Genetics of fear in ruminant livestock.

Posted in: Welfare by admin on January 1, 2005 | No Comments

This article reviews research that has shown consistency in fear responses in ruminant livestock. The authors also provide evidence that there is a genetic basis for fear responsiveness, and discuss the problems with genetic evaluation and selection. Some of the problems include the absence of validation in experimental designs, the complexity of fear-related responses, and the inconsistency of fear-related responses due to the interaction between genetic and environmental factors. The following topics are discussed: the possible welfare consequences of selection programs currently used, the possibility of including fear criteria in selection programs, and recent evidence on how genes control fearfulness. The ability to select animals that easily adapt and are less fearful has potential to improve their welfare.

Human-mare relationships and behaviour of foals toward humans.

Posted in: Welfare by admin on | No Comments

Recent studies have addressed the ease of handling and other aspects of a foal’s interaction with humans. Most of these have attempted to modify the foal’s response by a program of intensive human interaction and handling of the foal early in their life. In this study the experimenters directed their handling toward the mare, with the hypothesis that mare’s would transfer their response to humans to their foal. Fourty-one mares and foals were involved in the study. Half of the group involved brushing of the mare, with the foal present, for 15 min a day during the first five days of the foal’s life. The other mares and foals received no handling other than a cleaning of the foal at birth and assistance in finding a teat. The foals were tested at several points during the subsequent 15 months for their response in various handling and approach tests. Foals from the treated group, whose mothers had been brushed frequently during the foal’s first five days of life, approached or remained closer to humans in subsequent tests, and accepted handling procedures, such as saddle-pads, more readily than the control foals. It would appear that a foal’s response to humans can be fairly easily influenced by regular handling of the mare in the presence of the foal.

Temporal and sequential structure of behavior and facility usage of laying hens in an enriched environment

Posted in: Welfare by admin on | No Comments

The goal of the study was to gain insight into facility usage and hen behavioral needs throughout a 24-hour period when there were no obvious retraints. Commercial laying hens that had not been beak-trimmed and that were 18 weeks old were allocated to pens providing nest boxes, drinkers, feeders, perches, sand, and wood shavings (also called commodities). Behavior analysis was carried out in order to gain insight into the temporal and sequential structures of behavior. Video analysis was conducted for 10 days and behavior analysis was conducted on 5 birds for 5 days. Hens spent 97 % of the day on nest use, preening, drinking, feeding, still, walking, perching, and resting. Behavior involving a commodity was carried out for 43 % of the day, while non-commodity-oriented behavior was carried out for 57 % of the day. Around 70 % of the behaviors were short, lasting less than two minutes. The behaviors were also frequent, with about 70 % of the inter-event intervals being less than 40 seconds in length. The preferred place for attack, escape, flying, resting, walking, and wing flapping was the pen corridor. Feeding-drinking-feeding, preening-resting-preening, scratching-resting-scratching, dust bathing-resting-preening, or dust bathing-resting-wing stretching-dust bathing were the preferred sequences of behavior. Behavioral events were clustered, even though hens interrupted ongoing behaviors and changed behaviors frequently.

Newborn and 5-week-old calves vocalize in response to milk deprivation.

Posted in: Welfare by admin on | No Comments

Vocalizations by calves are common after they have been separated from the cow and during the weeks they are fed milk. The purpose of this study was to understand the functional and motivational basis for the vocalizations. In the first experiment, some newborn calves were recorded during conventional feeding (twice daily for a total of five liters of milk per day) and some during a feeding regime where the calves were fed every four hours and received eight liters of milk per day. Calves on the conventional feeding regime vocalized more and at a higher fundamental frequency, than those on the revised regime. In a second experiment, calves were found to vocalize more when deprived of milk compared to calves that had ad-libitum access to milk. The results of these experiments indicate that improving milk feeding regimes can significantly decrease the distress associated with weaning. Vocalizations were found to decrease when calves were fed more milk more often. Each calf’s call was determined to be distinctive, through an analysis of call duration, fundamental frequency, and frequency of maximum amplitude.

Effect of granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor on post-weaning multisystemic wasting syndrome in porcine circovirus type-2-transfected piglets

Posted in: Welfare by admin on | No Comments

Post-weaning multisystemic wasting syndrome (PMWS) is a complex disease syndrome in
swine, affecting nursery and fattening pigs. Although ongoing evidence suggests that
porcine circovirus type-2 (PCV2) is the causal agent of PMWS, the host immune system
appears to have a crucial role in the PMWS pathogenesis of PCV2-affected pigs. Owing to
difficulties in producing a biologically pure form of PCV2 devoid of the other viral agents
commonly present in swine tissues, we decided to use a tandem-cloned PCV2 DNA
providing highly pure grade reagent in order to monitor the virulence of PCV2 alone or
with an immunostimulating co-factor, granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor
(GM-CSF). A single intramuscular injection of tandem-cloned PCV2 DNA into 5-weekold
piglets produced plasmid to viral genome progeny and infectious particles as early as 8
days post-injection in all the organs tested (the lung, the tonsil and the inguinal, mesenteric,
bronchial and upper-right axial lymph nodes). The initial plasmid load was not
detected with the help of primers designed to specifically detect the acceptor plasmid, thus
confirming the replication of the viral genome. Despite the presence of a high level of
PCV2 genome copies in the lymphoid organs – the tonsil and the lung – and the presence
of infectious particles, no detectable clinical manifestations or pathological lesions were
observed in the transfected pigs over the period of observation, regardless of whether they
had been co-injected with plasmid containing GM-CSF DNA or had received plasmid
containing PCV2 DNA alone. GM-CSF encoding DNA injection had no significant effect
on viral replication or on the production of viral particles and appearance of the disease.

