Visibly marked and microchipped lost dogs have a higher chance to find their owners in Belgrade

The aim of the study was to analyse the demographic characteristics of lost and found dogs in Belgrade, Serbia. The demographic data concerning the 246 lost and 81 found dogs in the period of 5 consecutive years (January, 2009 to January 2014) was sampled and analysed from the data bases of four organizations for animal protection in Belgrade. The recovery rate of lost dogs and the chance to be reunited again with their owners was 33%. The highest recovery rate was estimated in the category of lost dogs with visible marks such as tags or collars (30%). The chi-square test disclosed that besides dogs with special visible marks, significantly more females, light colour coated, friendly/sociable and neutered dogs were reunited with their owners (P<0.0001)

Morphofunctional characteristics of the adrenal cortex in tesetctomised rats acclimated on different ambient temperature

The activity of the adrenal gland is connected with the activity of other endocrine glands, such as the gonads. The experiments were conducted on testectomized adult, male rats, Wistar strain, acclimated on two ambient temperatures: room and moderately high temperature. Bilateral testectomy was performed on the rats of both temperatures and analyses were made 15-20 days after surgery. It was shown that the adrenal weight of testectomized heat acclimated rats was significantly increased. The widening of zona reticularis, shortening of zona fasciculata, as well as presence of supracortical nodules in the adrenal cortex of testectomized rats, regardless of the ambient temperature, was evidenced. Lipid content in the adrenocortical cells was lowered in both groups, but that was more prominent in testectomized rats from room temperature. The morphometric measurements of the nuclear area and volume were significantly elevated only in zona reticularis cells of testectomised animals from room temperature. Those parameters were significantly decreased in testectomized heat acclimated rats in comparison with the same values in the testectomized animals from room temperature. These results suggest that testectomy provokes changes towards increased activity of the adrenal cortex in both ambient temperatures, but those changes are less intense in heat acclimated animals

Review: Early life predisposing factors for biting in pigs

The pig industry faces many animal welfare issues. Among these, biting behaviour has a high incidence. It is indicative of an existing problem in biters and is a source of physical damage and psychological stress for the victims. We categorize this behaviour into aggressive and non-aggressive biting, the latter often being directed towards the tail. This review focusses specifically on predisposing factors in early life, comprising the prenatal and postnatal periods up to weaning, for the expression of aggressive and non-aggressive biting later in life. The influence of personality and coping style has been examined in a few studies. It varies according to these studies and, thus, further evaluation is needed. Regarding the effect of environmental factors, the number of scientific papers is low (less than five papers for most factors). No clear influence of prenatal factors has been identified to date. Aggressive biting is reduced by undernutrition, cross-fostering and socialization before weaning. Non-aggressive biting is increased by undernutrition, social stress due to competition and cross-fostering. These latter three factors are highly dependent on litter size at birth. The use of familiar odours may contribute to reducing biting when pigs are moved from one environment to another by alleviating the level of stress associated with novelty. Even though the current environment in which pigs are expressing biting behaviours is of major importance, the pre-weaning environment should be optimized to reduce the likelihood of this problem.ISSN:1751-7311ISSN:1751-732

Methodologies for Assessing Disease Tolerance in Pigs

Features of intensive farming can seriously threaten pig homeostasis, well-being and productivity. Disease tolerance of an organism is the adaptive ability in preserving homeostasis and at the same time limiting the detrimental impact that infection can inflict on its health and performance without affecting pathogen burden per se. While disease resistance (DRs ) can be assessed measuring appropriately the pathogen burden within the host, the tolerance cannot be quantified easily. Indeed, it requires the assessment of the changes in performance as well as the changes in pathogen burden. In this paper, special attention is given to criteria required to standardize methodologies for assessing disease tolerance (DT) in respect of infectious diseases in pigs. The concept is applied to different areas of expertise and specific examples are given. The basic physiological mechanisms of DT are reviewed. Disease tolerance pathways, genetics of the tolerance-related traits, stress and disease tolerance, and role of metabolic stress in DT are described. In addition, methodologies based on monitoring of growth and reproductive performance, welfare, emotional affective states, sickness behavior for assessment of disease tolerance, and methodologies based on the relationship between environmental challenges and disease tolerance are considered. Automated Precision Livestock Farming technologies available for monitoring performance, health and welfare-related measures in pig farms, and their limitations regarding DT in pigs are also presented. Since defining standardized methodologies for assessing DT is a serious challenge for biologists, animal scientists and veterinarians, this work should contribute to improvement of health, welfare and production in pigs

