Gestation Housing Alternatives: Sows in a Deep-Bedded Cafeteria-Fed System

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

This project consisted of two studies in which we compared the performance and welfare of sows in either conventional stalls or a large group, deep-bedded cafeteria-fed system. In the first study all sows were placed into breeding stalls at weaning. Following the second mating, sows were moved into either a section of stalls for implantation, or into the group pens. In the second study an additional treatment was applied within the group system. Half of the groups were formed at 35 days post-mating rather than immediately following the second mating. Housing sows in large groups, in a deep-bedded cafeteria-fed system had both advantages and disadvantages compared to stall housing. Grouped sows fought at the time of mixing, more so if grouped shortly after mating, but aggression dropped off within a week. Scratches were more frequent when animals were grouped, but also increased when sows were moved to new stalls. Abrasions were more common in stalled sows. Stalled sows also had a higher incidence of locomotion problems, including lameness requiring culling, than did sows on the deep litter. Stalled sows evidenced physiological changes indicative of long term stress. Productivity was affected only if sows were grouped within a few days of mating. In general, group housing resulted in acute, short lived welfare problems, while the results from stall housing were indicative of long term, chronic stress.

National Meat Case Study 2004: Product labeling information, branding, and packaging trends

Posted in: Meat Quality by admin on | No Comments

Fresh meat retail cases in 104 supermarkets
across 5 regions of the United States were audited
for the use of packaging types and materials, branding,
and cooking/nutritional information. Frequency means
were separated for species of beef, ground beef, pork,
chicken, turkey, lamb, and veal. Traditional polyvinyl
chloride overwrap was used on 47.0% of packages in the
fresh meat case nationwide and was the most frequent
packaging type for beef, ground beef, pork, lamb, and
veal. The use of modified atmosphere packaging was
greatest (P < 0.001) in ground beef (33.2%) and turkey (45.1%) products. The 3 most common tray colors in the fresh meat retail case on a national level were white (39.6%), yellow (22.4%), and black (11.5%). Foam trays were used in 72.6% of all packages in the retail meat case. In 2004, 60.2% of all packages were caseready. Chicken (94.8%) and turkey (95.6%) products utilized case-ready packaging systems more (P < 0.001) than any other species. On a national level, 50.1% of all products carried a national brand, 12.2% carried a store brand, and the remaining 37.7% of products in the fresh meat case in 2004 were not branded. Chicken was most (P < 0.001) likely to carry a natural brand label. Labels with cooking instructions were found most (P < 0.001) on pork (37.3%) and turkey products (48.1%). Chicken (20.4%) and turkey products (20.7%) were most (P < 0.001) likely to have the cooking instructions printed on the packaging material compared with all other species. Labels with nutritional information were most (P < 0.001) likely to be found on turkey products (55.7%) in the fresh meat case compared with any other species. On the national level, 6.1% of all packages reported in the fresh meat case in 2004 were value-added.

Digestible and metabolizable energy of crude glycerol for growing pigs

Posted in: Energy by admin on | No Comments

The apparent DE and ME values of crude glycerol for growing pigs were determined in 5 experiments using crude glycerol (86.95% glycerol) from a biodiesel production facility, which used soybean oil as the initial feedstock. It was concluded that among all experiments, the crude glycerol examined in this study was shown to have a Digestible Energy of of 3,344 ± 8 kcal/kg and an Metabolized Energy of 3,207 ± 10 kcal/kg, thereby providing a highly available energy source for growing pigs.

Cross Compliance and Competitiveness of the European Beef and Pig Sector

Posted in: Economics by admin on | No Comments

Cross compliance, introduced with the 2003 CAP reform, links direct payments to
farmers to their respect of regulations in the field of environmental protection, public, animal
and plant health and animal welfare. This paper focuses on the additional costs cross compliance may generate in
the beef and pig sector. For both products the most relevant standards were identified and an
assessment was made of the level of compliance and the cost of compliance. The subsequent
analysis then focused, first, on the additional cost of compliance if compliance levels were to
become universal, and second, on the impact this would have on trade flows of the EU with
the US and other competitors on the world market. The second section of this paper is dedicated to the impact of the Nitrate Directive and Regulations that are currently applicable to pigs farms. It was found that the extent to which the Nitrate Directive may create extra costs to the pig sector
depends on the pig density per hectare in each Member State, on the percentage of pigs
present in Nitrate Vulnerable Zones and on the degree of compliance of pig farmers to the
Nitrate Directive. These three data differ very much from country to country and explain
primarily the very different sector cost increases for the pig sectors of EU Member States. The
overall EU cost increase to be attributed to the pig sector due to attain full compliance with
the Nitrate Directive has been estimated at 0.55%.
From a comparison with the impact of the Clean Water Act in the US it turns out that
this act raises the cost for the American pig sector with 1.08%, an almost double cost effect
compared to the impact of the Nitrate Directive in the EU. The reason for this substantial rise
of costs has to be attributed to the large percentage of pig affected by this measure and its
rather recent application to US pig farms, which still implies a rather low degree of
compliance.
A calculation of the animal welfare regulations for pig farmers in the EU shows, that
the cost increase is very limited. The reasons for this minor cost impact are a high degree of
compliance with the standards and the limited rise of costs for farmers which still have to
adapt their farm to the new legislation.