Ventilation Flow in Pig Houses measured and calculated by Carbon Dioxide, Moisture and Heat Balance Equations

Posted in: Production by admin on | No Comments

Ventilation flow in commercial livestock buildings can be estimated by means of relatively simple indirect methods based on carbon dioxide (CO2), moisture or heat balances. However, ventilation flow on an hourly basis forthese balances needs adjustment for diurnal variation in animal CO2 and heat production. This work examines the agreement between ventilation flow measured in a pig house over a period of 41 days and that estimated from the three balances, on a 24 h and on an hourly basis.
The study shows that, all three methods can give reasonably good estimations of the ventilation flow on an hourly basis. On average, the calculated ventilation flow was 8% lower than measured ventilation flow for the CO2 balance, and 9% lowerfor the moisture and heat balances.
A good agreement between measured and calculated ventilation flow was obtained on a 24-h basis
(coefficient of determination R2 between 0
92 and 0
97) and on an hourly basis (R2 between 0
83 and 0
92). The study indicates that the agreement between measured and estimated ventilation flow on an hourly basis can be improved by taking into account the diurnal variation in CO2, moisture and heat production.

A Dosage Based Approach to Water Soluble Medicating

Posted in: Production by admin on | No Comments

A benefits to water medication is that one individual can treat a large amount of pigs in one dose. The medication itself designates the dilution factor in regard to administering it into the water line. One of the limitations of this however is that it does not indicate administration on a per kilogram basis. In order for antibiotics to be effective it needs to be given in the body in a high enough concentration. Some hindrances of water medication include: 1) Medicator calibration; 2) Animal health (sick animals may drink less); 3) Water accessibility; 4) Taste of the medication; 5) Temperature; 6) Stage of production; and 7) Weight.

You can never be 100% certain that water treatment is reaching each pig. What you can do however is increase the likelihood of effectiveness. Dr. Tim Snider has developed a “dosage based” approach to this:

1. Incorporate the desired dose for each product to be used
2. Calculate the amount of product required per day for the group
3. Calculate the amount of product required per treatment period
4. Calculate the cost of the treatment
5. Cost comparison between products

It is possible to get veterinarians to prescribe off-label usage in order to incorporate this system.

What’s the Game Plan for Swine in Case of a Foreign Animal Disease Outbreak?

Posted in: Production by admin on | No Comments

Foreign animal diseases of most concern to swine include foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), swine vesicular disease, vesicular stomatitis, hog cholera, African swine fever, and Pseudorabies. The objective is to eradicate any outbreak by preventing the transmission of the infectious agent by slaughter of infected animals and their contacts, pre-emptive slaughter of high-risk herds, quarantine of suspect premises, and more. In the event of a disease outbreak such as FMD, the CFIA must be contacted. Once diagnosed they will carry out slaughter of clinically infected pigs, quarantine and movement control due to the contagiousness of FMD, pre-emptive slaughter of susceptible animal species in herds that have been exposed to the infection, tracing and surveillance of those facilities linked to the FMD infected premise, vaccinate, treat animal products and by-products, decontaminate, monitor wildlife, zone and regionalize, and decide on the actions and restrictions of a declared infected premise. Positive FMD premises are left vacant for a minimum of 21 days after cleaning and disinfecting. Blood samples from the re-stocked herd must be analyzed before shipment. There is a certain protocol that must be followed when considering a vaccination. Canada can re-apply for FMD free status, which would allow the resumption of normal trade 3 months after the last case of FMD.

Differentiated Parity Management

Posted in: Production by admin on | No Comments

Almost everything that sets up sows for a good lifetime performance happens before first weaning. Age, weight, and back fat at first estrus have a very little effect on the longevity of the sow. In reality, general body condition at first weaning is probably the most important factor for retention in the herd. The most important factors appear to be: full incorporation of the animal into the herd prior to breeding, breeding gilts at the second estrus, breeding gilts between 135 and 145 kg of body weight, breeding gilts at 190 days, and breeding gilts with 15 to 17 mm of back fat. In any system, it is optimum to know weight, age, and back fat at first mating. Many producers have gilt development units with a specific section or building for gilts, and have special feed for first lactation, but still do not achieve good results. This could be because of poor P1 management. New breeding herd entrants must be adapted to the health status before 130 days of age. Gilt development can be improved by giving them 0.9 square meters per animal, using a specialized diet, using a specific light pattern, performing boar exposure after 150 days of age, and vaccinations. At 185 days (or 125 kg) gilts should be moved into the breeding barn in pens of 10. Direct boar contact is essential. Incoming gilts that have not shown estrus after 28 days should be culled. Estrus should be detected twice per day and mated 12 hours after detection, and then every 12 hours after that until the gilt no longer stands. Once in the gestation barn the gilts should have 3 different feeding regimes based on weight and back fat. After 80 days of gestation the gilts should be moved to the farrowing units. Vaccinations should be done and diet increased. Induction should occur at 115 days of gestation. After 6 days of lactation, milk replacement may need to be added to the farrowing crates. At weaning, all P1 sows should receive Regumate for 5 days, starting on the day of weaning. After this treatment boar exposure should start and mating should begin after 12 hours of detected estrus.

Tariff-rate Quotas and Agricultural Trade: an application to the agricultural free-trade negotiations between the MERCOSURE and the EU

Posted in: Production by admin on | No Comments