Measuring general animal health status: Development of an animal health barometer

2015 ◽  
Vol 118 (4) ◽  
pp. 341-350 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pieter Depoorter ◽  
Xavier Van Huffel ◽  
Herman Diricks ◽  
Hein Imberechts ◽  
Jeroen Dewulf ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Status ◽  
Animal Health

scholarly journals Structural homology and expression tendency of the natural immune response of the terminal complement components to inoculations in pigs: a review

2013 ◽  
Vol 58 (No. 1) ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
D.V.A. Khoa
Keyword(s):  
Health Status ◽  
Candidate Genes ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Animal Health ◽  
Mammalian Species ◽  
Protein A ◽  
Retinol Binding Protein ◽  
Classical Pathway ◽  
Complement Components ◽  
Terminal Complement

The transmission of infectious agents from domestic animals to humans is a matter of particular concern at present. Inoculation can enhance the defences of each individual animal but only in the short term. Certainly, it will be of immense benefit if biotechnology and genetic techniques are applied to farm animal breeding and selection programs to improve productivity, performance and health status as well as for the construction of sustainable animal production systems and promotion of animal welfare. In recent years, efforts to drive candidate genes like cytokines, haptoglobin, complement system, C-reactive protein, a 2-macroglobulin, retinol binding protein, transcortin, and etc. associated with immune traits have successfully been studied in human and different animal species. Here, we compared the molecular structure and evaluated the expression tendency of the haemolytic complement activity (HCA) of porcine candidate genes encoding the terminal complement components (TCC) C6–9. The results suggested that (1) high homology of complement genes among mammalian species may open new ways in cure/ treatment of disease; (2) Muong Khuong animals (Vietnamese potbelly pig) have a great genetic potential to improve the health status of pigs; and (3) HCA in the classical pathway can be developed further by different activation modes, with the potential improvement of animal health.

scholarly journals Prawo o zdrowiu zwierząt

2020 ◽  
pp. 41-52
Author(s):  
Izabela Lipińska
Keyword(s):  
Health Status ◽  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Animal Health ◽  
Legal Regulation ◽  
Farm Animals ◽  
Animal Disease ◽  
Fully Integrated ◽  
Animal Disease Control ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Health Legislation

The subject of the article is the issues related to the implementation of EU legal solutions concerning the protection of the health of farm animals, while the purpose of the considerations is to evaluate the legal regulation adopted to implement the package of measures aimed at animal health that have been in place since 2013, and propose the direction of necessary changes in the national legislation in this area. The new animal health legislation entails the amendment or repeal of a number of national provisions on animal disease control, in particular those which were transpositions of directives and EU decisions now repealed. The legal instruments provided for in the regulation are expected to contribute to the achievement of a fully integrated internal market and to prevent the spread of infectious diseases, provided that the existing animal health status is maintained as far as possible.

scholarly journals Impact of Cadmium Intoxication on Health Status, Rumen and Blood Constituents in Egyptian Ossimi Sheep

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 102-106
Keyword(s):  
Drinking Water ◽  
Health Status ◽  
Rumen Fluid ◽  
Animal Health ◽  
Ammonia Nitrogen ◽  
Strong Positive Correlation ◽  
Toxic Heavy Metals ◽  
Animal Blood ◽  
Antioxidant Markers ◽  
The Impact

Toxic heavy metals particularly Cadmium (Cd) have a hazardous impact on animal health and productivity because of their ill-degradability and bio-accumulation for long periods. This study carried out on 52 Ossimi sheep belonging to Giza Governorate, including 12 sheep considered as control (kept in a private farm) and 40 sheep grazed on an area polluted with cadmium. Drinking water, animal blood and rumen fluid samples were collected from all sheep. Complete blood, rumen and serum constituents were analyzed. Iron, copper, zinc, oxidant, and antioxidant markers were evaluated and Cd levels in water, rumen fluid and serum were investigated to show the impact of Cd on those parameters. Physical examination revealed significant disturbance in health status of Cd-exposed sheep. Rumen fluid examination showed significant increase in rumen pH, significant decrease in rumen ammonia-nitrogen, TVFAs, AST, ALT, GGT, Ca and Ph. Blood constituent revealed significant alteration as significant decrease in RBCs count, Hb, PCV, MCHC and TLC as well as impaired hepatic and renal function and significant decrease of antioxidant markers. These alterations associated with strong positive correlation between these altered parameters and cadmium level in drinking water, rumen fluid and blood samples which markedly increased more than permissible limits; these results should be put in consideration in interpretation of affected animals' status and during treatment and control of cadmium exposed sheep cases as well as consumption of such animals' meat and offal is not recommended.

