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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:
Navigational ability in the domestic fowl (Gallus gallus domesticus).
Posted in: Welfare by admin on January 1, 2003 | No Comments
There is little information available about domestic fowls’ ability to navigate, therefore, it is also unknown how chicks orient themselves and represent space in non-cage systems. By using the sun as the chicks’ only visual cue, as that is what they typically would base movement on in the wild, the chicks ability to locate food was used to investigate their spatial memory abilities. Outdoors, an octagon test arena was used. At the end of each arm was a pot and one was randomly chosen to hold a food reward each test. The majority of the chicks moved towards the arm that contained the food reward, and it did appear that they used the sun to position themselves within the octagon. Thus, the chicks did use spatial memory maneuver around the octagon to obtain the hidden food reward, by using the sun as a cue.
Towards a baseline assessment of organic pig welfare.
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A commonly used premise in the marketing of organic products is that the welfare of an animal is ensured through good management and only when these management techniques fail, are veterinary medicines used. However, the truthfulness behind this claim needs to yet be proven. Therefore an assessment of nine organic pig farms, primarily located in the South West of England, was conducted. The survey included direct assessments of the animals and the facilities, as well, questions were asked of the staff. The average herd size was approximately 210 sows and the herds had been in operation for an average of 3 years. From farrow to finish, offspring were raised outdoors. The highest ranking health concern according to the producers was mange and lice, while the highest-ranking historical report (based on post-mortem analysis) was endoparasitism. These were chosen from a list composed by the authors. The main welfare concerns according to the stockpeople were keeping the animals clean and dry during periods of moisture, managing porcine dermatitis and nephropathy syndrome (PDNS) and postweaning multisystemic wasting syndrome (PMWS). Another concern expressed was the difficulty in finding and keeping good stockpeople. The assessment of the facilities found good overall living condition, with the only problem being the possibility of the paddocks being too wet during the winter. The assessment of the body condition of the sows was within acceptable target values during the entire production cycle (breeding, farrowing and weaning). For any stock classification the levels of lameness, skin lesions and cleanliness were also acceptable.
On Farm Welfare Standards
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Conditions of animal slaughter improved greatly once McDonalds started their plant-auditing program. Now 90% of plants are able to stun 95% or more of the cattle with a single shot. A lot of these improvements have come from making minor changes to the already existing processes. An example of this improvement is a non-slippery surface on the kill floor to prevent pigs from stressing. This trend caught on as now many restaurants and grocery stores have begun auditing slaughter plants too. The American Meat Institute utilizes a critical control point to monitor the process of stunning and animal handling. This is based on the number of animals stunned correctly first shot, percent of animals remaining dead on bleed rail (this needs 100%!), cattle that moo while moving through the chutes and while stunning, amount of prodding, and amount of animals that slip or fall. The New Guidelines from the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association have created an audit for beef and dairy producers. This is done by measuring and scoring certain procedures that are performed routinely on a farm. These are standardized scores and a certain score must be achieved to be accepted. Many of these are based on what the public would deem acceptable. If animals suffer or are poorly treated, obviously the public would be horrified. These scores ensure that safe and sound practices are adhered to. A trend among the public on animal production is that people treat animals poorly, care more about profit, produce unhealthy food, is hazardous to the environment, etc. The agricultural industry has responded with programs to give the public more information as to what really goes on behind closed doors. Fast food chains have improved the quality of the egg laying industry, which was in need of a change. Egg laying facilities had great welfare issues (such as far too little space and cruelty), and these chains have helped improve the welfare of these hens. To improve pig welfare, changes to the loading and unloading must be administered. Non-slip floors are essential, as are properly designed loading/unloading ramps (this includes proper angle and width). Ramps must be specific to the level of production because nursery piglets can injure their feet on market hog ramps. Alleys should be free of drafts and bright lights that could halt pig flow. Longer truck trips should use a bigger trailer to allow more space per pig. Longer trips (3 hours or more) should allow enough space for the pigs to lie down. Fasting of 16 to 24 hours can help to minimize motion sickness. Adequate bedding should be provided in cold weather to prevent frostbite, and adequate ventilation should be provided in the summer to cool the pigs. Wet shavings or sand should be used in the summer because straw gets too warm.
