Do we need regulation of drinking water for animals? Recommendations for the water supply of farm animals and pets

The role of water as an essential nutrient for the animals, their health, performance and welfare is often underestimated. Presently there exists no specific legal regulation which defines the water quality for animal consumption. Some local recommendations make reference to the German regulation for the drinking water of humans. This seems to be useful in respect to food producing animals at a first glance. However, significant practical difficulties can occur. Therefore it is necessary to include in a possible regulation for the drinking water of animals additional animal and management specific aspects such as the type of animal, the keeping system, the water supply system, the distribution systems and the drinkers which are used. It may also be useful to define animal specific thresholds for certain groups of compounds and contaminants. As a first step towards a possible regulation 12 recommendations are given to improve and standardise the water supply of farm and pet animals.     

Microbial contamination in human and animal drinking water

Water plays an important roll in the epidemiology of a lot of infectious diseases. Groundwater as well as surface water contains generally microorganisms of several species, which cannot always differentiated properly in autochthonous flora and contaminants with health significance. Sources of bacterial or viral contaminants may be feces from man and/or animals but with different counts in ground and surface water. With respect to water used for supplying farm animals it is stated that it must have initially drinking water quality. Since it generally looses this quality in this supply system the following requirements shall be met: Free of Salmonellas and/or Campylobacter in 100 ml, no E. coli in 10 ml, total bacterial count at 37 degrees C less than 1000 cfu/ml and total bacterial count at 20 degrees C less than 10,000 cfu/ml.     

Effect of drinking water on animal health: toxicologic health risks

To avoid health risks in farm animals it is necessary to limit the intake of unwanted chemical compounds via air, feed or drinking water. The basis for this procedure are experimental results of Veterinary Toxicology, after which acceptable daily intakes can be estimated. A health risk is not present, if those limits are not exceeded. Risks may not only occur as an impairment of health itself but as well as a reduction of yield of food producing animals (body growth, production of meat and fat, fertility, milk and egg production). In addition the cumulation of unwanted compounds in tissues, which are used for the production of food of animal origin, is of great importance for the limitation of daily intakes of those environmental pollutants. Following the results of toxicological experiments in the target animals "Toxicological Drinking Water Standards for Animals" can be established.     

Current knowledge of water quality and safety for livestock.

Basic laboratory evaluation of water quality for livestock should include measurement of TDS, sulfate, nitrate-nitrite, and coliform bacteria. Supplementary water tests may include pH, sodium, iron, magnesium, chloride, calcium, potassium, manganese, and contaminants specific to the situation. Using the best-quality drinking water available contributes to the optimal production of livestock. Restricted quantity of drinking water or drinking water containing excessive levels of nitrate, TDS, sulfate, and other constituents can affect growth and production of all classes of animals. Drinking-water quality and availability should be evaluated as a cause of poor performance or nonspecific disease conditions in livestock. It is important that attempts to evaluate water quality include obtaining a thorough history, making astute observations, and asking intelligent questions. A thorough laboratory examination of animal specimens and water samples should be evaluated in view of existing standards for livestock drinking-water quality.     

The Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point's (HACCP) concept as applied to some chemical, physical and microbiological contaminants of milk on dairy farms. A prototype

Quality management on dairy farms becomes more and more important regarding the different areas of animal health, animal welfare and food safety. Monitoring animals, farm conditions and farm records can be extended with risk identification and risk management. The hazard analysis critical control point's system is useful as an on farm strategy to control the product as well as the production process on the areas of animal health, animal welfare and food safety. This article deals in detail with the question how to develop a qualitative method where risk can be defined as an interaction between probability and impact. Two parts of the production process (milk harvest and treatment of cows) where used as an example how to apply the hazard analysis critical control point's system on chemical, physical and microbiological contaminants of milk. Not just only by summarizing the different critical checkpoints for each area but also by giving them a precise judgement of probability and impact.     

