Nitrate Source Identification Using 15N in a Ground Water Plume Near an Intensive Swine Operation

Posted in: Environment by admin on January 1, 2002 | No Comments

Dietary manipulation to reduce nutrient excretion

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

Nutrient management is becoming increasingly important for sustainability of the swine industry. Nitrogen excretion in the form of ammonia is a concern for workers both within the barn and outside. Phosphorous is excreted in urine and faeces and could have a major environmental impact if not managed properly. The two projects discussed in this article focussed on specific dietary manipulations to alter nutrient excretions. The first project investigated two nutritional strategies, dietary particle size reduction and enzyme supplementation as means to increase nutrient digestibility and thereby reduce nitrogen and phosphorous excretion. The second project investigated reducing dietary protein and fermentable fibre as means to alter nitrogen excretion.
Reducing particle size below 700 mm proved effective in altering nitrogen excretion patterns, while phytase proved very effective in improving digestibility of dietary phosphorus. The addition of carbohydrase showed little evidence of reducing total nitrogen or phosphorus excretion. A reduction of dietary protein content while balancing for digestible amino acids will especially reduce nitrogen excretion in urine. With dietary fermentable fibre, part of urinary nitrogen excretion can be shifted toward nitrogen excretion in faeces, and thus reduces volatile nitrogen that contributes to bad air quality. The reduction in excess nutrients and odour emissions while sustaining high levels of pork production is critical for long-term survival of a globally competitive pork industry. Together, results indicate that nitrogen and phosphorus excretion patterns can indeed be altered by diet manipulation

New Technologies for Pork Production In the 21st Century

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There are certain factors that can be looked at in order to determine what may be impacting the industry in the future. Global competitiveness must be maintained for Canada’s industry. Consumers are becoming increasingly aware of pathogens (such as E. coli), which leads to more concern (even though food is most likely safer today than ever before!). This will probably lead to technologies that allow for safer or better guarantees. Expectations of environmental soundness are also increasing, so technologies will emerge to address these issues. Animal welfare will be addressed to ease the minds of worried consumers. New technologies that help to achieve enhanced market access are likely to be desired. For any technology to be adopted, the farmer must first accept it. However, access to technology may be limited because farmers see it as providing a competitive edge, so therefore technology will likely be kept secretive.

The effect of food deprivation prior to slaughter on performance, behaviour and meat quality.

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Research has demonstrated that the quality of the carcass and the meat that is ultimately produced is influenced by the type of management a pig receives during the period immediately prior to slaughter. This study was conducted to determine the effects of repeated food deprivation prior to slaughter on performance, feeding behaviour and meat quality of pigs. Three experimental treatments were compared. In the treatment 1 pigs had ad libitum access to feed up to the point of loading on the day of slaughter. Treatment 2 involved a 12-h fast prior to slaughter and treatment 3 involved a 20-h fast prior to slaughter. Pigs were slaughtered on a weight basis therefore each pen was emptied over a period of weeks. This meant some pigs experienced repeated food deprivation. The feeding pattern of pigs, which were deprived of food for 12 h, was very similar to that observed before feed restriction. Pigs which were deprived of food for 20 h spent significantly more time at the feeder post fasting. This was particularly marked during the first 2-3 h when access to feed was restored. Feed deprivation for 12 h prior to slaughter did not adversely affect performance, carcass weight, meat quality or welfare of pigs in the present study. This is beneficial to producers by saving approximately 1.5 kg feed per pig, processors by reducing waste and consumers by improving food safety. Fasting for 20 h reduced carcass weight by 1 kg, which was not statistically significant but could result in financial losses related to carcass weight. The negative effects on meat quality, of repeated feed deprivation, resulted from slower growth rates than feed deprivation per se.

Alternative housing for sows and litters Part 5. Individual differences in the maternal behaviour of sows.

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A series of studies were conducted using farrowing pens that allowed the sow to escape from her piglets. This report summarizes the results of those studies in terms of the variation seen in the use of this escape area. Examining 96 litters, there was a great deal of variation among sows on the use of the escape area. Increased use of the escape area resulted in less weight loss by the sows, and reduced gains by the piglets. Sows were fairly consistent within a lactation in their use of the escape area. However, sows returning for a second farrowing showed no correlation with their behaviour in the first. Rather, use of the escape area tended to be associated with low sow weight at farrowing and large litter size. It would appear that use of the escape area had more to do with the cost of caring for the young rather than the personality of the sow. However, sows that used the escape area more were also very responsive to the distress calls of their piglets by the end of the lactation. It would appear that the key to effective sow-controlled housing lies with management of environmental conditions, rather than with selecting the most appropriate sows.

What Airborne Contaminants are Pig Barn Workers Exposed to a

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Pig barn workers are exposed to dust, gases, and endotoxins. In a study, it was found that dust exposure varied little between different areas of the barn. However, there is a large difference between areas (farrowing, nursery, grow-finish) when dust particles are larger than 5.0 microns. Results were inconclusive for ammonia measurements. 10% of workers in different areas of the barn are exposed to the 20-ppm limit of H2S regularly. Endotoxins (by-products from bacteria) vary quite a bit between farrowing, nursery, and grow-finish (nursery and grow-finish being the most). This could be due to a higher relative humidity in the nursery/grow-finish area.

