Equine learning: progress and suggestions for future research

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

This is a review of research on learning in horses. It summarizes recent studies and identifies a number of topics for future research. Horses are very capable of learning using classical and instrumental methods. Recent emphasis has been on using instrumental methods to better understand the cognitive abilities of horses. Although horses can readily discriminate among stimuli, they appear to have difficulty forming abstract concepts that would link stimuli together by anything more than basic similarities. Horses often perform differently on different tasks, indicating that individuals may not be easily classified as ‘good’ or ‘poor’ learners. Horses that are calm will perform better on learning tasks. This suggests that sources of stress need to be better understood. These include how animals are handled prior to the task, but also how social conditions are managed. Studies on the effects of stress on learning, and on social and spatial cognition, are also needed.

Rearing veal calves with respect to animal welfare: effects of group housing and solid feed supplementation on growth performance and meat quality

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This study compared rearing veal calves in individual stalls versus group rearing in pens to determine how the different forms of rearing affect the welfare, growth performance and carcass/meat quality of the calves. Half of the group-housed calves were only fed milk, while the other half had their milk diet supplemented with corn. Raising the calves in group and supplementing the diet with grain resulted in those calves having better growth performance, as they weighed more at slaughter. This treatment also improved carcass confirmation, but did not affect the dressing percentage. The calves raised in groups had higher blood packed cell volume counts, which means reduced risk of anemia. The meat and carcass colour, as well as, the main physical and sensory traits of the meat were not affected by housing or feeding treatments. The carcasses from corn supplemented calves or those housed in stalls, had a higher fat content. Overall, housing veal calves in stalls and supplementing their diet with corn can improve growth performance, without losing the carcass or meat quality.

Economic Impacts of Banning Subtherapeutic Use of Antibiotics in Swine Production

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The objective of this study is to develop useful economic estimates of the impact of potential restricted-use policies for antimicrobial agents used in swine production as growth promotants. By using a model similar to that used by Wohlgenant, the economic impacts of banning antimicrobials in swine production are measured by the changes in producers’ and consumers’ surplus. It was found that a ban on the use of antimicrobial agents as growth promotants for swine would be costly, totaling $242.5 million annually, with swine producers bearing $153.5 million of the cost in the short run. In the long run, the loss borne by consumers would likely be larger than the
loss borne by producers. Based on a 30-year planning horizon and a 4% discount rate, the net present value of these increased costs would be $3.2 billion.

Gilt Development, Management, and Parity Control

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A good gilt development program is essential for individual and total reproductive performance. A good quarantine program prevents the introduction of foreign diseases and manure feedback will help to synchronize health status between gilt and herd. Proper estrus detection should be implemented to reduce the time to puberty, therefore reducing non-productive days. Housing (pen and flooring), nutrition (to ensure quality feet and legs and body condition), and boar exposure (the most important aspect) should be properly managed in order to minimize the days until puberty for gilts. Boars should not be housed close to the gilts pens to avoid habituation and loss of stimulus response. They should be heat checked with a boar for 20 minutes per day. PG600 can be used to bring gilts into heat quicker.
Gilts tend to mature slower in higher temperatures, such as summer time. 8 to 10 hours of light are needed to bring about puberty in an efficient manner. Good air quality with minimal ammonia is also very beneficial. First breeding should be delayed until second or third (about 210 days of age and 125 kg) estrus to allow the maturation of the reproductive tract.

Sow replacement rate must be monitored and controlled. For example, if reproduction drops after an average of 7 parities, it is not beneficial for the farm to keep sows past the 7th parity. Control of replacement rates will allow individual farms to maximize the population of 2nd to 5th parity sows. If the herd manager can work to this plan and can concentrate their energy on gilt development and selective culling, they will have the opportunity to take control of herd structure rather than allowing the herd to dictate the pace.

Financial Evaluation of Disease Eradication

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Disease eradication is important, but it is quite costly and there is always the risk that it will not work. The option to eradicate needs to be looked at from a business point of view as well. A system evaluation needs to precede eradication, which includes considering your barns final product, performance data, facility design, cost of production, disease knowledge, disease cost, survivability of the disease, source of animals and whether they are negative for the disease, biosecurity assessment and deciding whether the protocol is worth it. Factors that influence the cost of an eradication program includes medication, diagnostic testing, inventory modification, flow disruption (revenue losses due to pig flow disruption), rent of extra facility, personnel (extra hired help), and down time of the facility. Disease eradication can improve sow performance (via eradication of diseases such as PRRS), grower performance, and in the end, the profitability. Other factors to consider in an eradication program include market price, facility cost and interest rate. Techniques for disease eradication include medication elimination (chemical therapeutic agent). This method has been used for Swine Dysentery and Mange, and it is less effective for other diseases. The only economic aspect to consider is medication cost and labour cost. Elimination can also be done by vaccination/exposure and herd closure. This entails vaccinating or exposing the disease to the entire herd population. Temporarily closing the herd to new breeding stock is an important step. This process works mainly for TGE, and to a lesser extent, PRRS and PRV. The economic cost of this method is essentially the disruption in production and pig flow. Elimination by test and removal uses one or a combination of diagnostic tests to remove positive animals from the herd. This method has been successful for Pseudorabies in sow herds. The economic costs include diagnostics, medication, and a higher replacement rate. The medicated early weaning technique uses a combination of medication, vaccination, early weaning, and removal of the weaned animal to another site. This works for horizontally or vertically transmitted diseases. The main costs include rental of extra facilities, medication, and testing. Partial depopulation is the movement of animals out of the nursery and/or finisher to create a flow disruption. This technique can work on any pathogen, and the costs include the downtime of the facilities, throughput reduction, and opportunity losses. The source of animals must be free of the targeted disease. Depopulation/repopulation entails culling the entire breeding herd, cleaning the entire facility, and then repopulating after a time. This works well with most pathogens, but is the most costly technique due to replacement cost and cost of facility downtime. This technique works well for multi-site production.

