1,721,021 research outputs found
University of Bologna field work on biosecurity and animal welfare assessments in dairy farms: results of a 5-year experience
No full textUniversity of Bologna field work on biosecurity and animal welfare assessments in sheep and goat farms: results of a 5-year experience
No full textThree years of research on manipulable materials in Italian heavy pig production: a synopsis
No full textA total of 168 animals was used in 4 independent trials, comparing the effects on the behaviour of growing-finishing undocked Italian heavy pigs (30-170 kg BW) of the following manipulable materials: 1) suspended metal chain; 2) wood logs inside a rack; 3) edible block inside a rack, 4) wood attached to a metal chain; 5) wood log held by a metal frame; 6) edible block held by the frame. In each experiment two of the above-mentioned enrichments were compared. Animals were kept in small groups (4 pigs/pen) on slatted floor. Pigs were videotaped over the diurnal hours (12h) approximately every three weeks. Individual behaviours were assessed by scan-sampling. Observations from the 4 trials (1400 individual ethograms) were subjected to one-way ANOVA, using the enrichment device as the main effect and the trial as the random effect.
All animals were in good health throughout the trials. None of the proposed six enrichment devices significantly (P>0.05) affected the main individual behavioral patterns (proportion of time committed to: standing inactive, sitting inactive, lateral laying, sternal laying, rooting/exploring). The most observed behavior was laying, ranging from 61 to 73%. No aggressions or tail biting outbreaks were recorded. Conversely, depending on the trial, some unknown experiment-related factors resulted in significant differences for all the observed behaviors. Given the similarities in terms of general behavior obtained on pigs under good rearing conditions, it is suggested that factors other than enrichment devices may play an important role on the welfare level of heavy pigs
Case study on cryptorchidism in a horse from a medico-legal and animal welfare viewpoint
No full textTime dependent immunohistochemical expression of neurokinin-a (NKA) and interleukin-8 (IL-8) in the bronchial epithelium of horses with recurrent airway obstruction (RAO)
No full textDevelopment of a predictive model to determine the age of dog puppies: a variable importance approach to teeth development
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The relationship between welfare of dairy cows and drug use: a preliminary study
No full textAlthough it is widely acknowledged that the excessive use of specific drugs within a farm indicate the presence of management or health issues, it can also be hypothesized that the use of certain drugs (e.g., local antibiotics, anti-inflammatories) may mask the presence of other health problems (e.g. mastitis, lameness) that impair animal welfare. The aim of this preliminary study was to investigate the potential relationship between the welfare of dairy cows and the use of drugs. Inspections were carried out in 6 free-stall dairy farms located in Northern Italy (average size: 292 heads, 115 lactating cows). In each farm, the welfare of the lactating cows was assessed using the Welfare Quality protocol, and data on drug use during the year before the visit was collected from the farm register. Descriptive analysis showed that antibiotics were by far the most commonly used drugs (ranging between 30 and 100% of treatments in the different farms). Pearson correlation coefficients highlighted the presence of positive relationships between the number of animals and 1) treatments/head/year (r=0.8496, P=0.032), 2) antibiotics/head/year (r=0.8325, P=0.038), and 3) systemically administered antibiotics (r=0.8427, P=0.035). These results suggest an increased challenge in preserving the animals’ health in larger farms, probably due to a relative farmhand shortage (numerically higher animals:stockpeople ratio) observed in these farms. In one farm, which showed the lowest number of intramammary antibiotic treatments, a high somatic cell count was reported, likely indicating that the use of these drugs might mask the presence of mammary infections thus leading to an overestimation of the cows’ welfare level. Further research on a wider number of farms is needed, but these preliminary results indicate that drug use should be included in the assessment for a more holistic approach to animal welfare evaluation
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