Optimising pig welfare at the weaning and nursery stage

2021 ◽  
pp. 177-208
Author(s):  
Nicole Kemper ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Animal Welfare ◽  
Influencing Factors ◽  
Social Stress ◽  
Pig Farming ◽  
Weaning Age ◽  
Special Concern ◽  
And Performance

The welfare of pigs at the nursery stage is an area of special concern because of the manifold influencing factors that have the potential to decrease seriously the piglets’ wellbeing. Especially the separation from their mother sow in combination with a very young weaning age in modern pig farming, the new environment they are brought in, hitherto unknown sources of feed and water, and regrouping with non-litter mates represent big challenges. To help the piglets as best as possible to overcome these challenges is key for animal welfare, health and performance. In this chapter, the most important fields of environmental, nutritional and social stress are explained, and strategies to increase weaners’ welfare are summarised. The importance of trained and skilled stockmen is emphasised, because without a careful eye on the piglets and consideration of all possible negative and positive influencing factors, pig welfare at the nursery stage cannot be realised.

scholarly journals Human–animal relationship influences husbandry practices, animal welfare and productivity in pig farming

animal ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 100103
Author(s):  
F. Pol ◽  
F. Kling-Eveillard ◽  
F. Champigneulle ◽  
E. Fresnay ◽  
M. Ducrocq ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Animal Welfare ◽  
Pig Farming ◽  
Husbandry Practices ◽  
Human Animal

Publish or perish: why it’s important to publicise how, and if, research activities affect animals

2012 ◽  
Vol 39 (5) ◽  
pp. 375 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clive R. McMahon ◽  
Mark A. Hindell ◽  
Robert G. Harcourt
Keyword(s):  
Animal Welfare ◽  
Vital Rates ◽  
High Quality Research ◽  
Publish Or Perish ◽  
The Public ◽  
Research Activities ◽  
Basic Biology ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Effective Advocacy ◽  
Effective Conservation

Wildlife researchers and conservation biologists are encountering growing research difficulties due to strong and effective advocacy of animal welfare concerns. However, collecting information on the basic biology of animals, which is often essential to effective conservation and management, frequently involves invasive research. The latter is unacceptable to some animal welfare advocates, even if it ultimately leads to better conservation outcomes. For effective biodiversity conservation it is imperative that conservation and wildlife researchers lucidly present the case for their research on individual animals. This requires conservation biologists and the research community in general, to present these arguments in the public domain as well as in peer-reviewed literature. Moreover, it is important to measure how these activities affect animals. Only then can we show that high quality research activities often have little or no effects on animal vital rates and performance.

Social stress and performance in human-machine interaction: a neglected research field

Ergonomics ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 62 (11) ◽  
pp. 1377-1391 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juergen Sauer ◽  
Sven Schmutz ◽  
Andreas Sonderegger ◽  
Nadine Messerli
Keyword(s):  
Social Stress ◽  
Research Field ◽  
Human Machine Interaction ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Machine Interaction

Milk-fed calves: 2. The effect of length of milk feeding period and milk intake upon herbage intake and performance of grazing calves

1976 ◽  
Vol 87 (1) ◽  
pp. 197-204 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. L. P. Le Du ◽  
R. D. Baker ◽  
J. M. Barker
Keyword(s):  
Weight Gain ◽  
Live Weight ◽  
Feeding Period ◽  
Live Weight Gain ◽  
Herbage Intake ◽  
Milk Substitute ◽  
Weaning Age ◽  
Behavioural Factors ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Reconstituted Milk

SUMMARYForty-eight Hereford × Friesian steer calves purchased at 7–10 days of age were reared on reconstituted milk substitute and groups of 12 were weaned at 86, 128, 170 or 212 days. Six calves at each weaning age were fed high (H) and low (L) quantities of milk normally associated with 240-day lactation yields of 2000 or 1000 kg. Calves were housed until day 63 of the experiment and then strip-grazed on swards of Loliun perenne with a daily allocation of herbage dry matter equivalent to 60 g/kg LW.Herbage intake per unit live weight prior to weaning was consistently greater for the calves receiving low quantities of milk. Following weaning there was a rapid rise in herbage intake towards a maximum of 30 g OM/kg LW when sward conditions were non-limiting. The amount of milk fed prior to weaning affected herbage intake after weaning, and H groups did not achieve similar intakes to their L contemporaries until some weeks after weaning. The H groups grew faster from birth to weaning than the L groups but they experienced a more severe check in live-weight gain after weaning which nullified the advantage of better weight gains between the start of the grazing period and weaning. In consequence, there was no significant effect of the quantity of milk consumed prior to weaning upon live-weight gain during the grazing season. The results indicate a marked benefit from distributing a given quantity of milk over a longer feeding period as similar growth rates occurred for the H86 v. L128, H128 v. L170 and H170 v. L212 groups. Calves receiving milk consumed less herbage and spent a smaller proportion of the day grazing than weaned contemporaries, which suggests that metabolic rather than physical or behavioural factors are likely to limit their intake.

scholarly journals The importance of nutrition in alleviating high stocking density stress in poultry

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Esra Tuğçe Gül ◽  
Alpönder Yildiz ◽  
Osman Olgun
Keyword(s):  
Animal Welfare ◽  
Egg Production ◽  
Unit Area ◽  
Stocking Density ◽  
Meat Production ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Stress Indicators ◽  
And Performance ◽  
The Ideal

