High levels of nitrifying bacteria in intermittently aerated reactors treating high ammonia wastewater

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

Concentrations of additive arsenic in Beijing pig feeds and the residues in pig manure

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One Less Chore for the Producer

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Pre-sorting pigs by weight at the beginning of the growing and finishing stage offers no major advantage to producers, according to results from trials at PSCI. Ethologist Dr. Harold Gonyou oversaw the trials. He says while the conclusions might come as a surprise in terms of current production practices, they make sense based on what we know about pigs’ social behaviour. For the producer, it means one less chore.

“You don’t have to worry about spending time sorting your pigs,” Gonyou says. “It’s not that critical to the productivity of the animal.” This shift in popular wisdom comes from management changes in the last 20 years. Back then, the practice of sorting by weight had merit, as pigs that were three or four weeks apart in age might be grouped together. In addition, pigs weren’t given all the feed they could eat. Under such a system, smaller animals were at a definite disadvantage. Today, groups of pigs are typically only a few days apart in age, producing a very uniform range of weights. They are also demand-fed, so they get all the feed they want. Under this system, social interaction becomes more important. It’s better to keep together pigs that know each other and have an established hierarchy. This reduces fighting and other problem behaviour. Two trials were conducted to answer the questions of whether pigs should be sorted by weight, and whether continuous flow or all in-all out pig flow management should have a bearing on the decision. Pigs were classified as Heavy, Medium and Light before being put into pens. Barrows and gilts were handled separately, as it has been established that each gender has different protein requirements and growth rates. For the uniform pens, pigs from a single weight class were grouped together. For the variable pens, pigs of two or more weight classes were included. Researchers kept track of how fast the pigs were growing, how much they were eating, how aggressive they were, how much time they spent at various activities, and how long it took to bring them up to finished weight. There were no adverse effects from having variable weight pens. Uniform and variable weight pens emptied at the same rate under the continuous flow system (an average of 105.5 days). There was no significant difference in the way the pigs behaved. Under the all in-all out system, sorting appeared to slow down the rate of turnover in the pens. Rooms of variable weight pens emptied nearly six days faster, on average, than the rooms with uniform weight pens (110.9 days for uniform pens versus 104.1 days for variable pens). Gonyou says the results from the PSCI trials are consistent with previous studies he has conducted, and there is growing confidence that sorting by weight is unnecessary. In fact, when pen-emptying rate is factored in under the all in-all out systems favoured today, it makes more sense to randomly assign pigs to pens, within gender.

TAKE HOME MESSAGE
Sorting pigs requires labour, and results in remixing, a practice known to reduce feed intake and gains in growing pigs. The practice is not adding value to a continuous flow barn and may be detrimental to room turnover in all in-all out barns.

Panel Presentation: Water Management: Tips for Saving Water

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Proper water management is essential for production performance. It is important to do a water audit for determining farm-specific water use, ensure proper placement and height of water nipples, check and adjust flow rates, consider cup/bowl drinkers, use wet/dry feeders in grow-finish, avoid high mineral concentrations, and avoid excessive protein. The adoption of wet/dry feeders, water nipple waste reduction, and drinker height/flow can improve net income by $1.05 per pig.

Behavioural Vices in the Barn

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A “device” is a term used to describe abnormal behaviour. Pigs in a production setting show several vices, because some behaviour they show is not performed in a natural setting. Belly nosing and belly sucking/naval sucking occurs about 4 or 5 days after weaning and shows that the pigs have not adapted well to weaning (especially in early weaned pigs). This can lead to severe lesions on the belly and umbilical hernias. Preventative measures include weaning later, using bowl drinkers, provide baby bottle nipples for them to suck on, provide an artificial spot to nose, and liquid feeding. Tail biting occurs when light chewing breaks the skin on the tail and other pigs begin to eat away at it. It is most common in the grow/finish stages but can happen in nursery. Tail biting can result in infection of the spine that could lead to abscesses, paralysis, or even death. This can later lead to condemned carcasses at the packer. Temperature, drafts, overcrowding, and genetics are some of the suggested reasons for tail biting. Making destructible toys for the pigs such as a rope or cloth can divert the tail biting. Ear biting tends to occur at younger ages than tail biting. It can be detected by redness and scratch marks on the base or tip of the ear. Causes can include bacteria, ear sucking, restlessness and discomfort. Preventative measures similar to tail biting can be effective. Vulva biting in sows happens in-group housing. It can range from mild to severe damage. Fighting over feed or water is a plausible cause of this condition. Spreading out feed better, increasing water drinkers, feeding more often, or moving sows out of the group at an earlier date can help prevent it.

Effect of scattered feeding and feeding twice a day during rearing on indicators of hunger and frustration in broiler breeders.