Relational Contracting and Allocation of Decision Rights in the Agri- Food Industry: Producer Contracts and Food Safety

Posted in: Economics by admin on | No Comments

We applied a formal theoretical model of adaptation to two empirical settings within the agrifood
industry: specialized pig production and food safety in Denmark. The objective is to allocate
decision rights ex ante so that actual decisions taken ex post will optimize the profit accruing
to the two parties in a contractual or integrative relation.
Two applications have been presented in this paper: First an actual partnership between two
pork producers in Denmark. Based on detailed budgets we develop detailed schedules for the
“reneging temptations” of the two partners- These are the temptations to renege on the contract
during the evolution of the partnership. Using a model developed by Baker, Gibbons and Murphy
(2006) we calculate equilibria using the Folk theorem in order to determine which is the
best allocation of decision rights. We find that the existing allocation of decision rights in the
case we examine is efficient in the sense that it results into a second best allocation.
Using the same modelling approach we presented a second application on salmonella control
related to end-feeding, that is, salmonella contamination of pork due to filled bellies of pigs fed
for the last 12 hours before delivery. Based on appropriate assumptions, the parties should give
the decision right (whether to end-feed or not) to the slaughterhouse in order to reach the firstbest
solution which, given the assumptions, is feasible

Immunogenicity of porcine circovirus type 2 capsid protein targeting to different subcellular compartments

Posted in: Welfare by admin on | No Comments

Porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) is known to be associated with post-weaning multisystemic wasting syndrome (PMWS), an emerging disease in swine. The development of effective vaccines against PCV2 infection has been accepted as an important strategy in the prophylaxis of PMWS, and a DNA vaccine expressing the major immunogenic capsid (Cap) protein of PCV2 is considered to be a promising candidate. However, recent studies have revealed that interferons (IFNs), especially IFN-, can enhance the replication of PCV2, indicating that the high levels of IFN- induced by DNA vaccination seem to have potential deleterious effect on protective immunity. Strategies to improve the  neutralizing antibody response and simultaneously decrease the IFN- response will facilitate the clinical application of DNA vaccines against PCV2. In the present study, four different DNA vaccine constructs encoding cytoplasmic (Cy-ORF2), secreted (Sc-ORF2), membrane-anchored (M-ORF2) or authentic nuclear-targeted (pc-ORF2) Cap protein were generated to evaluate the neutralizing antibody and IFN- responses in a mouse model. Although all four DNA constructs could elicit PCV2-specific humoral immune responses, mice inoculated with Sc-ORF2 developed a significantly higher level of neutralizing antibodies than those that received M-ORF2, pc-ORF2 or Cy-ORF2. Furthermore, mice immunized with Sc-ORF2 or M-ORF2 showed a significantly decreased or enhanced IFN- level, respectively, compared with those inoculated with pc-ORF2.With respect to neutralizing antibody and IFN- levels, Sc-ORF2 is a good candidate for DNA vaccination, and the secreted Cap protein appears to be an ideal antigen for use in development of vaccines against PCV2.

For more information the full article can be found at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/01615890

