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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:
The effects of cognitive behavioral intervention on the attitude and behavior of stockpersons and the behavior and productivity of commercial dairy cows.
Posted in: Welfare by admin on January 1, 2002 | No Comments
Two experiments were conducted among 123 commercial dairy farms in order to examine the effectiveness of a stockperson training program that was directed towards numerous attitudinal and behavioral variables previously related to fear of humans and productivity in dairy cattle. Treatments consisted of an Intervention treatment, which was designed to improve the attitude and behavior of stockpeople towards dairy cattle, and a Control treatment, in which no intervention was attempted. At Intervention farms, stockpeople showed more positive beliefs about the handling of the cows, and they used a lower rate of tactile interactions when handling the cows. The cows at these farms indicated a lesser fear of humans by allowing a shorter flight distance to the human. Alternatively, 36 % of Intervention farms failed to show a reduction in flight distance over two lactation periods. Intervention farms at which fear levels had declined showed a higher milk yield than other farms, although there were no significant effects of treatment on milk yield (i.e. Control vs Intervention on the whole). In the second experiment, a significant increase in milk yield was found among cows in the Intervention treatment. Protein and milk fat levels responded similarly. Conclusions indicated that cognitive behavioral interventions that successfully targeted key attitudes and behavior towards cattle that regulate the cow’s fear of humans offer good opportunities to improve the productivity of cows within the industry.
Influence of winter weather and shelter on activity patterns of beef cows.
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Cattle grazing native rangelands during winter must balance forage intake, a source of energy gain, while minimizing thermal stress, a potential source of energy loss. Another source of energy loss is related to time spent on different activities by cattle. Natural or man-made shelter may alter time spent on different activities. The objective of this was to determine if access to windbreaks altered diurnal activity patterns of beef cattle grazing a windy, foothill range site during winter, and if diurnal activity patterns could be related to weather. Diurnal activity patterns of cattle could be observed with and without access to windbreaks for two winters on an exposed pasture in southwest Montana. Actual use of windbreaks was only recorded in winter 2. Time spent behind windbreaks ranged from 0 to 30%. Activity pattern of wind break and nonwindbreak cattle differed in subtle ways indicating they used similar behaviours to minimize energy expended and o maximize energy gain. Wind velocity had minimal effect on grazing time, presumably because high wind velocities were associated with relatively warm days, or the animals were in sufficient condition to tolerate high wind velocities. Instead of minimizing energy expended by lying down during extreme cold, cattle spent more time standing, which maximizes heat gain from solar radiation. At times, winter weather may be energetically demanding, but results of this study indicate that these cows, under long-term selection for performing under such winter conditions, adjust physiologically and behaviourally to daily and seasonal weather events, as long as they are in sufficient body condition.
Effects of daily protein intake levels on the oral stereotypic behaviours in energy restricted lambs.
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Oral stereotypic behaviours are common in feedlot lambs and take the form of biting and licking objects. This study examined the effects of mild feed restriction on the development of these stereotypies, as well as the effects of protein level within the restricted treatments. All lambs (38 in total) were fed diets containing 12.1 MJ ME/kg DM. The restricted fed lambs were fed their diets at 85% of the ad libitum intake of the control animals. The two restricted groups had different levels of protein in their diets as well. Both restricted diets resulted in higher levels of various licking and biting behaviours. In terms of overall oral stereotypic behaviours, the high protein restricted treatment had higher levels than either the low protein restricted or the ad libitum treatments, which did not differ. Energy restriction resulted in increased oral stereotypies, and high levels of protein in the diet increased the levels of stereotypies even further.
Individual differences in aggression and physiology in peri-pubertal breeding gilts.
