Evaluation of producer-recorded causes of preweaning mortality in Danish sow herds

The validity of producer-recorded preweaning mortality causes was evaluated in 31 Danish sow herds. For 1206 piglets producer-recorded preweaning mortality cause was compared with post-mortem diagnosis. The predominant preweaning mortality causes at post-mortem were injury (trauma, lain on, and savaged), miscellaneous (unknown, starvation, illthrift, euthanasia, and low viability), and diarrhoea, with 391, 219, and 119 recordings, respectively. The sensitivity of producer-recorded preweaning mortality causes was generally low, and further analyses showed that the probability of being born alive and the probability of being given ‘a producer diagnosis other than unknown’ were associated with the herd and that a correct producer-recorded mortality cause relative to the post-mortem diagnosis depended on the mortality cause. Rare mortality causes with primarily internal signs tended to be misclassified. The producers often gave ‘a diagnosis other than unknown’ to pigs with a weight at death under 0.75kg and it was often correct. To pigs with a weight at death over 1.75kg, they rarely gave ‘a diagnosis other than unknown’, but when they did it was often correct.     

楼式高床羊舍对舍饲山羊的影响

在重庆市万州区研制、改造楼式羊舍,推广退耕还林地种草和舍养羊综合技术。并测定羊舍的小气候环境,舍养羊的草料消耗量、粪污排放量,比较研究山羊舍养羊与放牧饲养的生长、繁殖、疫病、养殖效益和对生态的影响,为三峡库区等地推广示范提供依据。     

楼式高床羊舍对舍饲山羊的影响

在重庆市万州区研制、改造楼式羊舍,推广退耕还林地种草和舍养羊综合技术.并测定羊舍的小气候环境,舍养羊的草料消耗量、粪污排放量,比较研究山羊舍养羊与放牧饲养的生长、繁殖、疫病、养殖效益和对生态的影响,为三峡库区等地推广示范提供依据.     

Floor heating at farrowing in pens for loose-housed sows

The effects of floor heating at parturition on sow and piglet behaviour in pens were examined in a Danish production herd. A total of 50 gilts and sows were split into two groups; one (n = 25) experienced no treatment; one (n = 25) was exposed to floor heating in the area of the sow around parturition. The sows and piglets were recorded on video 24 h a day for behavioural analyses.Floor heating tended to improve piglet weight at weaning (P = 0.05) but did not affect average daily gain. Piglets in pens with floor heating were more often in proximity of the sow at posture changes than piglets from pens without floor heating on day one postpartum (P = 0.01). Floor heating did not affect duration of parturition or any of the recordings of sow behaviour significantly.     

Effects of Group Size during Pregnancy and Introduction Method on Behaviour of Relevance for Piglet Performance in Multi-suckling Pens

The effects of group size during pregnancy (12 or 24 sows) and introduction methods on behaviour in multi-suckling pens were studied. The introduction methods were: A) (control) all sows and piglets were moved simultaneously to the multi-suckling pen on day 11 after farrowing; B) sows and piglets were moved simultaneously on day 14 after farrowing; C) sows were moved simultaneously and, two hours later, all piglets were moved simultaneously on day 11 after farrowing; D) each sow and her litter were moved separately at three-hours intervals on day 11 after farrowing. The effects of group size during pregnancy interacted with the effects of introduction method. When housed in groups of 12 during pregnancy, treatments B-D resulted in more initiated, but fewer successful nursings compared to A. However, when sows had been housed in groups of 24 during pregnancy, increased age (B) resulted in a decreased number of initiated nursings compared to A, but an increased nursing synchrony. The results indicate that it is possible to affect behaviour in multi-suckling pens through the social environment during pregnancy and by the choice of introduction method.     

民和县种畜场哺乳仔猪死亡原因分析

以民和县种畜场的哺乳仔猪为材料,从仔猪初生重,仔猪死亡时间和母猪产仔胎次三个角度对仔猪断奶前死亡原因进行了系统分析。     

不同胎次长白母猪的繁殖性能研究

对长白母猪不同胎次的繁殖性能的研究结果表明:长白母猪的繁殖性能以第一胎最低,随胎次增加繁殖性能提高,至第4~6胎达到高峰,以后逐胎下降。建议长白母猪在产完8胎后立即淘汰,以提高生产效益。     

Cysteamine improves growth performance and gastric ghrelin expression in preweaning piglets

