Group housing exerts a positive effect on the behaviour of young horses during training

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

In this experiment 20 horses were handled according to a defined schedule in order to assess the effects of social environment and training on the human-animal relationship. 8 horses were housed singly and 12 horses were housed in 4 groups 3 horses. Horses were handled three times per week in 10 min sessions from an age of 6 months until 2 years of age during two winter periods. The training scheme involved leading, tying up, touching, lifting feet, etc. in 43 stages. The horses had to fulfil the performance criteria of each stage in order to get to the next stage. In the first winter period, horses were led to the stable when they had ‘passed’ a stage or after 10 min of training. In the second winter period, horses would start off at stage 1 again, and when they ‘passed’ a stage they went on to the next stage within the same training session. There was a significant difference between trainers in the number of times they allowed a horse to ‘pass’ a stage within each winter period. Group housed horses ‘passed’ more stages than single housed horses and singly housed horses bit the trainer more frequently than did group housed horses. From the responses of group housed horses to training, from this experiment it was apparent that there are clear benefits of raising young horses in groups.

Serological and virologic surveillance of swine influenza in China from 2000 to 2003

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Liquid Diets for Young Pigs: A “Solution” for Post-Weaning Morbidity and Mortality

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Piglet mortality and morbidity in the farrowing and nursery stages have shown little, if any, improvement in the past 10 years. Losses can be contributed to poor feed conversion, cost of treatments, and early weaning. Evidence shows that piglets can grow 70% faster on a liquid diet, which implies that sow milk production is not enough to sustain piglets at an older age. All milk-replacer contraptions must be cleaned and sanitized at regular intervals to minimize bacterial growth. This is why many milk replacements have been acidified; it helps to reduce bacterial growth.

Studies have shown that 18 day old pigs grow 2.3 times faster on milk replacement than pigs weaned straight to the nursery or left to suckle. These pigs gained more body fat, 10% more protein, and have a more developed small intestine. The difference is also significant in hotter temperatures.

Energy is the most difficult aspect of milk replacement. Much of the energy in sow milk comes from fat calories. Feed conversion is better in piglets fed high fat milk replacements than low fat replacements. A negative aspect of high fat replacement is an increase of amino acid oxidation (ultimately they excrete more). This results in less muscle deposition than piglets fed low fat replacement (most likely due to the low-fat feed piglets consuming more feed). Corn syrup solids (CSS) fed as a carbohydrate replacement to piglets had no effect on growth performance, feed conversion, or average daily feed intake. It can be a quality alternative to lactose (the main milk protein) in liquid milk replacement diets.

The Real Impact of Boars in Breeding Programs

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The boar is obviously an essential part of any swine operation. There is a lot of labour involved with the use of a boar in an AI system, so the question arises: is it worth it? We know that boars can stimulate puberty, heat detection, and return to estrus, but can it actually increase fertility? Boars release pheromones (specifically, androstenol and androstenone), which are smelled by the female and help to invoke a standing response. Boar stimulation will also increase the release of LH (Luteinizing Hormone) in the female, which will lead to follicle development, production of steroids, and ovulation. Young boars are not effective in reducing the age to puberty in gilts. Wean to service intervals can be impacted by boar exposure and even exposure to estrus sows. Some causes of reduced fertility (such as season or parity) can be relieved to some degree by controlled boar exposure. Research shows that 48% of females will stand without boar exposure, but with all types of stimulus this number can be bumped up to 97%. Boars may help AI success by inducing uterine contractions by the sow by inducing an oxytocin release. Boar exposure at time of mating can also serve as added insurance against excessive leakage at insemination.

Emerging Diseases and Their Impact on Animal Commerce: The Argentine Lesson

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Benefits of feeding phytase to growing-finishing pigs

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Phosphorus is an essential nutrient. It is required for bone growth, cell structure, and enzymatic processes, to name a few. However, meeting phosphorus requirements for growing pigs is difficult. That is because approximately 60 % to 70 % of phosphorus in plant-based swine feed ingredients occurs as phytate phosphorus. Phytates are complex molecules that bind phosphorus and other nutrients for storage in seeds and grains. Monogastric animals lack sufficient intestinal phytase, which is the enzyme required to break down phytate molecules and release bound phosphorus. Several studies have shown that supplementing swine diets with the phytase from various sources improves phytate phosphorus utilization. Adding phytase to swine diets may release bound nutrients and increase their digestibilities. However, the extent of such improvement varies with source of phytase and diet type. The objective of our study was to investigate the efficacy of a microbial phytase, specifically Phyzyme XP, a microbial 6-phytase, on phytate phosphorus hydrolysis by growing-finishing pigs. Results from this study show that there was no significant dietary effect on feed intake, average daily gain or feed efficiency. Phytase supplementation did improve fecal phosphorus digestibility compared with the non-supplemented diets. There was no significant difference in phosphorus digestibility between supplementing phytase at 500 or 1000 units of phytase per kilogram of diet. Supplementing the negative control diet with 500 units of phytase per kilogram of diet improved gross energy digestibility from 86.6% to 87.8%. The effect of phytase supplementation on calcium, crude protein, and dry matter digestibility was not significant, but there was a 3% improvement in dry matter digestibility as a result of phytase supplementation at 500 units per kilogram of diet. It was concluded that the phytase enzyme evaluated in this study improves phytate phosphorus utilization in growing-finishing pigs. Microbial phytase may also enhance energy and dry matter utilization of the diet. However, there appears to be no benefit to supplementing this particular phytase at a rate higher than 500 units of phytase per kilogram of diet.

