Recommendations concerning the construction of floors in animal housing for pigs and cattle worked out and used in Austria are described. Emphasis is put on flooring for cattle. General ...recommendations, legal aspects (European Directives and Regulations as well as Austrian norms), safety regulations and requirements by the animals concerning stable floors are reported. Some important data for calculation of static's (load assumptions) and for designing and constructing solid and slatted floors are given. In more detail information is given about specific needs of the animals - pigs and cattle - concerning flooring. Conditions to be met for both, lying areas and for areas for movement, feeding, watering etc. (passages, feeding alleys, exercise yards) are distinguished. Too slippery or even too rough too dirty and wet or too hard floors are pointed out as main reasons for claw and leg injuries as well as for abnormal or disturbed behaviour. Special attention is turned on design, construction and drainage of solid floors and their adequate surfaces to prevent or reduce animal damage. Further, new discussions and developments in rubber coated flooring - slatted as well as solid - for cattle are reported. Finally, an overview is given on the most common systems for cleaning solid floors in animal houses - both mobile scraping by tractor and stationary systems (different types of scrapers), specifications for the systems are reported including those for winter periods in open stables and some criteria for their comparative evaluation for optimal decisions are given.
Imidacloprid is systemic insecticide belonging to the group of neonicotinoids, which is often used in agriculture and household. Oral LD50 for honeybee is 37-206 ppb (3.7-20.6 ng/bee). Olfactory ...response of honeybee is trigged at 10 ppb of the insecticide in the food. 20 ppb and higher concentration disturbs significantly central nervous system of the honeybee. Sunflowers, which seeds were treated with Gaucho (contains imidacloprid), had concentration of imidacloprid below 10 ppb (0.01 mg/kg). It has been reported 1.9 ppb in nectar and 3.9 ppb in pollen of the sunflower. However, foraging honeybees contained 5 and 8 ppb of imidacloprid and its metabolites. When imidacloprid was applied to the thorax of the honeybee, it had been shown that at liest 5 ng/bee is needed to increase threshold of sugar concentration, which released proboscis extension. Imidacloprid is metabolized in honeybee body in 4.5 to 5 hours. The highest concentration of the dangerous products 5-hydroxiimidacloprid and olefin was detected 4 hours after feeding. Based on fast degradation of imidacloprid it exist reasonable doubt that honeybees which took higher amounts of imidacloprid died already outside of the hive and before final death of the colony as well before samples were taken. In our recent incident, selected sampling methodology was shown to be problematic. That could had an undefined effect on analysis results. Based on beekeepers report 13 apiaries were under veterinary examination. Samples of bees and in 7 cases also samples of comb pollen were taken for further analysis. All sampled colonies were affected by Varroa destructor (varoa) and most of them also with Nosema apis. Colonies were also affected by long lasting dry period and not adequate natural food supply previous summer. Chemical analysis showed presence of imidacloprid and its metabolites in 12 samples of bees. 5 of them had detected concentration higher then 5 ppb. On the other hand the insecticide was not detected in pollen samples. Possible effect of sub lethal intoxication with the insecticide on the increase of parasites and diseases could not be excluded. In the samples of bees with higher concentration then 5 ppb of imidacloprid and metabolites intoxication with the insecticide could be major reason for the death of the colonies. Based on known degradation processes, bees had to have at list 10 ppb of imidacloprid and metabolites in their bodies at the time of possible intoxication. Such high concentration could be enough to cause sublethal effects on single bee, and had an effect on colony decline. In a current paper we discuss possible future research of imidacloprid effects on single bee as well to whole colony.
In years 1996 impact of permanent and short time grass covering on soil erosion, flora composition and nutrient loss were researched. The experiment was set with cv. Sauvignon in vineyard Meranovo ...with 33 % of slope. In permanent grass covering the loss of soil was 1,5 % of that in short time grass covering. The highest erosion in vineyard was in dormant period after cultivation. With less erosion in permanent grass covering the nutrient loss was also proportionally lower. In permanent grass covering the flora density was for 23 % higher and dry matter of green cover was higher to four times. In short time grass covering one year weeds prevailed.
