LEARN
NEWSLETTER • No 9 • MARCH 2014
Sustainable agriculture
– production of food for
today and tomorrow
Humanity is dependent on a safe and secure
supply of food. Protein is an important and
necessary part of our diet. The main part of
the protein that we eat comes from milk,
eggs, poultry, fish and meat. About 50 %
ze several months per year even if they
are housed in systems with robot milking.
Most of this is regulated in Swedish law
and regulations which means that according to EU legislation (CAP programme)
of the meat that we eat today in Sweden
comes from Swedish farms but this figure
used to be about 75 % 10 years ago.
Swedish agriculture has developed
production systems that provide our livestock with good living conditions including bedding (e.g. straw, sawdust/wood
chips), ample space, high quality feed and
water and the possibility to behave naturally. We do not allow trimming of pig’s
tails or poultry’s beaks. These are good indicators of animal welfare. It is not either
possible to fixate sows in connection with
farrowing. Our dairy cows are able to gra-
it is not possible to compensate farmers
for the extra costs to upkeep these high
standards.
This gives us products of a high quality and the occurrence of diseases such as
Salmonella and Campylobacter are very
rare and therefore the use of antibiotics
is extremely low compared to most other
countries. The use of growth regulators in
livestock production is prohibited, which
it is not the case for several of the countries that we import meat from that are located outside the EU. This means that when
eating Swedish meat, the risk of antibio-
C H R I ST I N E JA KO B S SO N
S EN I O R P ROJ ECT M A N AG ER
Contents
1 Sustainable agriculture – production of food for
today and tomorrow
2 Does littersize in the sow ”always” increase
between 1st and 2nd parity?
2 Human pathogens in Swedish wild boars
3 FRESH – Fish REaring and Stress Hazards
4 Predicting Methane production in Dairy Cows
P H OTO: J EN N Y SV EN N ÅS G I L LN ER , S LU
A sign at a grocery store in London which says ”John Mearns has been farming pigs in Oxfordshire for 25 years.
His animals can root freely and cool in the wallows, behaving naturally”. Photo: Christine Jakobsson, SLU.
tics resistance and hormonal effects from
growth regulators is almost non-existent.
At the same time, all these measures have
a price and it is more expensive to produce
these high quality products. Here the old
time truth still applies “You get what you
pay for”. But we seem to have a problem
in Sweden, as far from all consumers seem
to understand the value and high quality of locally produced Swedish products.
Even though they may state that they do
in questionnaires but will all the same buy
the cheapest products at the store.
When travelling a fortnight ago in London I could not help but notice in one of
the large food-chains behind the cashier’s
desk there was an enormous sign, about
10 meters long, putting forward the positive aspects of British pork. Beside it were
signs also about dairy and grain products
respectively. I have
not yet seen anything
like this in Sweden
but would really like
to in the future!
LEARN Newsletter #9
Does littersize in the sow
”always” increase between
1st and 2nd parity?
Pi Swedish Farmer’s Foundation for
With financial support from the
PIG
Agricultural Research, a database
with information from Swedish commercial piglet producing herds was built (The
Swedish sow data base). Herds using the
herd monitoring software PigWin were
asked to share the information stored in
their herd PC. This information comprises information, on sow level, about all
events and recordings made: mating date,
farrowing date, weaning date, litter size at
farrowing as well as at weaning, etc.
The intention with this database was to
be a resource for education, research and
advice. The database was created at SLU,
but is now run by ‘Svenska Pig’ [www.
svenskapig.se], being an advisory platform
between university and industry.
Using this database, we can ‘easily’ find
information how ‘this or that’ is today in
Swedish piglet production. Below, I will
present some findings on parity influence
on litter size, based on information from
this database.
We all know from textbooks that the
2nd litter of a sow is larger that her first lit-
ter. On average, at least! Fig. 1 shows how
litter size in 18 Swedish piglet producing
herds of good size varies over parities. Data
include farrowings 2009 to 2012. All sows
in these herds were Landrace-Yorkshire
crosses. Both number of total born piglets,
as well number of liveborn piglets increase
up to 4th parity, and thereafter we see a decrease. However, about 15–20
% of the sows are culled after
each parity, and thus it is not
the same number of sows behind each value.
A question that arose in my
head, was to check if there
is a variation between herds,
for the within-sow difference between litter size in parity 1 and 2. In total, data on
6 650 sows, with information
on both her 1st and 2nd litter
was included in these analyses. For each of these sows the
difference between number
of liveborn piglets in parity 2
minus parity 1 was calculated.
Mean values for each of the 18
herds are presented in Fig. 2.
We see a wide variation between herds for this parameter,
a range from –0.5 to +1.8, with
a median value of +0.5 piglets.
Why this large variation?
The genetic material in these herds is
almost the same. The sows are crosses
between Norwegian Landrace and Swedish Yorkshire, and the terminal sires are
Hampshire or Duroc. The conclusion is
thus that this above mentioned difference between herds is caused by differences in management and feeding. This issue
could be an interesting topic for a PhDstudent to go deep into. Which factors
cause this variation, how is lifetime production of the sows influenced by these
factors? However, for this we need to find
economic funds, and that is not that easy
to find with the decreasing volumes in the
Swedish pig sector.
