Le bien-être, qualité de la viande, performance de croissance et les facteurs économiques des porcs élevés dans des porcheries en arche.

Posted in: French Articles by admin on January 1, 2006 | No Comments

Les producteurs et consommateurs perçoivent que l’élevage de porcs commerciaux faits dans des abris circulaires à litière profonde est plus bénéfique au bien-être des porcs et produit une viande ayant des qualités pour la consommation plus désirables comparativement aux systèmes conventionnels. Puisqu’il n’existe que peu de recherche pour appuyer cette hypothèse, l’objectif de cette étude était d’évaluer les effets du système d’élevage sur le bien-être des porcs, la qualité de la viande, la croissance des porcs en finition et la performance économique. Le gain de poids quotidien était similaire entre les porcs élevés dans les abris circulaires et ceux en porcheries conventionnelles. Cependant, les porcs en abris circulaires consommaient 7% plus d’aliment que ceux en porcheries conventionnelles. Les porcs en abris circulaires ont démontré un comportement plus explorateur, ce qui suggère qu’ils seraient plus faciles à déplacer et à manipuler. Les besoins en main d’œuvre étaient de 14 minutes par porc dans les porcheries conventionnelles, alors qu’elles n’étaient que 8,5 minutes par porc pour ceux en abris circulaires. Du point de vue économique, un prix de vente plus bas a été obtenu pour les porcs en abris circulaires. Un prix de vente plus bas, jumelé avec un coût élevé de litière, a donné des revenus nets négatifs. De manière générale, il n’y avait pas de différence dans la qualité gustative de la viande entre les deux types d’élevage. Nous en avons conclu que les abris circulaires diminuent l’efficacité de croissance des porcs, changent le comportement de ceux-ci, mais n’ont aucun impact sur la qualité de la viande de porc produite.

Les effets pulmonaires de l’exposition à l’air de porcherie.

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La production porcine a subi de rapides changements en passant d’opérations de taille familiale jusqu’aux entreprises industrielles à grande échelle. Vu qu’un nombre augmentant de porcs sont élevés à grande échelle dans un environnement confiné, certains employés de ces porcheries peuvent être employés pour travailler huit heures par jour. Les travailleurs de porcherie présentent une incidence plus élevée d’obstruction pulmonaire et d’inflammation des poumons, ce qui est attribué à des expositions de haute intensité à l’air des porcheries et à des expositions interrompues. L’air dans ces porcheries contient des gaz, de la poussière, des microbes et des endotoxines; ces endotoxines est le principal agent soupçonné de causer des problèmes respiratoires. Cette revue tente de décrire l’état courant de la connaissance des incidences et des mécanismes problèmes respiratoires suivant l’exposition à de l’air de porcherie.

DEVELOPMENT OF 3−D ANAEROBIC DIGESTER HEAT TRANSFER MODEL FOR COLD WEATHER APPLICATIONS

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A cost–benefit analysis of Salmonella-control strategies in Danish pork production

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This economic analysis is an evaluation of the socio-economic profitability of different control strategies along the stable to table chain. It was found that only hot-water decontamination would be profitable from a socio-economic point of view because it was the only alternative with a positive net present value: €3.5 million.the least profitable alternative was use of home-mixed feed with a net present value of -€262.3 million, whereas for sanitary slaughter it was -€43.6 million, and for acidified feed it was -€79.9 million. Furthermore, regardless of the alternative chosen, it is the pig industry (farmers and slaughterhouses) that would have to pay for the benefits of the rest of society. After our analysis was concluded, the Danish pig sector decided to increase focus on slaughterhouse hygiene and at the same time to introduce hand-held steam-sucking on some slaughterhouses. The effect of this will be shown in the years to come.

Residual Effects of Composted and Fresh Solid Swine (Sus scrofa L.) Manure on Soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] Growth and Yield

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Preference of Growing Pigs for Illuminance