scholarly journals Risk-Based Approach to the Assessment of Sanitary Safety of Vivariums and Breeding Facilities, and Health Status of Personnel and Laboratory Animals

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 257-266
Author(s):  
E. D. Bondareva ◽  
K. E. Borovkova ◽  
M. N. Makarova
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Health Status ◽  
Laboratory Animal ◽  
Preventive Measures ◽  
Animal Health ◽  
Living Environment ◽  
Laboratory Animals ◽  
Preclinical Studies ◽  
Effect Analysis ◽  
Environment And Health

The paper discusses the system of managing risks arising during preclinical studies (risks for the health of personnel and laboratory animals, as well as risks associated with sanitation of premises) as a way to improve and control the efficiency of processes and the safety of facilities involved in preclinical studies.The aim of the study was to analyse the risk assessment system’s efficiency for improvement of drug safety assessment during preclinical studies in the context of animal care and use programmes.Materials and methods: the Failure Mode Effect Analysis (FMEA) method was used to assess the sanitary and hygienic conditions in laboratory animal facilities, as well as health status and welfare of laboratory animals and the attending personnel. The study checked the presence of pathogenic and opportunistic microflora as the main potential inconsistencies.Results: the risk assessment performed during monitoring of laboratory animal health, monitoring of surface cleanliness, and assessment of personnel health, helped to establish a list of the most dangerous pathogens that require stricter control. In order to reduce risks arising during preclinical studies, the following set of measures was proposed: monitoring of the living environment and health of laboratory animals, revision of therapeutic and preventive measures for laboratory animals (including adjustment of antibiotic treatment depending on antimicrobial resistance of microorganisms), monitoring of the personnel health status, taking measures to enhance the personnel vigilance with respect to their own health, prohibition to work at the premises for employees showing symptoms, control of how the employees showing symptoms observe the prohibition to work at the premises, organisation of periodic medical examinations for personnel having contact with laboratory animals.Conclusions: the risk-based assessment helped to identify the most dangerous potential inconsistencies (pathogenic and opportunistic microflora) and the necessary preventive measures to control and manage potential risk consequences.

scholarly journals Cattle Health Status Criteria

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 2251-2254
Keyword(s):  
Health Status ◽  
Metabolic Diseases ◽  
Animal Health ◽  
Integrated Approach ◽  
Scientific Data ◽  
Anthropogenic Factors ◽  
Economic Damage ◽  
Cattle Breeding ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
Cattle Health

Materials for studying disparate scientific data, performing studies and developing the criteria for evaluating the health status of cattle have been presented. The efficiency of the integrated approach to solving the problem has been shown. It has been found that metabolic diseases cause the most economic damage to livestock. Based on this fact, countries with developed cattle breeding pay increasing attention to the development and improvement of the methodological, organizational and methodical bases of metabolism monitoring, especially during the most hectic periods of the physiological cycle. In the Russian Federation, their methodological basis includes clinical examination, creating biologically full-fledged and high-quality forage base, bringing the animals keeping conditions closer to the natural ones, and laboratory study of the indicators of blood, urine, and milk as intermediate indicators of metabolism and of its conformity to the level and the nature of animal productivity. Among animal health criteria, one should consider the state of the immune system, which due to its sensitivity, may act as an indicator of the effect of various anthropogenic factors and ecological state on the organism.

scholarly journals Nasal and gut microbiota for sows of different health status within six commercial swine farms from one swine production system

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andréia Gonçalves Arruda ◽  
Loic Deblais ◽  
Vanessa Hale ◽  
Monique Pairis-Garcia ◽  
Vishal Srivastava ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Status ◽  
Gut Microbiota ◽  
Beta Diversity ◽  
Animal Health ◽  
Alpha Diversity ◽  
Considerable Proportion ◽  
Upper Respiratory Tract ◽  
Fecal Samples ◽  
Cull Sows ◽  
Nasal Microbiota