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The welfare of broiler breeders during rearing is commonly impaired, as the restrictive feeding commonly practiced, and the management procedure leaves the chicks feeling hungry and frustrated about their inability to feed. This study attempted to improve the welfare of broiler breeders by making simple and practical changes to the feeding system. The effect on hunger and frustration experienced by the broiler breeders was compared when the feed was scattered in the litter and/or feeding the chicks twice a day. Scatter feeding and feeding two meals a day did not have a significant affect on various hunger indicators such as compensatory feed intake, plasma glucose/non-esterfied fatty acid ratio and plasma corticosterone concentration. Scatter feeding did reduce the amount of time the chickens spent pecking at an object, but they spent a large amount of their time performing foraging behaviours, thus it is not clear if scatter feeding was effective at improving the welfare of the broiler breeders. Feeding twice a day increased the amount of time the chickens spent walking, which could be how they expressed their frustration about their inability to eat, or they were searching for more food. Thus, the welfare of the broiler breeders during was not improved by feeding two meals a day, scatter feeding or by combining the two treatments as the birds still demonstrated behaviours that indicate that they are still hungry.

The presence of the dam during handling prevents the socialization of young calves to humans.

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Five groups of 10 Danish Friesian calves were used to test the effect of handling and hand-feeding with or without their dams present on their subsequent response to humans. The calves were either housed singly or next to the cow, and were subjected to handling or no handling for the first 4 days after calving. Another group was housed together with their dams for the first 4 days after calving, then moved to single pens and handled there for the following 4 days. Handling was carried out 3 times per day, consisting of a 6 minute milk feeding period from a teat bucket in conjunction with patting, stroking, and talking to the calf. After a period of 20, 40, and 55 days of being housed in their home pen, each calf’s approach behaviour to an unknown person was tested. Flight distance was determined on day 55. Results showed that calves that had been housed singly and subjected to handling during the 4 days after calving, as well as calves who had been housed with their dam for the first 4 days then housed singly and subjected to handling, had significantly shorter latencies to interact with the unknown person than calves in the other treatment groups. The same two handling treatment groups also stood at the front of the pen and faced the person more often than calves in the other groups. Conclusions stated that the presence of the dam was able to limit the effect of the handling treatment on the calves’ motivation to interact with humans. The primary socializing that occurs with the dam is likely to prevent any secondary socialization that would develop with humans until the calf was isolated from the dam.

Stress parameters and immune response of layers under different cage floor and density conditions

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Laying hens were assigned to one of three floor types (top, middle, and bottom), and were allocated as one, three or five hens to a cage to obtain different stocking densities. Floor areas provided were 1968, 656, and 393.8 cm2 per hen. A number of measurements were taken to analyze stress levels. Egg weights were greater on the top floor than at other levels. Hens grouped five to a cage had significantly lower mean estimates for body weight, egg production, egg weight and plumage score, but had significantly higher mean estimates for egg albumen index, Haugh unit, serum glucose, and H-L ratio. Hens housed singly had higher serum cholesterol levels than hens in groups of five, but they had lower plasma corticosterone levels. Antibody titers were higher among groups of three hens than groups of five hens, and singly housed hens had similar levels to the other two groups. Values not affected by cage density or floor included egg breaking strength, yolk index, egg cholesterol content, and foot health. Conclusions of the study suggested that housing hens at three to a cage had no measurable effect on hen health or welfare.

Serological analysis of colostrum for health monitoring of swine maternities in Québec

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Health monitoring of swine maternities mostly rests on analysing the serum for detecting antibodies against important pathogens, like those causing porcine pleuropneumonia (Actinobacillus pleuropneumonia, or “App”), porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS virus) and enzootic pneumonia (Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae, or “Myco”). However, blood withdrawal requires skilled staff and can even be dangerous for both the animal and staff. In sows, colostrum withdrawal is an interesting alternative: antibodies are also present in colostrum, and withdrawal is easy and harmless for the sows and staff. It can be done more often, for faster disease detection. Also, colostrum can be frozen immediately without any treatment. Preparation requirements before serological analysis of colostrum as well as the sensitivity and specificity of this analysis in detecting the above-mentioned infections have been examines. It has been found that simple centrifugation of colostrum followed by removal of the fat layer was a sufficient preparation. For the detection of “App” (with an ELISA LC-LPS test) and “Myco” (with ELISA from Dako company), the same dilution for colostrum as for serum can be used. However, for detecting PRRS and “Myco” using an ELISA test from IDEXX Laboratories, dilution must be, respectively, between 1/40 and 1/100, and 1/120. The optimal withdrawal period of colostrum is from 6 hours before to 18 hours after farrowing, and colostrum can be stored at least 60 days in the freezer. Validation with positive and negative herds proved the serological analysis of colostrum to be as specific and sensitive as that of serum for detecting those three infections.

Risk factors for stillbirth and foetal mummification in four Brazilian swine herds

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