Ana Paula de Assis Maia

Strategies and facilities in order to improve animal welfare

To keep the position in being a world-wide exporter of chicken meat, Brazil must meet international quality standards, always seeking alternative resources of improvement, without increasing production costs, including litter quality, requirements of animal welfare and environment affairs, such as the use and reuse of broiler litter. Researches are performed in the areas of animal welfare, environment, animal behavior and use of modern climatization technology improving the quality of the environment created to raise broilers, also trying to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions and global warming in the environment, becoming a sustainable production system. This paper has a bibliographic revision of the subject mentioned above, intending to show a state-of-art key factors related to a new concept of broiler environment and welfare.Para manter a posicao de maior exportador de carne de frango, o Brasil deve se adequar as exigencias internacionais dos padroes de qualidade, procurando sempre recursos alternativos de melhoria, sem grande incremento no custo de producao, incluindo a qualidade da cama, requisitos de bem-estar animal e as questoes ambientais, como o uso e a reutilizacao das camas de frango. Para isso sao necessarias pesquisas nas areas de bem-estar animal, ambiencia, comportamento animal e uso de tecnologias de climatizacao modernas que aperfeicoem a qualidade do ambiente gerado para criacao dos frangos, visando, alem deste fator, menor emissao de gases com potencial efeito estufa para o ambiente, tornando-se um sistema de producao sustentavel. De acordo com o exposto, realizou-se uma ampla revisao bibliografica deste assunto, buscando mostrar o estado da arte dos principais fatores relacionados aos novos conceitos de ambiencia e bem-estar de frangos de corte.

Uso da termografia infravermelha na análise da termorregulação de cavalo em treinamento

Heat-regulation mechanisms, such as changes in peripheral blood flow, are activated by thermal stress to maintain body homeostasis. The infrared thermography enables to identify changes in blood flow and it has been valuable for recognizing stress in animals. This research aimed to evaluate the use of infrared thermography in the training horse thermoregulation. An Anglo-Arab horse was studied and exercised once a day. Infrared thermography images of horse´s armpit, croup, breast and groin and physiological parameters were taken before and after exercise and 0, 5 and 10 minutes after shower for eight days. The air temperature, relative humidity and air velocity were also registered. There were no differences between the surface temperature of croup and breast and the treatments, implying low participation in thermoregulation. However, the armpit and groin temperature increased after the exercise and decreased after shower, suggesting that vasomotor mechanisms were activated to heat exchange. Similar results were found for physiological parameters which show organism thermal responses for heat loss. It was concluded that infrared thermography allowed accuracy in determining the horse body surface temperature and it was possible to infer on thermoregulation.

Environmental enrichment as positive welfare of pigs: a review

The competitiveness of Brazilian pig production in the world market depends on their adaptation to global trends and technologies. Animal welfare as a requirement of international markets has generated discussion and questions about the current Brazilian pig farming. The intensive pig farming raises the most serious welfare concerns once it is surrounded by stress factors. Thus, environmental enrichment plays an important role as a simple and effective tool that can ensure the welfare of captive animal. Enrich an environment enhance the physical and psychological health by providing environmental stimuli necessary for encouraging the expression of natural inherent behaviors. Several stimuli which incite an animal s interest in a positive way can be used to enrich the housing systems, such as offering toys and substrate. This paper reviews the literature concerning environmental enrichment for pigs’ welfare and some methods to enrich the pig housing system.