The effect of stimulus height on visual discrimination in horses.
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The ability for horses to perform visual discriminations is thought to be influenced by the height at which the stimulus is presented. The objective of this study was to determine if horses could visually discriminate based on the height the stimulus was presented. The test involved a two-choice, black/white discrimination with stimuli presented at two heights: ground level or at a height of 70 cm above the ground. The results indicated that the horses could visually discriminate better when the stimulus was at ground level. This information is important when training horses to accomplish tasks that involve visual discrimination. Also, it emphasizes the importance of the effect that the ground surface can have on a horse’s performance, which is important in both management and training.
The effect of increasing the salt intake of pregnant dairy cows on the salt appetite and growth of their calves.
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An increased sodium appetite has been demonstrated in cattle following supplementation with sodium in the neonatal period, but it is unclear whether the sodium appetite of calves can be influenced in utero by the dam’s sodium intake during pregnancy. Twenty-two non-lactating, pregnant dairy cows received either a diet of silage and concentrates or the same diet with 70 g NaCl per day added to it for the last 2 months of pregnancy. The sodium supplement increased the birth weight of their calves but after 6 weeks there was no difference between treatments in calf weight. In addition to milk, calves in both treatments were offered a choice of concentrates with normal or high sodium concentrations (5.8 and 10.8 g/kg dry matter, respectively). Calves from the cows that had received supplementary sodium during pregnancy ate more of the high sodium concentrate than calves from cows without the sodium supplement, demonstrating that sodium appetite could be entrained by the sodium intake of the dam during late pregnancy.
Detrended fluctuation analysis of behavioural responses to mild acute stressors in domestic hens.
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Behavioural analysis has an important role in the assessment of stress in animals. Fractal analysis provides a novel measure of behavioural complexity and has previously revealed subtle alterations in behaviour under biologically costly conditions, such as parasitism or disease. The analysis is based upon the temporal pattern of behaviour that, although rarely considered in behavioural studies, may provide information in addition to standard measures of duration and frequency. Such information could be useful in assessing the welfare of confined animals. The objective of this experiment was to test the hypothesis that fractal analysis reveals novel behavioural alterations during stress using ISA brown pullets. The behaviour of undisturbed birds in their home pen was compared to the behaviour of the same birds: (1) in a novel arena, (2) in their home pen following blood withdrawal and (3) in their home pen following 5 min of mechanical restraint plus blood withdrawal. Detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA) was applied to sequences of vigilance behaviour and walking. In summary, this study concluded that DFA provides a novel measure of temporal behavioural complexity in chickens. Acute stress caused an increase in behavioural complexity in the present experiment suggesting that DFA can reveal more subtle changes in behavioural organization during stress. If such behavioural alterations represent a non-specific stress response this methodology could allow objective comparisons of different stressors to be made.
Traceability of Inbred and Crossbred Cinta Senese Pigs by Evaluating the Oxidative Stress
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Previous studies on the oxidative stress in swine indicated a strong link between the values of reactive oxygen metabolites (ROMs), the subsequent antioxidant adaptive response (OXY)
and the genetic selection. Such findings, mainly related to a cardiovascular inadequacy in lean, large muscle blocks and fast growing breeds, is associated with specific metabolic diseases
such as porcine stress syndrome and mulberry heart disease. In this study, we investigated the oxidative stress parameters to trace the genetics of Cinta Senese (CS) pigs, a historical breed free-range reared in Siena countryside. Sera from CS (n ¼ 24) and Large White · CS (LW · CS) (n ¼ 24)
groups around 120 kg body weight fed the same diet were sampled at slaughter. Sera from wild boars (WB) (n ¼ 24) hunted in the same district were also considered. ROMs and OXY were evaluated in the three groups of swine. Significant differences by one-way anova (P < 0.05) between groups were found for both procedures. ROM levels were lower in WB (9.79 ± 5.76 mm H2O2) and CS (18.02 ± 7.42 mm
H2O2), and highest in LW · CS (42.78 ± 8.61 mm H2O2). OXY values ranged from 271.37 ± 50.90 lm neutralized HOCl (WB) to 343.21 ± 57.45 lm neutralized HOCl (LW · CS). Results indicated that the evaluation of the oxidative stress can effectively trace the CS pigs, thus aiding in preserving the overall specific traits of such a historical animal.
