The acute phase protein, haptoglobin : a potential parameter in welfare assessment?

Physiological parameters are important measures in animal welfare assessment. To assess the amount of stress an animal experiences, stress hormones like cortisol are frequently used. However, measuring cortisol has major disadvantages due to its rapid reactivity and decline and many influencing factors. Other potential alternative markers are acute phase proteins, since stress is known to affect the immune system. A pilot study was conducted to investigate the response of the acute phase protein, plasma haptoglobine (HP), in pigs subjected to a stressor (food deprivation) and to examine the correlation between HP levels and average daily growth (ADG). Forty grower pigs (25.1 ± 4.4 kg, mean ± SD) (sex and former pen mates balanced), were allocated to 4 conventional pens, 2 treatment (T) and 2 control (C) groups (10 pigs per pen). After 10 days of adaptation the experiment started and ran for 3 weeks. In the 2nd week, T groups were repeatedly subjected to an 8-hour food deprivation (day 1, 3, 5 and 7 of week 2), C groups had normal, unrestricted, access to food. Pigs were weighed twice a week and blood was collected once a week (every 5th day). Mean levels of plasma HP of C and T groups showed large variation between individuals (C groups, week 2: 1.84 ± 3.11 mg/ml; T groups, week 2: 1.40 ± 1.16 mg/ml). No significant differences (Kruskal-Wallis test) in HP levels or growth were found between the C and T groups or between the different weeks within the T groups. Significant negative weak to moderate correlations were found between ADG and HP levels (HP week 1 and ADG week 1: rs = -0.47, p=0.005; HP week 2 and ADG total; rs= -0.60, p=0.015; HP week 3 and ADG total: rs = -0.43, p=0.025; average HP total and ADG total: rs= -0.41, p=0.017). Large variations in HP levels between individuals were shown and no effect of treatment on HP levels or growth was found. Possibly, food deprivation had no apparent stress eliciting effect. Despite these results, interesting correlations between the level of HP and ADG were found, corroborating the inverse relationship between the acute phase response and growth. To further investigate the relation of the acute phase response and stress a successive experiment will be conducted in which we apply a stronger stressor (mixing pigs) and combine the physiological data with behavior

The genetic architecture of the human cerebral cortex

The cerebral cortex underlies our complex cognitive capabilities, yet little is known about the specific genetic loci that influence human cortical structure. To identify genetic variants that affect cortical structure, we conducted a genome-wide association meta-analysis of brain magnetic resonance imaging data from 51,665 individuals. We analyzed the surface area and average thickness of the whole cortex and 34 regions with known functional specializations. We identified 199 significant loci and found significant enrichment for loci influencing total surface area within regulatory elements that are active during prenatal cortical development, supporting the radial unit hypothesis. Loci that affect regional surface area cluster near genes in Wnt signaling pathways, which influence progenitor expansion and areal identity. Variation in cortical structure is genetically correlated with cognitive function, Parkinson's disease, insomnia, depression, neuroticism, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

Diet change rather than diet composition causes transient intestinal damage and growth retardation in pigs

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Diet change rather than diet composition causes transient intestinal damage and growth retardation in pigs

Resistant starch enhances intestinal health and has proven to protect against infections and diseases of the digestive system. It remains to be investigated if the effect of resistant starch can be measured by health indicators such as intestinal fatty acid binding protein (I-FABP), a biomarker for small intestinal health2, and the acute phase protein haptoglobin (Hp), a biomarker related to inflammation and growth.status: publishe

Automated video analysis of pig activity at pen level highly correlates to human observations of behavioural activities

Automated collection of continuous activity data of pigs can be performed easily using video analysis. In welfare and health research, this technique can be economically advantageous over manual observations. However, the relationship between activity measures by automated video analysis and manually scored behavioural activity has never been established. We correlated automated activity measures through video analysis to ethological scores of pig activity, using off-line video recordings of four pens with grower pigs. Human observations (HO) of different behavioural activities were carried out by 2-min scan sampling during four 30-min sessions on 6 observation days. HO of pig activity was expressed as a mean proportion per session. Automated observations (AO) of pig activity were calculated by the relative number of moving pixels between two consecutive image frames (1 frame/second) and expressed as a mean image activity index per session. The overall correlation between pig activity data from AO and HO was strong and positive (Rs=0.92, P<0.0001). When comparing AO and HO data at session level, the correlation coefficients for the two afternoon sessions were lower. Both static activities and activities involving locomotion had a significant effect on the activity index of AO (P<0.05), but activities that included locomotion had a 3 times higher effect than static activities. Further validation research is necessary, but it can be concluded that automated video analysis is a promising technique to continuously monitor behavioural activity level of pigs at pen level.publisher: Elsevier articletitle: Automated video analysis of pig activity at pen level highly correlates to human observations of behavioural activities journaltitle: Livestock Science articlelink: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.livsci.2013.12.011 content_type: article copyright: Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.status: publishe

