O experimento foi conduzido nas instalações de gestação e maternidade da Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia da Universidade de São Paulo, em Pirassununga, para avaliar o efeito da administração de bactérias probióticas ácido-láticas sobre o ganho de peso de um determinado grupo de leitões logo após o nascimento e antes da primeira mamada do colostro. Para efeito de comparação, criou-se outro grupo de leitões placebo que receberam água destilada em igual volume e manejo. Todos os animais foram pesados semanalmente desde o nascimento até o desmame ocorrido com 21 dias de idade. Os intervalos de ganho de peso médio diário também foram considerados. O probiótico testado não foi eficiente em alterar significativamente o ganho de peso dos animais (P>0,05), porém os leitões que o receberam, obtiveram numericamente maior ganho de peso médio diário, bastante evidente aos 7 e 14 dias de idade, podendo-se justificar a hipótese da existência de uma economia de nutrientes aproveitados pelo hospedeiro que possuía uma microbiota estável e saudável. / The experiment was carried in the gestation and farrowing environment of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Zootechny at University of Sao Paulo, in Pirassununga, to evaluate the effect of lactic acid probiotic bacteria administration on weight gain of a specific group of piglets just after the birth and before first colostrum suckling. For a better comparison, we designed another group of piglets, placebo, which received distilled water in the same volume and manner as probiotic group. All the animals were weighed weekly since birth until weaning, occurred with 21 days old. The average daily weight gain ranges also were considered. The tested probiotic did not change efficiently the weight gain of the animals (P>0,05), however, probiotic treated animals had greater average daily weight gain counts, mainly obvious at 7 and 14 days old, being able to justify the hypothesis of the nutrients economy existence, used by the host, owner of a stable and healthy microbiota.

O experimento foi conduzido nas instalações de gestação e maternidade da Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia da Universidade de São Paulo, em Pirassununga, para avaliar o efeito da administração de bactérias probióticas ácido-láticas sobre o ganho de peso de um determinado grupo de leitões logo após o nascimento e antes da primeira mamada do colostro. Para efeito de comparação, criou-se outro grupo de leitões placebo que receberam água destilada em igual volume e manejo. Todos os animais foram pesados semanalmente desde o nascimento até o desmame ocorrido com 21 dias de idade. Os intervalos de ganho de peso médio diário também foram considerados. O probiótico testado não foi eficiente em alterar significativamente o ganho de peso dos animais (P>0,05), porém os leitões que o receberam, obtiveram numericamente maior ganho de peso médio diário, bastante evidente aos 7 e 14 dias de idade, podendo-se justificar a hipótese da existência de uma economia de nutrientes aproveitados pelo hospedeiro que possuía uma microbiota estável e saudável. / The experiment was carried in the gestation and farrowing environment of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Zootechny at University of Sao Paulo, in Pirassununga, to evaluate the effect of lactic acid probiotic bacteria administration on weight gain of a specific group of piglets just after the birth and before first colostrum suckling. For a better comparison, we designed another group of piglets, placebo, which received distilled water in the same volume and manner as probiotic group. All the animals were weighed weekly since birth until weaning, occurred with 21 days old. The average daily weight gain ranges also were considered. The tested probiotic did not change efficiently the weight gain of the animals (P>0,05), however, probiotic treated animals had greater average daily weight gain counts, mainly obvious at 7 and 14 days old, being able to justify the hypothesis of the nutrients economy existence, used by the host, owner of a stable and healthy microbiota.

No description available.

