Juliana Sarubbi

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.

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

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.

Análise do desempenho reprodutivo e do uso de energia elétrica em instalações climatizadas de cachaços

This study aimed to assess and compare two air conditioning systems in a setting where eighteen males of the commercial genetic line AG337, from AGROCERES - PIC, are housed. The animals in Group A were submitted to automated air conditioning through artificial ventilation and nebulization, while the animals in Group B were submitted only to manual triggering of the ventilation, according to the schedule practiced at the farm. The factors such as reproductive performance, animal thermal comfort, as well as climatic variables from the external environment of the housing and use of electrical energy by the environment controLλing system were considered. The results showed that animals in Group A remained in a comfortable environmental conditions though there was no improvement in the mean values of seminal volume and sperm concentration. It is worthwhile to mention that monthly increase in energy costs due to use of acclimatization and automation equipments were not significant as the equipments are of low energy consumption.

Thermal environmental conditions in growing pig buildings during the night and early morning.

On most Brazilian pig farms, the environmental acclimatization systems work with manual actuation. For night and early morning periods, this local practice can not be the appropriate one, because, in general, there are not available employees for manual actuation in these periods. In this research work, the aim was showing that night and early morning temperatures do not coincide with growing pigs’ thermoneutral zone. For this reason, acclimatization must be carried out at these periods also. Two differently constructed buildings were used for obtaining the bioclimatic profile of the 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. period in spring. Dry-bulb temperature and relative humidity data were obtained in the interior of each building, as well as the external conditions. Temperature-humidity index (THI) was calculated for evaluation of thermal comfort. In this case, the analysis of climatic data allows us to conclude that these growing pig buildings should have had automatically actuated cooling systems during the analyzed period. It was necessary because of the magnitude of the thermal amplitude of this period and the maximum temperatures frequently cross over the maximum temperature of growing pigs’ thermoneutral zone. The THI values were frequently higher than the desirable range.