Variable Growth Impacts on Optimal Market Timing in All-Out Production Systems

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This paper addresses the economic impacts of growth variability on market timing decisions in
an all-in, all-out production system. Marketing decisions based on the pen average are
determined to be different than those based on the entire distribution of output levels. A case
study data set of 350 swine provides verification of our theoretical construct.

The Science of Meat Quality

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Raising pigs in optimal conditions is important to produce the best meat quality. However, producers have to be aware that their efforts will get better results if they are conscious that good care of piglets starts at the foetal level. During foetal growth muscle fibres develop and the total number of fibres is determined. Fibres can be divided into three general categories: red, white and intermediate. A darker muscle has a larger amount of red fibres, while a lighter coloured muscle has more white fibres. It is the number of muscular fibres, rather than their size, that is the primary influence on the growth of the animal. The role of red fibres is more important at birth, but during development and at slaughter weight, white fibres become more important. After slaughter, the pH level of muscle decreases as a result of anaerobic degradation of glycogen in lactic acid. This metabolic activity is more important in white muscles and has a major impact on meat quality. Other factors influencing the level of acidification of the post-mortem muscle are exercise and stresses from pre-slaughter handling and transportation. The rate and extent of the drop in pH levels (becoming more acidic) has an impact on the quality of fresh meat, its shelf life and ability for further processing. A higher proportion of white fibres will reduce the pH. Good proteins make good processed meat – white fibre myosin (myosins are molecular motor proteins) offers superior functional properties to that of red fibre myosin subject to post-mortem metabolic activities that don’t interfere with protein integrity. In order to maintain the quality of protein, pre-slaughter management is essential but other factors are also important, including genetic selection, environment, and perhaps feeding of the gestating sow. Molecular biology also provides some interesting possibilities. There are studies currently being conducted to identify new genetic markers that influence growth and meat yield. In the near future, other research projects will likely concentrate on production of meat with qualities that meet specific requirements such as functional or nutraceutical foods. Scientists have also been able to extend the shelf life of fresh meat by better controlling bacteria. Their new objective is to improve the meat’s resistance to its own degradation by oxidation.

Growth performance and carcass traits in pigs fed sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas [Lam.] L) root meal

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Effect of Non-Starch Ploysacharides on Production and Absorption of Indolic Compounds in Entire Intact Males

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In order to study the effect of feeding non-starch polysaccharides (NSP) on the production and absorption of the malodorous compounds skatole and indole, eighteen male pigs, representing nine littermate groups, were used. One pig from each litter was assigned to either a low-NSP diet (87 g/kg of NSP) or a high-NSP diet (160 g/kg of NSP). Faecal samples and blood samples from vena jugularis were collected during a three-day period. The production of indolic compounds in different sections of the gastro-intestinal tract of six littermate groups was measured at slaughter (after 1 month on the diets). To investigate the absorption of indole and skatole, three catheterized pigs, acting as their own control (2 weeks on each diet) were used. Parallel determinations in portal blood, peripheral blood and in faeces of skatole and indole were conducted. Faecal, intestinal and blood samples were analysed for indolic compounds by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The production of indole and skatole in the proximal and distal part of the hind gut, respectively, was significantly reduced in pigs given the high-NSP diet. Similarly, both blood and faecal samples revealed that dietary NSP-inclusion reduced skatole concentration, whereas a dietary effect of NSP on the indole concentration was reflected in blood samples only. The absorption of skatole and indole was significantly lower in pigs given the high-NSP diet compared with those offered the low-NSP diet. The skatole concentrations in blood and faeces were highly correlated when measured within the individual animal, suggesting that a proportional amount of the skatole produced was absorbed. In contrast, only weak correlations were demonstrated when. determined between animals. This emphasizes the great impact that individual hepatic clearance rate would have on the level of skatole in backfat, and consequently the importance of applying cross-over designs, when studying the absorption of indolic compounds.

CONSTRUCTED WETLANDS FOR TREATMENT OF SWINE WASTEWATER FROM AN ANAEROBIC LAGOON

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