pig husbandry
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PLoS ONE ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. e0261248
Author(s):  
Aurelia Schütz ◽  
Katharina Kurz ◽  
Gesa Busch

Apart from improving husbandry conditions and animal welfare, there is a clear public demand to increase transparency in agricultural activities. Personal farm tours have shown to be appreciated by citizens but are limited in their impact because of hygiene requirements and accessibility. Virtual farm tours are a promising approach to overcome these limitations but evidence on their perceptions is missing. This study analyzes how a virtual farm tour is perceived by showing participants (n = 17) a 360-degree video of a conventional pig fattening pen on a tablet and via virtual reality (VR) glasses. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted to analyze perceptions and level of immersion and to elicit differences between media devices. Participants’ perception of the pig fattening pen was rather poor and depended on the recording perspective as well as on the media device. However, housing conditions were perceived more positively compared to the image participants had in mind prior to the study, and thus the stable was considered as a rather positive example. Participants described virtual farm tours as suitable tool to improve transparency and information transfer and to gain insights into husbandry conditions. They appreciated the comfortable and entertaining character of both media devices and named various possibilities for implementation. However, VR glasses were favored regarding the higher realistic and entertaining value, while the tablet was considered beneficial in terms of usability. The presentation of video sequences without additional explanations about the farm or the housing conditions were claimed insufficient to give an adequate understanding of the seen content.


2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Immaculada Argemí-Armengol ◽  
Daniel Villalba ◽  
Juan Ramón Bertolín ◽  
María Ángeles Latorre ◽  
Núria Panella-Riera ◽  
...  

Abstract In organic pig husbandry, the use of roughage is mandatory as dietary supplement. This study investigated the effects of oat silage on the fatty acid composition, in entire males and gilts, as well as indole and skatole levels in perirenal adipose tissue of entire males. Entire males and gilts (forty-five to forty-eight pigs/sex) were assigned to two dietary roughage feeds (control with straw vs. oat silage). There was no significant effect of silage or sex on total SFA and MUFA in pork fat. However, the oat silage increased the total PUFA n-3 and decreased the PUFA n-6/n-3 ratio. The content of boar taint compounds (skatole and indole) in the entire male pigs did not differ between diets, although human nose scoring rejected in a greater extent more pork fat from entire males supplemented with oat silage, compared with those only supplied with straw. Approximately 50% of the entire males (90 to 97 kg of carcass) had low skatole values (≤0.1 μg/g), that were below the range of boar taint detection, regardless of the feeding regime. This finding indicates that more studies should be performed to avoid the problem of taint detection in entire males under organic production.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Jordan Sand

Abstract This essay traces the diffusion of pigs and the introduction of new practices of pig husbandry in East Asia and the Pacific, with particular attention to the cases of Hawaii, Okinawa, and Japan. Countering the trend in animal history to emphasize environmental and genetic factors, it demonstrates that discourses of property, sovereignty, freedom, and slavery, brought to the region with modern imperialism, played a decisive role in shaping relationships between people and domesticated animals. The essay concludes that global diffusion of capitalist forms of animal husbandry depended on a process of disembedding animals from earlier social roles. This process took different forms in different places. It was in part ecological and in part economic, but must be understood first in the context of the movement of political ideas.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (10) ◽  
pp. e0257524
Author(s):  
Quan Zhang ◽  
Yanfeng Hou ◽  
Xinwei Li ◽  
Amy Styring ◽  
Julia Lee-Thorp

It is well-known that pigs (Sus scrofa) were domesticated very early in Neolithic China, but far less is known about the processes by which pig husbandry intensified so that pork became the most important animal protein for humans are less clear. Here, we explore pig feeding practices using the carbon and nitrogen isotope composition of bone collagen, focusing on developments in pig husbandry during the Yangshao period (7000–5000 BP) in the middle Yellow River region of China, and at the site of Xipo (5800–5000 BP) in particular. The results show that the diets of domestic pigs at Xipo were dominated by millet foods. Comparisons with other Yangshao sites in the region show a trend of increasing millet foddering for pigs throughout the Yangshao period. These results, and comparisons of the isotopic data for pigs against those for humans from the Xipo cemetery (5300–5000 BP), suggest that pigs were closely managed by humans. The evidence points to an intensification of Neolithic pig husbandry in the middle Yellow River region from this period.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Cucchi ◽  
Auriale Domont ◽  
Hugo Harbers ◽  
Charlotte Leduc ◽  
Aurélie Guidez ◽  
...  

AbstractEpipaleolithic hunter-gatherers from the Near East introduced wild boars (Sus scrofa) to Cyprus, with the Early Pre-Pottery Neolithic (PPN) settlers hunting the wild descendants of these boars. However, the geographic origin of the Cypriot boar and how they were integrated into the earliest forms of pig husbandry remain unsolved. Here, we present data on 11,000 to 9000 cal. BP Sus scrofa from the PPN sites of Klimonas and Shillourokambos. We compared them to contemporaneous populations from the Near East and to Neolithic and modern populations in Corsica, exploring their origin and evolution using biosystematic signals from molar teeth and heel bones (calcanei), using 2D and 3D geometric morphometrics. We found that the Cypriot PPN lineage of Sus scrofa originates from the Northern Levant. Yet, their phenotypic idiosyncrasy suggest that they evolved into an insular sub-species that we named Sus scrofa circeus, referring to Circe, the metamorphosis goddess that changed Ulysses companions into pigs. The phenotypic homogeneity among PPNA Klimonas wild boars and managed populations of PPNB Shillourokambos suggests that local domestication has been undertaken on the endemic S. s. circeus, strengthening the idea that Cyprus was integrated into the core region of animal domestication.


