284 Prop 12 and Its Implications for Future On-farm Animal Welfare in the United States

California’s Proposition 12, also known as the Farm Animal Confinement Initiative, will go into full effect starting in January 2022. This measure changes the minimum space requirement for egg-laying hens, calves raised for veal, and breeding sows within the state of California. These changes include housing that provides 1 to 1.5 square feet of floor space per hen within a cage-free system, 43 square feet of floor space per veal calf, and 24 square feet of floor space per sow. In addition, Proposition 12 would require producers to move the sows from gestation pens into farrowing crates for a maximum of 5 days before they are due to farrow. This measure also prohibits producers outside of California from importing their eggs, veal, or pork into the state unless they meet these minimum housing requirements. The goal of these requirements is to ensure that they animal can lie down, stand up, turn around, and fully extend their limbs without touching the sides of their stalls or another animal. While the intent of this new housing requirement may allow for a greater freedom of movement, animal welfare concerns are still prominent for group housing. For breeding sow, such concerns include injuries caused by social aggression, and, abnormal or harmful behaviors related to feed restriction. These welfare concerns can be addressed when considerations are given to the group composition (e.g., age and size of sows), pen mixing practices (e.g., pre or post breeding), feeding schedule [e.g., collective (trough, floor fed) or individual (electronic sow feeding, free access stalls)], and, pen structural quality (e.g., flooring, enrichment). Given that California represents approximately 15 percent of the American pork market, this measure will have considerable economic and ethical implications related to barn renovations, animal care staff training, and husbandry practices for the entire U.S. pork industry.

Use of Veterinary Pharmaceuticals and Application via Manure Slurries to Soil in the Netherlands

<p>Veterinary Pharmaceuticals (VPs) are used world-wide to cure or prevent illness of animals, and increasingly investigated in view of emissions into the environment. It is known that environmental routes of VPs are complex while transport rates and persistence are not yet well established. Our investigation focuses on the route till application of VPs in (liquid) manure to soil. To characterize this for the Netherlands, we investigated national usage of 4 livestock sectors (dairy cow, veal calf, sow and fattening pig), as well as animal excretion rates prior and degradation during slurry manure storage. This has been done for 12 antibiotics, 4 antiparasitic drugs and one hormone. An inventory of data bases and taking into account data reliability, revealed for almost all substances a reduction of quantities administrated to the animals during the period 2015-2018. Literature review on excretion rates identified that there is still insufficient information, despite that those rates directly influence the VP portions in the environment. Our developed storage model showed that VPs concentrations during a period of 6 months could reduce by a factor as large as 60 and that the fractions present in that manure are highly dependent on animal type, quantity of produced manure and substance degradation rates. At the same time, our predicted after-storage concentrations were found to be comparable with the reported measurements available for some parts of the Netherlands. Considering that similar manure types are applied on arable lands and grasslands in considerable quantities in many other countries, our approach and results may represent a good foundation for further research on the environmental fate of VPs.</p>

Regucalcin expression profiles in veal calf testis: validation of histological and molecular tests to detect sex steroids illicit administration

Background Sex steroids administration in meat producing animals is forbidden within the EU to preserve consumers’ safety, but continuous monitoring to identify resurgence of their misuse is needed. Among biomarkers related to sex steroids abuse in veal calves the regucalcin (RGN) mRNA perturbations in testis have been described in RNAlater samples. To setup novel diagnostic method, to update current tests available in National Residue Control Plans (NRCPs) and in legal dispute when illicit practices on farm animals are suspected, the reliability of RGN profiling was assessed by histological and molecular techniques. Methods Formalin fixed paraffin embedded (FFPE) testis samples, chosen being the most effective preservation strategy adopted by histological NRCPs and allowing easier retrospective analysis if required by legal disputes, were analyzed from veal calves treated with nandrolone, 17β-estradiol and a cocktail of the two hormones. RGN levels were determined by quantitative Real Time PCR and Immunohistochemistry assays. Test performances were assessed and compared by multiple ROC curves. Results Both tests resulted sensitive and specific, allowing to enrich, in future field investigation, novel integrated diagnostic protocols needed to unveil sex steroid abuse. Discussion Developed RT-qPCR and IHC methods confirmed RGN as a useful and robust biomarker to detect illegal administration of sex steroid hormones in veal calves. The developed methods, successfully applied to ten years old FFPE blocks, could allow both retrospective analysis, when supplementary investigations are requested by authorities, and future implementation of current NRCPs.

Metagenomic Analysis of the Microbial Communities and Resistomes of Veal Calf Feces

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a major public health concern, and dairy calves, including veal calves, are known reservoirs of resistant bacteria. To investigate AMR in the fecal microbial communities of veal calves, we conducted metagenomic sequencing of feces collected from individual animals on four commercial veal operations in Pennsylvania. Fecal samples from three randomly selected calves on each farm were collected soon after the calves were brought onto the farms (n = 12), and again, just before the calves from the same cohorts were ready for slaughter (n = 12). Results indicated that the most frequently identified phyla were Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, Proteobacteria, and Actinobacteria. Fecal microbial communities in samples collected from the calves at the early and late stages of production were significantly different at the genus level (analysis of similarities [ANOSIM] on Bray-Curtis distances, R = 0.37, p < 0.05), but not at the phylum level. Variances among microbial communities in the feces of the younger calves were significantly higher than those from the feces of calves at the late stage of production (betadisper F = 8.25, p < 0.05). Additionally, our analyses identified a diverse set of mobile antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs) in the veal calf feces. The fecal resistomes mostly consisted of ARGs that confer resistance to aminoglycosides, tetracyclines, and macrolide-lincosamide-streptogramin B (MLS), and these ARGs represented more than 70% of the fecal resistomes. Factors that are responsible for selection and persistence of resistant bacteria in the veal calf gut need to be identified to implement novel control points and interrupt detrimental AMR occurrence and shedding.

