Increasing requirements for animal husbandry to mitigate nitrogen and phosphorus surplus

Der vorliegende Beitrag beschreibt die aktuelle Situation der Schweine- und Geflügelhaltung in Deutschland sowie die Notwendigkeit, erhebliche Nährstoffüberschüsse an Stickstoff und Phosphor verringern zu müssen, um gesetzliche Vorgaben zukünftig einhalten zu können. Zur Minderung von Stickstoffemissionen aus der Tierhaltung werden viele Maßnahmen angesprochen, die von einer Bestandsabstockung über Maßnahmen in Ställen und der Abgasreinigung bis hin zu einer emissionsarmen Güllelagerung und Ausbringung reichen. Darüber hinaus werden die zukünftigen Anforderungen einer bedarfsgerechten Phosphat-Düngung sowie Möglichkeiten zur P-Abtrennung aus Wirtschaftsdüngern skizziert.The present report describes the actual situation in the German pig and poultry keeping and the necessity for reducing considerable nitrogen and phosphorus surplus to meet further legal specifications. Many nitrogen mitigation options are illustrated ranging from animal number reduction, indoor measurements in stables and exhaust air treatment up to a low emission manure storage and application. Beyond that, future demands on phosphate fertilizing which meets legal requirements and options for P removal from manures are outlined

KRAS, BRAF genotyping reveals genetic heterogeneity of ovarian borderline tumors and associated implants

Background: Patients diagnosed for a serous ovarian borderline tumor (s-BOT) typically present with an excellent clinical outcome. However there have been controversies concerning the prognostic impact of so-called implants, an extra ovarian spread occurring alongside the s-BOT in certain cases. It remains obscure whether these implants actually resemble metastasis owning the same genetic pattern as the ovarian primary or whether they develop independently. Methods: The current study, in the aim of further clarifying the genetic origin of implants, assessed BRAF/KRAS hot spot mutations and the p53/p16(INK4a) immunophenotype of s-BOTs and corresponding implants (n = 49) of 15 patients by pyro-sequencing and immunostaining, respectively. Results: A significant proportion of both s-BOTs and implants showed KRAS or BRAF mutation and though p16(INK4a) was found to be abundantly expressed, p53 immunoreactivity was rather low. When genotypes of BRAF/KRAS mutated s-BOTs and corresponding implants were compared no patient presented with a fully matching mutation profile of s-BOTs and all corresponding implants. Conclusions: The current study reveals genetic heterogeneity of s-BOTs and implants, as none of the markers examined showed constant reciprocity. Hence, our findings may assist to explain the different clinical presentation of s-BOTs and implants and might encourage to applying more individualized follow up protocols

KRAS, BRAF genotyping reveals genetic heterogeneity of ovarian borderline tumors and associated implants

Background: Patients diagnosed for a serous ovarian borderline tumor (s-BOT) typically present with an excellent clinical outcome. However there have been controversies concerning the prognostic impact of so-called implants, an extra ovarian spread occurring alongside the s-BOT in certain cases. It remains obscure whether these implants actually resemble metastasis owning the same genetic pattern as the ovarian primary or whether they develop independently. Methods: The current study, in the aim of further clarifying the genetic origin of implants, assessed BRAF/KRAS hot spot mutations and the p53/p16(INK4a) immunophenotype of s-BOTs and corresponding implants (n = 49) of 15 patients by pyro-sequencing and immunostaining, respectively. Results: A significant proportion of both s-BOTs and implants showed KRAS or BRAF mutation and though p16(INK4a) was found to be abundantly expressed, p53 immunoreactivity was rather low. When genotypes of BRAF/KRAS mutated s-BOTs and corresponding implants were compared no patient presented with a fully matching mutation profile of s-BOTs and all corresponding implants. Conclusions: The current study reveals genetic heterogeneity of s-BOTs and implants, as none of the markers examined showed constant reciprocity. Hence, our findings may assist to explain the different clinical presentation of s-BOTs and implants and might encourage to applying more individualized follow up protocols

An economical assessment of providing suckling piglets with supplementary milk and prestarter

Fertility of sows has shown marked increases, especially during the last decade. In order to raise as many piglets as possible without resorting to nursing sows, it is extremely important to provide the piglets with a diet covering all their nutritional needs. This study examined the influence of automatically providing suckling pigs with a supplementary diet of milk and prestarter on the number of weaned piglets, their weight development and on the condition of the sow. The results were used to carry out a cost-benefit analysis. This analysis shows that automatically providing supplementary milk and prestarter led to higher weaning weights. However, the system would only be cost effective if at least 0.65 additional weaned piglets were raised per litter through supplementary feeding

Animal Welfare Assessment of Fattening Pigs: A Case Study on Sample Validity

A guide for animal welfare assessment of fattening pigs recommends recording some of the indicators for a sample of the animals from a herd. However, it is not certain whether the herd’s level of welfare can be correctly judged using a random sample. Therefore, both the true prevalences of welfare indicators in a full census and the estimated prevalences of the indicators based upon simulated samples taken according to five strategies (termed S1 to S5) were determined. Deviations from the true level of animal welfare in the herd due to the sampling were recorded and analyzed. Depending on the strategy, between 12% and 43% of the samples over- or underestimated the true prevalences by more than 50%. The validity of the sampling strategies was evaluated using the normalized root-mean-squared error (NRMSE) and the relative bias (RB). In terms of accuracy, the strategies differed only slightly (between NRMSE = 0.13 for S2 and NRMSE = 0.19 for S4). However, the strategies varied more obviously regarding the bias (between RB = −0.0002 for S1 and RB = −0.0370 for S5). The described results are the outcome of an initial case study on the sample validity of the indicators and have to be verified using the data of more herds

Computer vision based monitoring of performance of an RFID based eating registration system

status: publishe

Acceptance and Feasibility of a Guideline for the Animal Welfare Assessment of Fattening Pigs from Farmers’ Point of View

The welfare of farm animals is being increasingly discussed in society and politics. To evaluate animal welfare, indicator systems are often used. Such a system has been developed by the German Association for Technology and Structures in Agriculture and suggested in the publication “Animal Welfare Indicators: Practical Guide—Pigs”. The association’s aim is to provide farmers with a useful method for recording the welfare of pigs. Crucial for the acceptance of the guide by farmers is a high degree of feasibility of the recommended indicators as well as the proposed methods for their recording. To evaluate this, 40 farmers keeping fattening pigs were interviewed. The guided semi-structured interview was conducted on the farms after the farmers evaluated the welfare of their fattening pigs according to the guide. The results are: Apart from the indicators faecal soiling and tail length, all the other eleven indicators are accepted for the assessment of fattening pig welfare by a majority of the interviewed farmers (between 57.5% and 90% acceptance per indicator). Furthermore, the feasibility of the individual indicators was assessed as being positive. The relationship between time expenditure and benefit was rated on a five-point scale at an average of 3.1 (medium), which clearly shows that there is a need for further development of this guide. Some possible changes with a potential for improvement could be identified; for example, the aggregation of the results after the collection of the individual indicators to an overall result that can be compared and interpreted