The impact of puerperal diseases in sows on their fertility and health up to next farrowing - Volume 82 Issue 5 - S. Hoy

In Germany, an animal welfare ordinance for the housing of rabbits was issued which did not take into account the current investigations on floor design. The aim of the investigations was to study the effects of floor design on dirtiness and occurrence of lesions on the legs of growing rabbits. A total of 1837 weaned rabbits, kept on four different floor designs, were examined for body lesions and the dirtiness of the soles of the feet at the end of the growing period. Two four-stage scoring systems (0–3) were used to record the dirtiness and the lesions on the feet. A floor according to the provisions of the German animal protection ordinance (10 mm slat width; 50% perforation on floor area; <15% perforation on the elevated platform) led to the most polluted and injured rabbits. The best cleanliness and the lowest injury rate of the growing rabbits was achieved on a plastic floor with 5 mm slat width and 13 mm slot width, both on the ground and elevated platform (75% perforation). The requirements of the German housing regulations on the floor for growing rabbits do not correspond to animal welfare.

The aim of this study was to verify the motivation of rabbit does to social contact or seclusion. The results of two different research activities assessed in Italy (experiment 1) and Germany (experiment 2) through the use of motivational cages are reported. In experiment 1, only the average time of occupation of the group or seclusion zone was recorded of four nulliparous does, while, in experiment 2, the group-housing system provided space for does with kits and consisted of four single areas (nest boxes with individual electronic nest box recognition systems). Experiment 1 showed that does spent a similar amount of time in seclusion or in group (49.61% vs 50.39%, respectively). On the contrary, in experiment 2, does with kits appeared to prefer spending time alone (71.90%) rather than in groups. The presence of kits probably stimulates a hierarchical and aggressive response of the dominant does, with the low-ranking does staying secluded to avoid violent interactions. In fact, in each reproductive cycle, one doe did stay in the group area whereas the other three does used this area in different percentages of time. Further researches are needed to find a good combination of the cage with the does’ physiological phases.

Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae causing porcine pleuropneumoniae is responsible for lowered productivity and reduction of performance indicators such as daily weight gain and increase of losses in the swine industry worldwide. To control the disease, vaccination is used to reduce clinical signs and production losses. A randomized, blinded field trail was conducted to compare two licensed A. pleuropneumoniae vaccines in 600 finishing pigs in terms of lung lesions, mortality, medication, weight gain and safety, in a farm in northeast Germany. After weaning, pigs were allocated randomly in two groups resulting in group sizes of 300 individuals. Nursery pigs were vaccinated at the age of 7 to 10 weeks either with a A. pleuropneumoniae bacterin, containing ApxI-III toxoids (group 1), or with a subunit purified A. pleuropneumoniae toxoid vaccine (group 2). Blinded lung lesion scoring at slaughter following the Ceva Lung Program methodology revealed a significantly lower proportion of lungs affected with pleurisy in group 1 compared to group 2. Weighing of the animals did not show a significant difference (p = 0.092); however, at the end of finishing animals of group 1 showed a 1.59 kg higher weight (100.40 ± 10.15 kg) compared to animals in group 2 (98.81 kg ± 11.56 kg). Mortality and antimicrobial medication were significantly lower in group 1 compared to group 2 (13 losses and 17 antimicrobial medications in group 2, 4 losses and 1 antimicrobial medications in group 1). Injection site and systemic adverse reactions were recorded on both days of vaccination and did not differ significantly between the groups (p > 0.05). In this study, the efficacy of vaccination with a commercially available A. pleuropneumoniae bacterin containing ApxI-III toxoids was superior to that of a commercially available A. pleuropneumoniae subunit toxoid vaccine in preventing pulmonary lesions associated with A. pleuropneumoniae infection.Grzegorz Woźniakowski

The kit index (KI) combines the kindling rate (KR) and the average litter size (LS) per group of does, per breeding round, per year, or per farm and represents the number of total or live-born kits per 100 inseminated does. The KR is the percentage of kindlings per number of inseminated does. Mathematically, the KI is the product of the KR multiplied by the average LS. The KI was calculated on the basis of 12 730 inseminated does and 89 864 live-born kits from one rabbit farm during a 25-month period from 2015 to 2017. The average KR was 70.1±9.1 % with a minimum (per breeding round) of 35.4 % and a maximum of 90.8 %. The average LS of total kits born was 9.16±0.91, whilst the average litter size of live-born kits was 8.87±0.90. The KI of total kits born was calculated to be 649± 121 kits per 100 inseminated does (min of 332, max of 971), while the KI of live-born kits ranged between 326 and 944 kits per 100 inseminated does (mean of 626±122). The KI is a normally distributed parameter with respect to both the total kits born and the live-born kits per 100 inseminated does. All three parameters (KR, LS, and KI) were characterized by large variations from week to week with a tendency toward a reduction in the summer months. No difference was found between the two housing units, but large differences were found between the two genetic strains used on the given farm. Therefore, it can be concluded that the KI is able to characterize the complex fertility situation on the given rabbit farm. The KI can be used to demonstrate and to solve problems regarding artificial insemination, in addition to general issues with insemination management.

Ninety-six sows in twelve groups of eight sows were continuously video-observed during 48 hours after weaning and mixing. The occurrence and the outcome of all agonistic interactions (AI) were recorded and data of wins and defeats were transformed into a 8 × 8 (winner-loser) matrix. Aggressor and receiver of the attacks and fights in the dyads have been determined and the rank index for each sow was calculated leading to the individual rank place RP (1 to 8) and to the classifying into high ranking (HRS: RP 1 to 4) and low ranking sows (LRS: RP 5 to 8). Based on a total number of 2 414 AI dominant sows with RP=1 initiated 94.3 % of the AI they were involved in and were the receiver in 5.7 % of the AI. In contrast, every fourth AI was orientated towards the subdominant sow with RP=8. The sows with RP 7 or 8 were the receivers in nearly half of all AI (44.9 %). Fights occurred more frequently between sows with a low rank place difference. More than 60 % of the attacks and more than 40 % of the fights were initiated from high ranking sows towards low ranking sows even though 28.6 % was the estimated value for those dyads. In only 2 % of the attacks and 18.8 % of the fights LRS engaged HRS which means that HRS usually react with a counter-attack when being attacked by a LRS.