Confined Animal Production and Manure Nutrients

Posted in: Environment by admin on January 1, 2001 | No Comments

Baseline Environmental Data Collection for Research and Production Facility

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

Potential environmental impacts associated with intensive livestock operations are recognized as a major limiting factor limiting the establishment of these operations to the prairies. To determine the true environmental impacts of an intensive livestock operation, one must compare the change in environmental conditions before and after the facility is constructed and in operation.

Manipulating the Market: Getting the Most from Grid Comparisons

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

What is Hydrogen Sulphide Gas?

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

Replacement of soybean meal with canola meal in weaned pig diets

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Fibre content is three times higher in canola meal than soybean meal, and may limit nutrient availability. The present study determined whether canola meal could replace soybean meal in weaned pig diets with a balanced digestible nutrient content. Increasing content of canola meal increased fibre content in diets, and decreased voluntary feed intake, ADG and feed efficiency. Performance correlated negatively with fibre content in diets, and was reduced when canola meal replaced 75% or more soybean meal.

Activity, oral behaviour and slaughter data as welfare indicators in veal calves: A comparison of three housing systems.

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The three housing systems investigated for this study included: individual housing (calves are housed alone in crates), group housing (calves are housed alone for eight weeks and then in groups of five to seven, and Peter’s FarmA

Assessing cow comfort: effects of two floor types and two tie stall designs on the behaviour of lactating dairy cows

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Two studies were conducted to test the effects of stall design on cow behaviour and comfort. In the first study 16 cows were housed in stalls with concrete floors or mattress flooring. When on mattress floors the cows spent 1.8 h more time lying each day. However, cows had fewer lying bouts on the concrete, but they were longer than for those on mattresses. Cows on mattresses stood up lay down more often than on concrete. Cows spent similar amounts of time eating and consumed similar amounts of feed on both surfaces. The data were interpreted to indicate that cows on concrete found it more difficult to change postures than did those on mattresses, and that the concrete was less comfortable. In the second study the cows were housed in stalls with either a narrow or wide front opening to the stall. Cows in the wide opening spent more time with their head in the manger area, a posture that was facilitated by the stall design. However, again there were no differences in eating time or consumption. It was concluded that mattresses were an effective means of improving cow comfort in lactating dairy cows.

Dairy cows' fear of people: social learning, milk yield and behaviour at milking.

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The effects of the presence of an unfamiliar, gentle, or aversive handler during milking on behaviour and milk yield of dairy cattle were assessed along with whether the cows could learn to approach or avoid a handler by observing their neighboring cow’s response. The handling treatments were varied every week for the handled cows. Findings indicated that cows kept a longer distance from the aversive handler than the gentle handler during the first minute after being handled. Milk yield and residual milk yield was not affected by the type of handler standing in front of them at milking, although cows moved their legs and tail less when the aversive handler was present. The presence of an unfamiliar handler at milking did not differently affect the behaviour of the handled cows compared to that of the control cows. Observation of the aversive or gentle treatment of neighboring cows by the handler did not affect the observing cow’s distance kept from either type of handler. In the second experiment, however, cows who had observed their neighbors receiving gentle treatment by a handler kept a shorter distance to that handler after treatment of their neighbors. The distance they kept was correlated to the distance kept by the handled cow. The findings of this study indicate that the response of observer cows to a handler may be affected by how their neighbor was handled. The cows quickly learned to avoid an aversive handler, but presence of the aversive handler at their milking did not affect their milk yield.

Transgenesis may affect farm animal welfare: A case for systematic risk assessment

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A genetically modified animal (transgenic) is one whose genome contains DNA of exogenous origin that has been introduced through experimental manipulation. Although there is a growing concern about health and welfare of the animals involve in trasgenesis research, few studies have been conducted to evaluate the welfare of transgenic farm animals. In this paper the authors discuss (potential) welfare problems in farm animals associated with transgenic technologies, and they are examining the strategy of studying health and welfare of transgenic farm animals. There is evidence showing that treatments imposed in the context of farm animal transgenesis are by no means biologically neutral and may compromise animal health and welfare. Factors posing a risk for the welfare of transgenic farm animals include integration of a transgene within an endogenous gene with possible loss of host gene function (insertional mutations) and in vitro reproductive technologies employed in the process of generating transgenic farm animals that may results in an increased incidence of difficult parturition and fetal and neonatal losses and the development of unusually large or otherwise abnormal offspring. Critical components of a scheme for evaluating welfare of transgenic farm animals are identified and concrete steps with regard to breeding and testing of transgenic farm animals are presented in this paper. It is anticipated that systematic research into the welfare of farm animals involved in transgenesis will facilitate the use of the safest experimental protocols as well as the selection and propagation of the healthiest animals and, thereby, enable technological progress that could be ethically justified.

Enzyme Activities, Protein Content and Cellular Variables in the Pulmonary Epithelial Lining Fluid in Selected Healthy Pigs

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Reference values of cellular and non-cellular components in the bronchoalveolar lavage A?uid
(BALF) were established from the BALF specimens obtained from 52 healthy pigs. Using urea as an
endogenous marker of dilution, the reference values in the epithelial lining A?uid (ELF) were
calculated: total cell count 2.71 A? 109A