim of Fat&MuscleDB is to aggregate the data. For this, by filling a form, users choose one of the criteria in the list of criteria related to adipose and muscle tissues growth, as well as a species, a breed, a biological sample, or a cell line. Then, users receive the list of found references. They can select or unselect references datasets to aggregate and reverse references having differential abundances data to put the criterion selected on the first condition relative to the other condition. A unique code is given for each aggregation calculated so the user can return on it. We report here the example of the aggregation of data related to the criterion "Proteins secreted by muscles". Currently, this aggregation uses data from 5 references on genomic expression from rat or human. The output list contains 330 UniProt accessions, among them 13 UniProt accessions are found in two references from human, which highlight the added-value of aggregation (Figure 3). Another example of aggregation with the criterion "Muscular hypertrophy from genetic origin" is illustrated in Figure 3. We retrieved 30 samples comparisons given by 10 references from GEO datasets and publications. The aggregation of these references indicates that there are 22,076 proteins/transcripts which are stable in the context of muscular hypertrophy from genetic origin, whereas 1,006 are decreased and 1,021 are increased. An accession may be found as stable, increased or decreased as for example "CO1A2_BOVIN". This indicates that its expression may be dependent of breed, gender, age, tissue or physiological status used in the aggregated references. Indeed, it is found over-expressed in the microarray data from the "GSE5659" GEO dataset through the samples of Piedmontese/Hereford cross relative to Hereford/Wagyu cross at 7 months, whereas it is found stable over these same samples at 3 months and 12 months. This indicates that for aggregation authors have to carefully select the dataset to be merged. To explore in depth genes or proteins lists obtained through Fat&MuscleDB it is possible to use informatics resources such as ProteINSIDE to identify central or relevant genes or proteins related to a criterion.

f. Conclusion

Fat&MuscleDB is a novel and unique database which brings "omics" research on muscle and adipose tissues into one location and which can be used through the Internet by a web interface. It connects beef industry or human health issues to the new biological discoveries in "omics" research. We will use the Fat&MuscleDB to identify genes or proteins involved in the lean-to-fat ratio in cattle. As it remains a lot of data to integrate, we continue to feed Fat&MuscleDB. This strategy and this database will undoubtedly reduce avoidable duplication of experimental studies by a better use of available knowledge.

Figure 1 .

 1 Figure 1.Visualisation of transcriptomic data from the publication "Target genes of myostatin loss-of-function in muscles of late bovine foetuses"[START_REF] Cassar-Malek | Target genes of myostatin loss-of-function in muscles of late bovine fetuses[END_REF] classified as "Muscular hypertrophy from genetic origin". This is an extract of the list of transcripts whose expression increases in double-muscled Charolais compared to normal-muscled Charolais as reference. Each line corresponds to a transcript and brings various information (from left to right): if it was retrieved by us ("Yes") or according to authors' interpretation ("No"), its UniProt accessions: "Entry", "Entry name", "Gene Names", if it were reviewed by the UniProt consortium or not. In the other columns (e.g. "Gene Symbol", "Gene name", and "Fold") the data were extracted from the publications. The list of transcripts with a decreased expression in double-muscled Charolais can be downloaded by clicking the "Decreased" button on the upper left. Each column can be filtered and sorted.

Figure 2 .

 2 Figure 2.Visualisation of references which contain ADIPOQ in their dataset. This is an extract of the list of references retrieved from the search of ADIPOQ in Fat&MuscleDB. These two references indicate that ADIPOQ is present in the adipose tissue secretome in humans and rats.

Figure 3 .

 3 Figure 3. Aggregation of "omics" data relative to two criteria in Fat&MuscleDB. (a, c) The form allows selecting references to aggregate according to different settings: in vitro or in vivo experiments, species and breed, biological sample, and cell lines. (a) The criterion selected is "Proteins secreted by muscles". (c) The criterion selected is "Muscular hypertrophy from genetic origin". (b) Extract of the list of proteins which are present in "Proteins secreted by muscles". (d) Extract of the list of proteins whose abundance increases in "Muscular hypertrophy from genetic origin". (b, d) Each line corresponds to a protein with multiple indications:if it is retrieved by us ("Yes") or according to authors' interpretation ("No"), its UniProt accession, its Entry name, if it has been reviewed by the UniProt consortium or not, and the number of times it is retrieved. The duplicate accessions in a reference are only counted once.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the regional council of Auvergne in France through the regional information system Lifegrid. The authors wish to thank Anne de la Foye for her help in statistical analysis.


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Francisco L C Oliveira

Rejane S Sousa

Juliana A A Santos

Carolina A S C Araujo

Christopher R White

Bruno T B Honda

Ana L C O Galvâo

Clara S Mori

Antonio H H Mivervino

Enrico Lippi Ortolani

Association Of Virginiamicyn And Monensin Mitigates The Rumen Lactic Acidosis Effects In Cattle

Objectives: Rumen lactic acidosis (RLA) is a common disease in feedlot cattle. For prevention of this illness some dietary ionophores and antibiotics are used, mainly monensin (M) and virginiamycin (V). This experiment was carried out to check, by the first time, the effects of preventive use of dietary V + M on an experimental RLA in cattle.

Materials and Methods: An Official Brazilian Animal Ethics Commission

approved this protocol, previously. Twelve yearling Nellore heifers were rumen cannulated and fed for one month with a 75% roughage and 25% concentrate diet according to their 2.5% body weight. Six heifers received daily 250 mg V and 300 mg M (V+M) in the diet and the same number kept as a control (C). An experimental RLA was induced in all animals by infusion of different amount of sucrose, into the rumen cannula, according to a formula based on a corrected metabolic weight. For the next 18 h some rumen parameters (pH; L-Lactate level; titratable acidity and redox potential), hematological (plasma volume deficit PVD) and clinical picture were followed. For complete recovering many animals needed, at the 18h, a treatment based on withdraw of all rumen fluid and replacement with healthy rumen fluid and water, and intravenously infusion of large amount of Lactated Ringer Solution. The distribution of all data was evaluated using the Kolgomorov-Smirnov test followed by repeated measures modelling with PROC-MIXED and coefficient of determination (R 2 ) in the SAS.

