studied influence of the size of a livestock animal health - Inconsistent results emphasize issues statements standard
The stocks in livestock grow continuously. Many environmental and animal welfare organizations believe that animals are kept less humanely in large companies than in small. Much of the agricultural associations, veterinarians and agronomists holds against that less stock size, but rather accounting procedures and management are critical to the welfare of animals. With her master's thesis on "Influence of animal stocks in pig farms on animal behavior and animal health" has Aileen Ernst, student of agronomy, adopted this public debate.
Does the size of a livestock impact on animal welfare? - The key question of the study, which has followed the student. But she has analyzed national and international empirical studies on animal health and behavior with regard to the influence of stocks. While so far available for the animal behavior hardly Untersuchun¬gen, Aileen Ernst found for Animal Health robust results in the literature.
When discussing the abandonment of piglet castration, the boar and the Eberimpfung, the consumer is often speculated on the Eberimpfung with Improvac about possible reactions. Here then formulations fall as "hormone-like effect" and "engages in sex-hormone balance a" (11).
It must first be noted that the castration itself is probably the ultimate engagement in the hormonal balance.
Veterinarians at the University of Leipzig have developed a method by which the sex of chickens can be determined before birth. "This future must male in breeding chickens as hens chicks no longer be killed immediately after hatching from the egg, as far unfortunately still the rule," says Almuth Einspanier, professor at the Veterinary Physiological Chemistry Institute of the University of Leipzig ,
So far in laying hens male offspring are sorted out immediately after hatching and then killed. They are usually gassed with carbon dioxide. In this way, losing in Germany alone each year about 40 50 to millions of male chicks, which are referred to as day-old chicks, their lives. The male offspring of laying hens, which can lay eggs on grounds of sex, found in chicken farming no use, since it is also not suitable for broiler production. Anne Weissmann, veterinarian at Veterinary Physiological Chemistry Institute of the University of Leipzig, developed in her PhD an investigation method by which the sex of future chickens can be determined with certainty in the egg before the tenth day of incubation. The time of ten days is important because after the pain of the embryos out forms in the egg. Total eggs are incubated 21 days.
The special characteristic of this type of disease is that the transmission of the agent is based on an infectious protein substance and involved neither bacteria nor viruses. This Einweißstoff is known as prion protein. Actually, it is a harmless protein in the human body. It is dangerous to store individual molecules of the prion protein into oligomers together while changing their three-dimensional structure. This happens not only in the course of prion diseases, but also due to aging or specific point mutations. These oligomeric structures are also carriers of infectivity: You can be transmitted between individuals and then characterize the new host their structure even molecules of the prion protein, which initially did not exist as oligomers.
Dr. Kai Schlepckow in the working group of Prof. Harald Schwalbe at the Goethe University succeeded for the first time in gaining detailed insights into the formation mechanism of oligomers of the prion protein. “For every single amino acid, we were able to trace at what point in time it intervened in the aggregation process. This process is much more complex than previously thought, ”reports Prof. Schwalbe. This information is of vital importance because without it it will not be possible to develop therapeutics that prevent the formation of infectious particles.
In Denmark and France the issue of castration of piglets with consumers and trade is not in focus. About 90 percent of farmers castrate their piglets with painkillers. Germany still wash around the correct method for without anesthesia castration and provides the boar out as one of many possibilities. The Dutch have already established and fatten their pigs already half as boars.
For Maarten Rooijakkers the Dutch Farmers Union LTO there was no question going into the boar. He fattens around 7.000 boar in Aarle Rixtel just outside Eindhoven. "The consumer is the golden standard," explains Rooijakkers. And if consumers want to boar meat, then get it. However, if you just replace his porkers only by Eber, will not be successful. Farmers have to adapt to demanding animals. You need about 20 percent more space, without the barn to be rebuilt. Ten to 15 piglets per pen can be stabled. A group mast with 50 animals is still considered unproblematic. The courts must be clean because skatole can pass as one of the substances responsible for boar taint, through the skin and lungs in the animal. Permanent access to the feed keeps the boar on the employment with other boars. The boar is "louder" than normal mast. Nevertheless, the farmer needs to recognize what is still normal or in which animals are piling wrangles. Early screening of troublemakers ensures the progress of the boar. "Who has the touch," said Rooijakkers, "has neither animal nor losses cannibalism on his premises."
Mycotoxins in animal feed are the ones making excitement in the food industry. but extreme toxic mycotoxins in feed grain it would not give. Researchers at the Lower Austrian company BIOMIN and the Austrian Centre of Industrial Biotechnology (acib) have developed a method, large scale production of enzymes, which can degrade fungal toxins enzymatically. Thus, the feed is harmless - and our food as well.
The natural, common fungal toxins in cereals such as maize, rye, wheat or barley damage not only chickens, cattle and pigs that eat contaminated cereal feed. Certain types of these poisons - around 300 are currently known - can even reach consumers through milk, meat or eggs. Just think of ergot, which led to deaths well into the 20th century. So it's no wonder that the Food & Agriculture Organization FAO classifies mycotoxin contamination as the main threat to humans and animals. She estimates that around a quarter of the world's food production contains mycotoxins. However, this threat doesn't have to be.
