1,721,012 research outputs found
Tail biting in pigs: is it possible to rear the heavy pig avoiding tail docking?
Full text linkTail biting in pigs has been identified as a behavioural problem for decades. It has serious consequences for animal welfare and for the income of the farmers The inability to prevent occurrence of this adverse behavior under commercial farm conditions has
resulted in the majority of pig producers considering necessary to dock the tails of all piglets as a preventative measure. This management choice, represents both an animal welfare and an ethical issue, as highlighted in the EU Directive 2008/120 on pig welfare which constrains routine tail docking and emphasizes the need to find alternative preventative strategies.
Tail biting prevalence studies have been conducted in most of the UE Countries, but cross-study comparisons appear difficult for the different populations considered.
Moreover, most of the data did not concern heavy pig production, with a lack of a complete description of the problem in a prolonged rearing context.
The first step of this thesis was to identify the real prevalence of tail biting in Italy, completing an European picture. Moreover, an epidemiological approach was adopted in order to identify the management and housing factors influencing tail biting in the specific heavy pig rearing context. The study highlighted a low incidence of lesions in Italy (0.15% of affected animals on a sample of 79,780 animals). This could be related to the great
percentage, (close to 100%), of docked pigs, but at the same time suggested that rearing heavy pigs in a prolonged fattening cycle does not seems to worsen the risk of tail biting.
Furthermore, were identified several risk factors for tail biting on heavy pig commercial farms. Results could be relevant to the pig industry in order to reduce the economical losses due to tail biting, giving emphasis to the respect of animal welfare legislation regarding space allowance, the availability of adequate environmental enrichment and environmental parameters such as ammonia concentration and temperature. Once a causal risk factor has been demonstrated on farm, measures should be taken to minimize the incidence of tail biting, thereby enhancing animal welfare.
A second step was to evaluate the welfare of undocked pigs in the specific heavy pig rearing context, investigating the feasibility to avoid tail docking in a prolonged fattening phase. Gender and the presence of straw were also considered in their effect on tail biting by evaluating welfare indicators such as blood parameters, culling rate, behavior, and lesions at ears and tail. Further investigations were conducted on mortality rate, causes of death, and the presence of lung lesions and oesophago -gastric ulcer (OGU) at slaughter.
The outcome of the study suggests that the combined use of solid floors, compliance with the parameters established by EU legislation on the protections of pigs in terms of space allowance, environment parameters, and presence of chains and sawdust as enrichments seems to allow the fattening of heavy pigs without performing tail docking with no outbreak of injurious tail biting. Straw therefore seems to be an important tool in both
increasing explorative behavior and preventing biting and lesions, particularly in the early stage of fattening. Furthermore, results at slaughter reveal the beneficial effects of straw on the susceptibility to gastric ulcer in the heavy pigs production system, for which very few data are available on this topic. The straw was beneficial, despite the fact that only a relatively small quantity was provided to pigs, allowing management problems due to slurry outflow obstruction or excessive farmer workload to be avoided.
In a further field study, tail biting was evaluated throughout a entire producing cycle of heavy pigs, starting from weaning to slaughter. The aim was to investigate welfare and tail biting outbreaks also in the weaning phase, having available data of individually marked animals during their whole growth. Slatted floor was chosen as the most common floor type used in the heavy pig production, but even recognized as one of the mayor risk factors for tail biting.
The outcome of the weaning phase was that undocked tails could represent an alternative recipient for exploration behavior in weaning pigs, with the consequence of greater incidence of tail lesions. However, seems that the higher level of lesions was
related especially to the age. Probably, the social stress related to the progressive reduction of the space allowance due to the increasing size of the growing animals could be a relevant factor in display of tail biting.
During the fattening phase, to avoid tail docking in pigs with a prolonged rearing cycle as for the heavy pig production, seems to provoke the rise of tail lesions. However, this finding, with the combined use of slatted floors, compliance with the parameters
established by EU legislation in terms of space allowance and environmental parameters, and presence of chains and straw in a rack as enrichments, seems not associated to the variation of blood parameters and behavior, suggesting an insufficient intensity to cause severe welfare problems. Nevertheless, potential economical losses due to the injured tails should be considered even if not accompanied by evident poor welfare
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Analgesia and/or anaesthesia during piglet castration–part I: efficacy of farm protocols in pain management
Full text linkPain alleviation associated with surgical castration of piglets is a debated welfare issue. The present study compares the effect of different protocols involving analgesia and/or anaesthesia or sedation suitable under field conditions, with the aim to alleviate pain due to castration in piglets. A randomised within-litter design, with 50 replicates, compared 7 treatments applied 10 min before castration: HAND: positive control, handling only; CTRL: negative control, physiological saline, i.m.; MEL: meloxicam, i.m.; AZA: azaperone, i.m.; PROC: local anaesthesia with procaine and adrenaline, subcutaneously; AZA-MEL: joint administration of azaperone and meloxicam; PROC-MEL: procaine and meloxicam. Efficacy of pain relief was assessed during a 180 min period after castration by serum cortisol and glycaemia, algometry and behaviour. CTRL, AZA, PROC and AZA-MEL piglets showed an increase in cortisol concentration 60 min after castration compared to HAND. Both groups with azaperone (AZA and AZA-MEL) developed concentrations even higher than CTRL (p .05). CRTL and PROC piglets reacted to the algometer at an average lower pressure than HAND (p =.03), differently to the other treatments that showed similar skin sensitivity to HAND (p >.05). No differences in glycaemia and behaviour were observed among treatments. The results suggest that using meloxicam alone might offer a promising option in reducing the expression of pain-related parameters in piglets after surgical castration, however, it appears more efficient when used alone than in association with the anaesthetic agents tested. Procaine administered alone and azaperone seems unsuited to the purpose considered.HIGHLIGHTS Meloxicam used alone is suggested for reducing the expression of pain-related parameters in piglets after surgical castration; When a protocol using procaine is used on the farm during piglets castration, the association with meloxicam reduces some pain-related indicators; Procaine administered alone and azaperone seems unsuited to manage pain after surgical castration of piglets
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
Pig surgery: Cryptorchidectomy using an inguinal approach
No full textThe objective of the study was to determine whether a less-invasive surgical technique used in cryptorchid horses, dogs and cats can be used successfully to remove retained testicles in pigs on farm. In total, 284 monolateral cryptorchid pigs underwent surgery on-farm condition, during which an incision was made over the inguinal ring and the undescended testicle was located for removal via identification of the vaginal process and the embryonic gubernaculum. A traction of these structures allowed the testis to pass through the deep and the superficial rings up to its exteriorisation outside the abdominal wall through the inguinal canal. The undescended testicle was located in the abdomen in 258 cases (90.8 per cent) and in the inguinal region in the remaining 26 cases (9.1 per cent). In none of the pigs was the abdominal cavity breached or the inguinal rings enlarged. However, in 23 pigs (8.1 per cent) the gubernaculum testis was thin and it frayed and ruptured when traction was applied, requiring a recovering by inserting a finger and Kelly curved forceps into the abdomen through the inguinal ring. In two pigs (0.7 per cent), the undescended testicle was not found. All surgical procedures were completed within 6-12 minutes. Four pigs died within two days after surgery (1.4 per cent). Major intraoperative or long-term complications did not occur. Results suggested that this surgical method is highly effective and could be used as a primary surgical approach in cryptorchid pigs as it is in cryptorchid dogs, cats and horses
- …