Results: Rumen pH and L-Lactate levels were lower and higher, respectively, at the 3 rd , 6 th and 18 th h in the control group (P= 0.019). Both titratable acidity (12 th and 18 th h), and redox potential (3 rd , 6h, and 12 th ) were higher in the control group (P = 0.03). The R 2 for rumen pH with the following variables L-Lactate level, redox potential and titratable acidity were 0.91, 0.96 and 0.87, respectively. These results suggested that the principal acid produced in this induction was L-Lactate and somehow V+M decreased the production of this acid probably by interference with Lactobacillus sp population growth, most important rumen lactate producer, since this bacteria requires very high rumen redox potential to growth. There was a tendency (P= 0.1) for the PVD to be higher in the control group at the 18 th h, sugesting a more developed degree of dehydration. Most of the cattle (4/6) of the control group exhibited pronounced clinical signs as compared to the V+M group (1/6), mainly shown by severe dehydration (sunken eyes and coldness in the extremities), recumbency, mental depression that required rapid treatment for complete recovery thereafter.

Conclusions:

This experiment showed that V+M used preventively could mitigate the risk of a very severe RLA by decreasing the production of rumen lactate, and the rumen redox potential and thus avoiding a very sharp drop in the rumen pH that could cause harmful clinical signs.

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Nutrition & Metabolic Diseases P01-001-043

Effect of duration and temperature during the delivery of bovine urine samples to the analytical laboratory on metabolic parameters assays

Barbara Galmiche 1,* Catherine Garnier 1 Laurent Alves De Oliveira 2 3 1 IODOLAB, 2 Campus vétérinaire de Lyon, VETAGRO-SUP, Marcy l'Etoile, 3 UMRH, INRA, Theix, France Objectives: Urine samples collected in bovine medecine are often exposed to a range of environmental conditions prior to analysis in a laboratory. The stability of the molecules in the bovine urine is poorly understood. The aim of this study was to determine the stability of urine specimens exposed to a range times and two storage temperatures.

Materials and Methods: Urine samples were taken with a urinary catheter in 10 lactating Montbeliarde cows in one farm, 1.5 hours after the morning diet distribution. The samples were immediately placed in a cooler box, protected from light, and sent to the laboratory. For each cow, the sample is divided into 17 aliquots. one aliquote was centrifuged and analyzed in the 3 hours after collection (D0) as controls. 8 aliquots, were placed in a refrigerated chamber at 4°C and 8 aliquots, left at room temperature (25°C). All the samples were kept sheltered from the light. The day D1, D2, D3, D4, D7, D8, D9, D10, one aliquote stored at room temperature and one kept cool tube were centrifuged and analyzed. The analysis method used was a enzymatic colorimetric method with an automated biochemistry analyser (JEOL Biomajesty 6010 with Biomérieux, Diasys, Diacron and Randox kits).

Statistical analysis was performed with the Excel © software. For each biochemical parameter, outliers were removed by the Grubbs test. For each pair number storage day / storage temperature and each parameter, the averages of the 10 cows was compared with the average to D0 by a Student's t test for paired data if normal distribution (checked by Shapiro-Wilk test) and variance equal (verified by Cochran's test) or by test of Wilcoxon signed rank in other cases. The results of stored samples were considered to be different from the value on D0 (reference) if the difference between average of stored samples and D0 average was greater than the measurement uncertainty or if p> 0.05. Our results show a stability of creatinine much longer than that reported by Saliman et al in 1986, against we find the same duration stability for urea.

Results

Conclusions:

The storage temperature has no effect on the duration of biochemical parameters stability in urine until 10 days.

The stability of biochemical specimens is very long, it reached 10 days except for Phosphate Inorganic (2 d.) and to a lesser extent magnesium (4 d.).

The duration stability in urine is better than in blood except for Phosphate Inorganic and magnesium. These results show a very good stability of urine parameters in cattle. The use of this biochimical assays should not be limited even if the delivery times in the laboratory is several days.

Comments: Soliman S.A., Abdel-Hay M.H., Sulaiman M.I. Tayed O.S. 1986. Stability of cratinine, urea and uric acid in urine stored under various conditions. Clinica Chimica Acta, 160 319-326.

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:

  Assay results are identical to the D0 value during the numbers of days (d) following : (for samples stored at 4°C and 25°C respectively) ; calcium 10 d, 10 d ; chloride 10 d, 10 d ; total carbon dioxide 7 d, 7 d ; creatinine 10 d, 10 d ; magnesium 4 d, 4 d ; Phosphate Inorganic 2 d, 2 d ; Potassium 10 d, 10 d ; Sodium 10 d, 10 d ; Urea 10 d, 10 d.


est destinée au dépôt

Interaction between olfaction and food intake: first evidence for a role of astroglial plasticity in the olfactory bulb

Neurobiologie de l'Olfaction

Centre de Recherche de Jouy-en-Josas Domaine de Vilvert • 78352 Jouy-en-Josas Cedex • FRANCE Olfaction participates in the elaboration of the hedonic value of foods and plays an important role in food choice and the regulation of food intake. Reciprocally, the detection of food odors is influenced by the metabolic state (hunger/satiety), thereby contributing to the initiation and termination of eating behavior. Fasting increases olfactory performances, notably by increasing neuronal activation in the olfactory bulb (OB) (Prud'homme et al, 2009), the first integration site of olfactory signals towards the central nervous system. Within the OB glomeruli, the glutamatergic synapses between olfactory sensory neurons (OSN) and mitral cells are regulated by peri-glomerular neurons and astrocytes.

Hypothesis

Conclusions

Results

Objectives

Expression of the NPY-Y1 receptor

Our results strongly suggested that the deployment of astroglial processes within the OB glomeruli varies according to the metabolic status of the rats. This morphological plasticity may be influenced by peptides involved in food intake regulation such as NPY, and may participate to the adaptation of olfactory sensitivity to food intake.