The U.S. hog industry's shift to vertically-integrated, intensively-managed operations brought about a variety of management systems for breeding herds, including batch farrowing. In this system, groups of sows are weaned in 2- to 5- week intervals, making estrus synchronization of new gilts and sows critical to maintaining reproductive efficiency in the herd. The use of commercially available hormones to synchronize estrus in this system has not been extensively studied. This experiment was conducted to determine whether the use of commercially available hormones (MATRIX® and P.G. 600®; Merck Animal Health, De Sota, KS) in a 5-week batch management system had a positive impact on reproductive efficiency in gilts and sows over the course of 3 parities. Gilts were allocated to an Entry Group (A, B, or D) and then assigned to a treatment, Hormone-Assisted (HA) (5 mL P.G. 600 injection 5 days and/or fed 15 mg/day of MATRIX for 14 consecutive days prior to the breeding week) or Control (no exogenous hormones). Gilts and sows were checked daily for estrus with a mature boar, and a group was bred using AI during a 7-day breeding period every 5 weeks and allowed to farrow up to 3 parities. Among groups, there was a tendency (P = 0.08) for more HA than control gilts to display estrus and be mated on schedule. For gilts within Group A, more (P < 0.01) HA than control females displayed estrus and were mated. Body weight at first service for gilts in Groups A and B were higher than Group D (P < 0.01). Overall, there was no effect of treatment on (P = 0.20) non-productive days. There was a strong tendency for HA sows to have a greater (P = 0.07) number of parities completed than control sows; Total pigs born (P < 0.05) and total pigs born alive (P < 0.05) were greater for HA sows than control sows. In Parity 1, Group D sows had a lesser number of pigs born (P < 0.01) and pigs born alive (P < 0.02) than Groups A and B; The number of pigs weaned differed between entry groups (P < 0.05) (Group B > Group A > Group D); Control sows weaned more pigs (P < 0.02) and had a greater litter weaning weight (P < 0.01) than HA sows; HA sows had a lower (P < 0.05) wean-to-estrus interval than control sows. No significant effects of group or treatment were observed in Parities 2 and 3. The use of exogenous hormones to synchronize estrus had a positive impact on reproductive efficiency in HA gilts/sows in a 5-week batch management system. / Master of Science

Respirable dust, carbon dioxide, ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, and carbon monoxide concentrations were measured using fixed-area monitoring and contaminant mapping in a 19–crate farrowing room during the winter. Direct–reading instruments were used with fixed–area stations and contaminant mapping to evaluate concentrations during five days over a period of a three–week farrowing cycle. Concentrations were evaluated to determine the effect of the pit ventilation on contaminant concentrations, a change in concentration occurred over a sample day, and to determine if three data collection methods produce different daily respirable dust concentrations. Pit ventilation did have a significant effect on contaminant concentration in a farrowing barn during winter. Compared to when the pit fan was on, mean area contaminant concentration, with the exception of CO, was significantly higher when the pit fan was turned off (p<0.001). Mean respirable dust concentration was 79% higher, CO2 concentration was 35% higher, NH3 increased from 0.03 ppm to 10.8 ppm, and H2S concentrations increased from 0.03 ppm to 0.67 ppm. A significant change in area respirable dust (p<0.001) and CO2 (p<0.001) mean concentrations occurred over time throughout the course of a sample day. Mean area respirable dust concentrations were highest in the beginning of the sample day and decreased by 77 % (pit fan off) to 87% (pit fan on) over a five–hour sample period. Higher concentrations were likely attributed to the feeding period that occurred early in the day. When the pit fan was turned off, mean area CO2 concentrations increased by 24% by the end of the sample day due to the inefficient ventilation and the constant production of CO2 generated by the swine. Finally, comparing the three data collection methods produced similar results concerning the ranking of the daily mean concentrations of respirable dust; however, differences were seen in the magnitude of the daily average respirable dust concentrations across the three data collection methods, which might lead to different interpretations of risk. To ensure risk is not underestimated, multiple fixed–area monitors are recommended to characterize room concentrations. Throughout the study, contaminant concentration did not exceed regulatory or international consensus standards; however, recommended agricultural health limits suggested in the literature were exceeded for respirable dust, CO2, and NH3. These findings indicate the need to consider personal exposures to those working in farrowing barns and control options to reduce these contaminant concentrations in production facilities.