Ethological basis for the evaluation of animal welfare in housing systems for agricultural animals and laboratory animals]

The Swiss Federal Act on Animal Protection (1978) requires the sale of mass-produced housing systems for farm animals to be authorized by the Federal Veterinary Office. Authorization is only granted for housing systems that safeguard the animals' welfare. A concept for the assessment of Animal Welfare has to provide a high forensic value. The capacity of farm animals to adapt to an intensive housing system can be directly examined, whereas the existence and extent of subjective feelings can only be assumed. In our concept the examination focuses on the interaction of individuals with their artificial environment. The main question is whether or not the individuals are able to cope with given nonspecific (e.g. temperature, humidity) and specific (e.g. drinking troughs, behaviour of conspecifics) stimuli in order to reach the immediate (e.g. drinking, make way for) and ultimate (survival, reproduction success) goals. Animals of the same breed are observed in a highly diverse environment in order to determine normal behaviour. Whether behavioural expressions which differ significantly from normal behaviour are adaptive to the restrictive housing conditions is judged by the behaviours' consequences for both, the individuals and the environment. Many studies prove the concept's high forensic value and the authorities prefer conclusions based on this concept to others referring to the animals' motivational and emotional state. However more research has to be done with respect to animal welfare in farm and laboratory animal breeding as well as in the use of laboratory animals for experimental studies.     

Ethical stockmanship

The objective of this review is to consider the ethics of stockmanship, particularly from the perspective of the nature and extent of the duties of stockpeople to their farm animals. It will consider what science tells us about the impact of stockmanship on the animal, particularly the welfare of the farm animal. The effects of human-animal interactions on the stockperson will also be considered, since these interactions affect the work performance and job satisfaction of the stockperson and thus indirectly affect animal welfare. Animal ethics is broader than animal welfare and includes economic as well as philosophical, social, cultural and religious aspects. This paper is predicated on the view that farm animals can suffer, and that animal suffering is a key consideration in our moral obligations to animals. Housing and husbandry practices affect farm animal welfare and thus farmers and stockpeople have a responsibility to provide, at minimum, community-acceptable animal housing and husbandry standards for their animals. The farmer's or stockperson's attitudes and behaviour can directly affect the animal's welfare and thus they also have a responsibility to provide specific standards of stockmanship for these animals. However, research suggests that the behaviour of some stockpeople is not as correct as it might be. Such situations exemplify the inevitably unequal human - domestic animal relationship, and this inequality should be considered in analysing the boundary between right and wrong behaviour of humans. Thus ethical discussion, using science and other considerations and involving stockpeople, livestock industries, government and the general public, should be used to establish and assure acceptable stockperson competencies across the livestock industries. Training programs targeting the key attitudes and behaviour of stockpeople presently offer the livestock industries good opportunities to improve human-animal interactions.     

The provision of drinking water to veal calves for welfare purposes

Growth performance, behavior, physiology, forestomach development, abomasal lesions, and meat quality of veal calves fed a milk-replacer diet (No Water) were compared to those obtained from calves fed the same diet and provided with increasing amounts of drinking water (Water). Two groups of 69 Polish Friesian calves, balanced according to initial BW, were assigned to two water treatments in a 3 x 2 x 2 factorial arrangement that provided solid feed in addition to the milk-replacer diet (No solid feed, 250 g x calf(-1) x d(-1) of wheat straw or the same amount of beet pulp), and the adoption of two housing systems (individual stall vs group pen). The fattening trial lasted 160 d, and calves received drinking water starting from the 2nd wk of the study. The amount of drinking water was progressively increased from 3 to 8 L x cal(-1) x d(-1). Although not dehydrated, as shown by hematocrit and Na, K, and total protein hemoconcentration, calves consumed almost all the offered amount of water throughout the fattening period. Therefore, the water provided by the milk replacer alone, which ranged between 6 to 16 L calf d(-1), was not sufficient to satisfy the need of the animal. Drinking water did not affect the calves' growth performance but it reduced nonnutritive oral behavior throughout the fattening period. Based on these results, drinking water did not cover a shortage in the calves' water requirement but it played a role in environmental enrichment. Health status was similar between treatments, although water provision reduced the episodes of feed refusal. The measurement of chronic stress by ACTH challenge showed that the administration of drinking water would be advisable when calves are fed with small amounts of solid feed for well-being. Feces consistency and animal cleanliness were not affected by drinking water. At slaughter, forestomach development was similar between treatments, and drinking water did not affect the number of calves showing rumen hair-balls and abomasal lesions. No differences in color and other meat quality traits were observed between Water and No Water calves. Despite the lack of direct effects on productive traits, when water was available, the calves drank it, and positive effects were noticed on their nonnutritive oral behaviors and chronic stress indicators.     

