The effect of management strategies and parity on the behaviour and physiology of gestating sows housed in an electronic sow feeding system

Posted in: Prairie Swine Centre by admin on January 1, 2008 | No Comments

How group housed
sows are managed can have an impact on their welfare during gestation. The present study examined the effects of housing
management (static vs. dynamic), stage of gestation at introduction, familiarity within the group, and age of sow on some
aspects of the behaviour and physiology of sows in an electronic sow feeding system. Eight groups were introduced into
either a static or dynamic management system. Within an introduction group, 21 to 23 focal sows were selected based upon
their stage of gestation (pre vs. post-implantation), familiarity with groupmates (familiar vs. unfamiliar) and parity [young
(1st parity) vs. intermediate (2nd and 3rd parity) vs. old (4th parity and higher)]. The aggression at mixing, aggression at
the feeder, injuries, feeder entry order, lying patterns, and salivary cortisol concentrations were recorded. There were no
differences in the behaviour or physiology of sows housed in either housing management system, or based upon familiarity.
Sows mixed post-implantation were less aggressive (P=0.01), entered the feeding station later (P=0.03) and were
observed lying in the least preferred areas of the pen (P=0.001), than sows grouped within a few days of breeding. Older
sows were involved in more aggressive encounters (P=0.04), spent more time fighting at mixing (P=0.02), and lay against
the wall more (P<0.001) than did young sows, which tended to sustain more scratches (P=0.07), and ate later in the feed cycle (P<0.001). A dynamic management system is just as effective as a static management system when certain management criteria are met. Familiarity does not have an impact on the sows during gestation. Stage of gestation and parity should be considered along with the group dynamic as it can impact aggression and access to resources.

Effects of temperature stress on growth performance and bacon quality in grow-finish pigs housed at two densities

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This study was conducted to determine the effects of temperature and space allocation on growth performance and carcass characteristics. This is because managing stressors is essential for optimizing pig growth performance. The results show decreased growth, carcass lipid quality, as well as bacon quality when pigs were housed at temperatures above their thermoneutral zone (32.2¡ãC). It was also concluded that increasing spacial allocation for housing will improve the negative effects of temperature stress.

Effects of supplemental humic substances on growth performance, blood characteristics and meat quality in finishing pigs

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In recent years, it has been shown that humates added to the feed of poultry promote growth. However, supplementation has a feed additive in pig diets has not been well reported. Therefore, this research was carried out to determine the effect of Humic substances (HS) on growth performance, blood characteristics and meat quality in finishing pigs. This study did find that dietary supplementation with humic substances can improve growth performance, lymphocyte concentration and meat quality in finishing pigs.

Economic hysteresis in hog production

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Firstly, we intend to identify determinants that influence capacity adjustments in hog production. An understanding of the adjustment behaviour of hog producers is essential to predict or to control the structural change in this industry.
Secondly, from a more theoretical viewpoint, we wish to contribute to the empirical validation of real options models. Our results draw the attention to sunk costs and uncertainty. An important implication of our results is that the observed inertia in capacity adjustments need not to be interpreted as a kind of inefficiency. This knowledge is helpful for the design of measures falling into the second pillar of the common agricultural policy (CAP) like for example investment programmes and retirement programmes.

Seeking more full-value pigs

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This article reviews some of the key performance indicators (KPIs) which provides a closer look at the impact of various farrowing room management techniques on overall productivity. The KPIs are drawn from the near-million-sow database of Swine Management Services (SMS), Inc., Fremont. NE. From the data collected, it is clear that some practices can improve farrowing room performance. Pork producers should evaluate all practices, such as extended farrowing hours and induced farrowing, to determine whether they provide the level of performance improvement necessary to justify the additional expense associated with them. The data does not show, however, the variation in performance that some farms realize, while others fail to experience a similar advantage.

