An assessment of ways to abate ammonia emissions from UK livestock buildings and waste stores. Part 1: ranking exercise

Posted in: Environment by admin on January 1, 1999 | No Comments

Survival Strategies Checklist

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Poor immunity from a strep. Suis autogenous bacterin

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Streptococcus suis is a major cause of death and disease losses, especially among recently weaned pigs. While it may respond to antibiotics, it remains difficult to control since there are many strains that cause sickness. This study was conducted to measure the amount and variation in the antibody response of pigs vaccinated. Vaccination can be very cost effective if the vaccine is designed to control the type of bacteria causing disease. A custom-made vaccine called an autogenous bacterin can be produced from bacteria that are isolated from an untreated sick pig. In this situation the protection from disease depends on the presence of antibody in the serum of vaccinated pigs. This study was conducted in a herd experienced to disease due to S. suis. The difficulty was that the S. suis causing disease in the herd were resistant to penicillin. An autogenous bacterin was developed and pigs were vaccinated at weaning. The autogenous bacterin failed to increase antibody levels in vaccinated pigs and was not economically justified.

PMU ranching demonstrates benefits of self-regulation.

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Assessment of pain during locomotion and the welfare of adult male turkeys with destructive loss of the hip joint.

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Frustration of goal-directed behaviour in swine.

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Frustration can result when expectations about the environment cannot be fulfilled. This causes the animal to become motivated to engage in problem solving behaviour in order to achieve its goals. If the goals are not attained, general frustration responses are likely to result. The objective of this study was to induce frustration over a six-week period. By removing the feeders, single and pair-housed pigs were fasted for 1, 2 or 3 hours every morning. On training days (Monday and Tuesday), full feeders were returned. On test days (Wednesday and Thursday), non-functional were returned. Two types of non-functional feeders were used: non-lidded (empty feeders) and lidded (full feeders with lids bolted down to prevent access to feed). For two hours following the return of the feeders, the behaviour on the test and training days was compared. Frustration caused an increase in general activity for both single and pair-housed pigs. Single-housed pigs increased oral manipulation of the lidded feeders during the first hour, but this decreased during the second hour of observations. This difference was not observed for non-lidded feeders, which indicates an increase in activities related to problem-solving behaviour. Frustration also caused an increase in general oral activity (including increased oral manipulation of other pigs and objects). Based on serum cortisol concentration, lidded feeders caused more stress than non-lidded feeders during the final week of the study. Although general activity levels decreased over the six-week study and returned to normal, frustration was still evident by the higher levels of oral activity, which were maintained throughout the study.

Effects of individual housing design and size on behavior and stress indicators of special-fed Holstein veal calves.

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The effects of housing design on indicators of stress and behavior in special-fed veal calves were studied. Calves were tethered in open stalls or untethered in individual pens, and housed in varying pen or stall widths. There were few treatments differences in terms of blood serum cortisol and A?1-acid glycoprotein. There were no significant differences in segmented neutrophils (N), banded neutrophils, lymphocytes (L), basophils or the N:L ratio at weeks 4 or 18. Monocytes and eosinophils differed during the 28 day period after arrival. Calves that had been housed in 76 cm wide stalls had the largest percentage of both monocytes and eosinophils, while calves in the 66 cm wide stalls had the lowest monocyte percentage. There were no differences in postures (lying, standing) or behavior (chewing, tongue playing, grooming, investigative activities) throughout the observation periods for calves in the different treatments. Calves spent about 71 % in a lying position and 31 % of the time in a standing position, with no preference for the right or left side while recumbent. Calves in wider stalls or pens tended to exhibit more self-grooming activities at week 9 and 18. Calves that were housed in 56 cm wide pens had difficulty changing from a lying position to a standing position, and they were unable to extend their legs while recumbent. Conclusions stated that, although behavioral, physiological, growth, and anatomical trait differences were few, further increases in age and/or weight of finished calves would require a reassessment of the appropriateness of individual veal calf housing design and dimensions.

Bacteria nad Nutrient Transport to Tile Lines Shortly After Application of Large Volumes of Liquid Swine Manure

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This study focused on the potential bacteria and nutrient contanimation of subsurface agricultural drainage with differing manure application rates on different types of tillage practices. Manure was surface applied to conventional and no-till practices at rates of 2.8 cm and 8.3 cm. The subsurface drainage water was analyzed for volume, pathogenic bacteria and nutrient concentrations. The results indictate higher manure applicaton rates produce higher levels of nutrient and bacteria containimation within 1 hour of application. The conventional tillage operation seemed to have a lower level of contaimination, resulting from reduced macropore flow from the tillage operation.

Phosphorus Practices for Animal Waste Application Fields

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Most management plans have been balanced for nitrogen plant uptake, however this can lead to elevated soil phosphorus (P) levels with repeated manure applications. Elevated P levels in water sources can lead to eutrophiication, which occurs when there is an abundant source of nutrients in the water source. To aid in decreasing the impact of phosphorus on water sources, a phosphorus risk index (PRI) was develoeped for manure management on dairy operations in North Central Texas. The objective of the PRI was designed to evaluate the risk of P movement from manured fields, identify areas with high potential for P runoff, determine causes of P risk and measure the change in risk over time with changes in P management strategies.

The PRI uses nine weighted indexing parameters that reflect the importance of each factors contribution in the potential risk of P runoff. These include: proximaity to waterbodies, erosion potential of the site, runoff potential of the site, soil test phosphorus levels, manure application rate, manure application method, timing of manure application, vegatative management, grazing management. Each parameter was also assigned a risk category for P runoff as very low, low, medium, high or very high. Individual tracts of land were rated according to the above parameters and given a risk assesment score, and this score corresponded to a relative risk category. This indexing procedure helps to identify potential P problems with potential fields and oulinres best management practices to address P concerns, and aid in the development of nutrient management plans.

Removal of Malodorous Componds from Liquid Swine Manure by Subsurface Constructed Wetlands in a Greenhouse

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The relationship between two wetland systems (planted, unplanted) and their relationship to concentration of three malodorous compounds (dimethyl disulfide, ethyl acetate, p – cresol) was studied. Eight subsurface flow wetlands (4 planted, 4 unplanted) were treated liquid swine manure that was filtered through bark bed in order to reduce the total solids content. A human sensory panel was set up to evaluate the wetland effluent odour, and the reduction of the malodrous gas compounds was quantified using gas chromatography.

ANOVA analysis revealed a significant decrease in malodrous compounds in the planted wetland plots relative to the unplanted plots. On average, the planted wetlands removed between 60 – 80% of malodorous compounds, while the unplanted plost remobed between 35 – 70%. Sign tests of the odour anel indicate the intensity level ranking was <1 for the planted wetland structure, signifying no objectional effluent smell from the filtered swine wetland effluent.. In conclusion, planted wetlands outperformed unplanted wetlands at removing malodorous compounds from liquid swine manure and producing wetland effluent that was not objectional to the sensory panel.