•Grass silage, in addition to straw, did not affect pen-mate directed manipulations.•Pigs with access to silage were occupied longer with either silage or straw.•Prevalence of tail lesions was low in ...both treatments.•Severe damages of the gastric mucosa were reduced with access to grass silage.
In organic and other enriched housing systems, straw is commonly used as enrichment material for pigs. Its positive effects on health and behavioural welfare are well known. However, potential additional impacts of roughages (other than straw) have rarely been investigated. On six organic farms, we therefore investigated how providing grass silage affects behaviour, gastric health and performance of growing-finishing pigs. Per farm, two to four pens were included in the experiment, with group sizes ranging from five to 26 pigs (total n = 368), and stocking density ranging from 1.65 to 3.50 m2 per pig during finishing. Groups were provided with either grass silage (SIL) or straw (CON) in a rack. Long-stack straw was used as bedding material in all pens. Skin and tail lesions and tear staining were assessed four times throughout the fattening period, and behavioural observations were conducted three times. After slaughtering, pathological damages in the gastric mucosa were scored (score 0–6). Slaughter weight, lean meat proportion and proportion of polyunsaturated fatty acids in body fat were obtained. Data were analysed using linear mixed effect models and parametric bootstrap. Providing grass silage did not alter pen-mate directed manipulations (P > 0.1). Prevalence of tail lesions was too low to confirm numerical differences statistically (0.2% of all assessments in SIL vs 2.6% in CON). Pigs with access to grass silage were occupied longer with substrate (silage or straw) than CON pigs (P = 0.01). The prevalence of slight to severe damages in the gastric mucosa was not affected by treatment (score 0 vs. 1–6; P > 0.1). However, among those pigs that had damages at all, severe damages including gastric ulcers were less frequent in pigs provided with grass silage (score 1–4 vs. 5–6; P = 0.03). The overall prevalence of gastric ulcers (score 6) was 0.7% of all pigs in SIL and 6.1% in CON groups. No impact of grass silage provision was found for slaughter weight, lean meat proportion and body fat quality parameters. In conclusion, our results demonstrate that grass silage is an appropriate feed and enrichment material to stimulate species-specific foraging behaviour and to reduce the development of gastric ulcers.
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Entire male pigs display more aggressive and sexual behaviour. This might cause a condition of chronic stress and impair their welfare. In order to assess chronic stress in entire and castrated male ...pigs, as well as effects of providing grass silage as occupational and feed material on behaviour and health, we carried out a 2 × 2 × 2-factorial experiment with 147 growing-finishing pigs. Factors investigated were castration (entire/castrated), chronic intermittent social stress exposure (yes/no) and access to grass silage (yes/no), as well as their interactions. The stress exposure treatment consisted of repeated short-term confrontations and separations. We recorded different behavioural variables, circadian rhythm of salivary cortisol, response to an ACTH (adrenocorticotropic hormone) challenge test, pathological changes in the gastric mucosa and morphology of the intestinal epithelium. Stress exposure caused a decrease in posture changes and head knocks/bites in the home pen. Reference indicators affected by stress exposure did not differ between entire and castrated male pigs, indicating that there is no permanently increased baseline level of stress in entire male pigs. However, entire males responded more pronouncedly to the stress exposure compared to castrated males in terms of posture changes and play behaviour. Pigs provided with grass silage showed more play behaviour and less manipulative behaviours than pigs not receiving grass silage. Stress treated pigs had more hyperkeratosis in the gastric mucosa and gastric ulcers, while offering grass silage reduced such changes. In conclusion, our results indicate that the increased behavioural stress response of entire male pigs might require some adaptations in housing and management of entire male pigs. Gastric ulceration scoring turned out to be a potential post mortem indicator for chronic stress. Finally, providing roughages like grass silage could be a means to positively affect behaviour and gastric health in pigs.
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•We studied effects of castration, chronic intermittent stress and roughage in pigs.•Chronic intermittent social stress exposure impaired gastric health.•Baseline level of stress was not increased in entire male pigs.•Entire males still showed a more pronounced behavioural response to stress exposure.•Providing grass silage improved gastric health and reduced pen mate manipulation.