Aggression, fearfulness and coping styles in female pigs.
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The coping styles hypothesis in animals has recently received much attention in studies investigating individual differences in personality characteristics partly because of its apparent success in describing the coping strategies used by mice and other species. Pigs, also have large inter-individual variation in behaviour, and show similar reactions to challenging events over time and across related situations. This study evaluates the validity of this hypothesis for predicting the coping responses of pigs by testing for predicted correlations between responses to a variety of challenges. Animals were exposed to an immobility test at 3 weeks of age. At 8 and 24 weeks, animals were exposed to an unknown pig in the test animal’s home cage, a human in the home cage, and a novel object (bucket) in a novel arena. Many of the behavioural measures had some repeatability between the ages of 8 and 24 weeks, despite significant changes in the observed level of responses, but there were few correlations between responses to social and non-social situations. The results indicate that the coping styles hypothesis has very limited value in predicting the coping responses of pigs representing the population as a whole. It is suggested that future research on pig personality should investigate the possibility that specific coping behaviours for example, those mediated by fear and anxiety, may have consequences for different elements of coping ability related to welfare and productivity.
Meeting Future Demands for Animal Care
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Animal welfare is becoming a growing concern in agriculture. Welfare programs are being developed with no way of knowing if farms actually practice guidelines for animal welfare. Increasingly, animal welfare standards are being included in quality assurance schemes. In lab settings, measures are used to identify biological responses to evaluate welfare (including stress hormones, immune function, behaviour, etc.). Two broad measures can be used for on-farm assessment. One of these standards is housing and management systems (environmental parameters). This assesses space allowance, feeder space, number and flow of drinkers, floor types, etc. This is relatively inexpensive to audit because they are clearly defined. The second measure is the animal reaction or response to the production system. This would include records of veterinary treatments, deaths, culls, and more. Temple Grandin has created a welfare audit for slaughter plants that measures slipping/falling, vocalizing, and correct first-attempt stunning. These are more the direct assessments of welfare. The National Pork Board in the US has developed a Swine Welfare Assurance Program, a voluntary program for producers to audit welfare. Australia has developed The Welfare Audit for the Chicken Meat Industry in 2001 and the Pork Welfare Audit in 2003. As of 2003, it is unclear as to what Canada will do for audits (how they will be administered or what types of measures will be made on farm). Some program will more than likely be put into place in the near future.
Discrimination learning based on relative size concepts in horses (Equus caballus)
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This study explored whether or not horses could respond to stimuli using a concept based on relative size. In experiment 1, after learning to respond to the larger of the two stimuli for six sets of two-dimensional (2D) training exemplars, one horse was tested for size transposition that used novel larger an smaller stimuli as well as three-dimensional (3D) objects (5 2D sets and 5 3D sets with large, medium, small, and tiny sizes). The horse correctly chose the larger of two stimuli regardless of novelty or dimension or combination. In Experiment 2, two additional horses were tested using a subset of the stimuli from Experiment 1. One horse was required to select the larger stimuli as in Experiment 1 and the other the smaller stimuli. After learning the task, both horses responded correctly to new stimuli and showed size transposition. These results suggest that at least some horses are capable of solving problems based on relative size concepts. Moreover, they are capable to generalize across situations that vary from flat, black shapes to objects of different materials and colors including balls, flowers pots, and PVC connectors. These findings support earlier research that showed that horses could categorize certain stimuli, and provide new evidence that they are capable of using some form of concept for problem solving. Understanding that horses have more advanced learning abilities than was previously believed should help improve training methods and management.