THE EFFECT OF DIETARY BIOTIN LEVEL ON THE PRODUCTIVITY OF THE FEMALE PIG

Five experiments were conducted with female pigs to investigate the effects of dietary biotin level on: reproductive performance and hoof integrity over four parities (experiment 1); ovulation rate of the gilt (experiment 2); durability of hoof horn and the phospholipid and neutral lipid profile of perinephric and hoof horn fat (experiments 3 and 4) and milk fat (experiment 5). Experiment 1 showed that changes in reproductive performance and hoof integrity in adult sows occurred when pigs were fed levels of dietary biotin previously considered to have been sufficient to meet the sow's requirements (diet calculated to provide 32µg available biotin/kg). Notably, sows receiving 350µg supplementary biotin/kg returned to oestrus 2.9 ± 1.7 and conceived 6.1 ± 1.4 days sooner than controls (p < 0.05). -The number of lesions/sow increased greatly between 170 days of age and first weaning, at which time the control sows had significantly more lesions/sow (13.45 v 9.79; p < 0.001), but appeared to stabilise in the oldest sows. The production of unsaturated fatty acids in the neutral lipid fraction of the milk increased between early and late lactation in the supplemented but not control sows (p < 0.05) in a sample of sows from control and supplemented treatments respectively (experiment 5). The effects on reproductive performance and the biochemical and physical effects observed in the growing pig indicated that biotin deficiency may produce commercially significant effects prior to the development of symptoms of clinical deficiency. No treatment effects were observed for weight of ovary or number of corpora lutea produced by gilts (experiment 2). Hoof horn durability, measured using a Durometer, was greatest in gilts fed high levels of dietary biotin (experiment 4). The fractionated analyses of the perinephric fat indicated that the relative percentage of C16:0 and C18:0 compared to C16:.1 and C18: 1 increased with greater dietary biotin intake and analyses of hoof horn fat indicated similar trends (experiments 3 and 4)

Micromachined Polycrystalline Sige-Based Thermopiles for Micropower Generation on Human Body

This paper presents a polycrystalline silicon germanium (poly-SiGe) thermopile specially designed for thermoelectric generators used on human body. Both the design of the single thermocouple and the arrangement of the thermocouple array have been described. A rim structure has been introduced in order to increase the temperature difference across the thermocouple junctions. The modeling of the thermocouple and the thermopile has been performed analytically and numerically. An output power of about 1 $\mu$W at an output voltage of more than 1 V is expected from the current design of thermopiles in a watch-size generator. The key material properties of the poly-SiGe have been measured. The thermopile has been fabricated and tested. Experimental results clearly demonstrate the advantage of the rim structure in increasing output voltage. In presence of forced convection, the output voltage of a non-released thermopile can increase from about 53 mV/K/cm2 to about 130 mV/K/cm2 after the rim structure is formed. A larger output voltage from the thermopile is expected upon process completion.Comment: Submitted on behalf of EDA Publishing Association (http://irevues.inist.fr/EDA-Publishing

Survival of bovine digital dermatitis treponemes on hoof knife blades and the effects of various disinfectants.

BACKGROUND:Bovine digital dermatitis (BDD) is a painful infectious foot disease of cattle, and much evidence implicates a pathogenic role for treponemes. This study measured the survival of BDD treponemes on hoof knife blades and tested the efficacy of relevant disinfectants under laboratory conditions. METHODS:Two strains of BDD treponemes were applied to hoof knife blades under aerobic conditions. Swabs were taken at different time points (10 minutes, one hour, two hours, four hours and 18 hours) and again after 20-second disinfection time with one of five disinfectants. Swabs were used directly for nested PCR to detect treponemes or inoculated for anaerobic growth, and subsequently examined using phase contrast microscopy and PCR. RESULTS:BDD treponeme DNA was detectable by nested PCR at all survival time points, and these organisms were culturable from hoof knives for two hours after exposure under aerobic conditions in the laboratory. Three of the five disinfectants-1 per cent volume per volume (v/v) FAM30®, 2 per cent weight per volume (w/v) Virkon® or 2 per cent (v/v) sodium hypochlorite-were effective at preventing visible growth of treponemes following 20-seconds contact, and 1 per cent (v/v) FAM30® also prevented detection of treponemes by PCR. CONCLUSION:Treponeme viability of two hours under aerobic conditions suggests BDD treponemes could be transmitted between cows on hoof knives. It is therefore important to apply a disinfection protocol during foot-trimming; the authors have identified three common disinfectants that may be suitable

Development of a method to identify foot strike on an arena surface: application to jump landing