Nocturnal thermal comfort in facilities for growing swines

Em grande parte das granjas de suinos no Brasil, os sistemas para climatizacao do ambiente funcionam com acionamento manual. Para os periodos matutino e noturno, esta pratica nao e adequada, uma vez que, nestes periodos, em geral, nao ha funcionarios disponiveis para o acionamento destes sistemas. Por meio deste trabalho, objetivou-se comparar o perfil bioclimatico de duas instalacoes construtivamente diferentes entre si e com o ambiente externo, considerando o periodo de 18 as 6h, durante a primavera, a fim de verificar que as condicoes de conforto termico da noite e da madrugada podem apresentar-se fora do desejado para suinos em crescimento, e que, por esta razao, a climatizacao deve ser realizada tambem nestes periodos. Foram analisados a temperatura de bulbo seco, a umidade relativa do ar, o Indice de Temperatura e Umidade e a entalpia nos galpoes e no ambiente externo as instalacoes. Nas condicoes estudadas, foi possivel concluir que o galpao construtivamente adequado estudado mostrou ser menos influenciado pelo ambiente externo, propiciando conforto termico mais adequado para os suinos em crescimento. Mais estudos devem ser realizados para que se verifique a necessidade de acionamento automatico de equipamentos de climatizacao durante a noite e a madrugada.

Lysine levels in diets for broilers from 8 to 21 days of age

This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of digestible lysine levels in diets with and without supplementation of industrial amino acids on performance and fat deposition in the carcass of broilers in the starter phase. One thousand four hundred and forty chickens with initial weight of 168.1±5.0 g were distributed in a completely randomized experimental design, in a 5 × 2 factorial arrangement, composed of five digestible lysine levels (10.0, 11.0, 12.0, 13.0 and 14.0 g/kg) and two types of diet (diet with different proportions of corn and soybean meal and diet supplemented with industrial amino acids to obtain the digestible lysine levels), with eight replications and 18 birds per replication. There was interaction effect only on weight gain and fat deposition in the birds. The lysine levels reduced feed intake linearly in both diets, but caused a linear increase in lysine intake. The lysine levels quadratically affected weight gain and feed conversion, which improved up to the estimated levels of 13.0 and 12.8 g/kg lysine, respectively, when the corn:soybean meal ratio of the diet changed. In the diets supplemented with amino acids, the lysine levels increased weight gain and improved feed conversion linearly. Regardless of the type of diet, protein deposition increased linearly, whereas fat deposition reduced also linearly, as the lysine levels in the diets were increased. The levels of 13.0 and 14.0 g/kg digestible lysine provide, respectively, the best performance in birds fed a diet in which the proportion of corn and soybean meal varies and a diet supplemented with industrial amino acids, in the period from 8 to 21 days of age.

Passageway Preference Testing for Laying Hen

Animal preference and motivation are tools to better assess how an animal perceives its surroundings, potentially contributing to improvements in animal welfare. Several preference and motivational assessment techniques rely on animal choices, and require a test apparatus with choices separated by doors that the animal must navigate. Variations of door types appear in previous studies. The doors could potentially interfere with the animals’ choices depending on the ease of door use, the work required to navigate the door, or other considerations by the animals. To further understand potential impacts of door selection on choice testing with laying hens, a preference study was carried out with three door types. Overall, hens’ daily behavior profile and activity was not affected by the presence of doors. When offered a choice, hens preferred vertical chains and vinyl strips compared with an acrylic panel. These findings suggest that the type of doors applied in preference or motivation studies should be a consideration in the study planning.

Energy expenditure in vocalizations of pigs under stress

A suinocultura moderna enfrenta muitos desafios, dentre os quais o crescimento da produtividade, a melhoria da qualidade de carne, a reducao de danos ambientais e a reducao de custo de producao. Suinos gastam energia na vocalizacao, especialmente quando submetidos a determinado estresse. O desperdicio de energia pode aumentar o custo de producao e conduzir a um maior dano ambiental. O objetivo deste estudo foi estimar a energia gasta pelos leitoes sob o estresse da castracao e seu efeito sobre o ganho de peso dos animais. Dois grupos de dez animais cada foram castrados, sendo um grupo com anestesia local e outro sem anestesia. As vocalizacoes dos leitoes foram gravadas durante as diferentes fases do processo de castracao, sendo objeto de uma estimativa da quantidade de energia emitida durante cada vocalizacao. Posteriormente, esta energia foi associada com o ganho de peso dos animais. Nao houve diferenca no gasto total da energia em ambos os grupos, uma vez que a energia utilizada durante a aplicacao da anestesia foi semelhante a energia gasta durante a castracao dos animais sem anestesia. Tambem nao houve correlacao entre a energia gasta e o ganho de peso dos animais. Foi possivel estimar a quantidade de energia emitida atraves de vocalizacao. Esta energia gasta por leitoes com dor foi maior do que em outras situacoes de manejo (contencao, pesagem e soltura).

