Out-wintering pads for finishing beef cattle : animal production and welfare.

Posted in: Welfare by admin on January 1, 2002 | No Comments

Any sustainable alternative system of animal accommodation should optimize animal performance and welfare, and while having an acceptable level of construction costs, it should not compromise the surrounding environment. The objective of this experiment was to evaluate the performance and well being of animals accommodated outdoors over the winter period on out-wintering pads (OWPs), relative to animals housed indoors in conventional slatted floor sheds. The cows were provided with 3 different space allowances (6, 12 and 18 m2 per head) and were also either given a wind shelter or exposed to wind. The control group was housed indoors in a slatted-floor shed at a space allowance of 3 m2 per head. Animal production and indices (climatic energy demand (CED), behaviour cleanliness, hoof condition and immune function) of animal welfare were evaluated. There was no significant effect of stocking density outdoors or sheltering on live weight gain, carcass gain, fat score, fat score per 100 kg carcass, carcass conformation score, killing-out proportion, food intake or food efficiency. Relative to animals housed indoors on slats, animal accommodated outdoors on OWPs had higher live-weight gain, carcass gain, and food intake. However, animals on the OWPs had less lower fat scores per 100 kg carcass. Animals housed on slats were cleaner than animals housed at 6 or 12 m2 per head but not 18 m2 per head. There was no effect of treatment on physiological measures. Animals confined on the OWP with or without shelter, had a greater number of lying bouts per 24 h, had a greater synchronized lying frequency and displayed less hesitation prior to lying when compared with animals housed on slats. Indoor animals had more white line disease and under-run on their front hoof, when compared with outdoor animals. There was no evidence to suggest that out-wintering compromised animal welfare.

Early feather pecking as a form of social exploration: the effect of group stability on feather pecking and tonic immobility in domestic chicks.

Posted in: Welfare by admin on | No Comments

The feather pecking behaviour from the day of hatching was compared in lines of chicks that were prone to feather peck with those that were not likely to feather peck. Feather pecking was present the day after hatching and by the third day after hatching there was a marked difference between the two different lines that remained for the following weeks. Feather pecking appeared to be socially oriented rather than being related to ground pecking, as when a group of feathers was present the chicks did not peck at them as there was not a social link with the feathers. Therefore, feather pecking may be a result of social exploration rather than the hens redirecting foraging behaviours.

Estimating the Prevalence of Salmonella spp. in Swine Herds a

Posted in: Welfare by admin on | No Comments

Information about the proportion of truly Salmonella-free herds is required for an evaluation of the epidemiological situation, the development of control strategies and their implementation. Findings regarding the presence of salmonellas in faeces and intestinal lymph nodes as well as the presence of Salmonella antibodies in meat juice from slaughtered pigs were obtained in the context of a study conducted by a number of institutes. These data were used for an analysis of the validity of data on the prevalence of infected animals within herds and on the prevalence of infected herds. The proportion of batches or herds with exclusively negative individual findings was found to depend not only on the true proportion of truly Salmonella-free animals within herds but quite essentially also on the distribution of the proportion of infected animals within herds, the sensitivity of the methods of examination and sample sizes. When taking into account the existing dependencies, it was found that among the swine, the real numbers of Salmonella carriers were much higher than shown by bacteriological and serological examination. Regarding salmonellosis in swine, also a number of contaminated herds must be expected which is far higher than that shown by the number of herds with positive findings in at least one animal. Even a low contamination of all or almost all herds would result in the numbers of negative batches observed, i.e. batches with exclusively negative individual findings. A rating of the salmonella exposure of herds as high, low, or very low is possible and may, and should be, used for measures of consumer protection, irrespective of the proportion of truly Salmonella-free herds.

Analysis of belly nosing and associated behaviour among pigs weaned at 12-14 days of age.

Posted in: Welfare by admin on | No Comments

Segregated early weaning is linked to an increased incidence of belly nosing. Although the belly nosing for piglets weaned at different age has been reported, the variation among piglets weaned at the same age has not been described. The objective of this study was to determine the variation of belly nosing among piglets weaned at the same age and its association with other behaviours. A total of 80 piglets weaned at 12-14 days of age were videotaped for 24 on day 7 post-weaning. On average, piglets spent 2.4% of their total time belly nosing. About 80% of piglets performed belly nosing, and 5% of piglets spent more than 8% of time belly nosing. Standing was positive related to belly nosing, indicating that belly nosing was most common in active piglets. Belly nosing was more closely associated social interaction than with eating or drinking.

Effects of individual versus group stabling on social behaviour in domestic stallions.

Posted in: Welfare by admin on | No Comments

Horses are typically kept in individual housing, such as box stalls, when stabled, but are often run as a group on pasture. This study examined the effects of grouping animals during the stabling period on subsequent social behaviour when pastured in a group. Seven stallions (2-yr-old) were housed in individual stalls, while 12 were housed in groups of 3 for a 9-mon period. Afterwards they were pastured for 6 weeks, with one pasture for the individually housed stallions and one for the grouped housed. The behaviour of the animals in the pasture situation was observed. Thus, only one pasture group was studied for each treatment and results may reflect the group but not be representative of the treatments in general. Previously grouped stallions maintained friendships with their previous group-mates as indicated by their proximity in the pasture. Those that were previously housed individually exhibited more aggressive behaviour, such as bite threats, than did those that had been group-housed. The previously individually housed stallions were more cohesive (remained closer together), and exhibited more social grooming and play behaviour than did the group-housed animals. Stabling as individuals or in groups does have an effect on subsequent social behaviour in group pasture conditions, but some of the effects suggest that the individually housed animals engage in more social activity, perhaps as a re-bound effect.