Fed rats/ Fasted rats (17h, 24h or 48h)

Models Astroglial deployment within the OB glomeruli

Immunohistochemical -quantification of the GFAP area. We aim to explore the underlying mechanisms by evaluating the impact of the hormones involved in food intake regulation on the neurone-astrocyte cross-talk in the glomeruli.

Quantification of the expression of the Y1 receptor of NPY

  Virginie Daumas-Meyer, Gaelle Champeil Potokar, Anne Dufourcq, Marielle Levillain, Catherine Papillon, Patrice Congar, Isabelle Denis To cite this version: Virginie Daumas-Meyer, Gaelle Champeil Potokar, Anne Dufourcq, Marielle Levillain, Catherine Papillon, et al.. Interaction between olfaction and food intake: first evidence for a role of astroglial plasticity in the olfactory bulb. Doc'J : Colloque des Jeunes Chercheurs de l'INRA de Jouy-en-Josas, Dec 2014, Jouy-en-Josas, France. , 1 p, 2014. hal-01345499 Fasting states olfactory food seeking behavior, body weight loss, glycemia and leptinemia.

  fully recognized as synaptic partners(Halassa & Haydon 2010) and are thought to generate some kind of "metaplasticity" in the central nervous(Min et al, 2012) as well as in the OB glomerular region(Roux et al, 2011). The neuron-astrocyte cross-talk in the glomeruli, albeit poorly known, may be a central player in the metabolic regulation of olfactory responses.



  hypothesis that astrocytes of the OB glomeruli are involved in the metabolic sensing of the olfactory system, we have compared the expansion of the astroglial processes within the glomeruli in fed or fasted rats. Perspectives The existence of an astroglial plasticity within glutamatergic synapses in other brain structures involved in adaptative behaviour  The presence of abundant astrocyte networks in the OB  The presence of NPY-Y1 receptor on the astrocytes of the OB glomeruli This hypothesis is based on:


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I David

H Garreau

H Gilbert

L Drouilhet

J Ruesche

Genetic modelling of feed intake in rabbit

Objective Objective

Material and Methods

Material and Methods

Results

Results

Conclusions Conclusions

Different modelling approaches

of the variance-covariance matrices between successive measurements of feed intake in rabbit were compared. Structured antedependence model best fitted the data, had the highest predictive ability but seems to overestimate heritabilitites.

Data: repeated measurements of weekly feed intake in rabbit 4584 rabbits, 6 weeks Method: 3 approaches to model the covariance matrices for the genetic and "permanent" environmental effects were compared:

- Best predictive ability for SAD model. Vonesh concordance coefficient to predict phenotypes of the 6 th week given phenotypes of all previous weeks: SAD=0.47, OP=0.31, Simple repeatability=0.27

Define the best approach to model the correlations between successive measurements of feed intake in order to provide more accurate genetic estimations and to improve predictive ability of models. Heritabilities were higher with approaches that model the correlation matrices. h 2 had similar changes over time for the 3 approaches but h 2 SAD,CP >> h 2 OP SAD model is an interesting approach to model repeated measurements of feed intake. Nonetheless, it seems to overestimate genetic variances. Thus, further work is needed to check this hypothesis.

  Structured antedependence (SAD, 12 different functions (varying order of the polynomials of time for antedependance parameters and innovation variance) tested per random effect) -Character process (CP, 7 different matrices tested per random effect) -Orthogonal polynomials (OP, 2 different polynomials (order 1 or 2) tested per random effectfor all models but OP model provided different genetic correlations.


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low input farming systems and products processed on the farm; development logics of the Bretonne Pie Noir local cattle breed

Keywords: local breed, added value, low input farming systems

Transition toward systems linking animal genetic resources, low input

1 Introduction [START_REF] Dumont | Prospects from agroecology and industrial ecology for animal production in the 21st century[END_REF] pointed out that animal production has not really been taken into account in agro-ecological thinking. Agro-ecology is presented as a way to reduce the environmental footprint of agricultural production but is also considered as a wider approach that accounts for organizational and political dimensions.

Transition towards more agro-ecological systems refers either to a transition at the scale of a farm, i.e., changes in the farming system and/or marketing system) or changes in agro-ecological systems at the scale of a territory, i.e., changes in marketing or in consumption habits, etc.

Among the five principles for the development of agro-ecology based alternatives, referred to by, for instance, [START_REF] Dumont | Prospects from agroecology and industrial ecology for animal production in the 21st century[END_REF], the same authors explain their view of enhancement of diversity in the farming system as a way to strengthen its resilience. Like [START_REF] Stassart | L'agroécologie: trajectoire et potentiel. Pour une transition vers des systèmes alimentaires durables[END_REF], who underline the importance of agro-biodiversity in the agro-ecological approach, [START_REF] Dumont | Prospects from agroecology and industrial ecology for animal production in the 21st century[END_REF] mention the use of breeds of animal with different abilities. They also refer to the general abilities of local breeds (greater ability to survive and maintain their level of reproduction in harsh environments), and the fact that the specificities of the products of the breeds can be a marketing asset.

Comment citer ce document : Lauvie, A., Couix-Blanc, N., Sorba, J. (2014). Transition toward systems linking animal genetic resources, low input farming systems and products processed on the farm; development logics of the Bretonne Pie Noir local cattle breed. Presented at 11. European IFSA Symposium, Berlin, DEU (2014-04-01 -2014-04-04).

We used a concrete case study to identify the place of a local breed in the design of low input livestock farming systems (which could nowadays been qualified as more agro-ecological), by linking biological diversity to other aspects of these farming systems (e.g. fewer inputs and less pollution).

In the following section, we describe our method, which is based on a case study involving the Bretonne Pie Noir breed of cattle. We analyze our results with respect to the role of the local breed in the farmers' overall production system. Finally, we discuss the role of the local breed in the design of those systems, with particular emphasis on the place of within-breed diversity and the range of different possible forms of added values in such systems.

