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Industry Partners
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:
Bodyweight, fluid and electrolyte, and hormonal changes in horses that successfully completed a 5 day, 424 kilometer endurance competition .
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Animal rights and the Olympic Games.
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The Humane Society of the United States has been concerned with animal welfare resulting from specific events, particularly the three-day equestrian event, at the Atlanta Olympic. Representatives were on hand for check-ups throughout the event, and have suggested modifications be made to the event to improve horse welfare. Research into heat and humidity control has also been identified as an potentially important aspect of this event. In the Atlanta Olympics, 7 of the 90 horses competed experienced an injury of sorts, including dehydration, minor cuts, bruising, pulled ligaments, or a bone fragment. No State of Georgia welfare laws were broken during the event.
The effect of a foraging device (a modified
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Weaning stress is affected by nutrition and weaning methods
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Weaning foals from their mothers is a stressful event for both, as is shown by an increase in cortisol levels of both animals. The objective of this set of experiments was to determine if stress can be minimized by either gradual or abrupt weaning, and if manipulation of dietary constituents can aid in the reduction of this stress. Two experiments were performed. In experiment one, 20 mare and foal pairs were housed on pasture, with mares (foals allowed access) being given an all forage or forage and pelleted diet. These pairs were then separated, and in one group, all mares were removed abruptly. The second group had one or two mares removed daily. Blood tests were taken 72 hr post weaning to determine ACTH levels. Behavior was recorded for 1 hr after weaning, and for the following 2 days. Each foal was subjectively assigned a stress indication scale rating between 1 (severe stress) and 10 (no stress). Experiment 2 involved 24 mare/foal pairs. 10 of these pairs were given access to a high starch and sugar supplement, 10 to a high fat and fibre supplement, and 4 to pelleted concentrate and pasture. All mares were removed gradually except for the 4 on the pelleted supplement (abrupt removal of mares). Data collected was similar to that in experiment 1. The experimental results indicate that abruptly weaned foals were more active than those gradually weaned, possibly indicating an increase in stress level. Dietary constituents in experiment 2 resulted in a shift in stress level, with foals on high fat and fibre grazing more, indicating a lower stress level than foals on high sugar/starch. Plasma cortisol levels did not show a difference in stress levels due to diet or weaning method. To conclude, this research indicates that weaning stress can be reduced by gradual weaning, and by using dietary constituents high in fat/fibre.
Behaviour of untethered horses during vehicle transport
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Lameness in dairy cattle.
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