A brief note on some possible factors involved in the reactions of horses to humans

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The relationship horses have with humans is of the highest importance for their use. In the present study in order to investigate relationships of adult horses to humans, a simple evaluation test and scores based on observations was developed. The first reactions of 224 adult horses to the presence of an experimenter were observed and scored. All the horses belonged to the same riding school, had the same general housing conditions and were all geldings. The evaluation was based on the horse’s posture. Individual differences that could be related to some extent to the breed but also to human factors emerged clearly. French saddlebreds showed more often friendly behaviour than Angloarabs, whereas thoroughbreds were more indifferent. It was clear that variations occur between groups of horses depending on different caretakers. In this school, one caretaker was responsible for the whole daily management of a group of horses and is probably a very important factor in their well-being. The effects of this daily relation to a human seemed to be involved in the reactions to a strange person. Further studies are required to investigate what, in practice, may be determinant.

An investigation into the effect of different protein and energy intakes on model tail chewing behaviour of growing pigs.

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It is not well understood why tail biting develops among pigs. Some research has studied environmental factors. This study focused on investigating the effect of nutritional factors. Twenty-four pigs were used to test the effects of low protein, low energy or standard diets on their chewing behaviour and preference for blood. Pigs were housed individually. Two tail models were positioned at the front of each pen at certain times during the experiment, so that chewing behavour could be recorded for six weeks. The tail models were sections of sash cord and one was soaked in pig’s blood and the other in deionized water. Blood samples from each pig were collected at slaughter to be analyzed for free tryptophan concentrations. Pigs on the low energy and low protein diets had similar weight gain, which was significantly lower than those on the standard diet. The preference scores did not differ among the treatments. However, there was a positive correlation between tryptophan concentration and preference scores during the last week for pigs on the low protein diet. The positive correlation could have resulted because the low protein intake resulted in high tryptophan and serotonin concentrations which then acted on the brain as a signal that the body needs more protein. Low protein diets did not result in differences in total chewing or preference for chewing blood-soaked tail models. Reduced weight gain or low protein content in the diet may contribute to the development of tail biting. However, these factors may not reliably predict which pigs will tail bite.

The relationship between attitudes, personal characteristics and behaviour of stockpeople and subsequent behaviour and production of dairy cows.

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Thirty small, family-run dairy farms in which cows were housed in cubicle sheds were studied in order to determine the relationship between attitudes and personal characteristics of stockpeople, their interactions with cows, behaviour of cows during milking towards humans, and average milk yield. A questionnaire was given to the stockpeople to assess several components of the stockperson’s attitude (beliefs, emotions, and behavioural intentions) towards characteristics of cows and to behaviour towards cows. A self-report inventory assessed personal characteristics. The behaviour of stockpeople was strongly correlated with the behaviour of cows and moderately to milk yield. Cows avoided humans less if the stockpeople behaved more positively towards the cows in the milking parlour. The cows stepped/kicked more during milking and had a lower milk yield if the stockperson made moderate use of the hand, moderately loud vocalizations, and gentle use of a stick (neutral interactions). Attitudes and personal characteristics were found to be important determinants of stockperson-cow interactions and production success. Many stockperson attitude components were correlated to stockperson behaviour and to the cows’ milk yield. Personal characteristics were related to the attitudes and the behaviour of stockpeople. For example, stockpeople who were high on agreeableness used more positive interactions and less neutral ones, while pessimists were low on positive attitudes to cows. Conclusions stated that there was a strong influence of a stockperson’s attitude and personal characteristics on the behaviour of the stockperson and on the cow’s fear of humans, behaviour, and milk yield. Milk yield appears to be lower on farms where stockpeople have negative attitudes towards interacting with cows during milking and use more neutral behaviours. By initially identifying the main attitude components responsible for positive and negative behaviour, new measures of attitude and personal characteristics created were proven to be good predictors of stockperson behaviour. Use of such measures as predictors provides the possibility to improve human-animal interactions on small dairy farms by changing the relevant attitudes and behaviour of the stockpeople. Consequently, animal welfare and production may be improved.

Predicting Sensor Placement Targets on Pigs using Image Analysis

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This work forms part of a longer-term project aimed at developing a robot to bring a sensor into contact with an animal. The example application is to place an ultrasonic sensor onto the back of a pig as it uses a feeding stall. This paper presents the accuracy required in placing the sensor, and the accuracy of target location achieved using a linear function of landmark points on the pig outline, located by image analysis. The P2 standard position is close to a local minimum in fat thickness. When the target is chosen to be 25mm ahead of the last rib and 50mm from the mid-line of the pig, then a positional error of
10mm laterally and
25mm longitudinally will give a backfat measurement within 5% of the minimum. A linear model predicting the target position from six points on the outline was trained on 7549 images and tested on 2978 images. On the test data the root means square (r.m.s.) errors in the X and Y directions were 16 and 38 mm, respectively. A linear model with separate offset terms in X and Y coordinates for each sequence gave r.m.s. errors of 6 and 8 mm. However, this requires the offset value to be calculated for each sequence. An active system is proposed where multiple measurements from each pig will be used to improve the backfat estimate to within 5% of the minimum value.