What few consumers know: Male piglets are castrated shortly after birth because castrati are more sociable and better to keep than males. In addition, one needs for their mast less food, they put on more fat, and their meat is tender. Most important, however, that meat can have an intense scent of boars, not good. From the sex hormones formed in sexually mature animals caused substances that smell of urine. Also, bad housing conditions and stress can lead to odor abnormalities in intact males. That's why this country no boars were fattened, but the piglets castrated equal. However, with this conventional practice for centuries, according to which the EU will soon end. Background: The castration is usually carried out without anesthesia, which is of concern for animal welfare reasons.
What is easy to understand for any animal lover, still poses problems. Because what should happen instead of the usual procedure? The really knows nobody - what up to 30 million male pigs slaughtered each year in Germany, is already worrying.
Scientists from the Dutch research center Sterksel has been unable to prevent the species- and gender-typical behavior of boars. So both green light and a light program had no effect on the Aufspringhäufigkeit the boar. However, to reduce the otherwise more aggressive behavior of the boar minimally successful. The group size 12 24 take animal per bay with 1m² space had not been successful. Likewise, structural changes in the Bay division. (1)
In fact, there are still significant animal welfare problems by the normal Eberverhalten: ranking fights, ride up included pelvic and bone fractures, bruises, bite and kick injuries, requiring occasional euthanasia of affected individual animals. In particular, contact with the mast end propagated on aggression after removing battles heavier pigs through the formation of the ranking.
presented the first results of a research project BMELV on the joint symposium "All (s) Wild?" by BMELV and BfR
If deer or other hoofed killed with lead ammunition, then that meat contains more lead than venison, which was obtained with lead-free ammunition. The higher levels of lead are demonstrated not only in the vicinity of the firing channel in the chest, but also in more distant meat pieces such as the back or leg. These are the first results of the analysis of numerous samples from different regions of Germany, the co-ordinated in the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) Project "Food Safety of hunting reclaimed game" of the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection (BMELV) were examined. "These first collected using scientific methods data that lead-containing ammunition primarily represents the entry source of lead in wild game, while the entry on the Äsung plays a lesser role. The results confirm our recommendation, in households with high Wild consumption, including usually hunting families, to protect children and women of childbearing age to consume only game that has been shot with lead-free ammunition, "explained Professor Dr. Dr. Andreas Hensel, President of BfR the 300 participants of the symposium "All (s) Wild? - State of scientific knowledge on the behavior of lead-free ammunition for hunting and for entry of the ammunition components lead, copper and zinc in hunting wild game won ". Venison is a naturally derived, high-quality food. If, as in the general population in Germany usual, only one or two wild-meals consumed per year, there is by the ingestion of lead from recovered with lead ammunition venison no increased health risk, Hensel added. At the symposium on 18. and 19. March 2013 discussed the participants of the entry of lead in venison through leaded hunting ammunition and results of investigations on the killing effect of lead-free hunting bullets and their repulsion performance as compared to conventional lead ammunition and ecotoxicological issues.
In the research project "Food Safety of hunting recovered venison" samples have been drawn from over 1000 pieces of deer and wild boar from different regions of Germany for the first evaluation. The group comprises the states of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Bavaria, Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia, Hamburg, Bremen and the German Hunting Association, the Bavarian Hunting Association, the Association of German Professional Hunters and the economy were represented by the European poultry, eggs , Wild Wholesale and import Association, and the Association of manufacturers of hunting, sports arms and ammunition. Some of the animals in each region was killed with conventional lead-containing bullets, one other part with lead-free ammunition. Each hunted animal samples from the marketable carcase near the firing channel, from the back and from the leg were removed. The recovered material was analyzed for lead, copper, and zinc contents. The now carried out the first evaluation of over 1000 records shows that game if it was obtained with lead bullets, significantly higher levels of lead than the analog samples from animals that were killed unleaded. The data show that the lead levels decrease with increasing distance from the firing channel. However, a difference in the total exposure to lead between leaded and unleaded recovered venison is also present in far removed from the bullet channel samples.
In the absence of reliable technical methods slaughter companies put on the slaughter line employee to discover the urinous-fecal sexual odor from uncastrated boars. So complaints of meat processors, retailers and consumers should be reduced to a minimum. Scientists at the Danish Meat Research Institute in Roskilde do now in the current issue of the scientific journal "meat industry" aware of some pitfalls that can affect the reliability of test results.
The authors point out, first, that a test panel within the sensor usually consists of eight people. At slaughterhouses are usually only two people in action (1).
When Ökohaltung of fattening consumer assumes that the animals are particularly well and lead this to slaughter a carefree and "healthy" life. Scientists have looked more closely.
In fact, the intensive turkey feed is loaded in many stocks with significant problems of animal health. The result of justified criticism from the viewpoint of animal welfare. In a study by the Institute of Food Hygiene of the University of Leipzig, it was examined how the eco-turkey farming in comparison with the conventional can contribute to solving this problem. For this purpose, the results of post-mortem inspection of organically and conventionally slaughtered turkeys in the period from January 2004 2009 were evaluated through June in an EU-approved slaughterhouse. During this time 307.100 turkeys were taken and analyzed from an ecological attitude and 255.433 turkeys from conventional attitude for slaughter.
