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Paviaic I., T. Balenovic, H. Valpotic, A. Tofant, M. Popovic, M. Balenovic, K. Matkovic, I. Valpotic: Influence of Porcine Housing Density on Species Diversity and Number of Airborne Microorganisms at Fattening Facilities. Acta Vet. Brno 2006, 75: 533-540. Microbiological composition of air, as a factor of ambient conditions in animal facilities can significantly influence performance, health and animal welfare in the swine production. The aim of this investigation was to determine, by monitoring primary microclimatic conditions, the possible association of the number of fattening pigs per unit of housing space with species diversity and number of airborne microorganisms. The research was conducted at a fattening and finishing facility of 450 m2 (equipped with 44 pens designed for 10 animals each) with low-pressure ventilation in three different trials. The first trial was conducted during the autumn-winter period with the capacity of 440 animals (0.7 m2 of pen area per fattening pig), the second trial was conducted during the winter-spring period with 356 animals (0.8 m 2 of pen area per fattening pig), and the third trial was conducted during the spring-summer period with 312 animals (1.0 m2 of pen area per fattening pig). The air samples for isolation of fungi and mesophilic, haemolytic, and coliform bacteria were taken and microclimatic conditions were monitored during each trial at the same consecutive weekly periods. According to the data obtained from all trials, the total number of bacteria and fungi did not exceed 104 and 103 CFU per m3, respectively. The most numerous were gram-positive bacteria, followed by gram-negative bacteria and fungi. The total number of airborne microorganisms correlates significantly (at p < 0.05) with porcine housing density. These data may be useful for the assessment of housing density at fattening facilities that will not compromise swine health and welfare regarding the microbiological air quality, and thus may contribute to the implementation of optimal rearing conditions in large-scale animal producing units. Fattening pigs, housing, airborne bacteria, fungi

Tail biting is a multifactorial problem with important welfare as well as economic consequences. Different stakeholders in the pig production chain, such as farmers, consumers and policy makers are interested in reducing the level of tail biting, because tail biting may affect productivity, profit and animal welfare. To help assess the expected level of tail biting under specific husbandry conditions we constructed a computer-based decision support system called PIGTAIL, which is a relational database containing a tail biting model based on 133 statements derived from 61 scientific publications. A formalised procedure previously used for modelling animal welfare was used to construct the model. PIGTAIL contains 28 attributes that describe factors that have been associated in scientific research with different levels of tail biting in different housing conditions. Such factors include the provision of substrate, the docking of tails, sex and breed as well as feeding-, health- and climate-related factors. PIGTAIL takes a description of a housing and management system as input and produces a score for the overall risk of tail biting as output. This is a weighted average attribute score, where weighting factors are derived from different measures of tail biting performance, such as tail biting behaviour and tail wounds. The decision support system clarifies the reasoning steps involved in tail biting risk assessment and allows upgrading when new scientific information about tail biting becomes available.

Foram colhidos fragmentos de músculos da carcaça de 74 suínos de abate e de 150 porcas descartadas de granjas de ciclo completo, abatidos em frigorífico no Rio Grande do Sul. Os materiais foram inoculados em meio EMJH (Ellinghausen, MacCullough, Johnson & Harris), incubados a 30oC e o cultivo foi passado a placas de agar sangue através de membrana de 0,45mm. Foram obtidas 69 amostras de Arcobacter sp, classificadas por PCR como A. butzleri, respectivamente de suínos de abate (21 isolamentos, 29,3%) e matrizes descartadas (48 isolamentos, 32%) Portions of muscle from carcasses of 74 fattening pigs and 150 culled sows were collected from abattoir in the State of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The samples were inoculated into EMJH (Ellinghausen, MacCullough, Johnson & Harris) medium and the culture filtered through 0.45mm membrane on blood agar. Arcobacter sp were isolated, 69 isolates, typed by PCR as Arcobater butzleri, respectively from fattening pigs (21 isolates, 29.3%) and culled sows (48 isolates, 32%).

