Pigs and ear skin temperature sensors

The paper describing Heidi Mai-Lis Andersen's study is now available from the home page of Applied Animal Behaviour Science. The study was concerned about the use of an ear skin temperature sensor as indicator of well-being in slaughter pigs. The manuscript was submitted at the start of the year.

• Heidi M.-L. Andersen, Erik Jørgensen, L. Dybkjær, and Bente Jørgensen. The ear skin temperature as an indicator of pigs' thermal comfort. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, In Press, 2007.
  (doi:10.1016/j.applanim.2007.11.003)

The abstract is shown below

Abstract

The aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between the ear skin temperature and the behaviour of pigs. Fifty-four pigs weighing 75 ± 5 kg were used in three replications (18 pigs per replication) and housed in pens (six pigs per pen) in a controlled climate facility. The room temperature was changed by 2 °C from 18 °C down to 10 °C and up again to 22 °C. The ear skin temperature (EST) was continuously recorded and the activity, lying posture, location and contact with pen mates were scored by 12 min scan sampling for 24 h at the set point temperatures 18 °C, 10 °C and 22 °C. A diurnal rhythm in the EST, the posture and the lying behaviour was found. The EST was highest at night and lowest in the afternoon. During night the pigs had more physical contact to pen mates than during day time. For all three set point temperatures the predominant lying position during the night was the fully recumbent position. The room temperature affected the lying behaviour and the EST. With decreasing room temperature the pigs increased their contact to pen mates and fewer pigs were observed lying in the fully recumbent position. The EST decreased with decreasing room temperature, and the range in the EST's at the three set point temperatures was larger during day than night (4 °C versus 2 °C). The results indicate that pigs adjust their behaviour to a higher EST when resting than when they are active, and they use behavioural adjustment (e.g. increased/decreased contact to pen mates) to bring their skin temperature into a preferred interval.

Methodological paper about choice of rooting material published

As mentioned in the previous post the article about rooting materials has been accepted. In addition, the accompanying methodological paper mentioned here has now been printed.

• U. Halekoh, E. Jørgensen, M. B. Jensen, L.J. Pedersen, M. Studnitz, and S. Højsgaard. Ranking of simultaneously presented choice options in animal preference experiments. Biometrical Journal, 49(4):599–612, 2007. (doi:10.1002/bimj.200610304)

Rooting material paper

The paper describing the results from the choice experiments with rooting materials described here as now been accepted for publication Applied Animal Behaviour Science, after one revision round. I expect that the paper will be available online within a couple of month, but actual publication will probably not occur before next year.

Mixture paper finally published

The paper submitted to Preventive Veterinary Medicine that was described here with S.S. Nielsen as main author has now been published.

• S.S. Nielsen, N. Toft, E. Jørgensen, and B.M. Bibby. Bayesian mixture models for within-herd prevalence estimates of bovine paratuberculosis based on a continuous ELISA response. Preventive Veterinary Medicine, 81:290–305, 2007.

Physiology and Behaviour during farrowing

A paper describing the effect of floor heating on behaviour and physiology during farrowing has been submitted to Physiology and Behavior. The paper was written as part of the project concerning loose housing systems for farrowing sows. My contribution was mainly concerned with the hormonal profiles during parturition. The results indicated that during parturition the profiles were better described using a relativ time-scale (proportion of farrowing time) rather than the chronological scale. It was also of interest that there seemed to be a treatment effect on variability between animals.

As usual, the description of the statistical methodology had to be kept to a minimum, and I am a little anxious to see, how it is received.

• J Malmkvist, B.M. Damgaard, L.J. Pedersen, E. Jørgensen, K. Thodberg, H. Chaloupková, and R.M. Bruckmaier. Floor heating effects on HPA-axis hormones, oxytocin and behavioural activity in sows. Physiology & Behaviour, submitted:1–21, 2007.

Ear skin temperature as indicator of well-being

A paper describing Heidi Mai-Lis Andersen's study about the use of an ear skin temperature sensor as indicator of well-being in slaughter pigs has been submitted to Applied Animal Behaviour Science. Heidi is employed in the research and development department at SKOV A/S, and the paper is part of her Ph.D. thesis. SKOV A/S is working in the field of climate control and production monitoring for animal agricultural production, and collaborates with several research institutes. During the final part of her Ph.D. study Heidi has been working in our research group. As a Ph.D. student she was affiliated with the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University in Copenhagen. Or, since January 1, the Faculty of Life Sciences at the University of Copenhagen, Department of Large Animal Sciences, following the recent restructuring of the Danish research institutes.

• H. M.-L. Andersen, E. Jørgensen, B. Jørgensen, and L. Dybkjær. The ear skin temperature as an indicator of pigs' thermal comfort. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, submitted, 2007.

Pigs' preference for rooting materials

A paper describing the results from the choice experiments with rooting materials has been submitted to Applied Animal Behaviour Science. The statistical method described in the paper about ranking of choice options was developed to analyze the results from this experiment. As mentioned previously the paper is currently in print for Biometrical Journal (I have just checked, it is not yet available online).

The paper was written in collaboration with Margit Bak Jensen, Merete Studnidz and Lene Juul Pedersen, and from our research group Ulrich Halekoh and me. It is a bit strange to see the new affiliation in print. Department of Genetics and Biotechnology, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, University of Århus, Research Centre Foulum. (Probably it will be institute instead of Department) later on.