Foot strike can be difficult to determine using kinematics alone, particularly when studying equine activities on more compliant surfaces, so this study was done with the aim of developing and validating a method to determine foot strike on an arena surface that can be used in conjunction with kinematics alone, and of applying the method in the context of measuring foot strike during jump landing on an arena surface. A low-cost contact mat was developed. The timing of the contact mat switching ‘on’ was compared to the timing of a force platform onset of 20 N, load and loading rate at foot strike. Two groups of 25 participants were used in two separate studies to validate the contact mat: the first measured the difference in timing with respect to two different activities (running and stepping down from a box), and the second measured the difference in timing with respect to 1- and 2-cm depths of an arena surface during running. In a third study, the mat was used to measure leading limb foot strike of six horses during jump landing, and these data were compared to kinematics from a palmar marker on the hoof wall. All data were recorded at 500 Hz. A consistent difference in delay was found between the mat and force platform onset, and as a result, no significant differences (P>0.05) in timing delay between different loading rates or depths were found. During jump landing, foot strike (determined from the mat) occurred after the vertical velocity minima and the acceleration maxima for the hoof marker, but it occurred before the point where the rate of vertical displacement began to reduce. In conclusion, further work is needed to enhance these techniques, but these preliminary results indicate that this method may be effective in determining foot strike for field-based applications

Confirmation of the Dietary Background of Beef from its Stable Isotope Signature

End of project reportConsumers are increasingly demanding information on the authenticity and source of the food they purchase. Molecular DNA-based technology allows animal identification, but without certification or a “paper-trail” but does not provide information about feed history or the production system under which the animal was reared. The stable isotopes of chemical elements (e.g.13C/12C, 15N/14N) are naturally present in animal tissue and reflect the isotopic composition of the diet. The overall aim of this project was to determine the feasibility of using the stable isotopic composition as an intrinsic, biochemical marker to gain information about feed components used in the production of beef. Factors likely to affect the isotopic signature such as source of tissue, duration of feeding and production systems were examined. It is expected that this highly innovative and original technique will permit the identification of country of origin and dietary history of beef and so greatly assist efforts to market Irish beef, particularly in lucrative European markets. Sequential sampling and stable isotope analysis of bovine tail hair and hoof revealed that the two tissues can provide a detailed and continuous record of animal dietary history. Because hair can be sampled repeatedly and noninvasively, we anticipate that this approach will also prove useful for the investigation of short-term wildlife movements and changes in dietary preferences

Treatment of acquired flexural deformity of the distal interphalangeal joint in the horse: a retrospective study of 51 cases

Flexural deformity of the distal interphalangeal joint is an important disorder in horses, which can be acquired during the first year of life, often as a result of lateralization during grazing. In this retrospective study, the medical files of 51 cases presented at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of Ghent University (1999-2013) were analyzed, followed by a telephone questionnaire. In 65% of the conservatively treated patients, the hoof conformation corrected completely, which was not significantly different from what was seen in the surgically treated group (complete correction in 56% of cases). Foals treated conservatively before the age of six months and foals treated surgically before twelve months of age, had a significantly better chance of a successful correction than older foals. Moreover, cases in which treatment did not restore the hoof conformation completely, presented a significantly higher chance of (persisting) lameness and were significantly less likely to have an athletic career. Finally, this study proved a significant association between the hoof conformation of the dam and her foals

Development of an automatic lameness detection system for dairy cattle : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Engineering in Mechatronics at Massey University, Manawatu, New Zealand

Lameness in dairy cattle negatively effects the welfare of affected cows and is the third biggest cause of economic loss to the dairy industry in New Zealand. As the cost and frequency of lameness continues to increase, profitability will further decrease, unless a more effective and efficient method of detecting cattle lameness is found. The main objective of this study was to investigate whether differences between healthy and lame cattle could be identified by capturing ground reaction forces when the dairy cattle walked over the designed platform. [Partial abstract

Objective Classes for Micro-Facial Expression Recognition

Micro-expressions are brief spontaneous facial expressions that appear on a face when a person conceals an emotion, making them different to normal facial expressions in subtlety and duration. Currently, emotion classes within the CASME II dataset are based on Action Units and self-reports, creating conflicts during machine learning training. We will show that classifying expressions using Action Units, instead of predicted emotion, removes the potential bias of human reporting. The proposed classes are tested using LBP-TOP, HOOF and HOG 3D feature descriptors. The experiments are evaluated on two benchmark FACS coded datasets: CASME II and SAMM. The best result achieves 86.35\% accuracy when classifying the proposed 5 classes on CASME II using HOG 3D, outperforming the result of the state-of-the-art 5-class emotional-based classification in CASME II. Results indicate that classification based on Action Units provides an objective method to improve micro-expression recognition.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures and 5 tables. This paper will be submitted for journal revie