Zielsetzung dieser Arbeit war es, eine Bewertung der Tiergerechtheit in praxisüblichen Mastschweinehaltungen vorzunehmen. Durch Ableitung von Maßnahmen zur Steigerung der Tiergerechtheit soll den Produzenten eine auf Verbrauchereinstellung abgestimmte und praktikable Produktion innerhalb ihrer Haltungsformen erleichtert werden. Dazu wurden an 100 Mastschweine haltenden Betrieben in Nordrhein-Westfalen Erhebungen zur Beurteilung der Tiergerechtheit vorgenommen. Die Untersuchung teilte sich in zwei Bereiche, die Erhebungen von Betriebsdaten zum Management sowie zum Aufstallungssystem und die Verhaltensuntersuchung. Bei der Auswertung der Daten der Stallerhebung wurde festgestellt, dass speziell in den Betrieben mit Spaltenböden mehrere Punkte der SHVO (1995) bezüglich der Tiergerechtheit nicht eingehalten wurden. Defizite wurden im Bereich des Platzangebotes, der Spaltendimensionierung, der Trinkwasserversorgung sowie des Beschäftigungsangebotes ermittelt. Probleme, die bei den Stallbesuchen in allen Haltungsformen offensichtlich wurden, bestanden im Bereich des Stallklimas und der Beleuchtung. Im Rahmen der Verhaltensbeobachtungen war das am häufigsten beobachtete Merkmal das Liegeverhalten. Die Schweine in Tieflaufställen lagen signifikant weniger. Die Angaben zur Liegehäufigkeit entsprachen den in der Literatur zu Intensivhaltung angegebenen Werten. Die Tiere beschäftigten sich, durch den Anreiz der Einstreu, in den Strohhaltungsformen signifikant häufiger als in Vollspaltenbetrieben. In Spaltenhaltungsformen nahm die Beschäftigung mit Artgenossen und Gegenständen einen wesentlich höheren Anteil am Gesamtverhalten ein als in Strohhaltungsformen. Verhaltensstörungen wurden in allen Haltungsformen vorgefunden, jedoch nur in sehr geringem Ausmaß. In der Schlussbetrachtung der Arbeit wurden haltungsformspezifische Verbesserungsvorschläge erarbeitet, die sowohl bauliche Maßnahmen als auch Managementfaktoren betrafen und mit den beteiligten Landwirt The aim of this study was to assess animal welfare in conventional fattening pig systems. Development of means to improve animal welfare shall put the producer in a position to structure the production more in line with consumer requirements. To carry out this assessment the data of 100 fattening pig farms in North-Rhine Westphalia have been analysed. The study comprises of two parts, firstly the collection of operational data and data of housingsystems, and secondly behaviour investigations. In the analysis of the farm data it was found that, particularly in farms with slatted systems important points of the SVHO (1995) were not followed. Deficits were found in space allowance, dimensions of the slatted floors, drinking systems and objects for occupation. Problems apparent in all housing systems were mainly caused by climatic conditions and lighting. In the observational data the most frequent observation was the lying behaviour. This was significantly lower in deep litter systems. The values for the lying behaviour were in line with the figures quoted in the literature for intensively kept pigs. Animals on farms with straw systems, were significantly more active than animals on farms with fully slatted floors, due to the incentives given by the availability of straw. In slatted floor systems the manipulation of penmate and occupational objects were much higher represented in the total behaviour than in straw systems. Abnormal behaviour was found in all housing systems, however only in small amounts. At the end of this study suggestions for ways of improvement were made specific to the relevant husbandry systems, which included housing as well as management factors.

The Therapy of diseases in domestic animals in the intensive production are very expensive for both produsers and customers. Thus, for the producers the control and prevention of diseases is one continuos task. Diagnostic, therapy and vaccination give succesfull effects in the control of many swine diseases. Some of these diseases have devasteng effects in swine production by multiplicating in very shott time high numbers of death or eliminated animals. So losses and damages in the swine production has very negative effects on the prices of final product carcasses. If would be possible to an aproach realize minimal losses in fattening phase of swine production, there is need to fulfill following: to organize an effective diagnostic service in the field, and than to establish monitoging of losses on the basic of pathomorphological findings. The use of recorded information on type and incidence of fattening swine mortality on a long term basis may help in the development of efective strategies to reduce / control losses until the finishing carcasses.