Material and methods

The Bretonne Pie Noir: the role of local breeds in the design of low input farming systems

The Bretonne Pie Noir is a rare breed of French cattle that was once threatened with disappearance. It is mainly found in Brittany. It was part of the first conservation program for a local cattle breed in France [START_REF] Colleau | Gestion génétique de la race bovine Bretonne Pie-Noire: bilan et perspectives[END_REF]. The population of the breed increased from 311 animals in 1976 to 1554 in 2011 (Bretonne Pie Noir Union activity report 2012). Farmers used the breed (i) to conserve domestic biodiversity but also (ii) to give added value to the breed through individual actions and (iii) used the breed in low input farming systems with a more environmental friendly goal in Brittany, a region where environmental problems linked with intensive agriculture had emerged [START_REF] Quéméré | La Bretonne Pie Noire[END_REF].

This local breed is thus a good subject for the study of the transition to more agro-ecological agriculture. More particularly, this case provided an opportunity to examine the role played by the genetic resource -in conjunction with other dimensions-in the design of such systems.

Qualitative analysis based on interviews and observations

We conducted semi-structured interviews with 31 breeders selected to represent a range of situations (several criteria are considered: professional or "amateur" breeders, their geographical location, dairy or meat production). The questions we asked concerned their own trajectory as breeders, their reasons for choosing this breed, the main characteristics of their production system, their genetic management practices, the processing of products and their sales practices. They also concerned collective action focused on the breed and their commitment to the Bretonne Pie Noir breeders association. Whenever possible, the interviews were recorded, otherwise, notes were taken. The transcriptions (or notes in a few cases) were coded and analyzed using NVivo software.

The interviews with breeders were completed by interviews with two restaurant managers and observations in two markets to see what information was passed on during the sale and the place of the breed in the sales arguments.

Finally we interviewed two local civil servants to better understand past and present actions to support such systems.

Comment citer ce document : Lauvie, A., Couix-Blanc, N., Sorba, J. (2014).

Results

3.1 Entering farming with Bretonne Pie Noir but no change in systems within the farm.

All the farmers we interviewed told us they chose Bretonne Pie Noir to start farming or hobby farming; no farmers we interviewed said they had completely changed their system during the lifetime of their farm. Consequently, in our case, the agro-ecological transition is not represented by changes in systems at the scale of the farm, as was the case in the study by [START_REF] Coquil | Apprendre l'autonomie dans les systèmes de polyculture élevage laitier[END_REF]. Neither is the transition the result of a collective and/or territorial approach to a transition to agroecology, which in France is encouraged among others by an administrative status called 'groupings of economic and environmental interest' (Groupements d'intérêt économique et environnemental, GIEE). The phenomenon we report here predated those initiatives: increasing numbers of farmers have been developing low-input farming systems using the Bretonne Pie Noir since the 1970s. Most of the farmers we interviewed designed their system with the desire to reduce inputs, be autonomous, conserve biodiversity, or out of a concern for the environment (they mentioned conserving the species diversity of pastures, the importance of domestic diversity, the fact that a breed should be adapted to the environment and not the reverse, a concern for limiting non-reusable packaging etc.).

We consider that, historically speaking, these systems are part of a current nowadays qualified as agro-ecological, even though none of the farmers actually used this term to describe their system.

We interviewed both professional and hobby breeders. Professional breeders used the breed for either milk production (and sold the dairy products they processed on the farm) or for meat production. Today there are more hobby breeders than professional breeders of Bretonne Pie Noir, but hobby breeders have very small herds (sometimes only one or two cows).

The choice of the Bretonne Pie Noir was linked to the choice of the overall production system

Our findings showed that each farmer's choice of the Bretonne Pie Noir was closely linked to the choice of a farming system and a way of producing and selling (and/or consuming) products.

We first analyzed the farmers' reasons for choosing this breed, and how, as a function of the category of breeder, in their discourse, they linked their choice with their overall project

We identified three kinds of explanations for the farmers' choice of the breed:

-Explanations concerning the breed's abilities and behavior: reproductive ability, hardiness, size, low food needs, autonomy, ability to harsh lands conditions.

A female breeder we interviewed mentioned that Bretonne Pie Noir cattle are easy for a woman to handle.

-Explanations concerning the added value of the breed: good quality milk for cheese, the better flavor of the meat, small carcasses that are easier to sell directly: The farmers offered different combinations of the three kinds of explanations. By analyzing these combinations, we identified several different main goals in the design of the systems. In turn, this enabled us to identify five main types of overall projects for breeding Bretonne Pie Noir:

«
-To earn a good income with a local breed thanks to marketing channels for high value products.

Some professional farmers have a "big" herd of Bretonne Pie Noir, process a relatively large quantity of milk into different kinds of cheese on the farm and sell the cheese directly or in organic food stores, cheese stores, or to restaurants. One breeder sells suckling calves and piglets, produces vacuum-wrapped meat and cooked meals. He sells his products in different organic stores and at the farm gate. Most of these breeders are organic breeders. Their farms are larger than other farms that raise this breed, yet they clearly chose not to practice conventional farming.

-To make a reasonable living by processing a small quantity of milk from a local breed on the farm and by direct sales A number of professional farmers limited themselves to small scale dairy production and process their own milk on the farm. They sold their products at the market and at the farm gate. Their aim was to make a 'reasonable living' on their farm but they were not interested in expanding. They told us they do not have many needs. If they had the opportunity to extend their farm (for instance, because land is available) their preference would be for another farmer to set up. In their view, what is important is maintaining life in rural areas.

-To achieve food self-sufficiency for their family by raising a local breed

These farmers most often focus on dairy production and process their milk on the farm. Some milk their cows only once a day. They produce eggs, meat (calves, pigs, poultry, etc.) for home consumption and for direct sale. They grow vegetables for their own consumption. They want to have time for other activities and to spend time with their family. Some do not consider farming as a job but as a way to feed their family. In their view, jobs, agricultural land, etc. should be shared.

-To produce good meat with a minimum workload in order to have time for other activities Some of these breeders have several activities (including another farming activity, breeding other species or growing vegetables, or another job, not in agriculture). They consider that meat production is less time consuming than dairy production and that Bretonne Pie Noir is a suitable breed because it is independent, which leaves time for other activities (professional activities or a hobby).

Some of the breeders we interviewed in this category belonged to associations for nature conservation and raised Bretonne Pie Noir to maintain wetlands, marshes, or other natural areas of ecological interest. In these cases, the associations' technicians do not have much time for livestock activities (it is not their job).