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Inappropriate lighting has a negative impact on the welfare of many captive animals; photoperiod, illuminance and spectrum all influence the suitability of a light source or regime. The lighting under which a pig is raised can influence an animal’s ocular, physical and neural development, as well as its behaviour. Although there are no published data for the UK pig industry, photoperiod and illuminance are thought to vary widely within pig housing. In England, the legal requirements for pigs housed under artificial lighting are: (i) that lighting with an intensity of at least 40 lx must be provided for a minimum period of 8 h per day (The Welfare of Farmed Animals (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2003; S.I. 2003 No. 299; following EC regulation: Council Directive 2001/88/EC) and (ii) that animals kept in buildings must have an appropriate period of rest from artificial lighting (TheWelfare of Farmed Animals (England) Regulations 2000; S.I. 2000 No. 1870; DEFRA, 2003), though the duration of this period is not specified. Additionally, adequate lighting (whether fixed or portable) must be available to enable the animals to be thoroughly inspected at any time (ibid). One UK farm assurance scheme (Freedom Food, 2003) further requires that housed pigs must have access to an area that provides a minimum illuminance of 50 lx for a continuous period of at least 8 h and a continuous dark period of at least 6 h; either of these temporal minima may be reduced to correspond with seasonal changes in daylength. The research described in this paper stresses the importance of identifying the needs and preferences of domestic animals rather than imposing conditions based on human perception and preference. The preferences of growing pigs for different illuminances and indirectly for photoperiod were determined experimentally. This experiment investigated the preference of juvenile pigs for illuminance, and indirectly photoperiod, at two ages. The animals were equally familiar with all illuminances prior to testing. Four groups, each of four pigs, occupied a four-compartment preference chamber in which a different illuminance was applied to each compartment: minimum (2.4), 4, 40 and 400 lx. Illuminances were rearranged every 2 days to avoid positional bias. The pigs significantly preferred the dimmest illuminance (mean occupancy 7 h 20 min per 24 h, backtransformed data) and spent the least time in the brightest (4 h 49 min per 24 h), with an intermediate and similar length of time spent in the other illuminances (6 h 25 min and 5 h 25 min in 4 and 40 lx, respectively, F3, 127 = 8.93, P < 0.001). The most common behaviours of the pigs when in the darkest compartment were resting and sleeping. The EU directive 2001/88 requires a minimum illuminance of 40 lx for pig production; this illuminance was neither aversive nor strongly preferred by the pigs. Our findings also suggest that pigs should be provided with an appropriate period of rest at an illuminance of 2.4 lx for at least 6 h per day. The only active behaviour affected by illuminance was defecation; the pigs preferred to defecate in the brighter illuminances. Spatial provision of minimal illuminance could potentially improve pig welfare by providing a preferred light environment for resting and also by creating a resting area distinct from dunging areas, thus improving hygiene.

Value Added Opportunities Based on Animal Care

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Fifty years ago, most consumers still had grandparents or relatives that lived on farms and were involved in production agriculture. The average consumer still had a direct “connection” to agriculture. That is not the case today, customers and consumers are asking questions about environmental performance, animal welfare, food safety and security and worker care issues. Animal agriculture is facing increased pressure and growing questions about the production systems and practices. Activist groups opposed to contemporary production practices are pressuring customers and initiating legislation and litigation to change the way things operate. Today, there is little understanding of livestock production and a general lack of trust in our practices. Animal agriculture is challenged by anthropomorphism, affluence, and agricultural alienation. This list of socially responsible attributes is growing and becoming more embraced by the supply chain each day. To be successful today, animal agriculture must understand and address the consumers’ questions of trust and their values. When customers and consumers ask questions about animal welfare and the industry responds only with science and data, they perceive this as uncaring and non-responsive. Even though animal welfare today is not a top-of the mind concern for those who purchase meat, there is a societal expectation that animals used for meat will be treated humanely (USDA, 2004). Those who do not believe animals are being treated humanely or have other additional agendas are seeking changes by pressuring consumers, initiating legislation, and litigating against certain production practices. The demand for socially responsible production practices such as animal welfare will continue to increase. These demands will eventually become industry standards as the practices initiated by the innovators and early adaptors are adopted. As time passes, socially responsible production will become a requirement for doing business. As we increase both the distance most consumers have from the farm and the level of technology we implement in food production, consumers will become more interested in social responsibility. That means producers will have to become more and more concerned about non-product specific attributes like animal welfare, environmental stewardship, the use of health products and worker care issues. Science alone will not prevail. It is not persuasive in a value-based culture. The list of socially responsible production attributes is growing and being embraced by more of the supply chain every day. Trust must be built between the consumer, processor, and the producer. Building trust will require transparency, professionalism, and third-party certification and verification at all levels of production and processing. The biggest trend in the food system in the next two to three years will involve increased focus by food marketers and others on how producers operate their farms. Specifically, outside sources will want to know a lot more detail about how producers care for their animals, how they care for the land, how they care for their workers, and how they produce a safe product.

