Bacterial community dynamics in liquid swine manure during storage: molecular analysis using DGGE/PCR of 16S rDNA

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

Digestibility of Energy and of High Oil Corn

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Sask Pork Announces $215,000 towards the Interpretive Centre

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Thermoregulation of the nursery by early-weaned piglets through operant conditioning

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Regardless of its effect on the health and productivity of growing swine, thermoregulation is an area with little data for producers to rely on, especially in the case of early weaned piglets. It is up to the producer to choose a setpoint temperature for the barn environment. With little or no access to thermal requirements of early weaned piglets, producers must make a decision based on thermal preferences of grow finish pigs. Because of this lack of information, a study was designed to inform producers of the optimal temperature for early weaned piglets in which the piglets would control their own thermal environment. With the use of operant conditioning, piglets controlled the temperature through a lever placed in one of the nursery pens. When the lever was hit, an infrared heat lamp would turn on above the piglets in addition to the room gas heater. Room temperature was monitored every 5 minutes and averaged to find temperature preferences. Results show that as age increases, average preferred temperature decreases by approximately 1A?A?C/week for early weaned piglets. The temperatures ranged between 22A?A?C and 29A?A?C each week and reflected a circadian sinusoidal pattern in which the piglets preferred higher temperatures during the day and lower temperatures at night. Results from this study agree with trends found in studies done in grow finish hogs and provides the information hog producers need to consider for more fuel efficient ways of monitoring the thermal environment of early weaned piglets

Greenhouse gas and odour emissions from swine operations in Quebec and Saskatchewan: Benchmark assessments

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It is estimated that agriculture contributes about 10% of the total anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in Canada. About 40% of the agricultural emissions of GHG originate from livestock production. However, there exists a lot of uncertainty relative to the actual GHG emissions from livestock production systems in Canada since many of those estimates have been based on data collected in other parts of the world. In addition to GHG, odour emissions from production buildings and manure storage facilities often constitute an important source nuisances in livestock production, especially in the pig industry.

The general objective of this ongoing research project (January 2001 a

Tail biting in pigs.

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Tail biting is both a costly and welfare-reducing problems for grower/finisher pigs. This paper is a recent comprehensive review of papers on this topic. It covers the stages in the development of tail biting, how it can be assessed, and how it leads to associated problems of infection, disease, weight loss and death. Three theories are presented on its development: a learned behaviour; a normal behaviour that becomes excessive; and, a redirected behaviour (eg. exploration that becomes directed to the tail). Risk factors associated with the pigs themselves include: genetics, gender, age and weight, and health status. External risk factors include: rearing environment, rooting materials, indoor climate, outdoor climate, stocking density and herd size, floor type, feeding system, and food. Various treatments and preventative measures are discussed. Tail biting results in a reduction in the welfare of the bitten pig, but probably also indicates poor welfare in the biting pig as well.

Behaviour of the domestic fowl in the presence of vertical panels.

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Environmental complexity is thought to influence time budgets. In this study, additional protective areas were created by adding vertical panels to the centre of the pen. There were cover treatments studied which consisted of cover frames with mesh and cover frames without mesh. Pens containing no covers served as controls. Two groups sizes were also studied (80 and 110). The chickens spent most of their time resting (64% of their time budget). Resting was higher in that had panels. The presence of panels and the age of the birds influenced the time spent moving and standing. Feeding and drinking were not influenced by the presence of panels. Foraging was greater in pens without panels. Group size affected preening and dust bathing behaviour. Activity budgets were influenced by the provision of pen enrichments.

Effects of amount of milk, milk flow and access to a rubber teat on cross-sucking and non-nutritive sucking in dairy calves.