<p>Natural steroidal estrogen hormones in swine wastes generated from Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) have become a potential pollutant to many aquatic environments due to their adverse impacts on the reproductive biology of aquatic organisms. In North Carolina, the swine CAFO industry is a major agricultural economic enterprise that is responsible for the generation of large volumes of waste. However, there is limited scientific understanding regarding the concentration, fate, and transport of the estrogenic compounds from these swine facilities into terrestrial and aquatic environments. To address this issue, my research involved the development and application of integrated Bayesian networks (BNs) models that can be used to better characterize and assess the generation, fate, and transport of site-specific swine CAFO-derived estrogen compounds. The developed model can be used as decision support tool towards estrogen risk assessment. Modularized and melded BN approaches were used to capture the predictive and casual relationships of the estrogen budget and its movement within and between the three major systems of a swine farrowing CAFO. These systems include the animal barns, the anaerobic waste lagoon, and the spray fields. For the animal barn system, a facility-wide estrogen budget was developed to assess the operation-specific estrogen excretion, using an object-oriented BN (OOBN) approach. The developed OOBN model provides a means to estimate and predict estrogen fluxes from the whole swine facility in the context of both estrogen type and animal operating unit. It also accounts for the uncertainties in the data and in our understanding of the system. Next, mass balance melding BN models were developed to predict the natural estrogen fates and budgets in two lagoon compartments, the slurry and the sludge storage. This involved utilizing mass balance equations to account for the mechanisms of flushing, sorption, transformation, settling, and burial reactions of estrogen compounds in the slurry and sludge storages. As an alternative approach, a regression based BN melding approach was developed to both characterize estrogen fate and budgets as a result of the sequential transformation processes between natural estrogen compounds and to assess the seasonal effects on the estrogen budgets in the two different lagoon compartments. Finally, a dynamic BN model was developed to characterize rainfall-driven estrogen runoff processes from the spray fields. The dynamic BN models were used to assess the potential risk of estrogen runoff to adjacent waterways. In addition, the dynamic model was used to quantify the effects of manure application rates, rainfall frequency, the time of rainfall and irrigation, crop types, on-farm best management practices, seasonal variability, and successive rainfall and manure application events on estrogen runoff. </p><p>The model results indicate that the farrowing barn is the biggest contributor of total estrogen as compared to the breeding and gestation operating barns. Once the estrogen reaches the anaerobic lagoon, settling and burial reactions were shown to be the most significant factors influencing estrogen levels in the slurry and sludge, respectively. The estrogen budgets in the lagoon were also found to vary by season, with higher slurry and sludge estrogen levels in the spring as compared to the summer. The risk of estrogen runoff was predicted to be lower in the summer as compared to the spring, primarily due to the spray field crop management plans adopted. The results also indicated that Bermuda grass performed more favorably when compared to soybean, when it came to retaining surface water runoff in the field. Model predictions indicated that there is a low risk of estrogen runoff losses from the spray fields under multiple irrigation and rainfall events, unless the time interval between irrigation was less than 10 days and/or in the event of a prolonged high magnitude rainstorm event. Overall, the estrone was the most persistent form of natural estrogens in the three major systems of the swine farrowing CAFO.</p> / Dissertation

The purpose of this dissertation is the evaluation of the fertility and the reproduction index of the sows in the breeding of the agricultural cooperative Lukavec. The herd of sows was divided into three groups according to age structure of the sows in the risk litter (litters 1 and 2), the sows in the production litters (litters 3 ? 5) and the sows in 6 and more litters. The reproduction process is influenced by a lot of impacts endogenous and exogenous.

