Stereotypic behaviours in sows

Posted in: Prairie Swine Centre by admin on January 1, 1995 | No Comments

Pregnant sows housed in modern production facilities often develop abnormal behaviours called stereotypies. These behaviours are characterized as regularly repeated movements that are morphologically identical and apparently useless. In sows these usually consist of oral movements such as biting and chewing directed at different parts of the animala

Equine transportation problems and some preventives: a reveiw.

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Euthanasia of day-old chicks with carbon dioxide and argon .

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Design and Efficiency of a Double High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) Filtered, Laser Monitored Heating Ventilation Air Conditioning (HVAC) System for Transplant/Implant Surgery.

Posted in: Air Filtration, Pork Insight Articles by admin on August 31, 1994 | No Comments

This paper includes abstracts of four journal entries about medical equipment. The journals are:

A Cluster of False Positive Diagnoses of Respiratory Syntactical Virus in Neonates Caused by Misinterpretation of Rapid Antigen Test PAC Results. A. Maroney, RN, MA, ICP; A. Parekh MD, L. Berkowitz, MD, K. Bromberg, MD, B. Bae, PhD, S. Phillips, PhD.

Design and Efficiency of a Double High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) Filtered, Laser Monitored Heating Ventilation Air Conditioning (HVAC) System for Transplant/Implant Surgery. L. Ayers, MD, P. Kulich, RN, CIC, K. Davis, MT(ASCP)

Orthopedic Surgical Site Infection Follow-up. T. Kamp, RN, L. Haglund, MD,

Interdepartmental Interventions and Surveillance for Ventilators Quality Improvement Activity. H. McGowan, RN, MS, CIC, S. Mattson, MS RN K. Silva, BSN, RN, F.Naylor, MSA, RRT, M. Magee, MS, RD, CNSD.

An Evaluation of the Financial Impacts of PRRS in Nursery Pigs

Posted in: Air Filtration, Pork Insight Articles by admin on June 30, 1994 | No Comments

Many studies have been done to find the value loss from PRRS in a breeding herd, but little has been done to find out the financial impact of the PRRS virus on post weaned pigs. One study found that PRRS in the nursery can extend days to market by 14-30 days, which would result in a cost of 7-15 dollars per marketed pig. Although this study did not account for medication used and other inputs such as the cost of the extra time spent in the barn before market.  Using past data from other studies researchers were able to build a model for predicting the costs of PRRS on nursery pigs. All variables were fixed other than baseline performance and PRRS based performance. The results of the study revealed that PRRS in the nursery had a difference between non-infected and infected pigs of $0.73 per head to $18.21 per head, and 6.06 per head over space per year, to 151.06 per head over space per year.

Social rank and feeding behaviour of group-housed sows fed competitively or ad libitum

Posted in: Nutrition, Pork Insight Articles by admin on May 23, 1994 | No Comments

When housed in groups, it is common for an hierarchy to be established between sows. If the feeding regime is to floor feed a set amount of feed 1-2 times per day, then less dominant sows may not be able to obtain a fair amount or feed. In this case, the less dominant sows may not gain as much weight. This study tested the effect of a high fiber feed being given ad libitum on sow weight gain. First, the hierarchy of the group was determined by setting food in the middle of dyads of sows, and seeing with sow was dominant. Hierarchy was found to be close to linear, so each so was given a ranking. Active and passive interactions, and feeding behaviors were also recorded. In floor-fed groups sows that were low-ranking gained less weight than the high ranking sows in the same group. However, there was not a clear relation between weight gain and hierarchy rank overall. For the ad libitum groups, sows preferred to feed independently, and there was no difference in time spent feeding or length of a feeding bout between sow rankings. This indicates dominance is less important in an ad libitum feeding situation, but might be a disadvantage to low-ranking sows when floor-fed.

Reporting on Climate Change: Understanding the Science

Posted in: Environment by admin on January 1, 1994 | No Comments

The chapter 3 was consulted on Greenhouse Gases: Some Basics. The main atmospheric gases are presented and the role they play in the greenhouse effect. The changes and trends in those gases concentrations are also discussed. More information is directly available in the Internet address given.

Utilisation du lisier de porcs sur les patures de vaches laitieres en Bretagne.

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The grazing animal also produce manure directly on the grassland and this direct supply has to be considered when the swine manure application rates are determined in order to avoid nutrients leaching. Since the swine manure did not present any problems for grass production, milk production and also cows’ behavior, swine manure could be used in place of commercial fertilizers to supplied nutrients for the most limiting element (nitrogen or phosphorus depending on the situation). The experiment has been done on two years and no difference in the health, weight and general status have been measured between the cows grazing on pasture where swine manure has been applied and the control group.

Odours from Landspreading Livestock Wastes

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Air samples have been taken during or after manure spreading to realize olfactometry measurements and determine odour emission. The threshold value was evaluated and expressed as OU/m3. Compared to pig slurry landspreading with a vacuum tanker spreading directly on soil (VT), ploughing in manure immediately after spreading has reduced odour emission by 84%, deep injection reduced odour emission by 73%, shallow injection lower emission by 53% and low trajectory spreader with trailing hoses reduced odour emission by 38%. The following manure treatments also lowered odour emission compared to untreated manure even when using the VT application technique: 86% odour emission reduction for aerobic treatment, 84% for anaerobic treatment and 34% for mechanical separation. Crude protein-reduced diets could also have an impact on odour reduction as those diets lower the concentrations of odorous compounds in the slurry.

Odour emission can be reduced using different spreading techniques. This publication gives those reductions. No information is given on the combined effect of the spreading technique and the use of crude protein-reduced diets.

Performance in the new nursery

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In 1993 construction of the new nursery was completed at Prairie Swine Centre Inc. The three new rooms are to be operated on an all in – all out basis. Each room is controlled individually for environmental temperature and ventilation. Feeders for the nursery were designed at PSCI to maximize access of piglets to feed while minimizing feed wastage and the build up of stale feed in the feeders. A preliminary study was performed to ensure the performance level of the animals were satisfactory. Environmental temperature was set at 30A?A?C for the first 10 days and then gradually reduced to 28A?A?C during week four. Body weights of individual pigs and per pen feed usage was monitored at weekly intervals. No abnormalities in behavior or performance were noted. Performance was considered good compared to modern commercial nurseries.