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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:
Emotional reactions to learning in cattle.
Posted in: Welfare by admin on January 1, 2004 | No Comments
It has been suggested that when an animal’s own actions result in a reward, the animal shows signs of excitement and pleasure. Therefore, the expectation of a reward might be just as exciting as the realization that they themselves have contributed to the delivery of the reward. Information about this phenomenon would provide more insight into animal self-awareness. The current study involved a yoked control experiment involving the acquisition of an operant task. The aim was to distinguish between the reactions of animals that had learned on their own versus those that just received a food reward. Heifers were studied in pairs, each pair had a control and experimental animal. Experimental heifers were conditioned for 14 days to open a gate by pressing a panel, which gave them access to a food reward. For control heifers the gate opened after a delay equal to their matched partner’s latency to open it. Improvements in learning by the experimental heifers resulted in higher heart rates and more vigorous movements towards the food reward than the control heifers. There is some indication that a cow’s own learning improvement may result in an emotional reaction.
Effect of chronic clenbuterol administration and exercise training on immune function in horses
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Effects of longitudinal exercise training and acute intense exercise (simulated race test) on immune function have not been reported in horses. This study investigated the interaction of 8 week of exercise training with or without 12 week of clenbuterol administration in horses. Twenty-three untrained standardbred mares were used and divided into four experimental groups. Horses given clenbuterol plus exercise and clenbuterol alone received 2.4 ìg/kg BW of clenbuterol twice daily on a schedule of 5 days on and 2 days off for 12 weeks. Mares given exercise alone were aerobically trained for 3 days/week, and the control group remained sedentary. Lymphocyte proliferative response was not affected by clenbuterol or exercise treatment. From the present experiment it was apparent that horses demonstrated responses to bouts of acute exercise as noted with other species, namely humans and rodents.
Excess cortisol interferes with a principal mechanism of resistance to dehydration in Bos indicus steers.
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This study investigated the effects of excess cortisol on physiological mechanisms that resist dehydration in Bos indicus steers during a 90-h period. Steers were assigned randomly to one of four groups: 1) no water/ no cortisol, 2) water/no cortisol, 3) no water/cortisol, and 4) water/cortisol. Animals in the cortisol group were given a 0.1 mg.kg BW-1.h-1 of hydrocortisone suspended in isotonic saline for the duration of the study. Total body water, osmality, hematocrit, urine out put, feed and water intake, and plasma concentrations of arginine vasopressin (AVP), angiotensis II (AII), electrolytes, total protein, and albumin were determined at 24-h intervals for 90h. The results of this study highlight the complexity of endocrine interactions associated with water balance. Excess cortisol has a suppressive effect on the rennin-angiotensin-aldosterone axis; however it does not affect the circulating concentration of arginine vasopressin. In the presence of water deprivation, cortisol may serve to protect and maintain water balance at times of stress.
Chronic increase of dietary L-tryptophan decreases gentle feather pecking behaviour.
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The neural transmitter serotonin (5-HT) and the serotinergic system are involved in several abnormal behaviour patterns in animals. In this study the authors examined the relationship between this system and the incidence of feather pecking in 7 week old chickens. 5-HT is derived from tryptophan and they increased serotonin levels by increasing dietary tryptophan. Chicks were fed either the control diet with 0.16% tryptophan, or the treatment diet with 2%. Two lines of laying birds were used. Tryptophan reduced the incidence of gentle feather pecking, but only a trend in the same direction was found for severe feather pecking. Physiological measures confirmed that the high levels of tryptophan increased blood levels of the amino acid and increased serotonin in the central nervous system. High tryptophan also resulted in an increase in cortisol levels in the blood, which has been reported as a physiological effect of the amino acid previously. High levels of dietary tryptophan was effective in reducing levels of feather pecking in young chicks.
Keeping Up With Change
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The role of one farmer has become more and more important in the past 25 years, and the importance will only continue to grow. Three principle forces that drive these changes are economics, consumer demands, and public expectations. As a producer, economically we must focus on cost saving measures, such as properly adjusted water nipples and controlling wastes of feed, medication, and energy. We must also respond quickly to packer grids and feed costs. Consumers today are demanding a safe product with great eating quality, consistency, and predictability. Quality assurance programs are ensuring producers are outputting the best product they can. Public expectations show concern on environmental quality, water utilization, and waste management. We must demonstrate safe practice.
A Global Perspective on Pork Industry Competitiveness
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Live animal cost of production is one of many factors that will determine a specific industries ability to survive and prosper in the global market area. A 2003 study investigated the economic, political, social, and cultural factors of the pork sector in terms of their impacts on various key countries hog and pork sectors. Feed availability and cost can be measured, as can other key input variables. Herd productivity can be measured but is kept mostly confidential. It is also difficult to measure types of production because it can vary so much around the world. Hog quality is difficult too because of varying consumer preference. Social factors include environmental issues and animal welfare. Key factors for hog production competitiveness include core land base of a country (for grains and such), hog weights, sow productivity, labour costs, industry and market structure, and disease status. Canada’s assessment showed an aggregate index score above the US, negatives for hog weights and feed costs, and all other factors positive. Chile, Brazil, and Australia could be major competitors for North America. However, an evaluation of the entire supply chain is required as an evaluation of a countries overall economic situation, social issues, exchange rates, etc. In an aggregate sense, Canada remains at the top, but overall advantage over the US was relatively slim.
NUTRITIONAL EVALUATION OF MANITOBA-GROWN CORN HYBRIDS FOR SWINE
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Wheat and barley are the main sources of energy in swine diets in Western Canada. However, the availability of other grains such as corn, which is an excellent energy source, should afford pork producers an opportunity to better manage dietary nutrient supply and therefore efficiency of production. Moreover, using locally grown feedstuffs in swine rations is not only likely to be cost effective but also offers a means to effectively utilize nutrients and minimize the environmental impact of pork production.
Although corn is originally from the tropics, plant breeders have been successful at developing varieties that can grow well in areas with a short planting season like Manitoba (Manitoba Agric., 2004). Based on corn heat units (CHU), which is a measure of useful heat required for growth and development of corn, Manitoba can be divided into 10 regions with CHU ranging from 1800 – 2800. With the annual minimum requirement of 2200 CHU needed to produce grain corn, six regions in Manitoba support the production of grain corn. These six regions make up 95.3% of the total arable land in Manitoba, thus, a larger part of Manitoba support the production of grain corn.
It is well known that nutritional composition of feed ingredients vary from region to region
(Singh et al., 2000; Kuo et al. 2001; Schmidt et al., 2002) due to factors such as temperature, soil
types, soil fertility, management practices, hybrids and many more. For this basic reason, it is
important that ingredients grown within a region are well characterized in terms of their nutritive
value so as to optimize their use in livestock feeding. An important question that is yet to be
addressed with respect to corn is how differences in CHU might influence its nutritive value. In fact,
the available data on the nutritional value of corn for swine is primarily based on values derived for
US-grown corn. Therefore, a current research project at the University of Manitoba, which is
supported in part by the Manitoba Corn Growers Association, is characterizing the nutritive value of
Manitoba-grown corn for swine.
This research is expected to provide useful information for formulating nutritionally adequate
swine diets containing Manitoba-grown corn varieties. Providing such data will promote the use of
locally grown corn in swine diets thus benefiting both the grain grower and pig producer. Data on
carcass characteristics will be useful in guiding the use of corn in feeding programs for growing finishing pigs.