A comparison of the welfare and meat quality of veal calves slaughtered on the farm with those subjected to transportation and lairage.

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

The behaviour, physiology and meat quality of 24-week-old veal calves that were either slaughtered at the veal unit (control) or transported 3 h while provided with 0.7 or 0.95 m2 per calf and 1.5h of lairage were compared. The heart rate of the transported calves was higher during travel and lairage than the levels seen in the control calves. The transported calves also had higher plasma cortisol concentrations immediately after the travel had ceased, but had returned to levels seen in the control following lairage. The plasma creatine kinase activity immediately following travel and after lairage was higher in transported calves. The calves were not observed lying during travel. Space allowance during travel did not affect the calves’ heart rate, plasma cortisol concentration nor the plasma creatine kinase activity. The difference in space allowance during transport did not affect the frequency of potentially traumatic events experienced by the calves. The calves that underwent transport did not have a higher incidence of carcass bruising and the muscle pH 24 hours post-slaughter was similar between the control and experimental groups. The handling associated with transport and transit itself were quite stressful for the calves, however transport did not impact the quality of the carcass.

Effect of maternal presence on the development of social relationships among lambs

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This study examined how ewes influence the development of their offspring’s relationships with other lambs. In the first experiment, twins lambs were either raised with their mother in small groups or separated from the dam after birth and raised together artificially. The amount of time a lamb chose to spend with a twin or familiar pen mate was used to determine the lamb’s preference. The assessment was conducted at four-weeks of age. The lambs reared with the dam would approach their twin first and spend significantly more time in contact with their twin than with a familiar lamb. The familiar lambs reared artificially did not discriminate between their twin and a familiar lamb. Therefore, the dam’s presence is required for the lambs capable of identifying their twin. The dam tends to act as the focus of the twin lambs and therefore may directly or indirectly affects the development of the relationship between the twins. In the second experiment, 4-week old mothered and artificially reared lambs were repeatedly exposed to a contact partner. The exposure lasted five days and the lambs were exposed to one another for approximately 14 hour during the evening and 5 hours during the day. The dam was absent during the exposure to the contact partner. The distinction between an unfamiliar individual and the contact partner was assessed. As well, the behaviour was observed when placed in a pen with their contact partner or an unfamiliar lamb. In this experiment, lambs did not prefer their contact partner or the unfamiliar lamb. When the lambs were paired up with their contact partner in the pen, the artificially reared lambs bleated significantly less than when they were housed with an unfamiliar lamb. Therefore, it appears that artificially reared lambs were capable of recognizing their partner. The inability of the dam-reared lambs to be able to discriminate between their contact partner and an unfamiliar lamb may have resulted from these lambs spending less time investigating their contact partner during the exposure period. It therefore appears that the dam affects their lamb’s ability to socialize with other lambs, even when they are not present during an encounter. As well, the dam plays an important role in the development of the relationship between siblings along with lambs of the same age.

Male rank order, space use and female attachment in large flocks of laying hens.

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Male dominance, space use and eventual female attachment to certain males were studied by direct observations of male and focal female birds. Males were present at an average ratio of 1:190 females and density was 7 birds/m2. The birds were observed for territorial, sexual and agonistic behaviours as well as daytime and night time roost locations. Rank order was determined based on crowings and matings. It was found that high-ranking males used the most available space, and there was a positive correlation between male rank order and space use. However, most of the males used more than half of the area. Maintenance of the dominance hierarchy was primarily maintained by low-ranking males avoiding high-ranking males. There did not appear to be a strong female attachment to specific males.

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

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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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Warming up for C.O.O.L.: American Viewpoint

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Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) has been a household name in the food sector for roughly two years and is basically now law. As of October 2004 (in the USA anyways), COOL is mandatory (law), implementation was about 2 billion USD, industry stakeholders had their input heard, and more concerning the passage of COOL into law. Reasons for supporting COOL include the fact that people have a right to know where their food came from and may pay a premium for meat of a different origin. This theory is flawed, and many think that politicians that have no real understanding of agriculture and economics passed COOL into law. In conclusion, COOL is a shortsighted attempt by anti-trade members in the US to construct a complex and costly trade barrier to trade in livestock and red meat. There is little economic merit other than consumer rights, even though consumers indicate they have no interest in the origin. The poultry industry is excluded from this, which helps it due to the fact that the costs of COOL would be highest for pork and beef.

