Social Support in a Novel Situation Aimed for Stunning and Euthanasia of Pigs May Be Increased by Familiar Pigs-A Behavioural Study with Weaners

Simple Summary None of the approved methods for stunning pigs prior to slaughter is ideal from an animal welfare viewpoint. A method involving use of high-expansion foam to encapsulate nitrogen gas has recently been proposed as an alternative humane stunning method. The method is effective, but the foam itself induces some distress to individually exposed pigs. This study evaluated the effects of companionship from a familiar or unfamiliar conspecific during air-filled foam exposure on pigs' behavioural response. Companionship was found to be related to lower activity levels and fewer escape attempts. When comparing companionship with familiar and unfamiliar conspecifics, it was found that pig pairs with familiar individuals spent more time in physical contact during foam exposure, possibly seeking social support. The results highlight the importance of contact with conspecifics when studying animal welfare and demonstrates the potential benefits of maintaining stable familiar pig groups up to the point of stunning at slaughter. The common method of stunning pigs using high concentration carbon dioxide prior to slaughter poses an animal welfare issue, as the gas is aversive. Proof of concept for using nitrogen gas encapsulated in high-expansion foam as an alternative non-aversive method for stunning pigs has recently been presented. However, the individually tested pigs showed distress-related responses to foam exposure, regardless of whether it was nitrogen- or air-filled. This study examined the effect of companionship from a familiar or unfamiliar pig on behaviours in 72 nine-weeks old pigs during exposure to air-filled foam. Escape attempts were observed by 75% of solitary pigs, 42% of pigs with unfamiliar conspecifics, and 33% of pigs with familiar conspecifics. Familiar pig pairs clearly preferred social contact during foam exposure, whereas this was not as clear in unfamiliar pig pairs, and their motivation for social contact could have multiple explanations. The results from this study highlight the importance of contact with conspecifics when studying animal welfare and suggest that familiarity between pigs is important for social support, thus emphasizing the importance of maintaining social groups to reduce distress in pigs at slaughter

Comparison of fertility results after vaginal insemination using different thawing procedures and packages for frozen ram semen

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The effect of different thawing procedures for ram semen frozen in minitubes and mini straws on the fertility of sheep was tested in a field trial.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Altogether, 719 Norwegian Crossbred ewes, aged between six months and six-and-a-half years from 8 farms, were inseminated vaginally in natural oestrus with frozen-thawed semen. Minitubes were thawed at 70°C for 8 sec (T70) and mini straws either at 50°C for 9 sec (S50) or at 35°C for 12 sec (S35).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Vaginal insemination with 200 × 10⁶spermatozoa resulted in 25-days non-return rates of 63.2, 59.6, and 62.5% (overall 61.8%), respectively, and lambing rates of 56.8, 55.0, and 59.2% (overall 57.0%), respectively. No significant effect on fertility (as 25-days non-return- or lambing rate) was seen for straw type/thawing temperature (P = 0.5/0.5), but semen filled in mini straws and thawed at 35°C resulted numerically in the highest lambing rate (59.2%). A significant effect was, however, seen for farmer (P = >0.0001/>0.0001) and ram (P = 0.009/0.002). Moreover, age of the ewes had a significant effect on the NR rate (0.007), but not on lambing rate (P = 0.2).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>A vaginal deposition of frozen ram semen containing approximately 200 × 10⁶spermatozoa, filled in mini straws and thawed at 35°C is a simplified technique that under field conditions and used on a do-it-yourself regime gives acceptable lambing rates in Norway.</p

Gödselbadande hos gris – ett djurvälfärdsproblem?

Despite the pig’s natural tendency to keep clear of its feces and defecate away from its nesting site, pigs in modern meat production sometimes defecate and urinate in their resting area and lay in their own feces. The purpose of this bachelor thesis was to investigate if this behaviour poses a threat to animal welfare, how it relates to animal welfare legislation, why it occur and to what frequency. A questionnaire was distributed to Swedish pig farmers and reports from animal welfare controls requested from the Swedish country governments. The results show that temperature is the main factor influencing feces wallowing in pigs as shown from the questionnaire. Farmer’s state that their pigs do wallow in feces relatively often and that ventilation often is not enough to maintain an appropriate climate for the pigs during the summer months. The majority of the pig farmers say that the temperature in their production system would need improvement. Results from animal welfare controls reveal that legislation relating to cleanliness in pigs and the pig’s availability to a clean and dry resting area did not meet the requirements in about 10 % of the cases. It was also discovered that not all cases of potential feces wallowing in pigs was corresponding with a non-compliance during an animal welfare control. Swedish animal welfare legislation to date does not require pig production systems to accommodate for the pig’s natural behaviour to wallow in mud, although it aims to allow outlet for natural behaviour and wallowing in mud is part of the pig’s behaviour repertoire to maintain an appropriate body temperature. Further research is needed to give answers to how important wallowing in mud is to the pig, how willing they are to work for wallowing opportunities, under what circumstances wallowing is required, what preferences pigs have in relation to wallows and how best to integrate wallowing or wallowing like facilities in modern pig production. The government’s new proposal for an update of the Swedish animal welfare legislation states that where there is a strong motivation to perform an animal’s natural behaviour and the behaviour give forth a functional feedback when performed, the behaviour therefore should be accommodated by the legislation. This study indicate that the pigs motivation to wallow in mud may be included among those behaviours and also that situations where pigs wallow in feces seems to impose some degree of suffering and decreased animal welfare

