Effect of Swine Slurry on Alfalfa Production and on Tissue and Soil Nutrient Concentration

Posted in: Environment by admin on January 1, 2004 | No Comments

Validation of the In Vitro Gastrointestinal (IVG) Method to Estimate Relative Bioavailable Lead in Contaminated Soils

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Land Application of Manure

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Odours, dust from road traffic and potential soil and water contamination are often associated with land application of manure. These issues can be addressed effectively through proper management techniques and through an awareness of cropping principles and environmental regulations.

Response of Growing-Finishing Pigs to Dietary Energy Concentration

Posted in: Prairie Swine Centre by admin on | No Comments

The primary objective of pork production is to produce lean meat in a cost effective and sustainable manner. From a nutritional perspective, energy is perhaps the most critical nutrient, because it is the most expensive to provide in the diet and because gut capacity may limit the ability of the pig to consume sufficient quantities to achieve their full genetic potential for growth. It is generally assumed that feeding a higher nutrient density diet will enhance pig performance. The only outstanding question in most people’s minds is at what point does the higher cost of the high energy diet exceed the value of improved animal performance.

Confounding this logic is recent research at the Prairie Swine Centre showing that pigs do not always respond to higher energy diets with improved performance. Indeed, we have completed no less than 4 studies with nursery pigs showing no increase in growth rate when dietary energy was increased. Have we been wrong all these years in feeding high energy diets in order to achieve improved performance?

There are other reasons for wanting a better understanding of how the pig uses energy. For example, our knowledge of amino acid metabolism is rapidly increasing, with literally dozens of experiments on this subject completed each year. We are rapidly getting to the point where a nutritionist can estimate with a reasonable degree of accuracy, the optimum level of lysine and other amino acids required for a given farm operating under a given financial environment. However, before we can take full advantage of our knowledge on amino acids, we must have an equivalent understanding of energy – and that is certainly not the case at the present time.

Nutritional value of zero-tannin faba beans for grower-finisher hogs

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Zero-tannin faba beans are a potential replacement of soybean meal in swine diets. The chemical characteristics, energy and amino acid (AA) digestibility, the content of DE and NE, and tannin content of zero-tannin faba beans were determined and indicate, together with the subsequent growth performance variables and carcass quality of grower-finisher pigs, that zero-tannin faba beans can replace soybean meal and result in similar performance in grower-finisher pigs.

Diseases: What You Can do to Prevent Them

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Dr. John Harding offers his opinion on 3 health issues that are limiting the productivity and financial returns in Western Canada. Piglet scours has a negative impact on growth rate and efficiency, and should be somewhat easy to control, but has proven to be rather difficult. Scours can be prevented by attaining a diagnosis on the specific infectious agent, improving sanitation, improving farrowing hygiene, creating a comfortable environment, treating all cases promptly, enhancing breeding herd immunity (vaccinations or feedback), and establishing good farrowing barn routines.

“Suis-ide” diseases refer to meningitis, septicaemia, arthritis, and heart valve infection. These diseases can cause severe illness or even sudden death. The specific strain should be cultured from the source of infection for preventative measure as well as for treatment procedures for the specific strain. These diseases can be prevented by again finding a specific diagnosis, mass medication programs, sanitation, adopt all-in-all-out rooms, reduce environment stress, vaccinate, and treat individual pigs. Condemnation originating in the finisher barn is the third area. Arthritis and abscesses are the most common problems. These directly affect the processing because of the consumers demand for a quality product. Some causes of condemned carcasses include retained testicles (ensure proper castration), tail chewing (provide toys for pigs to chew on), chronic arthritis (treat promptly), adhesions (aggressively treat respiratory diseases), milk spot livers (improve sanitation and de-worm), and erysipelas (vaccinate or treat).

The effect of litter size and littermate weight on pre-weaning performance of low-birth-weight piglets that have been cross-fostered.

