Airways inflammation after exposure in a swine confinement building during cleaning procedure

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

METHANE EMISSIONS OF DIFFERENTLY FED DAIRY COWS AND CORRESPONDING METHANE AND NITROGEN EMISSIONS FROM THEIR MANURE DURING STORAGE

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Seasonal Variation in Microbial Communities and Organic Malodor Indicator Compound Concentrations in Various Types of Swine Manure Storage Systems

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Le phosphore dans le sol et dans l'eau

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Le phosphore, un nutriant essentiel A la vie des plantes et des animaux, peut nuire A la qualitA

Reducing water waste from nipple drinkers by growing-finishing pigs

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Growing/finishing pigs can maintain adequate water intake from a variety of drinker types and drinker management protocols. However, water waste from drinkers can be very different depending on drinker type and management. Well-managed nipple drinkers can reduce water waste to the same level as bowl drinkers.

Individual differences in aggression and physiology in peri-pubertal breeding gilts.

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Research has shown there is a relationship between personality and piglets’ reaction to being restrained on their backs. This study was conducted to determine if piglets’ reaction to being restrained on their back at 10 and 17 days of age correlated with their behaviour once they reached breeding age. During restraint, if two or more escape attempts were made they were classified as high resister (HR) pigs and if less than two escape attempts were made than they were classified as low resister (LR) pigs. At weaning, two groups were formed which contained, six HR and six LR pigs. The remainder of the group was composed of littermates, ensuring the group contained at least one littermate for each of the twelve resister pigs. To determine heart rate at feeding, the pigs were conditioned to respond to a bell sounding prior to feed being delivered (measured heart rate at 29 weeks of age). Aggressive behaviour during the afternoon feeding was recorded at 23 and 27 weeks of age. At 26 weeks of age, a 24 h of salivary cortisol profile was taken. There was not a difference in body weight, aggression or heart rate responses to feeding between the HR and LR gilts. There was a difference in the cortisol profile, LR gilts had a higher baseline level than HR gilts. This difference was only seen when the lights were on, when the lights were off, the cortisol levels were similar between the two behavioural categories. Although there was not a difference between the two behavioural categories, both groups showed elevated heart rates when the bell sounded, signaling feeding. The elevation in heart rate persisted for more than an hour after feeding. It was concluded that similar levels of aggression, heart rate increase and body weight for both groups indicated that these parameters do not relate to the restraint tests performed when the gilts were young. Thus, the researchers were unable to define two different personalities.

Effect of photoperiod on heterophil to lymphocyte ratio and tonic immobility duration of chickens

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This experiment examined the effect that photoperiod has on the heterophil to lymphocyte ratio and the tonic immobility duration of laying hens. In the first experiment the effect of lighting programs (23L:1D, 14L:10D, 18.5L:5.5D) on the heterophil to lymphocyte ratio of 36 week old laying hens were examined. Three different breeds were used (Castellana, Prat and Vasca). The heterophil to lymphocyte ratio was not affect by the lighting regmine in all three genetic lines. The second experiment compared the tonic immobility duration of hens (Castellana x Prat crossbreed) that were exposed to either a 23L:1D or 14L:10D. Hens that were exposed to the 23L:1D photoperiod exhibited a longer tonic immobility response than those exposed to the 14L:10D photoperiod. The results show that the hens did have an increased fear response but not a stress response (based upon the heterophil to lymphocyte ratio) to the 23L:1D photoperiod. Thus, exposing hens almost continuously to light can negatively affect the welfare of laying hens.

The effects of fear of humans and pre-slaughter handling on the meat quality of pigs.

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This study examined the relationships among pigs fear of humans, the force used by stockpersons moving them to slaughter, and the resulting meat quality in 90 market pigs. The animals were initially tested for their fear of humans using an approach-to-humans test in which the time taken for pigs to approach a human was recorded. These same pigs were then taken to a slaughter plant and the number and severity of negative interactions with the stockpersons recorded. These negative interactions frequently involved the use of an electric prod. Subsequent physiological and meat quality measures were made. Pigs that were slow to approach humans also received the most negative interactions with stockpersons and had the poorest meat quality. Physiological and meat measures indicated that animals receiving the most negative interactions had higher levels of glycogenolyis, presumably due to the greater stress of handling. The correlations going back to the farm indicate that improved human-animals interactions on the farm should reduce the severity of handling at the plant, and improve meat quality. Stockpersons at the plant should realize that their handling of the animals affects subsequent meat quality.

How important is social facilitation for dustbathing in laying hens?

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It has been hypothesized that frustration may arise when one hen sees another dustbathing but her own motivation to dustbathe is thwarted by the limited space provided for more than one bird to dustbathe at once. The hypothesis was based on the fact that hens in a group usually synchronize dustbathing, such that when one starts to dustbathe, she will be joined by others due to their own motivation to dustbathe. Thus, the aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of social stimuli on dustbathing motivation. Hens were housed on one of two floor types: a wire floor (litter deprived), or a floor covered with wood shavings and peat (undeprived). The hens were then prevented from dustbathing as they were exposed one of three stimuli: (1) the sight of other hens dustbathing, (2) the sight of a dustbath that no hen is using, or (3) the sight of a dustbath only. Afterwards, the test hen was allowed to dustbathe. Regardless of deprivation state, hens walked more and spent more time facing the stimulus in (1) than in (3). When not deprived, they walked more in (1) than in (2). When hens were given access to litter after the stimulus test, their subsequent dustbathing behaviour was unaffected by the type of stimuli. The authors suggested that there was some importance in allowing the test birds to join the dustbathing birds, theorizing that the subtle effects of social stimuli on dustbathing motivation may have been masked by the effects of long litter deprivation in their study. Therefore they repeated the experiment, but with shorter litter deprivation times and shorter stimulus exposures, and the test hen was allowed to join the dustbathing hens afterwards. As well, only stimuli (1) and (2) above were used. The authors found more displacement preening and less time facing the stimulus in (1) than in (2) in the second experiment, but dustbathing behaviour was still unaffected by the previous social stimuli. To summarize, dustbathing behaviour of test hens was not affected by seeing other hens dustbathing, but increased walking and displacement preening indicated a possible change in the movement of test hens observing other dustbathing hens.

Modeling and Real-Time Prediction of Classical Swine Fever Epidemics

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We propose a new method to analyze outbreak data of an infectious disease such as classical
swine fever. The underlying model is a two-type branching process. It is used to deduce information concerning the epidemic from detected cases. In particular, the method leads to prediction of the future course of the epidemic and hence can be used as a basis for control policy decisions. We test the model with data from the large 1997-1998 classical swine fever epidemic in The Netherlands. It turns out that our results are in good agreement with the data.