<p>Effective enrichments for farm animals are increasingly important to address public concerns about farm animal welfare and improve the welfare of the animals we raise. The public’s concern has increased in recent years as the management and care that farmers give their animals has become more apparent to them. Some of the conditions in which animals are kept are emotionally not appealing to the public. One such condition is farrowing crates for sows and piglets. The sows are confined in a small space with no social contact and cannot perform nesting behaviors. Farrowing crates are widely used though, as they allow farmers to handle piglets without fear of sow aggression, meet individual sow nutritional needs, and personalize care. Piglet mortality due to crushing is also decreased with crate use. Sow welfare in farrowing crates can be improved through environmental enrichments. Enrichments improve welfare by increasing species-specific behaviors, creating a more complex environment, reducing abnormal behaviors, and increasing an animal’s ability to cope with stressful situations. For pigs, different enrichments have been shown to decrease stereotypies, like sham chewing and bar biting, decrease harmful redirected behavior towards pen mates, like tail biting and belly nosing, increased exploratory behavior, and increase positive affect. Straw has been found to be the best enrichment for pigs because it allows them to perform motivational behaviors such as rooting, foraging, and nest building. It is also complex, manipulatable, destructible, and ingestible, which are important attributes of effective enrichments. Unfortunately, straw cannot be used in farms that have slurry systems, as the straw will fall through the slats into the pit below and cause drainage issues. This includes farrowing crates. There have been a few studies on alternative enrichments for sows in crates, like cloth tassels, but they are not as effective as straw and are rarely used on farm.</p> <p> Most enrichments target pigs’ motivations to forage, root, graze, or build nests. Pigs perform other behaviors and may have other motivations that enrichments have not targeted yet. One such behavior is scratching. In a semi-natural environment, pigs will rub against trees and bushes. In confinement, pigs rub on fences, walls, and even allow people to scratch them with their hands. There have been no recorded studies done on scratching enrichment for pigs. Many studies have been done in the dairy industry exploring rotating brushes. These brushes have been implemented successfully on commercial farms and are used by cows to groom and scratch themselves. A similar device may allow pigs to also satisfy their itch. Our aim is to provide scratching enrichment to sows in farrowing crates. Since there have been no studies recorded on scratching enrichment or scratching in pigs in general, several steps had to take place before addressing the topic for sows in crates. The first project’s aim was to see what materials pigs prefer to scratch on and their willingness to use such an enrichment.</p> <p><a> The first project consisted of 2 experiments. Exp. 1 was a pilot study where 5 different materials on scratch posts were presented to a pen of gestating sows. The scratch posts were constructed from polyvinyl chloride (<b>PVC</b>) pipes, boards, and a gate post. Five different materials were attached to the boards: white, soft, long-bristled brushes (<b>White Brush</b>), red, hard, short-bristled brush (<b>Red Brush</b>), black, short-bristled, astro-turf-like mat (<b>Plastic Mat</b>), colorful coir, hard, short-bristled mat (<b>Fiber Mat</b>), and blue, plastic, large-round-bristled combs (<b>Plastic Combs</b>). The 8 sows received all 5 scratch posts in their pen for a habituation day and then 7 d of testing. During testing, video was continuously recorded from which 2 behaviors were collected; scratching and interacting. Sows scratched the most on Plastic Mat followed by Fiber Mat, Plastic Combs, and Red Brush. The White Brush was scratched on the least. The top 3 preferences were chosen to proceed to Exp. 2.