AbstractSow culling is an essential practice in swine herds to optimize animal health and productivity; and cull sows represent a considerable proportion of the herd at any given time point. Even though recent studies have reported that the microbiome is associated with susceptibility to diseases, the microbiome in the cull sow population has not been explored. The main objective of this study was to investigate whether there were differences in abundance and diversity of microbes encountered in the gut and upper respiratory tract of sows of different health status (healthy, cull, and compromised cull sows) and different farms. Farms were visited once, 30 individual fecal and nasal swab samples were obtained per farm; and pooled across animals by health status and farm in pools of five. Genomic DNA was extracted and samples were subjected to MiSeq 16S rRNA sequencing using Illumina MiSeq. Diversity analyses were conducted using QIIME. Alpha diversity was analyzed using observed OTUs, PD Whole Tree, and Chao1; and beta diversity was assessed using weighted UniFrac. The mean number of OTUs was 3,846.97±9,078.87 and 28,747.92±14,090.50 for nasal and fecal pooled samples, respectively. Diversity of the nasal microbiota was low compared to the gut microbiota. For nasal samples, there was a difference in diversity between samples from farms 1-6 using the Chao1 metric (p = 0.0005); and weighted beta diversity values indicated clustering by health status. For fecal samples, there was no difference in diversity between compromised, cull, and healthy sows; or between samples from farms 1-6. Weighted PCoA analyses showed an influence of farm of origin on the diversity of pooled fecal samples. Finally, differences at the genus level were found in the fecal microbiota composition of sows of different health status and farm of origin; but not for nasal microbiota.

scholarly journals On the influence of the alternation of two different cooling systems on dairy cow daily activities

2017 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simona M.C. Porto ◽  
Alessandro D'Emilio ◽  
Giovanni Cascone
Keyword(s):  
Health Status ◽  
Dairy Cows ◽  
Dairy Cow ◽  
Cooling System ◽  
Time Budget ◽  
Feeding Activity ◽  
Animal Health ◽  
Sprinkler System ◽  
Forced Ventilation ◽  
Cooling Systems

Among the causes that influence cow welfare, heat stress induced by microclimatic conditions is one of the most relevant and many studies have investigated the efficacy of different cooling systems on animal health status. Nevertheless, the direct influence of the cooling systems on possible modifications of dairy cow behaviour has been addressed in a few studies and the related results were affected by the presence of a paddock, which gave a refuge from hot temperature. Since an alteration of the daily time budget spent by dairy cows in their usual activities can be associated with changes in their health status, this study investigated the effects of the alternation of two different cooling systems on lying, standing, and feeding behaviour of a group of dairy cows bred in a free-stall dairy house where animals had no access to a paddock. The barn was equipped with a fogging system associated with forced ventilation installed in the resting area and a sprinkler system associated with forced ventilation installed in the feeding area. The two systems were activated alternately. The results demonstrated that the management of the two cooling systems affected the analysed behaviours. Though the activation of the cooling system installed in the resting area encouraged the decubitus of animals in the stalls, the activation of that one of the feeding alley could not be able to influence the standing behaviour and had only a moderate positive influence on the feeding activity.

scholarly journals Health monitoring of finishing pigs by secondary data use – a longitudinal analysis

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Grosse-Kleimann ◽  
Heiko Plate ◽  
Henning Meyer ◽  
Hubert Gerhardy ◽  
Corinna Elisabeth Heucke ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Status ◽  
Animal Welfare ◽  
Animal Health ◽  
Average Daily Gain ◽  
Data Use ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Health Indicators ◽  
Production Performance ◽  
Production Data ◽  
Finishing Pigs

Abstract Background In Germany, animal welfare has become an increasingly important issue. Since 2006, German legislation demands self-monitoring of animal welfare by farmers, but there is a lack of prescribed indicators for governmental monitoring. Since recording of the health status through examinations on individual farms requires many resources, secondary data use is obvious. Therefore, this study deals with the overall evaluation and utilization of existing production data from the German pork production. Performance data and information on antibiotic usage and meat inspection were used for a benchmarking system of animal health in finishing pigs. Results Seven health scores and one total score were evaluated for 184 finishing pig herds on semi-annual basis between July 2017 and June 2019, based on the health indicators mortality, average daily gain, feed conversion ratio, treatment frequency, respiratory lesions, exterior lesions and animal management. In preparation, the selected health indicators were brought to the same scale and skewed data were transformed to build scores (MOR, ADG, FCR, TF, RESP, EXT and MANG). A differentiated analysis was carried out for three classes of initial body weight regarding to farmers’ fattening management strategies. Conclusions The present study shows that existing production data of German finishing pigs are usable for welfare monitoring. However, preparatory editing steps are crucial. The total score can only be an estimate of health status because partly bad or good performance could be disguised. It has also been demonstrated, that relative benchmarking is suitable for depicting temporary fluctuations in the investigated collective.

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