Abstract In recent decades, the number of birds reared per unit area has dramatically spiked to increase profitability in egg and meat production. However, nowadays, the increase in sensitivity to animal welfare and consumer demands brings along with it a raised interest in stocking density. Stocking density is defined either as the number of animals or body weight per unit area or as the area per animal. High stocking density, which is a stress factor, can be defined as an increase in the number of animals per unit area or a decrease in the area per animal. Stress caused by high stocking density negatively affects the bird’s physiology and performance as well as the quality of the product obtained. The ideal stocking density should be 9 laying hens, 35 kilogrammes for broilers, and 45 quails per square metre. Otherwise, one will observe stress indicators in birds reared in more than the recommended stocking density per unit area and, consequently, a decrease in bird growth, egg production, feed efficiency, and egg or meat quality. Apart from increasing the concentrations of amino acids such as lysine, methionine, tryptophan and arginine, minerals such as selenium and chromium, and vitamins such as C and E in the diet, the addition of additives such as probiotics, humates, phytophenol compounds, and propolis is also effective in reducing or eliminating these negative effects caused by high stocking density. As a result, regulations in the nutrition of animals are effective in reducing/preventing such negative effects, thus improving animal welfare and ensuring the maintenance of optimum yield.

scholarly journals Welfare and Performance of Three Turkey Breeds—Comparison between Infrared Beak Treatment and Natural Beak Abrasion by Pecking on a Screed Grinding Wheel

Animals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 2395
Author(s):  
Stefanie Grün ◽  
Klaus Damme ◽  
Matthias Müller ◽  
Marie Franziska Sommer ◽  
Paul Schmidt ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Animal Welfare ◽  
Behavioral Disorders ◽  
The Other ◽  
Grinding Wheel ◽  
Treatment Combination ◽  
Feather Pecking ◽  
Economic Problems ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Beak Trimming

Feather pecking and cannibalism are behavioral disorders that cause animal-welfare-relevant and economic problems. To mitigate these problems, the beaks of conventionally reared turkeys are usually already trimmed in the hatcheries. To find an alternative to beak trimming, we conducted this study with male turkeys of three breeds: B.U.T. 6, B.U.T. Premium and, Auburn (200 turkeys per breed). Half of the birds had infrared-trimmed beaks; the other half had intact beaks. For each treatment combination (breed, beak status), 25 turkeys were housed in one section. A screed grinding wheel was installed in each feed pan of the non-beak-trimmed turkeys as of week six to facilitate natural beak abrasion until slaughter. Eight randomly selected turkeys per section were regularly examined to record injuries, plumage condition, and beak dimensions. In addition, 96 beaks from randomly slaughtered birds were examined macroscopically and histologically. The results concerning injuries and plumage condition showed in most cases no differences between the beak-trimmed turkeys and the ones provided with the blunting disks. The histological examinations revealed alterations in only the beak-trimmed birds. We can conclude that the blunting method smoothens the beak during feeding and thus may be a possible alternative to beak trimming.

scholarly journals Considerations when Modelling EV Battery Circularity Systems

Batteries ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Kurdve ◽  
Mats Zackrisson ◽  
Mats I. Johansson ◽  
Burcak Ebin ◽  
Ulrika Harlin
Keyword(s):  
Influencing Factors ◽  
Automotive Industry ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Environmental Footprint ◽  
Technological Factors ◽  
Life Phase ◽  
Recycling Systems ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
Vehicle Market

The electric vehicle market is expected to grow substantially in the coming years, which puts new requirements on the end-of-life phase and on the recycling systems. To a larger extent, the environmental footprint from these vehicles is related to raw material extraction and production, and, consequently, a material- and energy-efficient 3R system (reuse, remanufacturing, recycling) is urgently needed. The ability to understand and model the design and development of such a system therefore becomes important. This study contributes to this by identifying factors that affect 3R system design and performance, relating these factors to the various actors and processes of the system and categorising them according to time from implementation to impact. The above is achieved by applying a PEST analysis (political, economic, social and technological factors), differentiating between political, economic, social and technological factors. Data were gathered from literature, by interviews and by a number of workshops in the automotive industry and the 3R system and observations at meetings, etc. The study confirms some previous results on how vehicle battery 3R systems work and adds knowledge about the influencing factors, especially the timeframes and dynamics of the system, necessary for modelling the system and the influencing factors. For practitioners, the results indicate how to use appropriate models and which factors are most relevant to them.

The effects of feeding diets containing molassed sugar beet feed during pregnancy and lactation on sow performance

1991 ◽  
Vol 1991 ◽  
pp. 123-123
Author(s):  
R.M. Kay ◽  
P.H. Simmins ◽  
J.I. Harland
Keyword(s):  
Sugar Beet ◽  
Animal Welfare ◽  
High Fibre Diet ◽  
Fibre Diet ◽  
High Fibre ◽  
Pregnancy And Lactation ◽  
Beet Pulp ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Feeding Diets ◽  
By Products

There has been an increasing interest in recent years in the feeding of bulky, high fibre diets to sows for both economic and animal welfare reasons. The potential of the pregnant sow to utilise sugar beet pulp, a highly digestible, high fibre by-product has previously been investigated (Close et al 1990, Edwards et al 1990). However, in both these investigations, the feeding of the high fibre diet was restricted to the pregnant sow and conventional diets were fed throughout lactation. The main objective of this trial was to assess the effect of substituting cereal and cereal by-products with molassed sugar beet feed (SBF) throughout pregnancy and lactation, on the condition and performance of both gilts and adult sows.

9. Weaning age and its long-term influence on health and performance

2020 ◽  
pp. 225-250
Author(s):  
S.A. Edwards ◽  
D.L. Turpin ◽  
J.R. Pluske
Keyword(s):  
Weaning Age ◽  
And Performance
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