</a></p> <p> Experiment 2 for sow preference was performed on several pens (N=14) of sows and gilts with Plastic Mat, Fiber Mat, and Plastic Combs to narrow the preference down to 2 materials to proceed to the farrowing crates. The experiment was carried out in repetitions. Each repetition tested 4 pens at a time. The scratch posts were modified from Exp. 1 and each material was placed in a pen. Due to material destruction only 2 repetitions were carried out, both ending a little early (N=8). During the first repetition (<b>Rep 1</b>), sows ate and destroyed all the Plastic Combs within 2 d. The Plastic Comb scratch posts were pulled from the study and the second repetition (<b>Rep 2</b>) only had the Plastic Mat and Fiber Mat represented. An observation was made that one of the pens in Rep1 had extra feed on their floor and were not destroying their materials as fast as the other pens. So for Rep 2, more modifications to the scratch posts were made and the sows were given a little extra feed. The scratch posts were still destroyed in Rep 2 proving that the sows’ hunger and motivation to perform oral manipulations overwhelmed scratching behaviors. However, from the data that was collected sows spent more time and more frequently interacted with the Fiber Mat compared to the Plastic Mat. They more frequently and spent more time interacting than scratching with the enrichments but scratched on both enrichments the same amount of time and frequency (Durations: F_1,112.6= 13.63, <i>P</i> = 0.0003; Frequencies: F_1,111.9= 19.72, <i>P</i> < 0.0001).</p> <p> The plastic and fiber mats were presented to sows in farrowing crates for the second project by default. Sows (N=18) of parities 2 (<b>P2</b>) and 3 (<b>P3</b>) were housed for 25 d and assigned no enrichment (<b>Control</b>) or to a scratch pad treatment of plastic mats (<b>Plastic</b>) or fiber mats (<b>Fiber</b>). All were assessed for lesions, abnormal behaviors, eating and scratching behaviors, and time spent in different postures and behaviors. Scratching bouts occurred in short durations and were intermittent throughout the day. Parity 2 Plastic sows scratched for a longer total duration than P2 and P3 Fiber sows, P3 Plastic sows, and P2 Control sows (F_2,11= 11.94,<i> P</i> = 0.002). Parity 2 Plastic sows also displayed scratching bouts more frequently than all except P3 Control sows (F_2,11= 18.46, <i>P</i> = 0.0003). There were no body lesion differences between treatments (<i>P</i> > 0.05). Abnormal behaviors (<i>P</i> > 0.05) and proportion of time spent in different postures (F_2,94= 0.0003, <i>P</i> = 0.999) did not differ among treatments. </p> In conclusion, if a sow is experiencing hunger while in gestation pens this motivation may be overwhelming any other behavior needs. Scratch posts were destroyed and eaten. In this sort of environment, focusing on an enrichment that meets the need to forage and root would be more successful. Sows still scratched on the posts, so their preference and scratching use was still recorded to an extent to proceed to the experiment in farrowing crates. In farrowing crates, plastic scratch pads may be a suitable enrichment as they increased the natural behavior of scratching and did not increase abnormal behaviors. More research is needed to refine the scratch pad design and identify additional measures needed to examine the suitability of scratch pads as a form of environmental enrichment for sows in farrowing crates. In addition, the behavioral characteristics and sows’ underlying motivation for scratching need to be studied because very little is known about scratching behavior of sows. If sows are motivated to scratch, and scratching helps improve their welfare, then scratching enrichment may be beneficial to sows and farmers.

<p dir="ltr">To meet the growing demands for pork products, lactating sows are often housed in farrowing crates to reduce piglet crushing. However, the public has raised welfare concerns about farrowing crate systems due to the confinement and barren environment, which can impair social interactions between sow and piglets, change their activity levels, and alter how sows and piglets satisfy their motivated behaviors to chew and explore by oral manipulation of pen and pen mates. Barren and confined environments can result in skin abrasions caused by oral manipulations and fighting, physiological stress, inactivity, and abnormal behaviors, which can have an impact on sows’ and piglets’ welfare, productivity, and behavior. Previous work on environmental enrichments has shown promise to improve average daily gain, activity levels, stress, and behavioral repertoire. However, the majority of studies on pig environmental enrichments take place after weaning and research investigating the impact enrichments have during lactation is limited. In addition, research on maximizing the use of environmental enrichments based on the location inside the farrowing crate systems has not been conducted. To address the knowledge gaps concerning the impact of the location of environmental enrichments on the welfare, behavior, and productivity of sows and piglets in farrowing crate systems and to provide educational material on pig enrichment, this dissertation consists of two parts: Chapters 2 and 3 examine the effects of the location of environmental enrichments in farrowing crate systems on sows’ and piglet’s welfare, productivity, and behavior. Chapter 5 is an extension article on the different types of environmental enrichments and the best strategies for implementing enrichment in swine operations.