Климатски промени

Анализа и прогноза на глобалните климатски карактеристики со посебен осврт на климата во Македониј

Screening of selected indicators of dairy cattle welfare in Macedonia

The welfare state of cattle in dairy farms in Macedonia has never been assessed previously. The objective of this study was to perform screening analysis of dairy cows welfare and to test the practical implementation of the Welfare Quality® Assessment protocol for cattle in dairy farms in Macedonia. In ten small scale and large scale tie stall farms 23 measures were recorded related to 9 welfare criteria of 4 welfare principles (WP) described in the Welfare Quality® Assessment protocol for dairy cows. The mean percentage of very lean cows was 40.5±9.1%. All assessed farms were not providing access to pasture and an outdoor loafing area. Regarding cleanliness, the presence of dirty udder, upper leg/flank and lower leg was 65.2±9.0%, 85.5±8.0% and 86.5±5.8%, respectively. The overall prevalence of lameness was 5.6±5.0%, and for mild and severe alterations it was 30.8±5.8% and 54.1±4.6%, respectively. The ocular and vulvar discharge, diarrhea, dystocia, percentage of downer cows and mortality rate exceeded the warning and alarm threshold. The avoidance – distance test classified 70.4±6.8% as animals that can be touched or approached closer than 50cm, with overall score of 42.9±3.5. This screening reveals that the most welfare concerns are found in the WP Good Feeding and Good Housing. The on-farm welfare assessment using the full protocol on a representative sample of farms in the country is highly recommended for emphasizing the key points for improving the animal welfare in Macedonian dairy farms

Air quality measurements in laying hens housing

Ensuring good environmental conditions of the poultry houses can be costly for the farmers, but without it losses due to poor bird health and performance due to poor air quality can be much more detrimental to net returns. The goal of this study was to investigate the variations in air quality in various areas inside the laying hen houses. Ten houses with laying hen conventional battery cages were measured for O2, H2S, CO, NH3, temperature, relative humidity, CO2, airflow and luminance. The results of the physical measures showed that temperatures in the houses were between 15.31–25.6°C, the relative humidity 48.03-81.12%, while the luminance rarely exceeded 8 lux. As for the gasses, the values for NH3 rarely exceeded 8 ppm, although at some measuring points it reached 26 ppm. O2 was generally at 20.9 %, and the levels of CO2 were very low. No presence of H2S and CO was detected. In this study it was concluded that the measurement of the air quality in a house can vary depending of the places this measures are taken. Multiple measurement points are important because they may make the staff aware of the problems connected to low ventilation and culmination of harmful gases. The air quality in different positions in the houses is of great importance not only for the animal welfare, but also for the safety of the staff

Positioning Animal Welfare in the One Health Concept through Evaluation of an Animal Welfare Center in Skopje, Macedonia

The Animal Welfare Center (AWC) in Macedonia was established in 2009. The objectives of the center are animal welfare (AW) education, research, raising public awareness of AW, and increasing cooperation between the stakeholders. One Health (OH) was not the major focus of the AWC work initially, but, rather, a focus that evolved recently. The objective of this study was to evaluate the AWC from the OH perspective as an example case for positioning the AW within the overall OH concept. Three types of evaluation were performed: (1) assessment of OH-ness, by quantitative measurement of the operational and infrastructural aspects of the AWC; (2) impact evaluation, by conducting quantitative surveys on stakeholders and students; and (3) transdisciplinary evaluation, using semi-quantitative evaluation of the links of cooperation between the AWC and the stakeholders in society by the custom designed CACA (Cooperation, Activities, Communication, and Agreement) scoring system. Results for the OH-ness of the AWC showed relatively high scores for OH thinking, planning and working and middle scores for OH learning and sharing dimensions, i.e., dominance of the operational over infrastructural aspects of the AWC. The impact evaluation of the AWC shows that familiarity with the OH concept among stakeholders was low (44% of the respondents). However, there was a commonality among stakeholder’s interest about AW and OH. According to the stakeholders’ and students’ opinions, the influence of AW on Animal, Environmental, and Human Health is relatively high (in the upper third of the 1–10 scale). The transdisciplinary evaluation of the AWC indicated the presence of transdisciplinarity work by the AWC, with a higher focus on the Universities and Research Institutions and some governmental institutions, and less linked with the Non-Governmental Organizations and Professional Associations (Chambers), e.g., the Veterinary Chamber in Macedonia. The evaluations conducted indicated that the AWC’s work is closely dedicated to improving animal, environmental, and human health and has a considerable OH role among the stakeholders in the society. This study describes the significant role and importance that AW has in OH