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Prairie Swine Centre is an affiliate of the University of Saskatchewan
Prairie Swine Centre is grateful for the assistance of the George Morris Centre in developing the economics portion of Pork Insight.
Financial support for the Enterprise Model Project and Pork Insight has been provided by:
Do pigs form preferential associations.
Posted in: Welfare by admin on January 1, 2004 | No Comments
Pigs have been shown to prefer associating with certain groups of pigs over others, for example their mother and littermates over other group members. However, few studies have properly examined whether long-term preferential associations or ‘friendships’ are formed between pairs of pigs within a group. The aim of this study was to determine whether pigs form long-term preferential associations, based on lying partners, and to examine factors that may influence the formation of these associations. Thirty three pigs from 16 litters were housed together from 4 weeks of age. At 10 weeks they were split into groups of 16 and 17 pigs and introduced into the two pens (1st pen). At 17 weeks the two groups swapped pens (2nd pen). The lying patterns of each group were recorded over 3 weeks in the 1st and 2nd pens. The existence of preferential associations was identified in both groups. Of the 33 pigs observed, 32 formed preferential associations with one or more pigs in their groups. These findings suggest that unrelated pigs are capable of forming preferential associations. However, it is unclear whether such associations are widespread or important to pigs, since most dyads’ preferential associations were not consistent between pens.
Between breed genetic variation for welfare-related behavioural traits in domestic fowl.
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A multi-breed experimental design was used to estimate the between breed genetic variation for feather pecking and cannibalism, behavioural time budgets, and measures of fear, sociality and coping strategy in domestic fowl. Past experiments have primarily been within breed experiments or ones comparing two lines. There was a great deal of between breed (genetic) variation in feather pecking, cannibalism, and general pecking behaviour in the current study. No evident for between breed genetic variation in time budgets was found. Evidence for fear and coping strategy was slight while some measures of sociality were moderately high. Between breed genetic correlations between behavioural traits and feather score, skin score and mortality were low. Correlations between skin lesions and sociality and culling were labile. Conclusions stated that there was a strong genetic basis from damaging feather pecking and cannibalism and the behaviours were not strongly related genetically to other behavioural traits.
Sex differences in equine learning skills and visuo-spatial ability.
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In the majority of the species studied to date, males have more advanced visual-spatial capabilities. The sex differences in the visual-spatial abilities of horses are yet to be determined. The visual-spatial abilities of male and female horses were assessed during a series of six tests involving a novel test apparatus. The test apparatus contained four adjoining stalls. Each stall contained a feed bin and a moveable barrier, and the barrier controlled and limited the access that the horses had to the feed bin, except in one stall. Males completed each of the six tests significantly faster and made fewer errors than the female horses. The male horses also complete significantly more of the tests than the females. The males horsed took significantly longer to complete the first task than tasks two to five. This difference was not found in the female horses. Thus, based upon the behaviour of the horses in the tests, the males demonstrated that they have much more acute visual-spatial abilities than female horses, which is similar to the findings of other species.
Effects of repeated stress during pregnancy in ewes on the behavioural and physiological responses to stressful events and birth weight of their offspring.
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Stressors are frequently encountered during the pregnancies of farm animals. The effects of thee stressors on the development and subsequent responses of the offspring has been poorly studied. In this study the authors subjected pregnant sheep (ewes) to either no stress or repeated isolation in the presence of a dog during the last five weeks of gestation. During their initial exposure to the dog while isolated from their flockmates the ewes had a significant increase in plasma cortisol. Although the ewes habituated to this stressor over several exposures, their unborn lambs were exposed to elevated levels of cortisol on several occasions. These ‘stressed’ lambs were larger at birth than those from unstressed ewes. The stressed lambs were also more explorative (at 8 mos of age) and had higher levels of cortisol (at 25 days of age) than the lambs from unstressed ewes. Exposure of a pregnant ewe to stressful conditions had significant effects on the physical and behavioural development of her lambs. These effects may be adaptive for the offspring, even though the experience represented a significant stress for their mother.
The influence of climatic conditions on physiological parameters in dairy cows kept in open stables.
