Browsing by Subject "Pig husbandry"

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    Bewertung praxisüblicher Mastschweinehaltungen in Nordrhein-Westfalen hinsichtlich der Tiergerechtheit
    (2002) Zaludik, Katrina; Valle Zárate, Anne
    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.
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    Intensive pig production and manure management in Beijing, North China Plain
    (2014) Mendoza Huaitalla, Roxana; Gallmann, Eva
    China, at the forefront of the livestock revolution, has experienced a more industrialized change, with an increment of the large livestock farms and of the decoupling between the livestock and arable land. Meat production in China is dominated by pork, which comprises approximately 50% of worldwide pig production. The description of the pig husbandry and manure management systems in the large animal operations of the NCP is not widely available. In order to describe the status quo of the pig production and manurial management systems in the NCP, a large-size pig farm with a dimension of 10 ha and an annual stock of 12,000 breeding swine and 20,000 market pigs or porkers was selected. An intensive sampling plan as far as feasible of pig manure, wastewater, drinking water, and feed, the main pig farm inputs and outputs, was started in 2009. The manurial system identified in the farm was denominated as “gan qing fen” or “cleaning the manure dryly”. In this system, the pig manure (faeces with some remains of urine) was collected manually by scraping the mainly non-slatted floors of the pigsties twice a day, and the floors were then flushed with water. The results showed that the pig manure was characterized by high nutrient and heavy metal contents that might be due to the solid fraction separation from the liquid fraction under the gan qing fen manurial management system. The piggery wastewater was characterized by very low concentrations of nutrients and heavy metals as a result of their dilution with flushing water, mainly used for cleaning the pigsties. Manure and wastewater samples from weaning pigs contained the highest concentrations of nutrients and heavy metals; that could be due to the high supplementation rates of these minerals in the weaner diets. In general, it seems that the manual daily collection of pig manure in the gan qing fen system is an efficient practice in order to maintain nutrient contents in pig manure, but the use of flushing water should be reduced as it can lead to further environmental pollution. China has issued a range of environmental standards in recent years. The Chinese national standards are adoptions of international standards and are consistent across all of China. Chinese and German recommendations were compiled in order to compare them with the results obtained in this study. Based on the comparisons, it is stated that pig drinking water sourced from groundwater wells was of optimum quality as it is used for both pigs and humans. Trace minerals in pig feeds, such as lead (Pb), chromium (Cr) and cadmium (Cd), were found to be within the range of values given by the Chinese and German feeding recommendations. However, high mineral concentrations of zinc (Zn), manganese (Mn), copper (Cu), and arsenic (As), mainly found in the weaning feed samples, surpassed the given thresholds by almost ten times. Pig manure was compared with the German and Chinese standard for biowaste due to the nonexistence of a specific standard for animal manure in both countries. It was observed that maximum Cd, Cu and Zn concentration values surpassed the thresholds established in those recommendations. Similarly, trace mineral concentrations in the piggery wastewater were compared with the Chinese standard for irrigation water, however, it was not compared with any German standard due to the different nature of the effluent generated from the Chinese gan qing fen manurial management system, and it was found that Pb, Cd, Cr, Cu, and Zn did not comply with the irrigation water quotes. Furthermore, there is a need to re-evaluate the current Chinese standards and to strengthen the recommendations focused on the disposal, reuse and recycling of manure and wastewater of livestock origin in general. In order to evaluate the air pollutants produced in the pig farm, i.e. gas concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2) and ammonia (NH3), and particulate matter, were measured making use of four different measurement devices. High dust concentrations were identified in the pig barns, especially during the feeding and manure cleaning events inside the farrowing and weaning barns with slatted floors. The highest NH3 concentration was recorded in the weaning barn during the summer season, while the highest CO2 concentration was reported in the gestation barn during the winter season. To conclude, using the example of an intensive pig farm near Beijing, it was identified that the main issues were the decoupling between the cropland and the pig farm, the existence of nutrient surpluses in the pig manure originating from the uncontrolled nutrient supply into the pig feeds, the manure mismanagement (open manure storage), a lack of infrastructure (broken curtains, windows, inoperative fans), aerial pollutants (high indoor concentrations of CO2, NH3 and PM1-10), extensive hand labour, and obsolete know-how with respect to resource conservation, among the most significant.
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    Die Mensch-Nutztier-Beziehung - Dimensionen, Einflussfaktoren und Auswirkungen am Beispiel der Schweinehaltung in Hohenlohe
    (2009) Skipiol, Annette; Kromka, Franz
    The relationship between farmers and their animals in modern agriculture is often seen as a problem concerning the whole society and a new ethics is demanded. Modern livestock husbandry is seen to consider the animals only as a capital equipment. The relationship between the farmer and his animals is seen as dominated by economic interests. This accusation points to the ambiguous relationship between man and livestock: on the one hand the animal is an object of value, on the other hand it´s a living individual with own needs which can be accepted as a ?you?. In modern livestock husbandries, with high numbers of animals, a collective relationship between the farmer and his stock is quite probable and the animal is seen as a anonymous specimen of the whole bulk. Current papers concerned with this matter, nevertheless provide inconsistent conclusions. Furthermore it is not clear, what is meant by the complex ?man - farm animal relationship?. Different terms such as empathy, attitude and communication are partly used as synonyms, partly however they´re understood as different dimensions of the construct. In this paper therefore at first the complex man - farm animal relationship was described in all its dimensions. Furthermore it was investigated how this relationship turns out to be in fact in modern livestock production and what the influencing factors are. A survey was conducted with farmers from an agricultural association for producing rearing pigs and piglets in the area of Hohenlohe. Pig production provides the possibility to analyse the relationship between farmers and their animals within different production lines and therefore variably intensive processes (concerning expenditure of time and contact to the individual animal). The questionnaire was based on a collection of items especially composed for this survey. It contained elements both from the relevant literature and from results of interviews with pig production experts. The data evaluation concentrated on the lines rearing pig production an piglet production. The analysis showed that in piglet production the farmers had a significantly closer relation to their animals than the rearing pig farmers, in fact the piglet producers had the closest relationship to their animals of all respondents. In rearing pig production the man-farm animal relationship was least developed of all production lines. The connection between man - farm animal relationship and the size of the stock, which is mentioned in other studies, could also be attested in the sample, both with rearing pig producers and piglet producers. The statement of Kather (1999), that even in a large livestock a close relationship between farmer and animal is possible, therefore couldn´t be confirmed. Furthermore a link between the period of time a farmer spent in the stable and his relationship to the animals couldn´t be found. This supports the assumption, that the strength of this relationship rather depends on the form of communication between farmer and animals, that takes places within this time. Personal factors of the farmer influenced the relationship to the animals less than expected. The gender of the farmer or a possible parenthood also didn?t show an influence on the man - farm animal relationship. Also the religious confession of the farmers didn´t influence their relationship to their animals, which differs from the findings of Porcher et al. (2004). However the data analyses showed that the age of the farmers affected their relationship to the animals. Elder farmers had a closer relationship than younger ones. The man - farm animal relationship was also affected by the professionalism of the interviewees: the better educated the farmers were, the less strong their relationship to the animals. This coincided with the results of Porcher et al. (2004). To give a complete review about the complex man - animal relationship its effects on animal and man were also analysed. It was shown that bad handling causes fear and stress in animals, thus well-being and performance of the animals are suffering. The relationship between farmers and their animals therefore not only concerns animal protection and ethics, but also affects economic parameters. Accordingly the man - farm animal relationship can be considered as an important quality factor in livestock production.