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Research has shown there is a relationship between personality and piglets’ reaction to being restrained on their backs. This study was conducted to determine if piglets’ reaction to being restrained on their back at 10 and 17 days of age correlated with their behaviour once they reached breeding age. During restraint, if two or more escape attempts were made they were classified as high resister (HR) pigs and if less than two escape attempts were made than they were classified as low resister (LR) pigs. At weaning, two groups were formed which contained, six HR and six LR pigs. The remainder of the group was composed of littermates, ensuring the group contained at least one littermate for each of the twelve resister pigs. To determine heart rate at feeding, the pigs were conditioned to respond to a bell sounding prior to feed being delivered (measured heart rate at 29 weeks of age). Aggressive behaviour during the afternoon feeding was recorded at 23 and 27 weeks of age. At 26 weeks of age, a 24 h of salivary cortisol profile was taken. There was not a difference in body weight, aggression or heart rate responses to feeding between the HR and LR gilts. There was a difference in the cortisol profile, LR gilts had a higher baseline level than HR gilts. This difference was only seen when the lights were on, when the lights were off, the cortisol levels were similar between the two behavioural categories. Although there was not a difference between the two behavioural categories, both groups showed elevated heart rates when the bell sounded, signaling feeding. The elevation in heart rate persisted for more than an hour after feeding. It was concluded that similar levels of aggression, heart rate increase and body weight for both groups indicated that these parameters do not relate to the restraint tests performed when the gilts were young. Thus, the researchers were unable to define two different personalities.
Effect of photoperiod on heterophil to lymphocyte ratio and tonic immobility duration of chickens
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This experiment examined the effect that photoperiod has on the heterophil to lymphocyte ratio and the tonic immobility duration of laying hens. In the first experiment the effect of lighting programs (23L:1D, 14L:10D, 18.5L:5.5D) on the heterophil to lymphocyte ratio of 36 week old laying hens were examined. Three different breeds were used (Castellana, Prat and Vasca). The heterophil to lymphocyte ratio was not affect by the lighting regmine in all three genetic lines. The second experiment compared the tonic immobility duration of hens (Castellana x Prat crossbreed) that were exposed to either a 23L:1D or 14L:10D. Hens that were exposed to the 23L:1D photoperiod exhibited a longer tonic immobility response than those exposed to the 14L:10D photoperiod. The results show that the hens did have an increased fear response but not a stress response (based upon the heterophil to lymphocyte ratio) to the 23L:1D photoperiod. Thus, exposing hens almost continuously to light can negatively affect the welfare of laying hens.
The effects of fear of humans and pre-slaughter handling on the meat quality of pigs.
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This study examined the relationships among pigs fear of humans, the force used by stockpersons moving them to slaughter, and the resulting meat quality in 90 market pigs. The animals were initially tested for their fear of humans using an approach-to-humans test in which the time taken for pigs to approach a human was recorded. These same pigs were then taken to a slaughter plant and the number and severity of negative interactions with the stockpersons recorded. These negative interactions frequently involved the use of an electric prod. Subsequent physiological and meat quality measures were made. Pigs that were slow to approach humans also received the most negative interactions with stockpersons and had the poorest meat quality. Physiological and meat measures indicated that animals receiving the most negative interactions had higher levels of glycogenolyis, presumably due to the greater stress of handling. The correlations going back to the farm indicate that improved human-animals interactions on the farm should reduce the severity of handling at the plant, and improve meat quality. Stockpersons at the plant should realize that their handling of the animals affects subsequent meat quality.
How important is social facilitation for dustbathing in laying hens?
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It has been hypothesized that frustration may arise when one hen sees another dustbathing but her own motivation to dustbathe is thwarted by the limited space provided for more than one bird to dustbathe at once. The hypothesis was based on the fact that hens in a group usually synchronize dustbathing, such that when one starts to dustbathe, she will be joined by others due to their own motivation to dustbathe. Thus, the aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of social stimuli on dustbathing motivation. Hens were housed on one of two floor types: a wire floor (litter deprived), or a floor covered with wood shavings and peat (undeprived). The hens were then prevented from dustbathing as they were exposed one of three stimuli: (1) the sight of other hens dustbathing, (2) the sight of a dustbath that no hen is using, or (3) the sight of a dustbath only. Afterwards, the test hen was allowed to dustbathe. Regardless of deprivation state, hens walked more and spent more time facing the stimulus in (1) than in (3). When not deprived, they walked more in (1) than in (2). When hens were given access to litter after the stimulus test, their subsequent dustbathing behaviour was unaffected by the type of stimuli. The authors suggested that there was some importance in allowing the test birds to join the dustbathing birds, theorizing that the subtle effects of social stimuli on dustbathing motivation may have been masked by the effects of long litter deprivation in their study. Therefore they repeated the experiment, but with shorter litter deprivation times and shorter stimulus exposures, and the test hen was allowed to join the dustbathing hens afterwards. As well, only stimuli (1) and (2) above were used. The authors found more displacement preening and less time facing the stimulus in (1) than in (2) in the second experiment, but dustbathing behaviour was still unaffected by the previous social stimuli. To summarize, dustbathing behaviour of test hens was not affected by seeing other hens dustbathing, but increased walking and displacement preening indicated a possible change in the movement of test hens observing other dustbathing hens.