</p><p dir="ltr">In Chapter 2, sows (n = 37) and focal piglets (n = 148) were assigned to three treatment groups: SPE (both sows and piglets had access to enrichment objects), PE (only piglets had access to enrichment objects), and CON (control group with no enrichment) blocked by sow parity and genetics. Sow posture and piglet behavior during the lactation and nursery phases were observed at various times after birth and weaning. Environmental enrichments significantly influenced the behaviors of suckling piglets, reducing pig-directed and agonistic behaviors. Piglets with enrichments tended to explore the pen less and engage in more social behaviors. The location of enrichments also impacted behaviors, with higher nursing behavior observed during mid-lactation for piglets with access to enrichments (PE) and increased interaction with enrichments when they were accessible to both sows and piglets (SPE). Treatment did not affect sow postural changes or most nursery behaviors, except for walking, which increased in SPE nursery piglets compared to CON piglets. Overall, the study demonstrated positive effects of environmental enrichments on suckling piglets in farrowing crate systems, highlighting the importance of enrichment placement on nursing behaviors and enrichment interaction.</p><p dir="ltr">In Chapter 3, the same sows and piglets were used to investigate the effects of enrichment location on the welfare (skin lesions, pressure sores, salivary cortisol, and tear stains) and performance (average daily gain and piglet crushing) of the sows and piglets. This study used the same animals that were assigned the treatment group, housing, and management practices from Chapter 2. Salivary cortisol samples were collected from sows at four time points: 24 hours after moving into farrowing crates, 24 hours after treatment group assignment, midway between moving into crates and weaning, and on the day of weaning. Pressure sores of sows were scored on days 1, 4, 7, 10, 14, and 17 after farrowing. For suckling piglets, tear stains and skin lesions were assessed on the same days, and their average daily gain (ADG) was analyzed weekly during lactation. In the nursery phase, salivary cortisol was collected from piglets on the day of weaning and days 1, 7, and 14 post-weaning, with tear stains and skin lesions measured on those days as well. Nursery ADG was analyzed from weaning to day 14 post-weaning. Results indicated that control (CON) sows were less likely to have no pressure sores compared to sows with shared (SPE) enrichments, while piglets in the enriched treatment groups (PE and SPE) had smaller tear stain areas than those in the CON group. Treatment influenced skin lesions in suckling piglets, with enriched piglets having fewer lesions in the ear and front body regions. There was no treatment effect on salivary cortisol for both sows and nursery piglets, nor did treatment affect ADG, piglet crushing, or nursery skin lesions. The provision of environmental enrichments in farrowing crates reduced pressure sores of sows, skin lesions of suckling piglets and tear stains of suckling and nursery piglets.</p><p dir="ltr">Overall, providing environmental enrichments to suckling piglets reduced aggression, as evidenced by fewer agonistic and pig-directed behaviors, and resulted in fewer skin lesions compared to piglets without enrichments. This suggests potentially reduced stress levels in enriched piglets, indicated by smaller tear stain areas. While most behaviors and skin lesion scores showed no significant differences during the nursery phase, enriched piglets continued to have smaller tear stains. Enrichment location influenced the following: sows had fewer pressure sores, and suckling piglets interacted more with enrichments and exhibited fewer pig-directed behaviors when enrichments were accessible to both sows and piglets compared to the only piglet enriched treatment group. Piglets with access only to enrichments also performed more nursing behaviors during mid-lactation compared to the control group. Overall, the study highlights the benefits of environmental enrichments in farrowing crate systems, particularly the positive impact of enrichment location on the welfare and behavior of sows and piglets.</p><p dir="ltr">Lastly, in Chapter 5, the extension article discusses the definition of environmental enrichment and its impact on pigs’ welfare. The article also delves into the five types of environmental enrichments (nutritional, occupational, physical, sensory, and social), providing examples of each. Additionally, the article offers five practical tips for efficiently and successfully implementing environmental enrichments in swine herds.</p>

No description available.