Toxoplasma gondii infections in sheep in Sicily, southern Italy

The aim of the study was to determine the burden of Toxoplasma gondii-infections in sheep in Sicily, southern Italy and the risk factors for infection. Sera from 1961 sheep were collected just before slaughtering from 62 farms located in 8 out of 9 Sicilian administrative districts. The sera were analysed for Toxoplasma-specific IgG antibodies using commercially available enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Sheep less than 4 weeks old were further analysed by ELISA for Toxoplasma-specific IgM-antibodies. Data on farm size and location were obtained from slaughterhouse sanitary reports and through structured telephone interviews of the veterinary officers from public health districts. The overall seroprevalence of Toxoplasma-specific IgG-antibodies were 49.9% (937/1876) by ELISA. Eighty-seven (54/62) percent of the farms had at least one Toxoplasma-positive animal. All the farms fed the animals outdoor on pasture and only one was claiming organic farming. Having cats on the farm, age of the animals, farm size and the use of surface water sources for drinking were all significantly associated with T. gondii-infected animals on the farm. T. gondii infection in mutton used for human consumption is very prevalent, and eating unprocessed sheep and lamb meat has a high risk of transmitting infections to humans. The presence of cats on the farm, farm size and using surface water as drinking water for the animals were risk factors for infection in sheep, with age as a significant confounder.     

The importance of applied ethology for the execution of animal welfare legislation]

Applied ethology in general and farm animal ethology in particular have a great importance in connection with animal welfare regulations on a national and international level. They have through the legislation on animal welfare brought about important repercussions on housing of farm animals, wild animals and experimental animals in Switzerland. The animal welfare legislation has been a considerable boost to scientific research. The application of ethological knowledge in the legislation and in practice has indeed also its limits. The importance of applied ethology for animal welfare and for animal husbandry will still increase in future.     

Supervision of rabbit husbandry--report of a public health veterinarian

Rabbits are wide spread farm animals and pets, which are kept in the most diverse areas. The evaluation of rabbit husbandries in regard to animal welfare legislation is often complicated by different and contradictory recommendations of various organisations, which should partly be revised. In the following article some regulations and guidelines are discussed. In addition, some aspects for the keeping of rabbits in accordance with their behavioural needs are outlined, some frequent shortcomings regarding the keeping of rabbits are described and possibilities for taking official measures are presented.     

Farm animal welfare: the five freedoms and the free market

This review addresses the scientific, ethical and economic factors that impact on the welfare of farm animals. Respect for animals within the food chain is considered within the context of an ethical matrix that affords respect according to the principles of wellbeing, autonomy and justice to consumers, farm animals, farmers and the living environment. The welfare of a farm animal depends on its ability to sustain fitness and avoid suffering. The responsibility of the farmer is to make provision for good welfare through good husbandry; he cannot ensure good welfare. Improvements to farm animal welfare can only come about within the context of the forces that drive the free market. In essence, consumers need to afford a greater extrinsic value to farm animals. The costs to farmers of legislation to impose higher animal welfare standards are substantial but the cost to consumers can be very small. The responsibility is therefore on the consumer to convert an expressed desire for higher welfare standards into an effective demand. A promising route to encourage and fulfil this demand is through welfare-based quality assurance schemes with quality control ensured by independent audit. At present, audit protocols are based largely on identification of the elements of good husbandry. Ultimately we need a further independent audit to ensure that the outcome of these perceived elements of good husbandry is, in fact, good animal welfare.     

Pestiviruses in wild animals

Pestiviruses are not strictly host-species specific and can infect not only domestic but also wild animals. The most important pestivirus, CSFV, infects domestic pigs and wild boars, which may cause a major problem for successful CSFV eradication programmes. Mainly BVDV specific antibodies have been reported in captive and free-living animals. Virus has been isolated from some of these animal species, but since BVDV can contaminate cell cultures and foetal calf serum, early reports of BVDV isolation have to be considered with caution. Genetic typing of early pestivirus isolates from wild species revealed that the majority were BVDV-1. Of the pestiviruses identified so far three species (CSFV, BVDV-1, giraffe pestivirus) and three genotypes (BDV-2, BDV-4, pronghorn) appear to circulate in wildlife animal populations. The potential for pestiviruses to spread between farm animals and free-living animals is discussed as are epidemiological and technical problems, and the future direction of research.     