Antibiotics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 521
Author(s):  
Hannah Schollenbruch ◽  
Iris Kobusch ◽  
Iris Schröter ◽  
Alexander Mellmann ◽  
Robin Köck ◽  
...  

In countries with professional pig husbandry in stables, the prevalence of livestock-associated (LA) methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) on farms has remained high or has further increased in recent years. Simple measures to reduce LA-MRSA among pigs have not yet been successfully implemented. The aim of this pilot study is twofold: first, to examine how the LA-MRSA status of LA-MRSA positive fattening pigs at the date of housing changes over the fatting period on straw bedding and, second, whether this change could be influenced by the quality of cleaning and disinfection (C&D). For this purpose, 122 animals are individually tested for LA-MRSA carriage at five sequential time points comparing pigs housed on a farm using straw bedding plus C&D (n = 59) vs. straw bedding plus simple cleaning (n = 63). At the time of housing, all animals in both groups are LA-MRSA positive. This status changes to 0% in the group with simple cleaning until the end of fattening and 28% in the C&D group. LA-MRSA in environmental and air samples is also reduced over the fattening period. The results indicate that keeping pigs on straw might be one way to reduce LA-MRSA during the fattening period with simple cleaning appearing to be more beneficial than C&D. Further investigations are necessary to determine the influencing factors more precisely.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Acheenta Gohain Barua ◽  
Mrinmoyee Sarma ◽  
Monoshree Sarma ◽  
Kaushik Kakoty ◽  
Uttam Rajkhowa ◽  
...  

Cysticercosis is one of the most important neglected parasitic diseases caused by the larval stage of the tapeworm Taenia solium. It is the most common cause of epilepsy in the areas with improper pig husbandry practices and poor sanitary conditions. In pig the larvae lodges in the muscle and subcutaneous tissue and seldom manifests any clinical sign. In human beings the larval stage resides in the CNS thus leading to the condition Neurocysticercosis. The disease can be diagnosed by using various neuroimaging techniques and immunodiagnostic methods. Available therapeutic options include cysticidal drugs, steroids, anti-epileptic drugs etc. The disease can be controlled by anti-parasitic treatment of the pig and humans residing in endemic areas, vaccinating the pigs, creating awareness and other measures.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mona F. Giersberg ◽  
Franck L. B. Meijboom

Current pig production systems in Europe are subject to public criticism. At the same time, Precision Livestock Farming (PLF) technologies, which allow for automated animal monitoring are entering commercial pig farms. With their claim of improving animal health and welfare, these innovations may respond to public concerns. However, they may raise problems of societal acceptance themselves. In this review, we investigate whether the available literature allows for an analysis to which extent PLF can mitigate or reinforce societal concerns related to pig production. We first analyze papers on pig husbandry systems in general, and then those on PLF as an innovation in animal production. In general, there is a tension between citizens and farmers. Citizens hold rather negative attitudes whereas farmers evaluate pig production more positively. Literature on attitudes of other actors, such as veterinarians, is missing. Information on the attitudes toward PLF of stakeholders other than farmers is lacking. Possible challenges of societal acceptance of PLF and chances to overcome these are only discussed in theoretical approaches. We conclude that to analyze the role of PLF in addressing societal concerns over pig production, there is a need for further empirical research including attention to underlying values of all stakeholders. This should focus on the attitudes of the currently missing stakeholders toward pig husbandry in general, and on those of the wider society toward PLF. Only by means of additional data, it will be possible to evaluate whether PLF has the potential to address societal concerns related to pig production.


2021 ◽  
pp. 15-15
Author(s):  
Katalin Maros ◽  
Adrián Patyi ◽  
Natasa Fazekas ◽  
János Tőzsér

Abnormal oral manipulation, such as tail-, ear-, and flank-biting are among the most serious behaviour problems in modern pig husbandry. They not only affect the welfare of animals, but also have economic consequences. The prevalence of tail-, ear-, and flank-bite damage was estimated in a 1200 sow farrow-to-finish commercial farm in Hungary were pigs grouped by age. A total of 16,023 individuals were observed, of which 4,679 were housed in the batteries and 11,344 were housed in the fattening barns. In the batteries, the prevalence of tail-bitten and ear-bitten piglets in the different age groups ranged from 2.6 to 15.18%, 10.77 to 56.87%, respectively. The likelihood of tail injuries increased with the age of the animals, while the likelihood of ear injuries gradually decreased with piglet?s age. No flank injuries were observed in piglets from the batteries. In the fattening barns, the prevalence of tail and ear injuries in the different age groups was between 2.73 and 6.1%, and between 3.38 and 58.16%, respectively. Flank biting appeared only in older animals, from 156 days of age, at a much lower frequency (1.96 to 3.26%) than the other injuries studied. Some elements of the housing and feeding technology applied in this farm could enhance the occurrence of abnormal oral bite behaviour in pigs. Changing from wet to granulate feed and replacing the grid flooring with solid flooring covered with straw litter could lead to a decline in the incidence of biting.


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