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of cysteamine on growth performance of preweaning piglets and gastric expression of ghrelin mRNA in vivo and in vitro. Twelve litters of newborn piglets were allocated randomly to control and treatment groups. From 15 d of age, piglets in the control group were fed basal creep diet, whereas the treatment group received basal diet supplemented with 120 mg cysteamine per kg of diet until weaning on 35 d of age. Body weight gain, creep feed consumption, and diarrhea rates were recorded, and gastric mucosal tissues were collected for quantifying mRNA expression. To evaluate the direct effect of cysteamine on gastric ghrelin expression, primary cultures of gastric mucosal cells isolated from 35-d-old piglets were exposed to cysteamine for 20 h at 0, 1, 10, and 100 μg/mL, respectively. Dietary cysteamine increased (P < 0.05) average daily creep feed consumption and BW gain in preweaning pigs, which was accompanied by reduction in diarrhea rates. At 35 d of age, piglets treated with cysteamine showed increased (P < 0.05) ghrelin and gastrin and decreased (P < 0.05) somatostatin mRNA expression in gastric mucosa. Moreover, dietary cysteamine treatment increased serum concentration of gastrin (P < 0.05). In vitro, cysteamine significantly increased ghrelin mRNA expression in gastric mucosal cells at the concentration of 10 μg/mL. In conclusion, dietary cysteamine is effective in improving the growth performance and health condition of preweaning piglets, which is associated with its stimulatory effects on gastric ghrelin mRNA expression both in vivo and in vitro.     

Genetic study of individual preweaning mortality and birth weight in Large White piglets using threshold-linear models

Individual records from 49,788 Large White piglets were used to evaluate preweaning mortality and its relationship with birth weight (BW). Preweaning mortality included farrowing mortality (TM) was also divided into stillbirth (SB), early (EM), late (LM) and total (ELM) preweaning mortality. Farrowing mortality was also studied as a sow's trait as number of piglets born dead (NBD). Threshold-linear models were used via MCMC. Traits included (1) TM-BW, (2) SB-ELM-BW, (3) SB-EM-LM and (4) NBD-ELM-BW. Model for BW included parity number, litter size, sex, contemporary group (farm-farrowing year-month), litter, and direct and maternal additive genetic effects. For mortality traits, litter effect was of the nursing litter for cross-fostered piglets (4.9%). Models for SB (2, 3) and NBD (4) excluded the effect of sex. In Model 3, BW was fitted as covariable for EM and LM. Estimates of direct and maternal heritability for BW were 0.03–0.06 and 0.14–0.19; and for mortality traits 0.03–0.12 and 0.08–0.12. Direct-maternal correlations were negative for all traits. Genetic correlations between all mortality traits were positive. Results confirmed the importance of BW for the genetic evaluation of piglet mortality. Early mortality is a good candidate for improvement of TM because of larger heritability and high genetic correlations with other mortality traits. It is most efficient to treat SB at sow level and preweaning mortality at the piglet level.     

Effects of Farrowing Conditions on Behaviour in Multi-suckling Pens for Pigs

This study investigated the effects of housing farrowing sows in either crates (C-sows) or a get-away system (G-sows) until day 11 after farrowing on the subsequent behaviour in multi-suckling pens. Emphases were placed on nursing behaviour patterns of relevance for the piglets' growth and survival in the multi-suckling pens. Ten groups of six sows were used. Behaviour was recorded for 24 h on days 1, 8 and 15 after the introduction to the multi-suckling pen. When the sows had farrowed in the get-away system significantly more nursings were initiated in the multi-suckling pen. Furthermore, the G-sows terminated a significantly smaller percentage of the nursings in the multi-suckling pens and there was significantly less cross-suckling compared with pens with C-sows. G-sows also tended (P = 0.08) to lose fewer piglets in the multi-suckling pens than C-sows. In conclusion, the results suggest that nursing behaviour in multi-suckling pens may be improved when the sows farrow in get-away systems as compared with crates.     

Reaction of Calves to Two Flooring Materials Offered Simultaneously in One Pen

Now that group housing is replacing individual crates, so that calves can lie, stand and walk on the pen floor, the quality of the floor for group-housed calves has become the focus of attention. The reaction of two groups of four calves to a double area of floor made from two materials (wooden slats and synthetic slats with a rubber coating) was examined round the clock for 5 days. The calves were switched between pens twice, and in each case the 5 day observation period was repeated. In all three phases all calves spent significantly more time ( P <0.01) lying on the wooden floor: on average 656 min day -1 compared with 294 min day -1 on the synthetic floor. The time spent in the standing/walking position on both floors, occurrence of slip incidents and self-maintenance behaviour did not differ significantly between floors. The observations on use of the pen floor for lying and for standing/walking in combination with feeding, plus observations on fouling of the floors with excreta suggest that future pen design could be functionally divided into lying and walking/eating areas.     

