Review: Transport Losses in Market Weight Pigs: I. A Review of Definitions, Incidence, and Economic Impact

Transport losses (dead and nonambulatory pigs) present animal welfare, legal, and economic challenges to the US swine industry. The objectives of this review are to explore 1) the historical perspective of transport losses; 2) the incidence and economic implications of transport losses; and 3) the symptoms and metabolic characteristics of fatigued pigs. In 1933 and 1934, the incidence of dead and nonambulatory pigs was reported to be 0.08 and 0.16%, respectively. More recently, 23 commercial field trials (n = 6,660,569 pigs) were summarized and the frequency of dead pigs, nonambulatory pigs, and total transport losses at the processing plant were 0.25, 0.44, and 0.69% respectively. In 2006, total economic losses associated with these transport losses were estimated to cost the US pork industry approximately $46 million. Furthermore, 0.37 and 0.05% of the nonambulatory pigs were classified as either fatigued (nonambulatory, noninjured) or injured, respectively, in 18 of these trials (n = 4,966,419 pigs). Fatigued pigs display signs of acute stress (open-mouth breathing, skin discoloration, muscle tremors) and are in a metabolic state of acidosis, characterized by low blood pH and high blood lactate concentrations; however, the majority of fatigued pigs will recover with rest. Transport losses are a multifactorial problem consisting of people, pig, facility design, management, transportation, processing plant, and environmental factors, and, because of these multiple factors, continued research efforts are needed to understand how each of the factors and the relationships among factors affect the well-being of the pig during the marketing process

Lanthanoid “Bottlebrush” Clusters: Remarkably Elongated Metal-Oxo Core Structures with Controllable Lengths

Large metal-oxo clusters consistently assume spherical or regular polyhedral morphologies rather than high-aspect-ratio structures. Access to elongated core structures has now been achieved by the reaction of lanthanoid salts with a tetrazole-functionalized calixarene in the presence of a simple carboxylate coligand.The resulting Ln19 and Ln12 clusters are constructed from apex-fused Ln5O6 trigonal bipyramids and are formed consistently under a range of reaction conditions and reagent ratios. Altering the carboxylate coligandstructure reliably controls the cluster length, giving access to a new class of rod-like clusters of variable length

67202; ‡ ‡ Innovative Livestock Solutions, Blackie, Alberta, Canada T0L0J0; § § Livestock Behavior Research Unit

ABSTRAC

Characterization of transparent ZnM2O4 coatings (M = Al, Ga) obtained by sol-gel routes with heterometallic alkoxides as precursors

Heterometallic [ZnM2(OR)8]m species (M = Al, Ga ; R = C2H4OMe, C2H4NMe2) were prepared and characterized by elemental analysis, FT-IR and multinuclear NMR (1H, 13C, 27Al). Their Hydrolysis was investigated. The powders were analysed by FT-IR, TGA/TDA and XRD. [ZnGa2(OC2H4OMe)8]2 allowed to obtain ZnGa2O4 at 300°C. Particles size in solution and aging phenomena were analysed. Stable colloidal suspensions (150 - 200nm) for elaboration of thin films by spin-coating techniques were obtained. These films transparent and were characterized by XRD, XPS, TMAFM, SEM, EDAX and UV-V spectroscopy