In a two-factorial feeding trial 120 growing-finishing pigs from eleven sires were fed on an organic (ORG) or a conventional (CON) diet. Diet ORG contained mainly oil press cakes and legume grains as ...protein source containing higher protein and crude fiber content along with slight deficiencies of limiting amino acids. Pigs were allocated to treatments balanced according to litter, sex and initial weight. Feed was offered ad libitum. Feed consumption, weight gain as well as carcass, meat and fat quality traits were recorded. ORG fed animals had lower weight gain, poorer feed conversion, lower loin muscle area, higher intramuscular fat content, higher ultimate pH (loin, ham), and a higher PUFA content in backfat. Despite for cook loss and dressing percentage, no sire-feed interactions were found. This indicates no need for a performance test, specifically designed for organic production. However, weight of the breeding values for the various traits and selection criteria should be adapted to the needs of organic production.
The German Climate Forecast System: GCFS Fröhlich, Kristina; Dobrynin, Mikhail; Isensee, Katharina ...
Journal of advances in modeling earth systems,
February 2021, 2021-02-00, 20210201, 2021-02-01, Letnik:
13, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Seasonal prediction is one important element in a seamless prediction chain between weather forecasts and climate projections. After several years of development in collaboration with Universität ...Hamburg and Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, the Deutscher Wetterdienst performs operational seasonal forecasts since 2016 with the German Climate Forecast System, now in Version 2 (GCFS2.0). Here, the configuration of the previous system GCFS1.0 and the current GCFS2.0 are described and the performance of the two systems is compared over the common hindcast period of 1990–2014. In GCFS2.0, the forecast skill is improved compared to GCFS1.0 during boreal winter, especially for the Northern Hemisphere where the Pearson correlation has increased for the North Atlantic Oscillation index. Overall, a similar performance of GCFS2.0 in comparison to GCFS1.0 is assessed during the boreal summer. Future developments for climate forecasts need a stronger focus on the performance of interannual variability in a model system.
Plain Language Summary
Information about the expected departure from the “normal” climatic conditions of an upcoming season would be tremendously valuable for many sectors of society. In Germany, three institutes join their expertise to build a climate forecast system using the Earth system model of the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology. This model describes the atmosphere, land and rivers as well as the ocean and sea ice. The model describes their interactions and is well designed for climate studies on a much longer timescale than a season. Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, Universität Hamburg and the German Meteorological Service Deutscher Wetterdienst have developed the methods those are necessary for such a forecast system and operationally perform the seasonal predictions. This paper compares two versions of our forecast system. The forecast quality during different seasons is particularly investigated. The expectation that the second model system is much better than the first system is not entirely fulfilled. We discuss possible reasons and suggest a stronger focus on the model quality for interannual variability for future model development.
Key Points
A climate forecast system is developed on the basis of a coupled climate model
The comparison of the first to the second version shows improvements in North Atlantic Oscillation forecasts. Forecast skill in tropical regions is not improved
•Mixing corn pellets into compost of rooting areas tends to increase its overall use.•Mixing corn pellets into compost of rooting areas increases its use as lying area.•Time of day and temperature ...influence pig behaviour in a rooting area.•Mixing corn pellets into compost of rooting areas does not affect the areas’ cleanliness.
Exploratory behaviour is an essential part of the behavioural repertoire of pigs. Providing pigs with a rooting area filled with appropriate material enables such behaviour and is therefore considered to improve animal welfare. Managing the hygiene of a rooting area, however, is often challenging when pigs use it also for elimination. Mixing corn pellets into the rooting material could increase use and exploration while reducing elimination behaviour. To investigate this hypothesis, we constructed rooting areas filled with compost produced from garden waste in four pens on a commercial organic farm. We compared two experimental pens (E) with rooting areas filled with compost, in which we mixed 2 kg of corn pellets every morning, with two control pens (C, rooting areas filled with compost only). The experiment started in October 2019 and lasted 34 weeks with seven replicates in total. Group size ranged between 21–35 pigs (N = 386). We registered behaviour once a week through direct observations of the complete outdoor area and additional video recordings of the rooting area. Behavioural variables of interest were activity status (i.e. standing/sitting or lying), rooting, agonistic and play behaviour. We assessed cleanliness of the rooting material via visual scoring and chemical analysis of compost samples. The latter included tests on dry matter content, conductivity, and ammonium concentration. Data were analysed with linear mixed-effects models. Results showed that there was a tendency for a higher total number of pigs in the rooting area in E than in C (p = 0.06). In E, more pigs were lying in the rooting area than in C (p = 0.04). There was no difference between treatments in rooting behaviour. In addition, the overall use of the outdoor run did not differ between treatments. Time of day influenced all recorded behaviours in the rooting area (p < 0.001). With increasing temperature, more pigs were present in the outdoor run (p < 0.001) and in the rooting area (p < 0.01) for both treatments. Conductivity and ammonium concentration in the compost increased the longer the compost remained in the rooting area (p < 0.001), but there was no difference between the two treatments. We conclude that mixing corn pellets into rooting material increases the use of the rooting area by heightening the overall presence of pigs in it but not its cleanliness.