Limited Cross-Fostering Shows Results

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As the health challenges facing the swine industry continue to evolve and change, the management practices needed to support production must also change. In a paper presented at the London Swine Conference, Dr. Monte McCaw outlined the limited cross fostering procedures that are showing positive results. The intent of these procedures is to confine health problems to as small a group as possible and move them through the production system.Point #1 – Don’t cross foster piglets after 24 hours of age. You would move only the minimum number of piglets to load functional teats, and not one pig more. Knowing when to stop and start cross fostering is a critical component here. For instance, you would no longer cross foster to create litters of uniform size or sex. When you have extra medium or large pigs that must be moved, match them by size and milking ability of the receiving sows and litter. You should ensure that smallest piglets are given the lowest priority for functional teat assignment. They are best left on their birth sow or moved as extras when there are more piglets than available teats. The highlight of this whole section comes down to maximizing the number of piglets left on their birth mother, cross fostering only once within 24 hours of birth, and if faced with surplus pigs maximizing the number of pigs on colostrum mothers. Point #2 – in Dr. McCaw’s presentation, the point was made to not move piglets between rooms. It is imperative to follow strict all in, all out production practices. Moving pigs between rooms presents far too many threats to all animals involved to any longer consider it a useful or appropriate procedure. Thinking along other lines, the litter is now the all in, all out unit. We traditionally thought rooms, or even whole facilities, but this is now restricted to as small a unit as possible which is the litter.Point #3 – made by Dr. McCaw covered culling. He strongly recommended removing very sick, moribund or bad body condition pigs from the system. He recommended producers sell or eliminate piglets at weaning that are too light to survive in the nursery and have poor body condition. If you have to treat piglets and they don’t get better quickly after treatment, they should also be removed immediately from your production system. Other piglets that show symptoms of very thin, starved out, lameness, light body weight, long hair or chronic illness should be removed from the production system as they appear. It is important to remember a piglet held back from weaning takes a teat away from a younger potentially healthier pig. In the area of Nursery Management the priorities according to Dr. McCaw included:• Carefully sorting piglets into pens according to size. Equals are equal and less equal will suffer accordingly. Care should be taken to place the smallest piglets in the part of the room that is most free of drafts and remains warm enough to support them. Special efforts in feeding must be made. He recommends hand feeding four times daily for at least five days. When deciding to switch rations the decision should be based on the weight of the pigs in the pen, not the weight of the pigs in the room. Supplemental heat (lamps) and plastic mats must be used if required, and are most often required. A drinker that runs water constantly should be available at a level that all pigs can reach for the first 24 hours after weaning. • Gilt and sow management are major factors in determining the number of piglets weaned in a room. You cannot reasonably expect to wean more quality pigs than there are functional teats in a farrowing room. To achieve high functional teat scores requires careful gilt selection and refined records of functional teat numbers in previous lactations.Now to expand on this material and put some numbers on it, we can go to a talk delivered November 30, 2005 at the Shakespeare production seminar by Dr. Sue Burlatshenko. She applied some nursery math in her presentation at a level that most of us can understand. Assume the death rate in pigs weaned at less that 3.8 kg is 45%. Assume the death rate of pigs between 3.8 and 5 kg is 12%, and assure the opportunity cost (had the pig lived) of a dead or live weight pig is $37. So every pig less than 3.8 kg entering the nursery has an opportunity cost of 45% of $37. = $16.65. Every pig between 3.8 and 5 kg has an opportunity cost of 12% times $37 equals $4.44, therefore, $16.65 – $4.44 = $12.21 that can be used to address potential treatment methods for these pigs.The message from these two papers is that management must pay extreme attention to detail and be carried out correctly in all instances to achieve the best levels of healthy weaner pigs, when faced with serious disease challenges.

Arthritis or OCD – Identification and Prevention

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Physical lameness in swine still exists despite the decades of improvements in genetic, nutrition, disease, and housing management practices. Osteochondrosis (OC) is the most prevalent cause of structural lameness in growing swine and can progress to osteochondrosis dissecans (OCD) and osteoarthritis (OA). It is still unknown what exactly causes these diseases and are classified as idiopathic (disease of unknown cause or origin). Genetics could potentially contribute to these diseases. Work is being done to find a genetic basis for OC and related disorders. A single gene mutation is unlikely to explain all the factors that lead to OA disorders (it is most likely multiple gene mutations). Environmental factors thought to be important in modulation of gene expression include nutrition, disease, and housing. There is current work being done on investigating nutritional factors, and there is no evidence that OC results from infectious organisms. Different housing systems have not had any effect on the occurrence of OC. Management recommendations include selecting for extremes in growth potential, keeping pigs fit by feeding complete diets to meet all requirements, and allow adequate stocking rates.

Heterogeneous Production Efficiency of Specialized Swine Producers

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