Mannheimia pernigra sp. nov., isolated from bovine respiratory tract

Over a period of 1 year, 270 isolates identified as Taxon 39 of Bisgaard were obtained from the nasopharynx of veal calves at 11 epidemiologically independent Swiss fattening farms. Two isolates from each farm and the Australian Taxon 39 reference strain BNO311 were further characterized by genetic and phenotypic methods. Phylogenetic analysis of 16S rRNA and recN gene sequences placed the isolates in a single, distinct cluster within the genus Mannheimia . As to the rpoB gene, most isolates clustered together, but four strains formed a separate cluster close to Mannheimia varigena . Genome sequence analysis of isolates from both rpoB clusters confirmed their species status, with an average nucleotide identity (ANI) >98.9 % between isolates and <84 % to the closest species, M. varigena . Based upon whole genome sequences, the G+C content was determined as 39.1 mol%. Similarly, analysis of MALDI-TOF MS reference spectra clustered the isolates clearly separated from the other Mannheimia species, making this the method of choice for identification. In addition, numerous biochemical markers based on classical as well as commercial identification schemes were determined, allowing separation from other Mannheimia species and identification of the new taxon. Major fatty acids for strain 17CN0883T are C14 : 0, C16 : 0, C16 : 1 ω7c and C18 : 1 ω7c. Major respiratory quinones are ubiquinone-7 and ubiquinone-8. We propose the name Mannheimia pernigra sp. nov. for former Taxon 39 of Bisgaard. The type strain is 17CN0883T (=CCUG 74657T=DSM 111153T) isolated from a veal calf in Switzerland.

Welfare Assessment in Calves Fattened According to the “Outdoor Veal Calf” Concept and in Conventional Veal Fattening Operations in Switzerland

The “outdoor veal calf” system was developed to encounter the demand for a veal fattening system that allows for reducing antimicrobial use without impairing animal welfare. Management improvements including direct purchase, short transportation, vaccination, three-week quarantine in individual hutches, and open-air housing in small groups in a roofed, straw-bedded paddock with a group hutch were implemented in a prospective intervention study (1905 calves, 19 intervention and 19 control farms, over one year): antimicrobial use was five times lower in "outdoor veal" farms compared to control farms (p < 0.001), but it was crucial to ensure that antimicrobial treatment reduction was not associated with decreased animal welfare, i.e., that sick animals were not left untreated. Welfare was assessed monthly on the farms, and organs of 339 calves were examined after slaughter. Cough and nasal discharge were observed significantly (p ≤ 0.05) less often in intervention than in control farms, mortality (3.1% vs. 6.3%, p = 0.020) and lung lesion prevalence (26% vs. 46%, p < 0.001) were lower; no group difference was seen in abomasal lesion prevalence (65% vs. 72%). Thus, besides reduced antimicrobial use, calf health and welfare were improved in "outdoor veal calf" farms in comparison to traditional operations.

Drivers of ESBL-producing Escherichia coli dynamics in calf fattening farms: a modelling study

The contribution of bacteria in livestock to the global burden of antimicrobial resistance raises concerns worldwide. However, the dynamics of selection and diffusion of antimicrobial resistance in farm animals are not fully understood. Here, we used veal calf fattening farms as a model system, as they are a known reservoir of Extended Spectrum β-Lactamase-producing Escherichia coli (ESBL-EC). Longitudinal data of ESBL-EC carriage and antimicrobial use (AMU) were collected from three veal calf farms during the entire fattening process. We developed 18 agent-based mechanistic models to assess different hypotheses regarding the main drivers of ESBL-EC dynamics in calves. The models were independently fitted to the longitudinal data using Markov Chain Monte Carlo and the best model was selected. Within-farm transmission between individuals and sporadic events of contamination were found to drive ESBL-EC dynamics on farms. In the absence of AMU, the median carriage duration of ESBL-EC was estimated to be 19.6 days (95% credible interval: [12.7; 33.3]). In the best model, AMU was found to influence ESBL-EC dynamics, by affecting ESBL-EC clearance rather than acquisition. This effect of AMU was estimated to decrease gradually after the end of exposure and to disappear after 62.5 days [50.0; 76.9]. Moreover, using a simulation study, we quantified the efficacy of ESBL-EC mitigation strategies. Decreasing ESBL-EC prevalence by 50% on arrival at the fattening farm reduced prevalence at slaughter age by 33.3%. Completely eliminating the use of selective antibiotics had a strong effect on average ESBL-EC prevalence (relative reduction of 79.6%), but the effect was mild if this use was only decreased by 50% compared to baseline (relative reduction of 3.7%).