The immunoprophylaxis of mycoplasmal pneumonia of swine (MPS) caused by Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae was investigated for the first time in fattening pigs in Croatia. The incidence of MPS was monitored in pigs weighing on average 27.5 kg (12-weeks-old) after the immunization with M. hyopneumoniae vaccine. Of 350 pigs in each group, in nonvaccinated group 55 (or 15.7%) animals were diseased by pneumonia and 11 (or 3.1%) died of consequences of pneumonia, whereas in the vaccinated group 20 (or 5.7%) of pigs were diseased by pneumonia without any death due to the infection. In the nonvaccinated group 44% more pigs were individually treated with antibiotic, and these animals received in-feed therapy for more than 1/4 of the fattening period. Vaccinated pigs gained weight faster (at the rate of 82 g/day) than control animals. The mean score of changes on lungs due to M.hyopneumoniae in the control pigs was 10.51 whereas in the vaccinated animals it was only 0.54. The total tissue alterations on lungs due to M. hyopneumoniae, Pasteurella multocida and A. pleuropneumoniae expressed as the mean score were 13.21 in the control group and 2.98 in the vaccinated group. The evaluation of M. hyopneumoniae vaccine in the field appeared to provide an adequate immunity in fattening pigs but less effective then when applied to younger pigs at 1-3 weeks of age.

Background Tail biting is a common problem in intensive pig farming, affecting both welfare and production. Although routine tail docking is banned within the EU, it remains a common practice to prevent tail biting. Straw as environmental enrichment has been proposed as an alternative to tail docking, but its effectiveness against tail biting and function in manure handling systems have to be considered. The aim of the study was to survey how pigs with intact tails are raised and how tail biting is handled in Sweden, where tail docking is banned through national legislation. The study emphasises straw usage and its association with tail biting pigs and problems in the manure handling system. The expectation is that this information could be conveyed to the rest of the EU to reduce the need for tail docking. Results In a telephone survey of randomly selected Swedish pig farmers (46 nursery and 43 finishing pig units) with at least 50 sows or 300 finishing places, it was found that straw was used by 98% of the farmers. The median daily straw ration provided was 29 g/pig for nursery and 50 g/pig for finishing pigs in systems with partly slatted flooring. The reported prevalence of tail biting was 1.6% at slaughter. The majority of farmers reported that they never had manure handling problems caused by straw (56% of nursery units and 81% of finishing pig units). A proportion of farmers (37%) also provided with additional material apart from straw on some occasions, which may have affected tail biting prevalence and manure handling problems. Conclusions Swedish farmers rear undocked pigs without large problems with tail biting. Straw is the main manipulable material used, and additional manipulable material is used to various extents. The low incidence of straw obstructing the manure handling systems implies that it is indeed possible to use straw in partly slatted flooring systems, reducing the need for tail docking. The impact of using additional manipulable material is unknown and requires more investigation to separate the impact of such material from the impact of straw. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13028-016-0266-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Given the risks associated with antimicrobial resistance and its link with antimicrobial use, available data on antimicrobial use in the Belgian pig, broiler and veal calf production were compared. Allowing for comparison of the data available from three peer-reviewed scientific articles, the unit of measurement for antimicrobial use was the Treatment Incidence (TI), defined as the number of animals per 1000 treated daily with one ‘defined’ (DDDA) or ‘used daily dose animal’ (UDDA). Moreover, extrapolation of farm-level data to national-level data was attempted according to the European Surveillance of Veterinary Antimicrobial Consumption (ESVAC) methodology, to estimate the amount of antimicrobials used in Belgium per species. Although, among the three species, the highest TI was observed in veal calves (TIDDDA=414, TIUDDA=379), based on the extrapolation, it was estimated that most antimicrobials were administered to pigs (159.4 tons). Thus, the most rapid decline in the total use could potentially be achieved by targeting the pig sector. During the process of data collection for comparison and calculation, it became obvious that there is a need for harmonized monitoring programs.