-To maintain the landscape and produce good quality products for home consumption or to sell to relatives and friends

Comment citer ce document : Lauvie, A., Couix-Blanc, N., Sorba, J. ( 2014 Breeders in this category farm as a hobby or keep just one cow to maintain the landscape. They produce meat that they consume themselves or sell to friends. Some raise other animals: sheep, pigs, poultry, donkeys, etc. They are often interested in the conservation of rare breeds.

Wide range of products or services produced in systems that include Bretonne Pie

Noir.

Bretonne Pie Noir cattle are used in different production systems in which on-farm processing of the products and direct sales 1 are two key factors. All the professional farmers we interviewed underlined the importance of these two orientations in making a living by breeding Bretonne Pie Noir. Only one of the dairy farmers we interviewed sold most of his milk to a milk factory and only a small proportion through direct sales.

To develop direct sales, breeders have to produce a variety of cheeses. One of the breeders insisted that he chose to have a small farm. He believed that having a range of different cheeses is the best way to create customer loyalty and to earn a living from a small farm. In fact, butter is the main traditional milk product in Brittany, which is not a traditional cheese producing region. The range of products varied from one farm to another. Most produced a range of different cheeses using recipes borrowed from other cheese producing regions (cream cheeses, soft cheeses, hard cheeses) and also sold milk and other dairy products (yogurt, fromage frais, cream, butter and gros-lait, a local fermented milk). Some of the breeders focused more on one kind of product than another. For instance, one farmer favored dairy products other than cheese (in particular butter) which she considered to be simpler and more traditional; others favored hard cheese, because they can store it and sell it in the tourist season. Some have added products they consider to be 'luxury' or 'high added-value products' like confiture de lait 2 to their range whereas others preferred not to sell products that are too expensive.

Observations were made during sales transactions to identify to what extent the breed was mentioned as a sales argument. We chose two markets where dairy products were sold, each in a different context: the first market was in a small town, in a former outside market, and was quite family oriented, whereas the second was a modern inside market in a bigger town. Discourse during the sale was minimal in the larger market but more important in the small town market. According to our interviews and observations, the link between the breed, the product, and the farming system is important to most of the breeders, but the link between the breed and the product plays almost no role in the marketing process, and is not used as a sales argument.

Nevertheless, the types of interaction during the sales varied and we were able to identify four different types. Two types concerned regular customers: with exchanges about the type and quantity of product desired and its price, as well as exchanges in the family register (the breed was never mentioned), and the other type with exchange in a militant register with questions that were not directly linked with farming activity (the breed was mentioned twice). Another type was the basic minimum exchange, with just a mention of the product desired, the quantity, and the price (the breed was never mentioned). The final type could be described as a 'discovery exchange' and the breed was mentioned twice by the farmer and once by the customer. Our observations showed that very little information was exchanged with the customers concering the farming system or the breed. Moreover, except in the case of the gros lait product, which had printed packaging, the information on the products themselves was kept to a minimum. However, in some cases, the breed was highlighted in other ways (a picture on the market stand, a picture on the stand at the farm) and in interviews, the farmers mentioned that they were prepared to explain their farming system and the use of the local breed (some even invited their customers to come to the farm to see the cows). Of course, we only observed two periods of sales, and these involved regular customers who may already be familiar with the products, and in the case of one farmer, the time of the year was not the best period for producing a wide range of cheeses. Consequently, it is difficult to draw conclusions, and we would need to observe sales transactions in different context, including with customers who are not regular customers (during the tourist season, for instance).

Other farmers raised Bretonne Pie Noir as part of their meat production systems. They also sold the meat directly, either veal from calves whose age varied with the breeders, or beef. Very few farmers sold cooked (canned) meat. The different products were sold either on the farm, or at markets, through AMAP 3 , in organic food stores, or to restaurants. Most hobby breeders also used the breed for meat production, but their original objective had been to manage a small area of land. In most cases, the meat was kept for home consumption but was also sold to relatives, friends, or other close customers.

The Bretonne Pie Noir breed is also used for landscape and ecosystem management, either by associations or by local authorities or by breeders themselves, through agro-environmental subsidies or through free access to land that has to be managed under specified grazing conditions or for the purpose of tourism (for instance we visited a reconstituted village where former traditional activities are practiced and demonstrated to tourists. The cows milked in the village concerned are local breeds including the Bretonne Pie Noir).

Discussion and conclusion: Diversity in the design of Agro-Ecological Livestock

Farming.

The issue of diversity is a core question in agro-ecological thinking. Indeed diversity is considered by many animal scientists to be a key factor in agro-ecological systems [START_REF] Dumont | Prospects from agroecology and industrial ecology for animal production in the 21st century[END_REF]. The systems designed by the breeders of Bretonne Pie Noir provided a good opportunity to ask what kind of diversity we are actually talking about. As mentioned earlier, during the project for the development of the Bretonne Pie Noir breed, different production systems that can be considered as agro-ecological systems were developed. In other words, we believe that, since the 1980s, the farmers who raise Bretonne Pie Noir have progressively developed low input systems that could be qualified nowadays as agro-ecological systems. Our findings show that diversity plays an important role in these systems and in the farmers' discourses. This makes Bretonne Pie Noir a good subject to explore the notion of diversity and what kind of diversity we are talking about when we talk about agro-ecological livestock systems.

In their discourse, farmers referred to different types of diversity: the diversity of genetic resources (agro-bio diversity), of products and of ways to sell products, of customers, and of forms of added value. It appeared that, depending on his/her particular situation, each farmer had created a system that explored one or more kinds of diversity.

-Diversity of genetic resources: Some of the farmers we interviewed had a clear view of the importance of the diversity of genetic resources. The role played by genetic diversity in the breeders' strategies also varied. The diversity of genetic resources was part of a general concept (with explicitly or non-explicitly Comment citer ce document : Lauvie, A., Couix-Blanc, N., Sorba, J. ( 2014 associated ideas of heritage, potential for the following generation, and a common good). Farmers mentioned their interest in working with local breeds, or even sometimes pointed to links between the plant genetic resources in their system (for instance linking the taste of their cheese with the genetic diversity of their pastures).