Using movement sensors to detect the onset of farrowing

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Over the past few decades, in order to optimise sow fertility research in the field of animal reproduction has focused mainly on ovulation and pregnancy rates. During each farrowing, however, an average of one piglet is lost due to problems in the process of parturition, and an additional piglet is lost within a few days after birth (Edwards, 2002). Therefore, focusing research on farrowing is not only economically important but it can improve the health and welfare of the dam and her offspring. Problems during and shortly after parturition can seriously compromise animal health and can have an effect on the production economy of the pig farms. In modern pig herds, the lack of surveillance at farrowing is a current problem. Increased intensity of pig production has inevitably raised challenges during farrowing. Large litter sizes may result in delivery problems often associated with dystocia (Smith, 1997). Also, in large litters some of the piglets are more likely to be weaker and to require assistance soon after birth. Parturition should therefore be closely supervised in order to minimise losses due to problems with sows or piglets. Some studies have demonstrated that human supervision at farrowing can halve the piglet perinatal mortality (Holyoake et al., 1995; White et al., 1996). However, constant human supervision of all the farrowing sows has not been considered feasible, due to the high cost of labour and the working hours required. Currently, research is being carried out in the field of automatic growth control of pigs (Parsons et al., 2007). However, systems for automatically detecting farrowing do not exist today. Prediction of the onset of farrowing with a degree of accuracy could improve herd management and consequently improve the supervision of parturition. In sows, certain physiological and behavioural parameters are clear signals of impending parturition. Some of these parameters have been studied around farrowing, including the rise in body temperature (King et al., 1972; Elmore et al., 1979), the rise in respiratory rate (Hendrix et al., 1978) and behavioural changes (Hartsock and Barczewski, 1997; Bradshaw and Broom, 1999). All these changes occur 24–36h before farrowing starts. Thus, monitoring the variation in these parameters during the last days of pregnancy could likely serve to predict the onset of farrowing. One of the clearest signals of approaching farrowing is the increased activity due to nest building behaviour. Hartsock and Barczewski (1997) found that rooting, pawing, turning and walking behaviour in sows kept in pens or crates begins to increase 24h prior to farrowing. Therefore, the aim of our study was to test different movement sensors to measure changes in the farrowing-related activity of crated sows. These sensors could also be used to develop an automatic alarm system to help farmers to predict the onset of parturition. This would allow for more effective work organisation, reduce losses due to farrowing complications and weak piglets, and thus improve animal welfare. On the 764 farms included in the national litter-recording scheme in Finland, total piglet mortality averaged 22.4% (the mortality of liveborn piglets was 13.9%) in 2001 (Sternberg, 2002). For sows, 2768 treatment cases for farrowing problems on 942 farms included in the health recording scheme were recorded that same year (Rautala, 2002). Moreover, 15.4% of all veterinary treatments in the herds participating in the scheme were due to post partum dysgalactia syndrome (PPDS).

For more information the full article can be found at  http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/15375110

A meta-analysis on experimental infections with porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2)

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A meta-analysis was performed with the aim to identify factors with a relevant influence on the expression of clinical
postweaning multisystemic wasting syndrome (PMWS) under experimental conditions. It was found the most successful animal experiment aimed to develop PMWS should include: (1) colostrum-deprived pigs, (2) age of inoculation below 3 weeks, (3) high doses of PCV2 inoculum, (4) PCV2 strain from genotype 1, and (5) co-infection with another swine pathogen as a triggering factor.

For more information the full article can be found at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/03781135

Visual acuity of pigs at different light intensities

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In most West European countries pigs are housed indoors under low-light conditions. While former
Dutch National legislation for pigs required 12 lx for 8 h per day, EU legislation requires 40 lx, so pigs
should be able to distinguish small objects and subtle visual signals. However, limited scientific evidence
exists about the effects of light intensity (illumination) and object size on the pigs’ ability to distinguish
visual cues. We studied these two effects using operant conditioning with a Landolt-C symbol as shape
discriminator. Four Landolt-C symbols with different sizes (with gaps of, respectively, 10 mm(L10), 20 mm
(L20), 30 mm (L30) and 40 mm (L40)) were tested under 8 different illuminant levels (0.5, 3, 6, 12, 20, 30,
40 and 80 lx). Following a 4-week training period, 20 female 4-month-old pigs were tested in two batches
and the numbers of correct, hesitant and incorrect choices were recorded. Reduced illumination significantly
increased the number of incorrect choices (P < 0.05). Symbol size also had a significant effect (P < 0.001);
pigs made more mistakes with the two smaller symbols L10 (41.5%) and L20 (28.6%) compared to the
bigger symbols L30 (17.3%) and L40 (16.3%). Furthermore, pigs hesitated less with the smallest symbol
L10 (4.5%) compared to L20, L30 and L40 (17.3, 22.3 and 23.0%, respectively; P < 0.001). Visual acuity
(ability to distinguish details and shapes) varied from 0.001 to 0.03 and pigs failed to discriminate visual
cues below 20 mm. Results indicate that the detail of the visual cue (symbol size) has a more pronounced
effect on the pigs’ ability to distinguish visual cues, compared to the illuminant level.

For more information the full article can be found at http://journals.elsevierhealth.com/periodicals/applan/issues

The effects of feeding rice in substitution of corn and the degree of starch gelatinization of rice on the digestibility of dietary components and productive performance of young pigs

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A 28-d trial was conducted to evaluate the effect of the main cereal of the diet (corn or rice), heat processing (HP) of rice, and the degree of starch gelatinization (SG) of rice on apparent total tract digestibility (ATTD) of dietary components and productive performance of pigs weaned at 25 d of age. It was found that feeding rice improved performance of weanling pigs, and HP of rice under mild conditions enhanced diet digestibility and productive performance of pigs. Severe processing of rice increased the degree of SG but did not further improve diet digestibility or growth performance.

Digestion of carbohydrates and utilization of energy in sows fed diets with contrasting levels and physicochemical properties of dietary fiber

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This research paper investigates the digestion of carbohydrates and utlization of energy in sows fed diets with different levels and physicochemical properties of dietary fibre (DF). It was shown that the DF level influenced the ileal flow of most nutrients, in particular carbohydrates. Feeding HF diets resulted in greater CH4 production, which was related to the amount of carbohydrates and OM fermented in the large intestine, but with no difference in heat production.