N I L S LU N D EH E I M , D EPA R T M EN T O F A N I M A L B R EED I N G
A N D G EN E T I C S , S LU.
Photo taken at night with a bait remote camera.
Human
pathogens in
Swedish wild
boars
V
The Swedish wild boar population
has grown fast during the last deVETERINARY
cade and today the number of wild
boar shot is equal to the number of moose
shot every year. This is a great resource
that has the potential to be used even more!
The wild boars are omnivores and very
social, gathering at artificial feeding places
commonly used to facilitate hunting and
to avoid damage on crops and in gardens.
These feeding places may be a risk in the
transfer of disease agents between animals.
However, little is known about this situation in Sweden.
Legislation today mandates that all wild
boars that are to be sold on the market must
pass through a wild game handling plant.
At the plant, the carcass and the offal are
inspected by a veterinarian and samples are
taken to examine the presence of Trichinella
larvae. Hunters may also send in samples
from wild boar meat, aimed for their own
consumption, for Trichinella -analysis. However, pathogens that will not give any
gross lesions on the wild boar carcasses or
the offal will not be detected.
Our research is performed as a collaboration project between SLU, SVA and
SLV and focuses on the presence of four
common foodborne pathogens Yersina (Y.)
enterocolitica, Y. pseudotuberculosis, Salmonella
and EHEC (Escherichia coli O157:H7) and
their presence in Swedish wild boars. In
humans, these pathogens may induce vomiting, diarrhea and abdominal pain although in some cases, severe secondary disease such as reactive arthritis, sepsis and
kidney failure can also develop.
CONTINUES ON THE NE X T PAGE >>>
LEARN Newsletter #9
FRESH – Fish REaring
and Stress Hazards
A
Our first study included 88 free living
wild boars of mixed age and gender, mainly from the central parts of Sweden. Samples from the tonsils, faeces and abdominal
lymph nodes were collected. In the sampled animals Yersinia enterocolitica and Y. pseudotuberculosis were most common with 20
% prevalence, respectively, and Salmonella
spp. was found in >10 % of the animals.
Over 40 % of the examined wild boars carried one, two or all three of these pathogens. No EHEC was demonstrated. The
bacteria were most commonly detected in
the tonsils but were also present in the faeces and the abdominal lymph nodes.
It is important to keep track of these
pathogens in the wild boar population
and measures should be in place to prevent their spread and growth after the wild
boars have been shot. Special care should
be taken when removing the head, tongue
and tonsils and if the carcass has been contaminated with intestinal content, special
hygiene measures should be adopted. It is
also important to have knowledge about
the characteristics of these bacteria in case
of infection in humans.
With a zero tolerance for the presence of Salmonella spp. in Swedish food-producing animals it is of great concern that
Salmonella spp. is present in the wild boar
population. The routes of transmission to
domestic animals are many, such as direct
contact between wild boars and domestic
outdoor raised pig and transmission through rodents, small birds and feed from
fields where wild boars have been rooting.
Ongoing research will focus on the
molecular epidemiology of these bacteria
and also on how management, feeding and
handling at slaughter influences their presence in the wild boar population and in
the meat. The presence of these pathogens
in hunting dogs will also be examined to
try to evaluate their presumptive role in
transmission.
>>>
T E X T A N D P H OTO: A XE L SA N N Ö. D EPA R T M EN T O F
C L I N I CA L SC I EN C ES , S LU.
FRESH is a recently launched
FORMAS-funded research colAQUA
CULTURE laboration between the Swedish
University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU)
and the University of Gothenburg (GU)
aiming to increase knowledge about welfare of fish in modern aquaculture systems.
Animal welfare is a complex issue
that embraces a combination of disciplines ranging from veterinary medicine
and nutrition to physiological and behavioural needs and responses. The goal of
FRESH is to link all of the disciplines to
understand the different needs and biological risks of the animal by using physiological methods and modern biotelemetry
(Fig. 1) to better understand the fish's reaction in common fish farming situations.
Figure 1. Biotelemetry system for fish implanted in the
peritoneal cavity of a salmonid fish. The system has
two so-called ”Doppler blood-flow probes” which are
placed around the aorta (I) and the large blood vessel
to the gastrointestinal tract (II). (Picture: Albin Gräns)
A big challenge when studying the welfare of fish is that fish do not have, at least
not for us humans, a clearly perceivable
body language that can provide guidance on the experiences of the fish. For example, most fish do not have the ability to
create sounds, which otherwise is a common way for animals to signal fear and discomfort. The fish may instead display escape behaviour, or "freezing", which means that it remains motionless and also reduces the number of heartbeats and the
ventilation rate. These signals may be difficult for us to perceive under common
fish culture conditions; such as when netting, sorting, transporting and vaccinating
fish. In general, this lack of clearly distinguish-able signals from fish makes it difficult for policy makers when formulating
regulations and recommendations on animal welfare in fish farming.
To understand what the fish really perceive as stressful, we must first study their
physiological stress responses in order to
understand what it perceives as stressful
and how it reacts in various situations.