Some underlined the importance of maintaining diversity in the animal population. Most of the breeders appeared to have assimilated the genetic management plan (a plan for the management of genetic variability, for details, see [START_REF] Colleau | Gestion génétique de la race bovine Bretonne Pie-Noire: bilan et perspectives[END_REF] as being the "right thing" to do 4 . Only a few breeders went into a little more detail about this aspect in their discourse, for instance, mentioning their interest in maintaining rare animals in the population, or raising the question of the best way to maintain diversity within the breed. Some farmers paid attention to the diversity of the animals in their own herd (for instance keeping cows with a different morphology, some more oriented toward a meat type and other more oriented toward a dairy type). At this level, in their system design, diversity is also a component that adds flexibility to the system.

-The diversity of products and of ways of selling products in response to the diversity of customers

Second, as we mentioned in section 3.3, the different forms of added value to the breed are important for the Bretonne Pie Noir, from direct sales of processed dairy products or meat to added value for tourism and maintaining the landscape. To develop direct sales, which, for most of the dairy oriented farmers, was a core element of their systems, they needed to produce a wide range a products. To this end, they combined traditional products that are typical of the geographical area (like butter) with other products, by borrowing knowledge and cheese making know how (recipes from other regions). The customers are also different. They buy the products directly on the farm, at markets, through AMAP, or in organic food stores. They may also eat Bretonne Pie Noir products in restaurants. As Brittany is not a region where cheese is traditionally consumed, farmers mentioned that some consumers needed to learn to eat cheese. We believe it would be interesting to explore the point of views of "eaters" in more depth, as well as the interactions between farmers and consumers during the actual sales transaction. As [START_REF] Stassart | Agroécologie: Le chainon manquant. Rôle de consommateurs et d'ONG dans les processus émergeants d'apprentissage[END_REF] pointed out, the consumer is often the missing link in agro-ecological studies, and we believe that the link between farming systems and consumer practices is too rarely taken into consideration.

-The diversity of activities on the farm or the multi-activity of the farmers Finally, for some farmers, the diversity of activities is a way to create a more flexible system (linking Bretonne Pie Noir milk or meat production with another activity (breeding another species, having another agricultural activity like growing vegetables, or having another part time job with no link with agriculture)).

In conclusion, the Bretonne Pie Noir systems developed as the farmers explored the different types of diversity reviewed here. The breed's qualities encouraged the design of those kinds of systems. Our results clearly show that farmers specifically look for different types of animals; some would even like to have a range of different animals in their own herd (see above). From the point of view of the sustainability of such systems, we can ask if, from a phenotypical point of view, diversity among the animal population is maintained through the diversity of individual practices.

Comment citer ce document : Lauvie, A., Couix-Blanc, N., Sorba, J. ( 2014 This study has also underlined the importance of the social dimension of the agro-ecological thinking, like [START_REF] Stassart | L'agroécologie: trajectoire et potentiel. Pour une transition vers des systèmes alimentaires durables[END_REF], who suggested adding a frame with social dimensions to the five initial dimensions of agro-ecology.

Finally this study invited to consider the concrete practices of farmers and other stakeholders who are developing or have developed systems that could feed the agro-ecological thinking.

Comment citer ce document : Lauvie, A., Couix-Blanc, N., Sorba, J. ( 2014

  ). Transition toward systems linking animal genetic resources, low input farming systems and products processed on the farm; development logics of the Bretonne Pie Noir local cattle breed. Presented at 11. European IFSA Symposium, Berlin, DEU (2014-04-01 -2014-04-04).

1

  In contrast to the development of local breeds through collective dynamics with 'Protected Designation of Origin' products, which has already been widely studied, e.g. Lambert-Derkimba et al., 2010. 2 A jam that is light brown in color and creamy in consistency made from cooked sweetened milk. Comment citer ce document : Lauvie, A., Couix-Blanc, N., Sorba, J. (2014). Transition toward systems linking animal genetic resources, low input farming systems and products processed on the farm; development logics of the Bretonne Pie Noir local cattle breed. Presented at 11. European IFSA Symposium, Berlin, DEU (2014-04-01 -2014-04-04).

  ). Transition toward systems linking animal genetic resources, low input farming systems and products processed on the farm; development logics of the Bretonne Pie Noir local cattle breed. Presented at 11. European IFSA Symposium, Berlin, DEU (2014-04-01 -2014-04-04).

  ). Transition toward systems linking animal genetic resources, low input farming systems and products processed on the farm; development logics of the Bretonne Pie Noir local cattle breed. Presented at 11. European IFSA Symposium, Berlin, DEU (2014-04-01 -2014-04-04).

  ). Transition toward systems linking animal genetic resources, low input farming systems and products processed on the farm; development logics of the Bretonne Pie Noir local cattle breed. Presented at 11. European IFSA Symposium, Berlin, DEU (2014-04-01 -2014-04-04).

  Transition toward systems linking animal genetic resources, low input farming systems and products processed on the farm; development logics of the Bretonne Pie Noir local cattle breed. Presented at 11. European IFSA Symposium, Berlin, DEU (2014-04-01 -2014-04-04).

  Explanations linked to a vision of conservation: question of heritage, history, or conservation of biodiversity. One breeder we interviewed said: "I don't know if I would have started if I had not known about Bretonne Pie Noir and if the challenge of saving the breed hadn't tempted me. I can't say. Anyway, that is how I began." Another wanted to rediscover the cows of his childhood: "because I was the son of a farmer who raised Bretonne Pie Noir in the North of Finistère, I wanted to recreate what I had known when I was a child".

the carcass is small, less impressive... you can put it in the freezer yourself. If we can't sell it, we have nearly 200 kg of meat, that's feasible. A Charolais or Blondes d'Aquitain carcass weighs 300-350 kg, that's too much". Comment citer ce document : Lauvie, A., Couix-Blanc, N., Sorba, J. (2014). Transition toward systems linking animal genetic resources, low input farming systems and products processed on the farm; development logics of the Bretonne Pie Noir local cattle breed. Presented at 11. European IFSA Symposium, Berlin, DEU (2014-04-01 -2014-04-04).