Data Mining Applied to Horse Thermal Comfort

Thermal comfort plays a critical role in body temperature regulation. Heat-regulation mechanisms, such as changes in peripheral blood flow, are activated by thermal stress to maintain body homeostasis and it can results in a fluctuation of skin temperature. Although thermal comfort of horse has been studied, its relation with surface temperature is rarely seen in the literature. Therefore, the aim of this study was to verify the potential of data mining techniques in knowledge discovery by associating surface temperature with thermal comfort of horses. The decision tree model presented 74.0% of accuracy and all attributes of dataset were considered relevant for the classification problem. The results revealed the potential of data mining techniques to equine thermal comfort classification problems

Different light intensity on the behavior and welfare of commercial broiler chicks.

In Brazil, the use of buildings with negative pressure system is increasing. The influence of different colors of side curtains on bird’s behavior is unknown. Depending on the curtain’s color its causes more or less luminosity inside the building, especially because the birds are photosensitivity. The luminosity has direct influence on the incidence of leg problems, and the UV rays may prevent it. This research aimed to evaluate the use of different curtain’s colors of broiler houses with negative pressure system with an emphasis in behavior and the incidence of leg problems. Three poultry farms located in Tiete / SP and Cerquilho / SP were studied, where treatment T1 was a negative pressure broiler house with black curtain, treatment T2 negative pressure broiler house with blue curtain and treatment T3 negative pressure broiler house with yellow curtain. Environmental data, animal behavior and the incidence of leg problems were monitored, during 3 flocks. Also, variable “Comfort TA” was created to evaluate the environmental conditions of the studied broiler houses. It was found a significant difference in bird’s behavior between treatments and some of them were related to luminosity. There was no relation between the incidence of leg problems with the light intensity and ultraviolet rays. The behavior of birds was influenced by the environmental variables.

Sound Levels in a Wean-to-Finish Facility in Brazil

Abstract: Wean-to-finish is a popular production facility in the United States and is increasing in Brazilian swine production. In wean-to-finish facilities, pigs are weaned directly into a finishing style building and remain there until slaughter. The study of sound levels is characterized by the vocalizations emitted by a group of animals. The sounds may indicate stress, discomfort, fear, or any other emotional disorder. This study aimed to evaluate the sound levels emitted by different group sizes (22, 24, 26, 28 and 30 animals per pen) and stocking densities (1.12, 1.02, 0.94, 0.88, 0.82 animals/m²) in a wean-to-finish swine production system. The experiment was divided into four periods: phase 1(13.40 kg initial weight to final weight 37.95 kg), phase 2 (37.96 initial weight to final weight 60.30 kg), phase 3 (60.31 initial weight to final weight 86.86 kg) and phase 4 (86.87 initial weight to final weight 125 kg). Decibelimeters with automatic scale of 30 to 130dB located at the center of each pen were used to record the sound levels every 30 seconds. Statistical analysis was done using ANOVA and Tukey’s test and were performed using SAEG (System for Genetic Analysis and Statistics). The results showed lowest sound levels for the smallest group size studied (22 animals). The highest mean sound level of 61.4 dB occurred in the 26 animals/pen group size, which was within the allowable limit of 85 dB specified in NR15 Brazilian norm. It can be concluded that main sound level emitted by pigs in a wean-to-finish facility is within the limits recommended by a Brazilian norm.