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Cross-sucking, i.e. when a calf is sucking on any body part of another calf, is a problem in artificially raised calves. Cross-sucking may lead to health and welfare problems for the exposed calf and cause inflammation of penis, navel or scrotum, or may lead to hairless body parts. The aim of the present study was to test the effects of different amounts of milk, flow rate of milk, and access to a teat after milk intake on non-nutritive sucking on an empty teat and on cross-sucking on other calves in Bos taurus dairy calves. An additional aim was to test if calves prefer to perform non-nutritive sucking on a teat with the taste of milk or on a clean teat. First experiment involved 11 groups of three calves during gradual decrease from 5 to 2.5 and 1 to 0 l of whole milk per meal twice daily. Milk flow was either 0.5 or 1 l/min, and the teat buckets were either left or removed after milk intake. When the calves were fed with 5 l of milk, non-nutritive sucking and cross-sucking decreased, compared to 1 and 2.5 l. Removing the empty teat after milk intake increased the cross sucking. Slow milk flow reduced non-nutritive sucking after milk intake, but did not influence cross-sucking. Duration of recorded milk intake was similar with fast flow and 5 l of milk, compared to slow flow and 2.5 l of milk. The latter combination increased non-nutritive sucking and cross-sucking, suggesting that amount of milk is more important than duration of milk intake. The second experiment was carried out on 12 individually kept calves. The calves received 2.5 l of milk either in an open bucket, in a rubber teat bucket, or half/half in both buckets. When not used for feeding, the open bucket and the teat bucket were filled and emptied again to make them ‘tasty’ with some drops of milk. The tasty teat bucket was either removed or present after milk intake. The calves had always access to a second clean teat bucket. Source of milk had no influence on recorded behaviour after milk intake. The tasty teat was sucked for twice as long as the clean one when both teats were present. When the tasty teat was removed, the calves increased sucking on the clean teat, but decreased total time spent sucking. We conclude that a high amount of milk and the presence of the teat bucket after milk intake reduces cross-sucking, and that a clean teat is less effective in encouraging calves to suck than a teat with taste of milk.

Consistency of side choice in the milking parlour by Holstein-Friesian cows and its relationship with their reactivity and milk yield.

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Dairy cows often have to choose which of two sides to enter in the milking parlour. Some sows are very consistent in this choice, and it is common to assume that these cows are more disturbed are being milked in their non-preferred side. Such disturbance might involve significantly poor welfare. In order to assess this assumption, we studied the behaviour and milk yield of dairy cows and their relationships with side preference in the milking parlour. The study was carried out at Cambridge University Farm, in a two-sided tandem milking parlour. The data collection followed the daily management routine. We recorded the side chosen by each caw (left or right) during 40 milking sessions. Data from 70 cows, which were present in at least 25 milking sessions, were included in the statistical analysis. Cows reactivity (CR) during premilking udder preparation, time spent fitting the milking cluster (FT), milk yield (MY) and duration of milking (DM) were measured. There was evident individual variation in the consistency of side choice. Individual differences were also found in CR, FT, MY and DM; although these variables were not significantly affected by the side or the interaction between animals and side. The comparison between left and right side means of these variables did not show significant differences. We concluded that there is no evidence that the cows were discomforted or stressed when milked in the non-preferred side of the milking parlour.

Plumage condition and health of aviary-kept hens fed mash or crumbled pellets.

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Although aviary systems for laying hens provide the freedom of movement advocated for good welfare, there are concerns for the general health and plumage conditions of birds kept in these larger social groups. In this study the authors addressed two management factors that may affect the incidence of problems in these systems, those of genetic strain and feed form. Hens of two different hybrid strains, both representing crosses of Rhode Island Red and Leghorn, were kept in groups of approximately 270 birds in aviary pens (3 x 5.8 m). Pens were fed either mash or pellet forms of the same diet. Thus, a 2 x 2 factorial of hybrid and feed type, with three replications per treatment combination was formed. Diet had little effect on plumage condition, general health or tonic immobility (measure of fear). The only significant effect of diet was on the occurrence of bumble foot (a condition of the feet), with it being more common when fed mash. The genetic hybrids differed in a number of traits including general health, cannibalism, salpingitis, and coccidiosis. However, each hybrid performed better in some of these traits than the other. The results suggest that genotype is an important consideration in managing hens in aviary systems.