Livestock excreta and manure stored in housing, in manure stores, in beef feedlots, or cattle hardstandings are the most important sources of ammonia (NH3) in the atmosphere. There is a need to quantify the emission, to assess the effect of emission on NH3 and ammonium ( NH 4 + ) deposition to ecosystems and on the health risks posed by NH 4 + ‐based particles in the air. To obtain a reliable estimate of the emission from these sources, the processes involved in the transfer of NH3 from the manure to the free atmosphere have to be described precisely. A detailed knowledge of the processes of NH3 transfer from the manure and transport to the free atmosphere will contribute to development of techniques and housing designs that will contribute to the reduction of NH3 emission to the atmosphere. For this reason, this review presents the processes and algorithms involved in NH3 emission from livestock manure in livestock buildings and manure stores for pigs and cattle. Emission from poultry buildings and following land application of manure, although significant sources of NH3, have been reported in earlier reviews and are not included here. A clear description of the features that contribute to the total NH3 emission from buildings will include information on stock class, diet and excreta composition, the distribution of emitting surfaces and knowledge of their mass transfer characteristics in relation to the building as a whole, as well as environmental variables. Other relevant information includes the quantity and composition of excreta produced by different classes of livestock and the influence of feeding regime; the influence of environmental variables on the production of NH3 from excreta; how excreta is distributed and managed in livestock buildings; and factors that affect mass transfer of NH3 in the building to the atmosphere outside. A major factor is the pH of the manure. There is a great need for algorithms that can predict pH as affected by feeding and management. This chapter brings together published estimates of NH3 emissions and abatement techniques, and relates these to the factors listed above (excreta, NH3 production, building, and mass transfer).

Routine Trichinella meat inspection at the slaughterhouse detected one larva in a pooled batch of 100 pig samples. The larva was sent to the Norwegian Veterinary Institute (NVI) for species identification. Morphological examination revealed that the larva was not Trichinella spp. Molecular analysis was performed. PCR and sequencing of 5S/ITS identified the larva as Toxocara cati. A second round of digests was carried out at the meat inspection laboratory, in smaller batches to try to identify the infected animal. No further larvae were detected and it was not possible to identify which of the 100 animals the larva had come from. This is the first time that Toxocara cati has been reported in slaughterhouse pigs in Norway. Although the infected individual could not be identified, the meat originated from one of six potential farms. A small survey regarding rodent control and cats was sent to each of these farms. Cats had restricted access to food storage areas (two farms reported that cats had access) whilst none of the farms allowed cats into the production housing. Cats were, however, present on all the farms (mostly stray cats of unknown health status). Half of the farms also reported seeing rodents in the pig housing during the previous six months and half reported finding rodents in the feed and straw storage areas. We were unable to narrow down the source of infection – however contamination of food or bedding material, with cat faeces or infected rodents, in addition to the presence of infected rodents in pig housing remain potential routes of infection.

The aim of this study was to evaluate whether a panel of 29 salivary biomarkers of stress, immunity, inflammation, redox homeostasis and other physiological functions can change in healthy fattening pigs when monitoring the different phases of their productive cycle and can be influenced by various sources of variations such as gender and performance parameters. Several analytes showed changes due to the productive cycle, with a majority of the analytes showing higher values at lactation and at the beginning of nursery. Additionally, differences were seen due to sex. These differences can be related in some cases with performance parameters and should be taken into consideration for an appropriate interpretation of the analytes. A comprehensive panel of 29 salivary analytes was measured in fattening pigs to evaluate its possible changes along their productive cycle. The identification of those changes would allow a better interpretation of the results according to the productive phase of the animal. Saliva samples were obtained from 49 Large-White pigs (24 females, 25 males) in suckling phase, at the beginning and the end of the nursery phase, and at the beginning and the end of the growing phase. Several analytes changed according to the phase of the productive cycle, with most of the analytes showing higher values at lactation and at the beginning of nursery. Additionally, differences were seen due to sex. When possible relations between performance parameters and analytes were evaluated, significant positive but weak relationships were found between weight at birth and salivary γ-glutamyl transferase, and between back-fat thickness and salivary lactate dehydrogenase. In conclusion, differences in the values of salivary analytes can be found in fattening pigs depending on the productive phase and sex of the animals.