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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:
Fear and stress reactions, and the performance of commercial broiler chickens subjected to regular pleasant and unpleasant contacts with human being.
Posted in: Welfare by admin on January 1, 2004 | No Comments
The effects of regular pleasant and unpleasant interactions with humans on tonic immobility (TI), heterophil to lymphocyte ratio (HLR), body weight, feed conversion ratios (FCR) and mortality in commercial broiler chickens were studied. The following treatments were imposed for 20 days: 1) Control: the birds only experienced standard husbandry interactions; 2) Pleasant/physical: each bird was held and gently stroked for 30 seconds everyday; 3) Unpleasant/physical: each bird was held upside down, and gently swung for 30 seconds everyday; 4) Pleasant/visual: was randomly caught in its home pen and gently stroked for 10 minutes twice per day so the cagemates could see; 5) Unpleasant/visual: was randomly caught in its home pen and held upside down by its legs and swung gently for 30 seconds so the cagemates could see. After the treatments had been implemented the birds were moved from their home floor pens to three-tiered battery cages. TI and HLR responses were measured before and after the chicks were moved. There was no interaction between time of transfer and treatment. The TI and HLR were lower in the chicks from the pleasant/physical and pleasant/visual group, compared to the control group. TI was not different in the unpleasant/physical or unpleasant/visual treatments, but unpleasant/physical chicks had lower HLR ratios than the controls. The pleasant/physical treatment resulted in improved body weight and FCR. However, body weight and FCR was not affected by the other three treatments. The authors concluded that the pleasant physical and pleasant visual treatments caused a reduction in fear and physiological stress response. The unpleasant treatments did not appear to have adverse effects on underlying fearfulness, stress reaction or performance.
Dealing with Water Concerns for Pork Production
Posted in: Production by admin on | No Comments
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.
Quantity and Quality of Runoff from a Beef Cattle Feedlot in Southern Alberta
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Corn Growth Responses to Composted and Fresh Solid Swine Manures
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Feasibility and Effectiveness of Several Options for Regulating Manure Phosphorus Management in Manitoba
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Manure is a valuable source of Phosphorus for crop production. However, applying too much manure P, especially in the wrong place, is not only agronomically wasteful, but potentially harmful to the environment. As a result of recent increases in Manitoba’s production of livestock, the risk of transfer of manure P from agricultural land to surface water is probably increasing. However, the amounts of P that are discharged from livestock production and other agricultural activities are very difficult to determine due to a lack of hydrological data and, more important, a lack of data on the transfer of P from soil to water. Part of this problem is due to the highly variable impact of soil type, P management, landscape and climate on P retention and release by soil, information that is not well documented for Manitoba conditions. Fortunately, livestock producers have a wide variety of potential techniques for reducing P discharge from their operations; however, the technical and economic merit of these techniques is generally not well documented either, for Manitoba conditions. As a result of these challenges, legislation and regulation regarding P management should be introduced cautiously to ensure environmental protection without undue hardship to the agricultural industry. The Manitoba Livestock Manure Management Initiative (MLMMI) initiated this project in response to concerns about increasing concentrations of phosphorus (P) in Manitoba’s surface waters. Manure P has been identified as a significant source of soil P enrichment in areas of high density of confined livestock operations. The objective of the first phase of the project was to review existing knowledge on the role and fate of P in livestock and crop production systems specifically relevant to Manitoba and to identify gaps in that knowledge. The objectives for the second phase were to: investigate the feasibility and effectiveness of several options for regulating P management in Manitoba, and conduct four case studies to evaluate the impact of various regulatory options for P management on Manitoba hog farms.