Practicalities and Pitfalls of Semen Evaluation

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Current AI techniques utilize 2.5 to 3 billion sperm per dose, yet there are still many other factors that influence fertility with AI. Yet despite the numerous measures for semen quality, sperm concentration is still the most commonly performed test. Most studies indicate that 2 billion sperm per dose will not limit productivity but will reduce performance. Assessment of sperm concentrations is done by a cell-counting chamber and analysis by spectrophotometers. Both age and collection frequency seems to be the biggest factors when addressing sperm concentration variation. Cell-counting chambers are good because they allow for visual assessment of sperm. Despite it being a time consuming method, it is low cost and fairly accurate. Errors occur typically with sub-sampling, pipetting, filling the counting chamber, dilution of the samples, and errors in counting. Optical density is the most common and practical method used for commercial semen production. Spectrophotometers are used because of their speed and ease of use. It measures the amount of light transmitted through a sample, which is dependent on the number of sperm. Many photometers have predetermined curves that calculate the concentration or provide a chart for conversion of the reading to sperm/mL. Errors from this method can result from improper sampling, pipette error, improper sample holder, incorrect diluent, using the machine wrong, incorrect standard curve, and reading out of the range of the photometer accuracy. Knowledge of the equipment accuracy range and the concentration of the ejaculate could allow a single dilution to be performed that would provide optimal readings within the limits of the spectrophotometer for a wide range of ejaculates. Determining the range of semen concentrations range that will be encountered in the lab could help choose the labs standard dilution rate and give warning when expected values are out of the expected range and reading accuracy for the equipment. It appears that average concentrations today are consistently higher compared to earlier reports. This could be due to lower collection frequency, selection for testes size, greater maturity age, and better health/nutrition/housing. It could be beneficial to produce a grid for ejaculate volumes and concentrations for certain ages of boars. Standard curves should be generated for the optimal reading range of the equipment and investigations should occur when readings fall out of this range.

Variability in Growth, Pig Weights and Hog Marketing Decisions

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Digestible energy value of DON contaminated barley increased by de-hulling

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Infections of cereal grains by fusarium not only lead to reductions in crop yields and quality, but also lead to a reduction in the suitability of the grain as a feed source for swine. This is due to the fact that mycotoxins, most notably deoxynivalenol (DON, vomitoxin), produced by the fungi can reduce feed intake in swine, thereby increasing days to market. Current guidelines recommend keeping DON levels to less than 1 ppm in the final ration in order to avoid problems with feed refusal. The use of a commercial-scale pearling unit can turn DON (vomitoxin)-contaminated barley into a usable feed ingredient for swine diets. Pearling removes the DON and makes the grain acceptable to swine. Additionally, the digestible energy value of the grain is increased by 28% over intact barley. Therefore, commercial scale pearling may serve as a useful technique to improve the utilization of DON-contaminated barley by the swine industry.

Transportation of Early Weaned Piglets: Seasonal Effects

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Segregated early weaning (SEW) has become a standard practice in the swine industry in Canada. Piglets are weaned at an early age (14 – 20 d) and transported to a separate site to reduce the risk of transmission of disease from the sow to piglets. The relocation of early weaned piglets to a separate site necessarily involves transport. These journeys vary in length but typically, in Canada, fall within the 4-20 hr range. Initially, transport vehicles were heated in winter but the industry has moved to winter transport without heating. There is little information on the preferred transport temperature ranges for piglets or on actual temperatures experienced by early weaned piglets under commercial transport.
The objectives of this research were to:
1. Collect information on vehicle temperature in commercial vehicles transporting early weaned piglets during journeys of varying lengths and in different seasons.
2. To determine the effect of season on the behaviour and production of early weaned piglets following transport.
3. To determine the effect of transport factors other than duration and temperature on the behaviour and production of early weaned piglets following transport.
4. To determine the effect of piglet weight at weaning on the behaviour and production of early weaned piglets following transport.