Behaviour of honeybees Kozmus, P. (National Inst. of Biology, Ljubljana (Slovenia)); Stuhec, I. (Ljubljana Univ. (Slovenia). Biotechnical Fac., Zootechnical Dept.)
Sodobno kmetijstvo (Slovenia),
2004, Letnik:
37, Številka:
7
Magazine Article
Honeybees have been present in the world for about 40 million years. During this time they have developed very interesting behaviour. In each beehive lives a queen, about 1,000 drones and 80,000 ...worker bees. Each individual bee has a special task in life, which changes with age. The drone's most important task is to mate the queen, which afterwards starts laying fertilized eggs. From these eggs worker bees hatch. Worker bees do most of the work. Young bees usually work in the beehive; the adult ones fly out and collect pollen, honeydew and water. Besides dancing communication, used to inform other bees where honeydew is, other patterns of behaviour are also known. Research has been mostly devoted to shaking and mutual gathering.
Republic of Slovenia has rich genetic diversity also in animal husbandry. This paper presents the state of farm animal diversity in Slovenia according to the procedure worked out by FAO. Great ...emphasis is given on breeds which are esential in food production and agriculture as a whole. Genetic variety of AnGR in the future will depend on possible means of genetic diversity conservation and on importance and methods of animal genetic resources utilization where performing breeding and selection activities per individual species and breed play a very important role.
Slovenian agriculture and production systems in its livestock sector Kavcic, S; Salehar, A. (Ljubljana Univ. (Slovenia). Biotechnical Fac., Zootechnical Dept.); Dernulc, S. (Statisticni urad RS, Ljubljana (Slovenia))
Sodobno kmetijstvo (Slovenia),
2004, Letnik:
37, Številka:
1
Magazine Article
This paper summarizes main findings about Slovenian agriculture and production systems in Slovenian livestock sector, acquired as the result of Report on state of farm animals genetic resources in ...Slovenia. It describes dependence of agriculture on natural resources and economic circumstances, emphasising some structural facts and developmental problems resulting in Slovenian standing food dependency on external sources. Description and results of two stage classification procedure of livestock production into production systems is presented to a greater detail. In many farm animal species prevalence of low and medium input production systems can be observed, especially in classification according to number of farms. When taking into account livestock inventory on individual farms, we can observe an inverse situation in pigs, chickens and turkeys, reflected in the prevalence of high input production systems in the national population of these species. Passing from one to another production system in both directions is quite dynamic with mainly economic reasons behind. It seems that the structure of production systems will change further, but due to unfavourable natural conditions for intensive livestock production and increasing importance of agriculture in performing purposes other than a mere production, one could expect preservation of important share of livestock production by low and medium input production systems.
In the field of conservation of animal genetic resources Slovenia is cooperating with numerous international organizations: EAAP, DAGENE, FAO, SAVE, ICAR, IDF, APIMONDIA. Slovenia is included into ...different European and world breeders association per individual species and breed. It is in constant contact with insemination centres in Europe and elsewhere in the world particularly for supply with breeding materials by cattle. In many of international organizations it is either a member of the leading organs or it co-operates in different projects, and organization of scientific symposia, conferences, congress and in different commissions. The Slovenian animal genetic resources data are included in the following international data bases: DAD-IS, EAAP-AGDB in Oklahoma state university - breeds. In the field of conservation of farm animals biodiversity, Slovenia is in possession of research facilities, developed technologies and knowledge which can be offered to other countries. To successfully conserve animal genetic resources, Slovenia needs help in the reorganization of rearing and professional activities in animal husbandry. We need subsidies in order to modernize national capacities, and especially to establish common capacities.