Water Quality Impacts on the Economics of Nursery Pig Production

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Although water is a critical resource for profitable swine production, there has been surprisingly little research on how various aspects of water relate to pig performance. There is a growing number of pigs being raised in areas where good quality ground water is unavailable, and surface (dugout) water must be used. However, there is very little information on the use of surface water for pigs in general and nursery pigs in particular. Compared to well water, surface water is at a much higher risk of contamination and therefore its quality is likely to be an issue for its use in pig production.
Various water treatment methods are available to the pork industry, but their impact on pig performance is largely unknown. These include chlorination, coagulation, filtration, and pH adjustment. Chlorination is now an accepted practice within the swine industry, at least as it relates to nursery pigs. However, the impact of different levels of chlorination on water intake and pig performance remains a key concern that needs to be investigated.
Therefore the objectives of the project were:
1. To compare the performance of newly weaned pigs provided surface water compared to those provided ground water.
2. To determine the effect of coagulation and filtration of surface water on the performance of newly weaned pigs.
3. To determine the effect of chlorine levels in the drinking water on the performance of newly weaned pigs.
4. To determine the impact of acidification on the performance of newly weaned pigs.
5. To determine the economic impact of surface water quality on pork production.

Crop and Soil Productivity Response to Corn Residue Removal: A Literature Review

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The Cold Facts of Winter Manure Application

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Applying manure to frozen ground should never rank high on a farmer’s nutrient management list. There are criteria that come from the Natural Resources Conservation Service Practice Standard 633. Applications should be made on land with at least 90% surface residue cover and the application rate must be limited to 10 wet tons per acre for solid manure of more than 50% moisture, and 5 wet tons of manure of less than 50% moisture. For liquid manure the application rate is limited to 5,000 gallons an acre. It should not be applied to more than 20 contiguous acres; there should be a break of at least 200 feet. When applying near waterways, ditches, etc, an increase in the setback distance is 200 feet and even further if there are high slopes or high quality streams. For fields with slopes of more than 6%, manure should be applied with alternating strips, 60-200 feet wide. Those fields exceeding 6% slope should be part of a comprehensive nutrient management plan.
There are attempts being made to continue to allow the application of manure in winter because it appears that days are numbered for winter application. The Ohio government does not allow permitted farms to routinely apply manure in the winter and the Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA) Livestock Environmental Permitting Program must be notified prior to application. In order to reduce the amount of winter manure application farmers should establish cover crops after harvest, use no-tillage whenever possible and incorporate manure directly into the soil.

Intermittent Measurements to determine Ammonia Emissions from Livestock Buildings

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The European Union (EU) has set ammonia emission restrictions for the different member states. To comply with the new regulations, the EU wants new techniques such as adapted feeding strategies and low emission building techniques to reduce ammonia emissions from livestock buildings. However, such ammonia restriction measures are only useful when their efficiency can be measured in the field. Current reliable measuring techniques are mainly based on continuous measurements over a long period (up to 200 days), and this requires expensive equipment. This makes them unsuitable for permanent evaluation on a large number of buildings. The main objective of the study presented here was the development of a procedure to determine NH3emissions from livestock buildings in the field, based on a limited number of measuring days. This method allows several buildings to be evaluated ‘simultaneously’ with the same measuring installation. In this study, high frequent ammonia measurements were taken from real livestock buildings for a year and were used to calculate NH3 emission factors for pig houses. A procedure was developed based on the knowledge that NH3 emission is strongly related to other variables that can be more easily measured over a yearly period, such as temperature, ventilation rate, number of animals and animal weight. Another
assumption was that farm management could have significant influence on NH3 emission, and consequently, this must be incorporated into the predictions.
The prediction error between the measured and the calculated total NH3 emission was less than 3% when
only 8 days were selected over a whole year, on condition that 4 days were selected within the same growth period and 4 other days are selected in at least two other growth periods.