Environmental endocrine disruptors in farm animal reproduction: research and reality

In this review, possible comparative advantages of studying endocrine disruption in farm animals vs laboratory rodents are discussed. First, using farm animals, the generality of findings in laboratory rodents are challenged. Farm animals may in certain aspects be better models for humans than laboratory rodents, and sometimes there might be methodological advantages in using farm animals. Second, there are several in vitro studies based on cell-culture systems from sows and cows where the effects of chemicals on sex steroid secretion can be measured and maturation and fertilization of oocytes may be assessed. These in vitro systems are powerful tools for dissecting the mechanisms of action for endocrine-disrupting chemicals. Third, in a set of recent in vivo studies using sheep, goats and pigs, in which very different exposure regimens to endocrine-disrupting chemicals have been used, a full panel of reproductive parameters pertinent to farm animals were assessed. Clinically, it is suggested that endocrine disruption in farm animals should be considered when impaired reproduction could be linked to change in source of feed or pasture. Finally, epigenetic and toxicogenomic approaches can be particularly rewarding in elucidating endocrine disruption in future farm animal studies.     

Safeguarding herds from the animal hygiene point of view

One of the most important concepts for the protection of herd health is the implementation of structural and organisational measures to prevent infective agents and other adverse compounds from entering the farm. Safeguarding health, well-being and production efficiency is part of the overall management concept of hygiene in animal production systems. This paper presents an overview of the most important rules and recommendations to protect livestock production facilities from the intrusion of infectious pathogens, beginning with the right choice of the site for the farm and the animal housing ("safe distances" to neighbouring farm animal houses), solid fencing and control and disinfecting places at the entrance gate. The traffic of vehicles and people transporting animals, feedstuff, equipment and slurry or manure to and from the facility should be reduced to a minimum. Fallen animals should be stored in separate and safe containers until removed by specialised companies. Regular control of rodents, insects and wild birds is crucial to avoid the transfer of infectious agents from farm to farm and between herds within a farm. Equally important factors are the health status of personnel to avoid transmission of zoonotic diseases, the application of the all-in-all-out system and a strict cleaning and disinfecting regime. The internal and external organisational measures for preventing the spread of infections in animal production will gain increasing importance in the future because the farm animal producer bears the responsibility for the production of safe and healthy food at the primary segment of the food chain. Increasing restrictions on the use of veterinary drugs for food delivering animals will increase the importance of prophylaxis, prevention and protection of production units as the keys for safeguarding health, well-being and efficiency of farm animals. Only the application of strict hygiene principles in animal production will make it possible to meet the consumer demand for safe and high quality food of animal origin.     

Contaminants in feed for food-producing animals

Outbreaks of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) and food borne microbial infections, dioxin contaminated animal products, the presence of veterinary drug residues, microbial resistance to antibiotics, mycotoxins, agricultural and industrial chemicals, etc. are serious concerns for the food industry in many countries. Since the direct links between feed safety and safety of foods of animal origin are obvious, feed production and manufacture should be considered as an integral part of the food production chain. Industry is responsible for the quality and safety of food and feed that is produced. This paper is a brief review of some microorganisms as source of infections for farm animals that could result in human illnesses. These include Salmonella enterica, Bacillus anthracis, Toxoplasma gondii, Trichinella spiralis, prions, Listeria monocytogenes, EHEC, Campylobacter, Clostridium botulinum, Hog Cholera virus, Foot and Mouth Disease virus, etc. as well as other contaminants associated with animal feed such as mycotoxins, veterinary drugs, dioxins and PCB and Genetically Modified Organisms.     

Water as a vector for infectious stages of parasites in livestock

Water is a key factor in the life cycle of many parasite species. The development of the free-living generation (oocysts, cysts, eggs, larvae) and the longevity of the resulting infectious stages are extremely dependent on the availability of water. Damp stables are principally associated with an increased risk of parasite infection. Infectious stages may accumulate in dirty watering equipment and in pools of water on pasture. Utilization of surface water, especially when contaminated with sewage or effluent from sewage plants, imposes an increased risk of parasite infection on farm animals. Flooding of pastures with water containing parasite stages can lead to extensive contamination. Rainfall, flooding or inadequate land disposal of manure may contaminate surface water with parasite stages of animal origin from adjacent agricultural areas.     

电解水在畜禽生产中的应用

电解水是一种瞬时、广谱、高效、廉价、安全无污染无残留的新型消毒剂。根据电解方式和电解程度不同,可分为5种不同类型,且不同类型的电解水在畜禽生产中的用途各不相同。电解水在食品加工中应用已经较为广泛,近年来研究人员开始将其应用于畜禽生产中的杀菌消毒,取得了良好的效果。将碱性电解水作为畜禽饮用水,可促进畜禽机体健康。作者综述了电解水的生成机理、理化性质和作用机制等,并对其在畜禽生产中的主要应用范围进行了介绍。