Rolling behaviour of sows in relation to piglet crushing on sloped versus level floor pens

The study focused on the rolling behaviour of sows and the crushing of piglets by sows' rolling behaviour. The experiment examined the influence of sloped floor in loose housed farrowing pens on the rolling behaviour of sows and crushing of piglets. The experimental unit was made up of 24 pens. There were two experimental pen designs with piglet creep in the corner of the pen and piglet creep across the end of the pen, respectively. Both of the experimental pen designs had a 10% sloped floor in the sow's resting area. The two control pen designs were identical to the experimental pen designs, but with a level floor. The behaviour of 85 sows and their litters was continuously video recorded. Behavioural observations were made from birth of the first piglet and until 3 days after birth of the first piglet. Rolling behaviour of sows caused significantly more trapped piglets under the sow than lying down from standing (P = 0.04). Rolling behaviour caused 64% of the trapped piglets and lying down from standing caused 36% of the trapped piglets. Rolling from udder to side without protection trapped significantly more piglets than rolling from udder to side near slanted wall or piglet protection rails and rolling from side to udder (P < 0.001). With a certain pen design sloped floor reduced rolling from udder to side without protection (P = 0.007) and reduced the number of trapped piglets (P = 0.01), but results concerning lying behaviour showed that sloped floor pushed sows to rest on the level part of the floor. The results indicate that rolling behaviour that crushes piglets can be reduced, and sows prefer to lie on a level floor.     

Relevance of the variability of kidding day in Creole goats in Guadeloupe

The results of 5732 records of kids born between 1985 and 1996 at Gardel Agricultural Experiment Station (INRA) in Guadeloupe, were used in order to estimate the effect of kidding day (KD) on individual preweaning growth performances, total productivity of Creole goats and litter size. The flock was subjected to a restricted mating season for a long time, by using male effect. The results of the fixed linear model showed a highly significant (P<0.001) effect of KD on growth rate and total productivity of does. Live weights of kids born around the 21st day of the kidding period (KP) was 4% to 7% higher than those of kids born the first day of the KP. For total productivity of does, this ratio did not reached more than 4%. The optimum at 70 days of age occurred around 14th day of the KD with 3% of improvement of total productivity. No effect was observed upon litter size. The genetic (co)variance components were estimated by six different Individual Animal Models. The heritability (h²) estimated from the best model, was h_D²=0.25±0.05 for genetic direct effect; h_M²=0.09±0.04 for genetic maternal effect and the genetic correlation between direct and maternal effects was −0.86±0.12. The use of KD could be highly recommended in a breeding program in this population of Creole meat goats, since it is quite easy to record under commercial conditions as a character related to reproductive performance.     

The influence of the environment on dairy cow behavior, claw health and herd lameness dynamics

Free stall housing increases the exposure of dairy cows’ claws to concrete walk-ways and to manure between periods of rest, and generally shows the highest rate of lameness compared with other dairy management systems. However, there is great variation within a system, and the rate of new cases of lameness can be reduced to very low levels provided time spent resting per day is maximized through good stall design, access to stalls through stocking density control and comfortable transition cow facilities, limiting the time spent milking, provision of adequate heat abatement, and good leg hygiene. Sand bedded stalls are useful as they also permit lame cows to maintain adequate daily rest. Rubberized alley flooring surfaces benefit the cow by reducing claw wear and trauma compared to concrete, making them ideal for parlor holding areas and long transfer lanes and walk ways. However, caution is required when using rubber floors in pens with uncomfortable stalls due to apparent adverse effects on cow time budgets, which may in turn have a detrimental effect on lameness.     

供求失衡生猪产业面临新调整

今年,生猪养殖陷入“猪周期”亏损困境,生猪价格一再创下近年新低、养殖重度亏损,市场表现出来的价格涨跌规律也与往年不同。为此,笔者专门采访了省内部分养殖、屠宰企业负责人,调查了解目前当前的生猪生产状况、市场变化产生原因,提出了养殖业在新的发展时期应该采取的对策。