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Industry Partners
Prairie Swine Centre is an affiliate of the University of Saskatchewan
Prairie Swine Centre is grateful for the assistance of the George Morris Centre in developing the economics portion of Pork Insight.
Financial support for the Enterprise Model Project and Pork Insight has been provided by:
Strain differences in aggressiveness of male domestic fowl in response to a model.
Posted in: Welfare by admin on January 1, 2000 | No Comments
The demand for straw and feathers as litter substrates by laying hens.
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The consumer demand theory, relating to the elasticity of demand, is now being incorporated into behavioural demands and environmental requirements of farm animals. Laying hens have been found to have an inelastic demand for various types of floor litter such as sand, peat or wood shavings. The demand of other types of litter, feathers and straw, have yet to be studied, thus this study set out to determine the elasticity of the demand for the said types of litter. Every second day for one hour, the hens had to peck at a key a certain number of times, after which they received a reward, access to either straw or feathers. All the laying hens were willing to work for access to straw, while only three were willing to work for access to the feathers. Dustbathing was not consistently performed in either of the two types of litter. Even though the hens did not use the access to straw to dustbathe, the study still found that they have a high demand for access to this form of litter.
Struggling behavior in shackled male and female broiler chickens.
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It has been suggested, based on anecdotal evidence, that when shackled broiler chickens struggle, it is due to the discomfort associated with compression of the shank. Birds with larger shanks seem to struggle more violently than birds with smaller shanks. The size of the leg gap is not adjustable. The hypothesis of this study was that males would struggle more than females, as they tend to be larger and have thicker shanks than females. The following data was collected for males and females during a one-minute period when the birds were first shackled: latencies to struggle, numbers of struggling bouts, and total time spent struggling. Each test bird was measured for body weight and circumference of the right shank. The results indicated that male birds were heavier and had larger shanks than females. The males also struggled sooner and longer than females. When the data for males and females was pooled, there was a negative correlation between latency to struggle and shank size and a positive correlation between struggling behaviour and shank size. However, there were no correlations within sex. Body weight was not correlated with any of the struggling behaviour measures. The authors concluded that male broilers may struggle more than females due to the use of shackles that have leg gaps that do not adjust to fit larger shanks.
Effects of heat stress on the antimicrobial drug resistance of Escherichia coli of the intestinal flora of swine
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The effects of heat stress
on the antimicrobial drug resistance of Escherichia coli of the intestinal tract of swine were
studied in animals from a farm that had not been supplementing antimicrobials in feed for
the past 10 years. In one study, 10 A
A Less Polluting Pig
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Recent advancements at the University of Guelph have developed a genetic breed of pig that makes better use of phosphorus. Scientists have isolated a naturally occuring phytase enzyme in a strain of Escherichia coli bacteria (naturally occuring in the intestine) that was able to survive the digestion process. Therefore providing the ability of the pig to break down the phosphorus prior to reaching the intestine. “Reachers then spliced the gene with a generic “direction trigger” from mice that would target the salivary glands.” “The transgene then was introduced into pig embryos. DNA and enzyme analysis confirmed that the pigs carried the gene and that their saliva contained the phytase.”