Modeling and Real-Time Prediction of Classical Swine Fever Epidemics
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We propose a new method to analyze outbreak data of an infectious disease such as classical
swine fever. The underlying model is a two-type branching process. It is used to deduce information concerning the epidemic from detected cases. In particular, the method leads to prediction of the future course of the epidemic and hence can be used as a basis for control policy decisions. We test the model with data from the large 1997-1998 classical swine fever epidemic in The Netherlands. It turns out that our results are in good agreement with the data.
Alternative housing for sows and litters Part 3. Effects of piglet diet quality and sow-controlled housing on performance and behaviour.
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Fifty-four sows and their litters were used to determine the effects that piglet diet and the ability of the sow to control contact with her litter would have on sow and piglet performance. Sows were either assigned to a confined or sow-controlled housing system. The piglets were fed either a standard diet or a high-complexity diet, which resulted in four possible treatment combinations. Confined housing kept the sow and her litter together, while sow-controlled housing allowed the sow to leave her piglets whenever she wanted. The two diet treatments were a standard diet, which is similar to what is typically fed to weanlings, and the high-complexity diet was divided into three phases throughout the experiment and was higher in protein and fat content. The sows’ and piglets’ were weighed, as were their feeders, to determine gains and feed consumption. The weaning-to-oestrus interval was recorded for the sows. The piglets were weaned from the sow at 28 days of age and the study concluded at 49 days of age. Prior to weaning piglets that were fed the high-complexity diet consumed more creep feed than did piglets on the standard diet. By day 41, the piglets on the standard diet weighed the same as those fed the high-complexity diet, which is likely due to the piglets fed high-complexity diet being switched to the standard diet 10 days before the completion of the experiment. Sows housed in the sow-controlled pens had a 10% decrease in nursing frequency, which resulted in the piglets assigned to this treatment consuming 69% more solid feed. Despite the increase in creep feed consumption by the piglets on the sow-controlled system, they still gained less weight than piglets in the confined housing treatment. After weaning, piglets from the sow-controlled housing system ate more feed and showed a reduction in the amount of weight they lost. This was not enough to compensate for the lower weight gains seen before weaning, thus piglets in the confined housing treatment weighed more at the end of the study. There was a strong linear correlation between the amount of time the sow spent away from here piglets with nursing frequency, and piglet feed consumption prior to weaning. There was also a weak linear relationship with sow feed intake and weight loss and piglet weight gains during the week following weaning. The housing treatments did not have an affect on the weaning-to-oestrus interval.
Feeding small quantities of grain in the parlour facilitates pre-milking handling of dairy cows: a note.
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The idea that a food reward can be used to train animals to submit voluntary to management procedures is becoming well developed in the literature on animal welfare. Grain feeding has been studied a way to induce cows to use automatic milking machines on a regular basis. The aim of the present study was to determine how the amount of concentrate fed affects the cows’ behaviour in entering the parlour, and the likelihood that cows will defecate or urinate in the parlour. Cows within one milking group received 0, 0.3 or 0.6 kg of concentrate per milking in the parlour using a computer controlled feeding system. Cows were observed before and after the treatment began, recording order of entry, latency (s) to fully enter the parlour, if the cow needed to be pushed into the parlour and if the cow defecated or urinated while in the milking parlour. Cows receiving feed moved up in the milking order by 7.6 positions once the treatment period began. The latency for these cows to entered the parlour reduced during the treatment, and these cows were 59% less likely to require being pushed. This latter effect carried over to the control cows that were not fed in the parlour: these control cows were less likely to be pushed during the treatment period. There was no effect of feeding on the proportion of animals that defecated or urinated while in the milking parlour. Although feeding had a positive effect on entry into the parlour, the amount of food provided had no effect. Therefore the results of this study indicate that even small quantities of concentrate can act to motivate parlour entry, reducing the need for pushing and other interventions that may have negative effects on the cows.