Production of tumor necrosis factor-α and interleukin-6 in whole blood stimulated by live Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria

ObjectiveTo investigate the production of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) induced by live Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria in whole blood in vitro.MethodsIn all, 49 different isolates were studied. Each of the 49 different isolates was incubated for 4 h with whole blood at a ratio of one monocyte per 1-5 bacteria. Plasma was then separated and frozen, and the concentrations of TNF-α and IL-6 were measured by enzyme immunoassays.ResultsThere was a positive correlation between TNF-α and IL-6 values, r= 0.9. Gram-negative bacteria induced higher levels of both TNF-α and IL-6 than Gram-positive bacteria. Group G streptococci (GGS) induced higher levels of TNF-α than Streptococcus pneumoniae, Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis and group A streptococci (GAS). Klebsiella pneumoniae induced higher levels of TNF-α than Haemophilus influenzae, Escherichia coli and Neisseria meningitidis. GGS induced higher levels of IL-6 than Staphylococcus epidermidis, Staphylococcus aureus and GAS. When the relative amounts of cytokine induced by the strains were compared to serum concentrations measured on admission in patients with bacteremia caused by the same bacterial isolates there was no significant correlation.ConclusionSpecies- and strain-related differences in cytokine-inducing properties were found which may have significance in clinical infections