Automatic Monitoring of Pig Locomotion Using Image Analysis

The purpose of this study is to investigate the feasibility and validity of an automated image processing method to detect the locomotion of pigs housed under experimental conditions. Top-view video images were captured for forty piglets, housed ten per pen. On average, piglets had a weight of 27 kg (SD = 4.4 kg) at the start of experiments and 40kg (SD=6.5) at the end. Each pen was monitored by a top-view CCD camera. The image analysis protocol to automatically quantify locomotion consisted localising pigs through background subtraction and tracking them over time. To validate the accuracy of detecting pigs “In Locomotion” or “Not In Locomotion”, they were compared to offline manually labelled behavioural data ('In Locomotion' versus 'Not In Locomotion'). This is the first study to show that locomotion of “pigs in a group” can be determined using image analysis with an accuracy of 89.8 %. Since locomotion is known to be associated with issues such as lameness, careful monitoring can give an accurate indication of the health and welfare of pigs.publisher: Elsevier articletitle: Automatic monitoring of pig locomotion using image analysis journaltitle: Livestock Science articlelink: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.livsci.2013.11.007 content_type: article copyright: Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.status: publishe

The acute phase protein, haptoglobin: a potential parameter in welfare assessment?

Physiological parameters are important measures in animal welfare assessment. To assess the amount of stress an animal experiences, stress hormones like cortisol are frequently used. However, measuring cortisol has major disadvantages due to its rapid reactivity and decline and many influencing factors. Other potential alternative markers are acute phase proteins, since stress is known to affect the immune system. A pilot study was conducted to investigate the response of the acute phase protein, plasma haptoglobine (HP), in pigs subjected to a stressor (food deprivation) and to examine the correlation between HP levels and average daily growth (ADG). Forty grower pigs (25.1 ± 4.4 kg, mean ± SD) (sex and former pen mates balanced), were allocated to 4 conventional pens, 2 treatment (T) and 2 control (C) groups (10 pigs per pen). After 10 days of adaptation the experiment started and ran for 3 weeks. In the 2nd week, T groups were repeatedly subjected to an 8-hour food deprivation (day 1, 3, 5 and 7 of week 2), C groups had normal, unrestricted, access to food. Pigs were weighed twice a week and blood was collected once a week (every 5th day). Mean levels of plasma HP of C and T groups showed large variation between individuals (C groups, week 2: 1.84 ± 3.11 mg/ml; T groups, week 2: 1.40 ± 1.16 mg/ml). No significant differences (Kruskal-Wallis test) in HP levels or growth were found between the C and T groups or between the different weeks within the T groups. Significant negative weak to moderate correlations were found between ADG and HP levels (HP week 1 and ADG week 1: rs = -0.47, p=0.005; HP week 2 and ADG total; rs= -0.60, p=0.015; HP week 3 and ADG total: rs = -0.43, p=0.025; average HP total and ADG total: rs= -0.41, p=0.017). Large variations in HP levels between individuals were shown and no effect of treatment on HP levels or growth was found. Possibly, food deprivation had no apparent stress eliciting effect. Despite these results, interesting correlations between the level of HP and ADG were found, corroborating the inverse relationship between the acute phase response and growth. To further investigate the relation of the acute phase response and stress a successive experiment will be conducted in which we apply a stronger stressor (mixing pigs) and combine the physiological data with behavior.status: publishe

Automatic identification of marked pigs in a pen using image pattern recognition

Individual identification in pigs is a key point for management. Many behaviors such as resting, activity, feeding and drinking are better to be monitored individually. The purpose of this work was to investigate feasibility of an automated method to identify marked pigs in a pen in experimental conditions and for behavior-related research by using image processing. First, ellipse fitting algorithms were employed to localize pigs. Second, individual pigs could be identified by their respective paint pattern using pattern recognition techniques. In total, pigs could be identified with an average accuracy of 89.4%. It was also shown that behaviors such as resting can be monitored using the presented technique