-

Associations whose goal is to support small scale agriculture, and who organize regular sales of baskets of farm products to its members.

Even if a small number of farmers choose not to follow the plan, mostly because they do not use AI and sometimes also because they are looking for particular types of animals (e.g. in terms of color).

Acknowledgements

This project was part of the project "Organismes et Organisations Localement Adaptés" (O2LA) funded by the French Agency for Research (project ANR-09-STRA-09).


text:
Sarah Jade Meale

Milka Popova

Gonzalo Cantalapiedra-Hijar

Relationship between ruminal and cecal microbial signatures and feed efficiency in growing cattle

à la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d'enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés.

Relationship between ruminal and cecal microbial signatures and feed efficiency in growing cattle

Sarah J. MEALE 1 , Milka POPOVA 1 , Gonzalo CANTALAPIEDRA-HIJAR 1 and Diego P. MORGAVI 1 1 UMR Herbivores, INRA, Vetagro Sup, 63122, Saint-Genès-Champanelle, France Evaluating feed efficiency of ruminants fed non-competitive feed resources is an important avenue to increase the profitability and sustainability of ruminant farming systems. As digestion is considered an important physiological driver of variation of ruminant feed efficiency our objective was to correlate rumen and cecal microbial community signatures to efficiency phenotypes. Twenty-four Charolais bulls fed forage and grain (67:33) were enrolled for 16 weeks in a residual feed intake (RFI) test at 11-12 months of age, during which feed conversion efficiency (FCE) was also determined. Animals with extreme (±0.5 SD from the mean) efficiency indices comprising the groups: High-FCE (n=9), Low-FCE (n=8), High-RFI (n=6) and Low-RFI (n=6), were examined. Following slaughter at ~700 kg LW whole ruminal and cecal contents were collected. DNA was extracted and subjected to Illumina MiSeq sequencing. Output reads were analyzed using QIIME and aligned to the Greengenes database. Differences in β-diversity were determined using PermANOVA and differences in α-diversity and taxa abundance were determined using a paired t-test. Alpha-diversity of bacteria and archaea was similar across RFI (p>0.05), whereas, Shannon and Chao1 indices varied with FCE in both ruminal and cecal bacteria (p≤0.03) . Beta-diversity tended (p≤0.10) to differ in cecal bacteria and ruminal archaea of bulls with divergent FCE and RFI, respectively. Within Archaea, the relative abundance of Methanobrevibacter was higher (p=0.01) in the rumen of low-RFI compared to high-RFI bulls. Relative abundance of bacterial Paraprevotellaceae was higher (p<0.01) in the rumen of low-FCE and cecum of high-FCE bulls, compared to the rumen of high-FCE and cecum of low-FCE, respectively. Conversely, Rikenellaceae genus? was greater or more adundant? (p<0.01) in the cecum of low-RFI, compared to high-RFI bulls. Our results suggest that oOnly a small number of differences were observed between ruminal and cecal microbiota of bulls with divergent feed efficiencies, which this may be due to the limited number of animals examined.


text:
Patrick Veysset
email: veysset@clermont.inra.fr

Grassland production systems: combining animal species and crossbreeding

French suckler farming systems: alarming observations! Decrease of the factors' productivity (land, intermediate consumptions, capital) Decrease of the use of the animals and plants resources Very few (or none) animals are fattened with a 100% grass diet Fattening diets (lambs and cattle) grain (like monogastrics!) No wealth created by suckler farms But: French organic beef an lamb sector: positive dynamic needing animals Due to the concentrates' prices, 70% of the bovine males from organic certified suckler cattle farms are sold as store animals on the conventional market! Lambs in mountain areas are fattened indoor with grain Grass-based systems have a positive image and real environmental and social advantages Context

  production with grass in a low-input , selfsufficient and sustainable production systems Grass-based systems with a maximization of the use of grassland, and a minimum inputs' use added-value creation Set up sustainable production systems in the agro-ecological framework Questions Combining animal species (sheep and cattle) agro-ecological advantages? Cross-breeding better use of resources? System experiment (Herbipôle, Laqueuille, Massif Central) Mountain area, 1100 to 1400m asl., 100% permanent grassland Organic Farming systems 3 systems: sheep, beef, sheep+beef. Same UAA (40ha), LSU (30) and average annual stocking rate (0.75 LSU/ha) per system Positive interaction on forage intake and use: better use of the nutritive value of forages, reduction of wastagesBetter individual performances and per surface unit?Better system efficiency (less inputs per unit produced)


text:
Amandine Lurette
email: lurette@supagro.inra.fr

Catherine De Boissieu

Emmanuel Morin

Philippe Hassoun

Francis Barillet

Charles-Henri Moulin

Integrating empirical and scientific knowledge to evaluate the transition to a once-a-day milking in dairy ewe farms

Introduction

As for the whole French ovine sector, the Rayon de Roquefort sector is largely constrained by a conjoncture which combined an explosion of the production costs, a climatic variability which affects forage quality and an increase in the work load and drudgery. The once-a-day milking is an interesting technique in response to the breeders' expectations of finding livestock systems both economically and socially viable. It can lighten the routine work load in dairy flocks. The Lacaune ewe appears to be well adapted to the once-a-day milking situation [START_REF] Vanbergue | Aptitude des brebis laitières de race Lacaune à la conduite en monotraite : Premiers éléments zootechniques et physiologiques[END_REF]. However, the resort to this new technique in dairy ewe farms arises questions, both at the individual (balance between income and work load) and at the collective (collection and milking distribution) levels. In this study, we aim at presenting how an approach combining both empirical and scientific knowledges, and their consequential produced scenarios, are likely to stress the technical levers which could accompany the transition to the once-a-day milking in French dairy ewe flocks. The local stakeholders' (breeders, advisors and farms network) mobilisation was regularly held during the four years of the study to discuss on the modelling hypothesis, the scenarios to test and the validity of the results.