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Traditionally, dairy cows in northern and central Europe were kept in tie-stalls and in closed stables. Nowadays, however, loose housing systems are preferred to reduce labour input with increasing herd sizes as well as to meet animal welfare requirements. This study aimed to assess whether cows are able to cope with the range of climatic conditions they are exposed to in open stables on commercial farms in central Europe. On each of four farms, ten lactating cows were observed over a total of five weeks in winter, spring and summer. Based on continuous measurements of air temperature and relative air humidity a mean value of a temperature humidity index (THI) was calculated for each farm and each observation day for night and day. THI had significant effects on skin temperature and body surface temperature both during night and day. Rectal temperature, duration of lying and cortisol concentration in the milk was significantly affected by THI during the day but not during the night. Heart rate and frequency of lying did not significantly covary with THI. The results of this suggest that climatic conditions prevalent on the farms during the day induce stronger thermoregulatory responses than the conditions during the night, but did not overtax the animal’s capacity to adapt. Consequently, the housing of dairy cows in open farm buildings should not result in animal welfare problems under the climatic conditions measured on the study farms.
Dealing with Water Concerns for Pork Production
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Water is an important factor in swine production for performance of vital bodily functions; therefore it needs to be managed well. As pigs progress throughout the different stages of production and different developments are desired, their water requirement will change. Regardless of the stage of production, water should be available to all pigs ad libitum. Areas of specific water concern include: 1) Water quality (mainly the chemical composition and bacteria load which can have detrimental effects to pigs health); 2) Diet composition (dry matter content and concentrations of salt,
crude protein and fibre levels are known to influence water intake in pigs); 3) Physiology (e.g. – gestation vs. lactation); 4) Environmental factors (such as heat stresses); and 5) Equipment design and placement (such as water nipple availability and placement).
To deal with water quality concerns, water quality should be tested at least once a year for coliform contamination and mineral concentration so that diets can be adjusted accordingly. Several treatments are available including chlorination, acidification, softening, and coagulation. Although these do provide an effective treatment, it should not permanently substitute getting to the root of the problem.
Prenatal Programming of Postnatal Performance – the Unseen Cause of Variance
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In the context of the present session, we intend to summarize existing literature that indicates that the variation in growth performance after birth may be largely determined, and essentially pre-programmed, during fetal development in the uterus. Furthermore, it is likely that these pre-programmed limitations in growth performance will only finally express themselves in the late grower / early finisher stage of production. We will also present preliminary evidence that differences in fetal development that will likely affect postnatal growth performance can even be present without associated effects in birth weight. Thus sorting pigs by weight at the nursery and grower stages will not resolve the variation in growth performance that is still an inherent characteristic of particular pigs or litters. Thus we face the conundrum that 13 pigs born in two different litters, with the same average birthweight, may originate from litters with very different numbers of surviving embryos around day 30 of gestation, and this will pre-program these two litters to have very different postnatal growth potential.
Antibiotic in swine diets: alternatives – probiotics? Part III
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The term probiotics has been defined “living microorganisms, which upon ingestion in certain numbers exert health benefits beyond inherent general nutrition. The original idea with probiotics was to change the composition of the normal intestinal microflora from a potentially harmful composition to a microflora that would be beneficial for the host. In order to function as probiotics, bacteria first must pass through the stomach and survive its low pH and then proceed to the small intestine and tolerate the bile salt present. Finally, it is believed that the bacteria need to adhere to mucosal surfaces. Previously, we discussed the consequences of withdrawal of antibiotics from swine diets and looked carefully at Danish data where this has been done systematically and the consequences documented. From those studies, we could see that antibiotics could indeed be withdrawn from the diets of ALL animals in the production cycle, but when things went wrong the consequences were significant and there was a surge of therapeutic antibiotic usage to suppress the disease situation. The most significant problem is the weanling pig. In order to keep the disease situation suppressed, the management system known as segregated early weaning or medicated early weaning was rapidly established. However, this management system only reduces the likelihood of exposure to pathogenic bacteria and interferes with the establishment of normal protective bacterial flora. This lack of protective bacterial flora has caused an emergence of “new” disease problems in post-weaned pigs such as E. coli diarrhea, edema disease, Glasser’s disease, streptococcal meningitis and Salmonellosis. A study in China on 50-day-old weaned piglets showed that a low dose of probiotics could increase liveweight, reduce diarrhea and lower ammonia odours, so there is good evidence to show that probiotics are effective, however, future issues will address prebiotics, other types of supplements, specialized nutrition and management.