The effect of varying lengths of straw bedding on the behaviour of growing pigs

Posted in: Welfare by admin on | No Comments

Since January 2003, the provision of appropriate environmental enrichment to pigs of all ages has been a legal requirement in the EU. The Directive states that: ‘To enable proper investigation and manipulation activities, all pigs must have permanent access to a sufficient quantity of material such as straw, hay, wood, sawdust, mushroom compost, peat or a mixture of such which does not adversely affect the health of the animals’. European animal welfare legislation is built on the principle that all animals have intrinsic value. Animals should therefore be able to express species-specific behaviour. The pig has a propensity to express nosing, rooting and chewing behaviours as a result of both exploratory and feeding motivation (Fraser et al., 1991; Day et al., 1995, 1996b. When individuals are not able to express these behaviours in barren housing environments, the activity may be channeled towards inappropriate stimuli such as pen-mates (Lawrence et al., 1993). Straw has been reported to improve the welfare of pigs housed in barren environments, because it can be used as a recreational substrate, as a nutritional substrate and as a bedding material (Fraser et al., 1991; Arey and Bruce, 1993; Lyons et al., 1995; Van de Weerd et al., 2005b; Tuyttens, 2005). However, it is still not really clear how straw functions to modify behaviour and what it exactly is about straw that makes it so effective in occupying a pig (Van de Weerd, 2005a). Therefore it is important to gain knowledge about the properties of straw that are behaviourally rewarding for pigs (Day et al., 2001b). The acquisition of such knowledge can then be applied to facilitate the construction of environmental enrichment devices which meet the behavioural needs of pigs, whilst also being compatible with partly and fully slatted housing systems (Van de Weerd et al., 2003). The present study explored the efficacy of providing pigs with small quantities of chopped straw, as opposed to full-length straw, since the former material could be used in partly and fully slatted systems with less risk of blockage of the liquid slurry handling facilities. To investigate this, groups of growing pigs were exposed to treatments where the provision and length of straw varied. Twenty-four groups of growing pigs were exposed to one of four treatments (no straw bedding, full-length straw, half chopped straw, and fully chopped straw). Both pen-mate- and straw directed behaviours were recorded using ad libitum sampling. It was found that the length of straw affected both the quantity and quality of straw-directed behaviours. The provision of straw of any length reduced the occurrence of behaviours such as nosing other pigs, aggression and tail-biting compared with when straw was absent. Chopped straw increased the prevalence of behaviours such as licking and decreased the prevalence of behaviours such as picking, suggesting that pigs were not able to manipulate the chopped straw in the same way as full-length or half chopped straw. In addition, levels of tail-biting were higher in groups that were provided with chopped straw than in groups with full-length or half chopped straw. It is concluded that the use of chopped straw in growing/finishing housing systems, whilst better than no enrichment, is inadvisable because of the possibility that levels of adverse pen mate directed behaviours will increase.

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

Social discrimination of familiar conspecifics by juvenile pigs, Sus scrofa: Development of a non-invasive method to study the transmission of unimodal and bimodal cues between live stimuli

Posted in: Welfare by admin on | No Comments

A non-invasive method was developed to study the transmission of cues that are used in social
discrimination by pigs, Sus scrofa. We investigated the ability of juvenile pigs to discriminate between
pairs of familiar, similar-aged conspecifics in a Y-maze learning task, using either single or paired visual,
olfactory and auditory cues. The stimulus pigs (n = 12) were littermates that were familiar but unrelated to
the test pigs (n = 12). For the bimodal task, test pigs (four per treatment) were presented with cues of two
modalities: olfaction and vision (OV), vision and audition (AV), or audition and olfaction (AO).
Approaches to a pre-determined correct stimulus were rewarded with food in daily sessions, each of
10 consecutive trials. Three consecutive successful sessions of 8/10 correct choices (P = 0.00016)
fulfilled the criterion for starting the unimodal task, during which test pigs were given either olfactory,
visual or auditory cues only using the same success criterion. Eight pigs learnt the bimodal task (OV: 4,AV:
2,AO: 2) ofwhich six pigs subsequently completed the unimodal task successfully (O: 3,V: 2, A: 1). These
findings indicate that juvenile pigs have the cognitive capacity to discriminate between same-sex
littermates that are also familiar group-members in the absence of either visual, olfactory or auditory cues, and that some can use just one of these modalities. A larger-scale study is needed to determine the sensory hierarchy of social discrimination in pigs.

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

Do citizens and farmers interpret the concept of farm animal welfare differently?

Posted in: Welfare by admin on | No Comments

This study provides a quantification of the similarities and differences between aspects relating to farm animal welfare as valued by farmers and citizens and tries to explain the findings based on differences in values, interests, knowledge, norms and convictions, constituting the frame of reference of the perception towards farm animal welfare. The interpretation of the complex and multi-dimensional concept of farm animal welfare has proven to be quite compatible from a citizen and farmer perspective. The main differences are found in the importance attached to animals’ ability to engage in natural behaviour and in aspects which require some basic understanding about production conditions and the way livestock is reared. Furthermore, citizens evaluated the current state of farm animal welfare rather negative with mean evaluative belief scores for almost all aspects below the mid-point of the scale, while a much more positive image was present among farmers. Discordance between citizen and farmer perception appeared to be the highest for aspects related to natural behaviour, pain, stress and availability of space.

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

The effect of microbial phytase on true and apparent ileal amino acid digestibilities in growing-finishing pigs

Posted in: Production by admin on | No Comments

In this study ten 56 day old barrows were surgically fitted with a postvalvular T-cecum cannula to evaluate the effect of microbial phytase on apparent and true ileal amino acid (AA) digestibility and nitrogen (N) utilization. It was found that the addition of phytase to a semipurified soybean meal-based diet did not affect the apparent ileal digestibility of several amino acids. Also, difference between the basal and homoarginine (HA) diets in nitrogen digestibilities indicated that the guanidination may limit the use of the HA method in determining endogenous proten losses