Materials and Methods

The model BOUSSOLE was developed to represent dairy ewe farms situated on the Rayon de Roquefort area. Its development is based on the use of virtual farm types. A virtual ideal farm type is the optimized economic and technical design of a farming system performed from a farm network. By providing a common language, the farm-types facilitate discussions between all the participants of the project. Seven virtual ideal farms were modelled to represent the diversity of production systems in the Rayon de Roquefort area. This diversity includes soil and climate conditions, farm dimensions, productions combinations in farms, and production periods. BOUSSOLE consists in three interactive modules representing: (1) the flock and its diet, (2) the forage system and (3) the farm's economy. From the baseline scenario of the twice-a-day milking H0, BOUSSOLE renders it possible to design different configurations of the system. We modelled technical levers which aim at compensating the losses in both milk production and household income due to the transition of one milking per day. The selection of levers was based on (1) experimental results obtained through other parts of the Roquefort'In project in which this work is included; they take place in the Domaine de La Fage (Roquefort-sur-Soulzon, France) and in the agricultural secondary school of Saint-Affrique (Aveyron, France); (2) expertise of advisors in charge of technical support of dairy ewes farms in the Rayon de Roquefort area and (3) scientific experts from INRA and Livestock Institute. The management adaptations associated to these levers are simulated under several conditions of a once-a-day milking implementation: H1, where the transition to the once-a-day milking occurs at the lamb weaning (after about 30 days of lactation), at the first day of the milking period and H2, where the transition to the once-a-day milking occurs after the lamb weaning, and around the turnout date of the flock (around 8 and 10 weeks after the first day of the lactation period. Finally, a 1250 farm sample under technical support is distributed into the seven farm-types according to their date of first day of milking. This distribution draws the 'virtual dairy area' from which the impact of collective scenarios of once-a-day milking implementation is explored.

Results -Discussion

For H1, the loss in milk production slightly varies according to the milking period duration of the farm-types analyzed (Table 1). Farm-types with short milking period are penalised far more than the others: e.g. 19 points of loss for ROQ05 (with 193 days of milking) and 17 points of loss for ROQ06 (with 273 days). A later transition to the once-a-day milking (H2) allows returning to the household income and milk production close to the baseline scenario values, but divides by two the gain in the routine work load obtained under the H1 scenario (Table 1).

25-29 August 2014

Debrecen (Hungary) H0 : initial twice-a-day milking scenario / H1 : once-a-day milking at weaning / H2 : once-a-day milking around the turnout date

Assuming that the once-a-day milking would be accepted in the specification of the PDO Roquefort, the twelve breeders interviewed would applied it in their farm; certainly for nine on the twelve breedersof them, but under certain conditions for the others. Most of them considered that the once-a-day milking could occur in the middle of the milking period, around the turnout date. However one issue was noted. The transition to the once-a-day milking could present a social lock-in: «one is going to say that we will do nothing further» (On va s'entendre dire qu'on ne fait plus rien). Half of the breeders interviewed did not plan to associate any other technical levers with the implementation of the once-a-day milking (except the adjustment of the concentrates distributed). They also want to keep the flock size and to preserve some quiet time. For the other breeders, several ways of adaptations are possible such as to increase the duration of the milking period and/or a better use of pasture. The breeders questioned seem to be shifting towards a transition around the turnout date. For them, this option reduces the length of the working day and provides flexibility in the work day organisation during spring season. If all farms use the once-a-day milking at weaning (H1), the amount of milk collected decreases of 18 points compared with the H0 situation (Table 2). The part of milk produced between January and April is slightly reduced. If all farms implemented the transition around the turnout date, the decrease in milk collected is lower (-8 points). With only 41% of the milk collected from the twice-a-day milking, mainly produced between December and February. At the dairy area level, the total amount of milk collected in H0 is almost reached the baseline secnario with the combination of 50% of farms transited around turnout date to a once-a-day milking production and 50 % of farms remainging in twice-a-day milking situation. However, it does not allow to reach volumes of milk from twice-a-day milking system required for the production of Roquefort under the specifications of the PDO. H0 : initial twice-a-day milking scenario / H1 : once-a-day milking at weaning / H2 : once-a-day milking around the turnout date

In addition to the key assumptions associated to the system representation, the partners allow us to determine relevant indicators among the 72 output variables. The appropriate indicators facilitate the discussion within a large range of actors. Moreover, the actors embraced the notion of virtual dairy area. The outputs at both the farm and the dairy area collection levels elicited very relevant debates. As a consequence, discussion derived from the presentations of the simulated results to the actors (breeders, industrials...) allows us to complete the evaluation perfomed by modelling.

Conclusions

Based on current scientific knowledge on zootechnical response of Lacaune ewes and simulated results, an increase in the milking duration combined with a better use of pasture can limit losses in milk production and in household income due to the transition to the once-a-day milking. At the dairy area level, the scenarios tested show that the adoption of the once-aday milking cannot be envisaged without modifications of the Roquefort PDO specifications.

Table 1 .

 1 Impact of scenarios involving the transition to the once-a-day milking on the milk production of the flock (MP), Household Income (HI) and Routine Workload (RW) for the seven farm-types modelled (with an indice 100 = initial situation under twice-a-day milking H0).

	Scenarios H1	Scenarios H2 with management adaptations
	with
	management
	adaptations
		MP	HI	RW	MP	HI	RW
	ROQ01	89	97	91	98	100	94
	ROQ02	89	99	91	101	103	96
	ROQ03	86	97	92	97	101	95
	ROQ04	88	97	92	98	101	95
	ROQ05	87	94	94	97	98	96
	ROQ06	89	86	93	100	101	96
	ROQ07	91	97	95	102	100	97
	Mean	88	95	92	99	101	95

Table 2 .

 2 Impact of the implementation of several scenarios of the implementation of the once-a-day milking in farms on the milk collection of the 'virtual dairy area'

	Scenarios	H0	Basis scenarios		H2 with adaptations
					H1	H2
	Total amount of milk			170	139	156	169
	(millions of liters)				-18%	-8%	-1%
	Total amount of milk from the twice-a-day milking (%)	100	0	41	69

Acknowledgements. The authors aknowledge all the partners of the Roquefort'In project.