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Pre-weaning performance of piglets who had been cross-fostered was compared to evaluate the effects of litter size and littermate weight on low-birth-weight piglets. Litter size was either 8 or 12 piglets. Low-birth-weight piglets were housed with either an equal number of heavy-birth-weight piglets, an equal number of average-birth-weight piglets, or in a group of all low-birth-weight piglets. A resulting six groups (treatments) were created. In large litters, the mortality of low-birth-weight piglets housed with heavy-birth-weight piglets was greatest. In small litters, mortality of low-birth-weight piglets housed with heavy-birth-weight piglets was no different. Neither littermate weight, litter size, nor the interaction between the two affected weight gains of the piglets until day three post partum. Conversely, littermate weight, litter size, and the interaction between the two did affect weight at 21 days post partum. Low-birth-weight piglets in small litters had a significantly higher 21 day weights than piglets in large litters. In large but not small litters, low-birth-weight piglets were absent at more nursing episodes and spent more time fighting over teats than their heavier littermates, whether housed with heavy-birth-weight piglets or average-birth-weight piglets. Conclusions stated that littermate weight may affect performance of low-birth-weight piglets due to direct competition for access to a functional teat.

The effect of claw and beak reduction on growth parameters and fearfulness of two leghorn strains.

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Two strains of leghorn chickens were used to test a technique for sterilizing the germinal tissue of the claw with microwave energy and the beak tissue with infrared energy for trimming the claw and beak of the birds. Claw sterilizing was carried out on half of the birds while the other half of birds were left intact. Of the claw-sterilized birds, one third of them were beak trimmed at hatch using the infrared technique, one third were precision trimmed at 7 days of age, and the beaks of the remaining third of the birds were left intact. Birds that had been claw-sterilized had a significantly lower body weight, except from weeks 3 to 6, and had a lower feed consumption from week 8 to 18. The birds that were beak-trimmed at hatch had a lower body weight from week 3 to 14 and ate less total feed by the fourth week. Mortality was lower than 2.1 % for all treatments. Using a fearfulness scoring system of 1 to 10, from week 6 to 8, birds with intact claws peaked at 8 to 10 and birds that had been claw-sterilized peaked at 3 to 4. The fearfulness score subsided to 2 to 3 and 6 to 8 for claw-sterilized and non-claw-sterilized birds, respectively, by week 16 to 18. Pullets were able to be grown to sexual maturity on less feed and with a lower level of observed fearfulness using standard husbandry practices when they were beak-trimmed and claw-sterilized at hatch.

Behavioural aspects of feeding constraints: do broilers follow their hut feelings?

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Many trials investigating issues relating to the feeding and growth of broiler chickens do not include behavioural observations. One example is the work by Burkhart et al. (1983). They proposed that one of the associated changes in broiler chickens as a result of selection for lean, efficient growth is alterations to satiety mechanisms in the brain leading to excessive food intake and compulsive feeding behaviour. They compared fast and slow growing chickens with or without ventromedial hypothalamic (VHM) lesions, and found not changes in the fast growing strains, but increased fat deposition in the slow growing strain. However, no behavioural measures were examined, and a reduction in activity of the slow growing line as a result of VHM lesions would offer an alternative explanation of the results. The present paper briefly outlines some of the vast body of research which has been carried out on different aspects of feed intake and growth of broilers in order to highlight the multitude of disciplines involved and factors at play. One reason for the paucity of trials which incorporate behavioural aspects of feeding may be, that the study of feeding behaviour in the broadest sense span two quite diverse scientific objectives. One is concerned with satiety and the mechanisms behind intake control. The other is concerned with daily feed intake, which is one crude measure of feeding behaviour, and the resulting growth and efficiency. However, feeding behaviour and other behavioural aspects of feeding often play an important role in the interpretation of production results. Conversely, many behavioural studies of growing animals, such as modern broilers, would benefit from a more stringent incorporation of nutritional data and discussions of non-behavioural aspects of growth. More studies of the interactions among physiological capacity, genetic potential, and social effects on feeding behaviour and activity of broilers would greatly improve our ability to interpret experimental results.

A short note on effects of exposure to a novel stimulus (umbrella) on behaviour and percentage of eye-white in cows.

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Fear response in dairy cows was studied in response to exposure to an unfamiliar umbrella that was suddenly opened 0-2 m in front of the cows. Eye-white percentage was tested as an indicator of fear experienced. All animals showed startle and avoidance responses when first exposed to the opening umbrella. Compared to 30 seconds before the umbrella was opened, there was a significant increase in avoidance and percentage of eye white during a 30 second (avoidance) and 60 second (eye-white) observation period after the umbrella was opened. Based on these results, the percentage of eye-white may be a useful gauge of fear experienced in dairy cows