Calves' motivation for access to two different types of social contact measured by operant conditioning.

Posted in: Welfare by admin on | No Comments

Individually housing calves impairs their attainment of social contact, which is believed to be an important need in cattle. The strength of the calves’ motivation to have social contact can be determined through operant conditioning. This study compared calves’ motivation for two types of social contact, the first being head to head contact through metals bars. The other form of social contact was full interaction between two calves without any restrictions. The six calves used in this study were taught initially to press a panel in the test pen and the reward they received was social contact with another calf for three minutes. Once the calf learnt that pushing the panel was associated with social contact the number of times the calf needed to push the panel was gradually increased for both types of social contact rewards. The behaviour of the calves during the social contact reward was continuously videotaped. The calves showed a stronger motivation and thus were willing to work harder to attain full social contact when compared to head contact. During the reward period the calves with full contact were involved in more social activities. The harder the calves had to work to attain full social contact also led to an increase in social activity during reward times as compared to reward periods in which they did not have to work as hard. Therefore, the calves demonstrated different motivations for different forms of social contact, in that calves are more willing to work harder for full social contact. The extent that the calves must work to attain the social contact may also impact the degree of social behaviours exhibited during the subsequent social encounters.

Behavioral and physiological responses of horses to initial training: the comparison between pastured versus stalled horses

Posted in: Welfare by admin on | No Comments

The performance of normal behaviours is limited when horses are kept in stalls, and behavioural development may be compromised due to inadequate environmental conditions. The response of a horse to training may be affected by housing. Horses were kept on pasture or in individual stalls, and a few from each groups were subjected to a standardized training procedure, carried out by two trainers in a round pen, while the others were introduced to the round pen but not trained. For the stalled horses, total training time was significantly higher than total time for the pastured horses. The stalled group also required more time to adapt to the activities occurring from the start of training to mounting. Unwanted behaviours occurred more often in stalled horses, and pastured horses tended to have a higher basal heart rate on the first day of the study. Physiological data did not identify differences between the two housing groups. However, behavioural data suggest that pasture-kept horses adapt more easily to training than stalled horses.

Broad-spectrum virus reduction in red cell concentrates using INACTINEa

Posted in: Welfare by admin on | No Comments

Social discrimination in lambs: persistence and scope.

Posted in: Welfare by admin on | No Comments

In natural rearing conditions, the social environment of lambs includes the mother, age-mates and other members of the flock. Lambs rapidly develop the ability to discriminate between individual conspecifics or members of different social categories. In the present study recognition among familiar unrelated lambs was assessed in a series of tests. At first, the lambs and their mothers were housed together in small groups for 1 week (Original groups; O). After that they were reorganized into new groupings (Recent-groups; R) for the remainder of the experiment. During test series 1, lambs that were paired with a familiar O-group partner, from which they had been separated for 5 days emitted fewer distress bleats than did those tested with an unfamiliar partner. Two days after this test, when the lambs were given a choice between an O- versus a R-partner, lambs did not display a preference for either of the stimulus lambs. However, in an additional two-choice test the subject lambs responded discriminatively to a recent familiar partner that was simultaneously present with an unfamiliar lamb. In summary results of this study suggest that lambs are capable of developing discriminative relationships with age-mates from different sub-groups, and that such social discrimination persists over a separation period lasting at least several days.

A method of using sustainability indicators to compare conventional and animal-friendly egg production systems

Posted in: Welfare by admin on | No Comments

This paper describes a technique that determines how different egg production systems contribute to the sustainable development of egg production. For demonstration purposes data collected from the Netherlands was used to compare a conventional battery cage system to deep litter and aviary systems, which are considered to be more animal friendly. The method was based on three criteria, the first being the identification of important issues pertaining to sustainable development. The next step was to translate these issues into indicators and finally assess how the indicators contribute to sustainable development. The first two criteria were based upon the findings from literature and consultations with experts in this field. The final criterion is based upon analysis of data and numerical and graphical comparisons. A graphical comparison illustrated how far from the target value each system was for each sustainability indicator. Numerical comparisons combined all the deviations for the sustainability indictors to provide an overall score, which demonstrated the overall contribution that a system made to the sustainability of egg production. The sustainability indicators used were economic performance, ammonia emission, energy use, hen and farmer welfare, and egg quality. All the indicators were considered equally important. Overall, battery cages appeared to be the most sustainable of the three systems. Of the two animal-friendly systems, the aviary was more sustainable than the deep-litter system. To improve upon the sustainability, the aviary system needs to improve the farmer welfare and the economic performance. However, these are only temporary conclusions as the effect of weighting the importance of each sustainability indicator needs to be investigated further.