Knowledge and experience of raw food in animal hospital staff

Råfoder är en form av utfodring till både hund och katt som under senare år märkbart har ökat i trend. Utfodringsformen innebär att innehållet varken tillagas eller värme-behandlas innan det utfodras till djuren. Ämnet råfoder skapar diskussioner då både fördelar och nackdelar som uttrycks kring råfoder kan ha bristfällig evidens och vara av mer anekdotisk karaktär. Förespråkarna anser att råfoder är det mest naturliga fo-der en hund eller katt kan få och ett återkommande argument är hundens och vargens nära släktskap även om det finns studier som påvisar att deras respektive matsmältningssystem numera skiljer sig åt. Syftet med detta arbete var att undersöka vilka självupplevda kunskaper och erfarenheter som finns kring råfoder hos personal på två olika djursjukhus i Sverige ef-tersom nutrition är en viktig del av patienternas hälsa och därmed en stor del av djursjukvården. Kunskapsläget kan med fördel utredas då det är viktigt att personal på djursjukhus är uppdaterade kring olika utfodringsrutiner. Detta för att personalen enigt ska kunna ge professionella och evidensbaserade rekommendationer. Vidare undersöktes även skillnader mellan de olika yrkeskategorierna. Studien bestod av en enkätundersökning som skickades ut till de två djursjukhusen. En litteraturöversikt skrevs som komplement till studien. De vetenskapligt dokumenterade fördelar som finns kring råfoder är bland annat förbättrad munstatus samt potentiellt förändrad immunstatus. De vetenskapligt dokumenterade nackdelar som finns kring råfoder är bland annat innehåll av zoonotiska patogener, obalans i näringsämnen samt risk för främmande kroppar i gastrointestinalkanalen. För att kunna besvara enkäten behövde respondenterna känna till råfoder. Totalt analyserades 52 enkätsvar. Den största skillnaden mellan yrkesrollerna som kunde ses i enkätstudien var att de legitimerade veterinärerna, de legitimerade djursjukskö-tarna och övrig personal såg mer negativt på råfoder medan djurvårdarna var mer positivt inställda till råfoder. Djurvårdarna var den enda yrkesgrupp som var villiga att ge sina egna djur råfoder samt rekommendera råfoder till djurägarna. Alla yrkes-roller var överens om att de största riskerna med råfoder var kontamination med E. coli., Salmonella spp. etc. Resultat från enkäten visade att alla yrkesgrupperna ansåg att de har för lite kunskaper om råfoder, med undantag för gruppen övrig personal där sammansättningen var mer kluven. Hälften av den övriga personalen ansåg att de har tillräckliga kun-skaper kring råfoder, medan den andra hälften ansåg att de har otillräckliga kun-skaper. Erfarenheten var varierande, där majoriteten av djurvårdarna var mer positivt inställda till råfoder och resterande yrkesgrupper var mer kritiskt inställda.Raw food is a form of nutrition for both dogs and cats, a trend which has increased significantly in recent years. This type of feed means that the contents are neither cooked nor heat treated before being fed to the animals. The subject of raw food creates discussions as both the advantages and disadvantages expressed about raw food can have inadequate evidence and be of a more anecdotal nature. The advocates believe that raw food is the most natural feed a dog or cat can get and a recurring argument is that dog's and wolf's have a close kinship, even though there are studies that show that their respective digestive systems actually differ. The purpose of this study was to investigate the self-perceived knowledge and ex-periences that exist around raw food with staff at two different animal hospitals in Sweden, as nutrition is an important and large part of animal health care. The state of knowledge can advantageously be investigated as it is important that staff in animal hospitals are updated about different feeding routines as they should be able to pro-vide professional and evidence-based recommendations. Furthermore, experience and knowledge between staff from different professions were also examined. The study consisted of a questionnaire that was sent out to the two animal hospitals. A literature review was written as a supplement to this study. The scientifically docu-mented benefits of raw food include improved oral status as well as potentially im-proved immune status. The scientifically documented disadvantages that exist around raw food include contamination with zoonotic pathogens, an imbalance in nutrients and the risk of foreign bodies in the gastrointestinal tract. In order to be able to answer the questionnaire, there was a requirement question to ensure that the respondents were knowledgeable in the area of raw food. In total, 52 responses were analysed. The biggest difference between professions in the ques-tionnaire study was that the veterinarians, the legitimate animal nurses and other staff looked more negatively on raw food, while the animal care providers were more pos-itive towards raw food. The animal care providers were the only professional group who were willing to give their own animals’ raw food and recommend raw food to the animal owners. All professions agreed on that the biggest risks with raw food were possible contamination with E. coli, Salmonella spp. etc. The results of the survey showed that all the professional groups felt that they had too little knowledge about raw food, with the exception of other staff where the com-position of the group was more heterogeneous. Half of the other staff felt that they had sufficient knowledge, while the other half felt that they had insufficient knowledge of raw food. The experience varied, with the majority of the animal care providers being more positive about raw food, and the remaining professions were more critical

Effects of released farmed mallards on species richness of breeding waterbirds and amphibians in natural, restored and constructed wetlands

Common practices in current game management are wetland restoration and creation, as well as releases of quarry species. We studied the impact of releases of mallard ducklings on species richness of wild waterbirds and amphibians on three types of wetlands: natural, constructed and restored. Data on species richness, macrophyte cover and water characteristics (total phosphorous and pH) were collected at 32 sites in an agricultural landscape in southern Sweden. In total, 14 species of waterbirds were recorded, ranging from zero to seven per wetland and survey. Amphibians were present in 24 of the 32 wetlands; in total five species were found, ranging from zero to three per wetland. By using generalized linear modelling we found that wetland type best predicted waterbird species richness. Constructed wetlands had significantly more waterbird species, regardless of whether they were used for mallard releases or not. There were breeding amphibians in 62% of natural, 100% of restored and 77% of constructed wetlands. Breeding amphibians were present in 84% of wetlands without, and in 62% of wetlands with releases. However, included variables did not explain amphibian species richness in the wetlands. Releasing large numbers of mallards on a wetland and providing food ad libitum is likely to affect water quality, nutrient availability and predation pressure. Indeed, phosphorous levels were significantly higher in release wetlands, but no differences were found between wetland types.This means that mallard releases may increase nutrient loads in environments that are already eutrophied. However, in our study system releases did not influence species richness of waterbirds and amphibians locally. Constructing wetlands for mallard releases can thus have positive local effects on species richness.Peer reviewe

Kvinnor i fronten för fred - en undersökning om jämställdhet och hållbar fred

War-inflicted violence affects civilians in a larger proportion than combattants - where the majority of the victims are women and children. It is also men, who often are the planners of war, whom at the same time are expected to be the constructors of peace, where women and gender issues are neglected. In this essay we will challenge traditional assumptions about peace and security by adopting a feminist security view and analyse how women’s participation in peace-processes contributes to a sustainable and inclusive peace. Our essay is based on the peace-processes in Liberia (2003) and Nepal (2006) which included women durign their peacebuilding, and Democratic Republic of Congo (1999) and Sudan (2005) whom did not