We tried to formulate a short and easily read introduction to the random utility model used for the analysis. I wonder whether we have been successful. The formal details of the paper are:

• M. B. Jensen, M. Studnitz, U. Halekoh, L.J. Pedersen, and E. Jørgensen. Pigs' preferences for rooting materials measured in a three-choice maze-test. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, submitted, 2007.

Paper about Effect of zonation published

The paper about pen design for pigs mentioned previously are now available in print and with the proper volume and page information

• B.M. Damgaard, M. Studnitz, J. Nielsen, V.A. Moustsen, E. Jørgensen, and K.H. Jensen. The effects of zonation of the pen and grouping in intact litters on use of pen, immune competence and health of pigs. Livestock Science, 104(1-2):203–216, 2006.

Two papers in the pipe-line

A little information about two papers in the pipeline.

The first is a paper with Ulrich Halekoh in our group as main author. The paper addresses a recurrent problem in many behavioural studies, namely the analysis of preference experiments. The paper has now been accepted for publication in Biometrical Journal

• U. Halekoh, E. Jørgensen, M. B. Jensen, L.J. Pedersen, M. Studnitz, and S. Højsgaard. Ranking of simultaneously presented choice options in animal preference experiments. Biometrical Journal, accepted, 2006.

The second paper is recently submitted to Preventive Veterinary Medicine and has S.S. Nielsen from the Department of Production Animals and Horses at the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University in Copenhagen as main author. I have mainly collaborated with N. Toft, from the same department. The paper studies the prevalence of paratuberculosis in Danish dairy herds, based on the assumption that the observed distribution of ELISA response from diagnostic test follows a mixture distribution, with the (unknown) disease state of the animals as components of the mixture

• S.S. Nielsen, N. Toft, E. Jørgensen, and B.M. Bibby. Herd-specific sero-prevalences of paratuberculosis in 100 Danish dairy herds using Bayesian mixture models and continuous ELISA response. Preventive Veterinary Medicine, submitted, 2006.

Paper in Livestock Science available on the web

A paper about pen design for pigs are now available on the home page of the journal Livestock Science (the former Livestock Production Science).

B.M. Damgaard, M. Studnitz, J. Nielsen, V.A. Moustsen, E. Jørgensen, and K.H. Jensen. The effects of zonation of the pen and grouping in intact litters on use of pen, immune competence and health of pigs. Livestock Science, In Press, Corrected Proof:–, 2006.

Two papers now formally published

I have just checked the web-page of Applied Animal Behaviour Science, and the august number contains two papers from our project about loose housing of sows. The first one is a preference study concerning the use of pen-walls (accepted in september 2005) and the second one is the study about floor heating and piglet vitality (accepted october 2005).

Birgitte I. Damm, Vivi Moustsen, Erik Jørgensen, Lene J. Pedersen, Teresia Heiskanen, and Bjorn Forkman. Sow preferences for walls to lean against when lying down. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 99(1-2):53–63, August 2006.

Jens Malmkvist, Lene Juul Pedersen, Birthe Marie Damgaard, Karen Thodberg, Erik Jørgensen, and Rodrigo Labouriau. Does floor heating around parturition affect the vitality of piglets born to loose housed sows?. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 99(1-2):88–105, August 2006.

Paper now available on the internet

The paper about the use of heated floor in farrowing pen that I mentioned here is now available on the webpage of Applied Animal Behaviour Science. Just follow the link below:

L. J. Pedersen, Malmkvist, J. and Jørgensen, E. (2006) The use of a heated floor area by sows and piglets in farrowing pens. Applied Animal Behaviour Science (In press)

It is quite an extraordinary short interval from the final revision to the web-publication. However, there are quite a lot of papers waiting in the "In press" queue, but hopefully it will be formally published this year.

Paper submitted for the ISVEE meeting

Together with Niels Peter Baadsgaard from the Danish Meat Association and Vibeke Sørensen from Danish Institute for Food and Veterinary Research I have made a small paper that has been submitted for the International Symposium on Veterinary Epidemiology and Economics (ISVEE) in Cairns, Australia from 6 - 11 August 2006. The title of the paper is Evaluating A Bayesian Graphical Model For Clinical Herd-Testing and will be presented by Niels Peter at the symposium. I am not participating in the symposium. The paper is concerned with how to combine different sources of diagnostic information in order to estimate herd prevalence of different diseases, and is part of the CEPROS project about health decision support. In addition, I am also involved in another presentation at ISVEE. Nils Toft from the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University in Copenhagen is going to present The Effect of Correlation Structures on the Properties of Diagnostic Tests for Paratuberculosis .

Paper accepted

Our paper has been accepted about the use of heated floor in farrowing pen from the project about loose housing of farrowing sows. The first version was returned with a request for minor revisions, which we have made. The formal citation is:

L. J. Pedersen, Malmkvist, J. and Jørgensen, E. (2006) The use of a heated floor area by sows and piglets in farrowing pens. Applied Animal Behaviour Science (accepted)

I had to make some recalculations concerning the diurnal rythm in behaviour when farrowing approaches. It was a bit tricky because we considered time on two different scales, the chronological scale (time of day) and the time related to time until/since birth of first pig.