This can be done in controlled laboratory experiments attempting to mimic e.g.
handling situations, various conditions in
the farming environment or to test new
feeds. However, it is often difficult to completely emulate a specific farming situation where a multitude of interacting factors are present, and so a better approach
may be to measure how fish reacts to various stressors on site at the aquaculture
facility. Recently developed biotelemetry
equipment (see Figure 1) allows us to do
this by using so called "focal fish" that are
instrumented with physiological biotelemetric devices. This means that a number of fish in a culture tank or holding
pen are instrumented in the body cavity
with small implants capable of monitoring
blood flow, heart rate and blood pressure
and are then released back into the culture.
Hours, days or even weeks later the fish is
caught and the researcher can download
information on how various situations in
the culture have affected their physiology.
In this way we can also see if the specific situations that we recreate in the laboratory,
with the possibility of even more detailed
measurements of physiological responses,
are representative of the real situation occurring in aquaculture rearing systems.
Our team is involved in developing this
new technology together with a bioengineer from USA. We also have a system to
measure heart and ventilation rates noninvasively on fish in the laboratory precluding surgical procedures. The principle
is based on the fact that actively working
muscles emit weak electrical potentials.
Thus, by placing electrodes in the water
that surrounds the fish, we can record the
weak signals from the heart and ventilatory muscles and measure changes in these
stress-sensitive physiological systems without even touching the fish.
T H E P ROJ ECT G ROU P C O N S I STS O F: BO A LG ERS (C O O R D I N ATO R , S LU), M I C H A E L A XE L S SO N (G U), LOT TA B ERG
(S LU), A L B I N G R Ä N S (G U), A N D ERS K I ES S L I N G (S LU),
TO R B JÖ R N LU N D H (S LU), ER I K SA N D B LO M (G U), K R I ST I N A
SU N D E L L (G U) OC H H EN R I K SU N D H (G U).
Follow the project on: http://www.slu.se/en/departments/animal-environment-health/research/researchproject/animal-welfare-in-modern-production-systemsfor-fish/
LEARN
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science
Christine Jakobsson
P.O. Box 7084, 750 07 Uppsala, Sweden
www.slu.se/learn
Contact persons
Christine Jakobsson
Senior Project Manager
Phone: 018-67 16 82, 0733-91 00 84
E-mail: christine.jakobsson@slu.se
Dairy Cow Science
Assoc. professor Margareta Emanuelson
Phone: +46 18-67 16 49, +46 70-335 74 70
E-mail: margareta.emanuelson@slu.se
In vitro gas production system. Photo: Mohammad Ramin.
Pig Science
Professor Nils Lundeheim
Phone: +46 18-67 45 42
E-mail: nils.lundeheim@slu.se
Predicting Methane
production in Dairy Cows
Poultry Science
Professor Ragnar Tauson
Phone: +46 18-67 45 18, mobil +46 70-652
71 79
E-mail: ragnar.tauson@slu.se
Methane is a greenhouse gas contributing to global warming.
DAIRY
Agriculture, especially the livestock sector contributes to a large extent to
the greenhouse gas effect in the atmosphere by producing large amounts of methane. Measuring methane production from
dairy cows will then be of great interest.
Measuring methane production from the
cows in farm conditions is very difficult
and costly.
In the thesis a method and equations able
to predict methane production from dairy
cows are described. A method called in vitro gas production was used to predict methane production in dairy cows. In vitro
gas production is a devise that mimics the
stomach of a dairy cow, and feeds that are
given to the animal can also be used in the
system but in a smaller scale. The method
is a reliable tool for predicting methane
production from dairy cows. The second
D
method of predicting methane production
is the use of equations. In this thesis equations were developed based on the results
of already published papers reporting actual (live) measurements of methane production. The developed equations are easy
to use and apply in farm conditions to predict methane production.
The equations can also be used in national inventories predicting methane production in dairy cows. Actually, developed equations have already been introduced and used in a Finnish ration formulation system for dairy cows. In the report
by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) the developed equations in this thesis have also
been mentioned for predicting methane
production in dairy cows.
M O H A M M A D R A M I N . D EPA R T M EN T O F AG R I C U LT U R A L
R ES E A RC H F O R N O R T H ER N SW ED EN , S LU
Beef and Lamb Science
Researcher Katarina Arvidsson
Phone: +46 511 671 44
E-mail: katarina.arvidsson@slu.se
Feed Science Network
Assoc. professor Rolf Spörndly
Phone: +46 18-67 19 92, +46 70 657 21 89
E-mail: rolf.sporndly@slu.se
Veterinary Medicine
Researcher Magdalena Jacobson
Phone: +46 18-67 14 75
E-mail: magdalena.jacobson@slu.se
Aquaculture Science
Research Coordinator Anna Norman Haldén
Phone: +46 702 62 83 50
e-mail: anna.norman.halden@slu.se
Buildings and Technology Science
Assoc. professor Anders Henrik Herlin
Phone: +46 40-41 52 19
E-mail: anders.herlin@slu.se
L AYOU T: M Å R T EN G R A N ER T, S LU