In organic pig production, one important aim is to achieve 100% organic feeding. This generates the challenge of achieving adequate protein quality in pig feed. Until 31
st
December 2021, the protein ...quality in organic pig feed in Europe was improved by using 5% conventional components, mainly potato protein. To investigate the effects of 100% organic feeding on growth performance, meat and fat quality in pigs, a total of 700 fattening pigs were studied in an on-farm feeding trial. The 95% organic diet fed on each farm served as the control diet (CON) and a 100% organic diet with higher proportions of soybean cake and grain legumes was used as the experimental diet (ORG). ORG-fed animals had slightly lower daily weight gains, lower carcass weight, and significantly higher iodine and PUFA values in the backfat. The feeding trial showed that the 100% organic diet led to a slightly deficient dietary amino acid profile and thus to slightly lower performance in a few traits. However, the implementation of consistent 100% organic feeding was considered valuable for organic farming even with the lower performance and change in meat and fat quality of the organic pigs.
For reasons of aspired naturalness and cost reduction, vitamin additions should be kept low in organic livestock systems. To define safe lower threshold levels of riboflavin supplementation in ...organic poultry feeding, 135 hybrid layers were allocated to three dietary treatments supplemented with either 4.5 (R4.5), 3.0 (R3.0) or 1.5 mg (R1.5) GMO-free riboflavin added per kg feed. This resulted in total measured concentration averages of 5.0, 4.5, and 3.1 mg kg
−1
feed for R4.5, R3.0 and R1.5, respectively. For 18 weeks, each treatment was replicated in three groups of 15 hens. Feed consumption, laying performance, egg quality, riboflavin concentration in the yolk, and clinical health scores were assessed. Two hens per group (six per treatment) were slaughtered in weeks 11 and 18, respectively, for measurement of pancreas, spleen, liver and heart weights, and determination of liver riboflavin. No treatment effects on feed consumption, body weight, laying performance, egg weights, eggshell strength and yolk colour or plumage and keel bone integrity were observed. No symptoms of lameness or footpad damage were found. The riboflavin concentration in egg yolks in R1.5 was lower than in other treatments. Liver riboflavin concentration increased between week 11 and 18 in all treatments, but it was also lower in R1.5. Based on these results, the addition of 3 mg riboflavin kg
−1
feed appeared to be sufficient with respect to the health and performance of laying hens. Supplementation with only 1.5 mg kg
−1
resulted in some metabolic signs of deficiency. These results apply only to organic winter diets.
The ultimate objective of organic pig production is to use ingredients of 100% organic origin in the animals’ diets. However, this approach is challenging, especially when needing to ensure adequate ...quantities of essential amino acids (EAAs) and protein in grower-finisher diets. The current standard is 95% organic feed ingredients, but this percentage can be increased by reducing the EAA supply or by accepting an unbalanced EAA profile. A further incentive also exists to include forages in organic diets as a way to raise dietary crude fibre content. The current study therefore investigates three organic diets (T95: 5% of non-organic origin; T100: 0% of non-organic origin and T100-CF: T100 plus an increased crude fibre level), which were offered ad libitum to 48 pigs (16 per diet) weighing 22 to 110 kg. Comparison of the three diets revealed that increasing the crude fibre content (T100-CF) reduced growth, increased total feed intake and impaired feed and protein deposition efficiency, but the unbalanced EAA profile (T100) had no effect on growth traits and protein deposition efficiency. The T100 and T100-CF pigs differed from the T95 pigs in terms of feeding behaviour traits, as they displayed more frequent but shorter feeder visits, shorter between-meal intervals and smaller meals. Increasing the fibre content with press cake ingredients raised the degree of unsaturation of the backfat and might cause problems in meat processing. In conclusion, the results revealed that pigs could cope with a mild EAA imbalance.
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