Early detection of health and welfare compromises in commercial piggeries is essential for timely intervention to enhance treatment success, reduce impact on welfare, and promote sustainable pig production. Behavioural changes that precede or accompany subclinical and clinical signs may have diagnostic value. Often referred to as sickness behaviour, this encompasses changes in feeding, drinking, and elimination behaviours, social behaviours, and locomotion and posture. Such subtle changes in behaviour are not easy to quantify and require lengthy observation input by staff, which is impractical on a commercial scale. Automated early-warning systems may provide an alternative by objectively measuring behaviour with sensors to automatically monitor and detect behavioural changes. This paper aims to: (1) review the quantifiable changes in behaviours with potential diagnostic value; (2) subsequently identify available sensors for measuring behaviours; and (3) describe the progress towards automating monitoring and detection, which may allow such behavioural changes to be captured, measured, and interpreted and thus lead to automation in commercial, housed piggeries. Multiple sensor modalities are available for automatic measurement and monitoring of behaviour, which require humans to actively identify behavioural changes. This has been demonstrated for the detection of small deviations in diurnal drinking, deviations in feeding behaviour, monitoring coughs and vocalisation, and monitoring thermal comfort, but not social behaviour. However, current progress is in the early stages of developing fully automated detection systems that do not require humans to identify behavioural changes; e.g., through automated alerts sent to mobile phones. Challenges for achieving automation are multifaceted and trade-offs are considered between health, welfare, and costs, between analysis of individuals and groups, and between generic and compromise-specific behaviours.

Early detection of health and welfare compromises through automated detection of behavioural changes in pigs

Acoustic stress responses in juvenile sea bass Dicentrarchus labrax induced by offshore pile driving

Disease and enhanced microbial load are considered to be major factors limiting the performance and overall efficiency of feed use by pigs in Australian piggeries. It is recognised that pigs exposed to conventional housing systems with high microbial loads grow 10–20% more slowly than do gnotobiotic pigs or pigs kept in ‘clean’ environments. Consequently, a proportion of pigs in any production cycle are continuously being challenged by their immediate environment, which can cause an immune response to be mounted. Such a process is physiologically expensive in terms of energy and protein (comprised of amino acids), with, for example, the enhanced rate of protein turnover associated with the production of immune cells, antibodies and acute-phase proteins increasing energy expenditure by 10–15% of maintenance needs and protein requirements by 7–10%. The requirements for lysine, tryptophan, sulfur-containing amino acids and threonine can be increased by a further 10%. The over-stimulation of the immune response with excess production of pro-inflammatory cytokines causes excessive production primarily of the prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), which contributes to anorexia, fever and increased proteolysis, and a concomitant reduction in pig performance. Prostaglandin E2 is produced from dietary and cell-membrane phospholipids via secretory phospholipase A2 (sPLA2) to produce arachidonic acid, which is catalysed by the COX-2 enzyme. Negating the negative effects of PGE2 appears not to adversely affect the ability of the immune system to combat pathogens, but improves pig performance. There are negative outcomes for pig health and productivity through both under- and over-stimulation of the immune response. This review briefly outlines the impact of immune stimulation on pigs and discusses strategies to optimise the immune response for pig health and performance.

Manipulating the immune system for pigs to optimise performance

Background: Noise pollution is one of the important harmful physical factors in work environment in developed and developing countries. It not only causes a variety of physiological effects, but also accounts for psychological disorders. Objective: To investigate the effects of chronic exposure to noise on aggression in automotive industry workers. Methods: In a cross-sectional study conducted in an Iranian automotive industry, a group of workers were randomly selected from different parts of the paint shop. The workers' aggression level was measured using the Buss and Perry's questionnaire. The noise level was also measured at the workplace. Using linear regression analysis, the relationship between the level of aggression and noise level was evaluated. Results: 250 workers with a mean age of 36.1 (SD 3.7) years were studied. There was a significant (p<0.05) correlation between the measured noise intensity and the aggression level of the studied workers. Conclusion: Exposure to noise in work environment increases the incidence of tension and inappropriate behavior associated with aggression. Controlling noise through use of protective equipment might reduce the deleterious effects of noise on workers.

https://www.theijoem.com/ijoem/index.php/ijoem/article/download/1375/1020

Effect of Chronic Noise Exposure on Aggressive Behavior of Automotive Industry Workers

The killing of cattle for human consumption (slaughtering) can take place in a slaughterhouse or on farm. The processes of slaughtering that were assessed for welfare, from the arrival of cattle until their death (including slaughtering without stunning), were grouped into three main phases: pre-stunning (including arrival, unloading from the truck, lairage, handling and moving of cattle); stunning (including restraint); and bleeding. Stunning methods were grouped into two categories: mechanical and electrical. Twelve welfare consequences that cattle may be exposed to during slaughter were identified: heat stress, cold stress, fatigue, prolonged thirst, prolonged hunger, impeded movement, restriction of movements, resting problems (inability to rest or discomfort during resting), social stress, pain, fear and distress. Welfare consequences and their relevant animal-based measures are described. In total, 40 welfare hazards that could occur during slaughter were identified and characterised, most of them related to stunning and bleeding. Staff were identified as the origin of 39 hazards, which were attributed to the lack of appropriate skill sets needed to perform tasks or to fatigue. Measures to prevent and correct hazards were identified, and structural and managerial measures were identified as those with a crucial role in prevention. Outcome tables linking hazards, welfare consequences, animal-based measures, origin of hazards, and preventive and corrective measures were developed for each process. Mitigation measures to minimise welfare consequences are proposed.

Welfare of cattle at slaughter.

The paper deals with findings in animal’s response to noise. Factors including species, gender, age, and length of exposure on metabolism, performance, health, reproduction, and behaviour are discussed. The review covers research carried out on farming animals mainly, but contains also general literary sources on response from laboratory animals. This paper summarises the auditory range and some typical levels of sound that have been recorded for farm animals inside and outside housing, during transport and lairage stay. Effects of continuous and sudden noise on animals are also presented in detail. More physiological and behavioural responses have been described as increased hormonal production, increased heart rate, and reduction in production. Animal species exhibit a wide variety of responses to noise. Some animal species are more sensitive than others, because they may exhibit different forms or strengths of responses.

/pdf/effect-of-noise-on-performance-stress-and-behaviour-of-3ny1ukf06q.pdf

J. Brouček

Papers

Effect of noise on performance, stress, and behaviour of animals.