Husbandry

Dermatitis in humans can make skin itch and burn. When it hits chickens, it drastically reduces farmers’ profits and cuts the supply of an Asian delicacy – chicken feet. It also leads to an estimated loss of about $100 million for the Georgia poultry industry each year.

In the last decade or so, chicken paws have become an important export product for poultry companies in the U.S. Chicken feet, or paws, are the third most demanded part of the chicken after the breast and wings. Georgia produces roughly 20 percent of the paws exported from the U.S. each year, selling an average of about 130 million pounds of paws each year. But if the paws have dermatitis, they can’t be sold.

If it weren’t for dermatitis, Georgia producers could be selling about 320 million pounds of paws.

Footpad dermatitis, a burn-like condition on chicken feet, is caused by excess moisture in chicken litter, or the wood shavings chickens walk on in their pens. Too much moisture in the litter allows for greater bacterial growth. Bacteria breaks down fecal matter and releases ammonia as a byproduct, and the chemical reaction of the ammonia causes burns on the chickens’ feet.

To test litter moisture, poultry farmers scoop up a fistful of chicken litter and squeeze it. Researchers at the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences are testing more accurate methods of moisture monitoring and researching moisture prevention methods.

Georgia is the U.S. leader in poultry production, with the poultry and egg industry generating $18.4 billion for the state’s economy in 2006.

Source: University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences

Dairy is “greening” with improved efficiency in the production of milk and reductions in the industry’s carbon footprint, according to University of Illinois Extension dairy specialist Mike Hutjens.

“Using 1944 as the base year of comparison–and also the year of the largest number of dairy cows in the United States, the number of dairy cows has dropped from 25.6 million to 9.2 million cows while milk production has increased from 117 billion pounds to 186 billion pounds.

“Using pounds of carbon dioxide per gallon of milk as the carbon footprint value, the dairy industry’s footprint has dropped from 31 pounds in 1944 to 12 pounds per gallon in 2007.”

The dairy industry’s environmental impact is in question because of dairy cattle’s methane production, contributing to global warming.

“Dairy cows produce methane when digesting feed in the rumen. Methane has 25 times the impact of carbon dioxide. While a wide range of claims have been made, 6 percent of the total carbon footprint is from agriculture with dairy responsible for 11 percent of the total 6 percent, or 0.7 percent of the total.”

Earlier this year, the National Academy of Science published a paper that addressed the improvement of milk production efficiency and the impact of organic dairy production compared to conventional production.

“The paper showed that if one million of the total nine million U.S. dairy cows produced 10 pounds more milk per day due to the adoption of technology, a number of positive impacts could be expected.

“It would reduce by 157,000 the number of cows needed to produce the same level of milk. It would reduce by 219,000 hectares the land needed for feed production. It would reduce the emission of methane by 41 million kilograms annually. And it would reduce manure excretion by 2.8 million tons each year.”

Switching to organic milk production would require 25 percent more cows than now used, 30 percent more land for feed production, 39 percent more nitrogen excretion, and a 13 percent increase in global warming potential.

“For consumers, this means a careful analysis is required to determine if carbon footprint and global warming applications are more important than denying technology applications, especially when that technology does not change nutrient content of food or impact animal health,” he said.

“For dairy managers, increasing milk production efficiency will reduce carbon footprint, improve nitrogen efficiency, and reduce global warming. Dairy managers who do this are increasingly more ‘green.’”

The bottom line is that when it comes to the environment, using fewer resources to produce more food will improve the carbon footprint.

Source: University of Illinois College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences

Composting beef cattle manure, even with minimal management, can significantly reduce the concentrations of antibiotics in the manure, according to an Agricultural Research Service (ARS) pilot study.

The scientists found that composting manure from beef cattle could reduce concentrations of antibiotics by more than 99 percent. Adding straw to manure piles tends to result in higher temperatures that speed up the process of degrading antibiotics as well as pathogens.

The use of antibiotics as therapeutic agents is widespread in the animal production industry. Scientific studies have shown that, depending on the antibiotic and type of animal, between 20 to 75 percent of antibiotics administered to animals is excreted via urine and feces. So it’s important that these residues are broken down during composting to prevent their release into the environment.

The ARS scientists evaluated the efficacy of a series of minimal-management options for on-farm manure composting to reduce concentrations of the antibiotics oxytetracycline and chlorotetracycline. The treatments were designed to span a range of management options from simply piling up the manure to mixing it with an equal volume of straw (to increase aeration within the compost pile) and adding insulating layers of straw.

Results show that manure-only pile temperatures and the concentrations of antibiotics were significantly influenced by treatment over a 28-day period. Concentrations of oxytetracycline and chlorotetracycline incubated at ambient temperature decreased 75 percent and 90 percent, respectively.

Oxytetracycline and chlorotetracycline concentrations in samples incubated for 28 days within an amended manure pile decreased 91 percent and 99 percent, respectively. Although manure piles amended with straw attained higher temperatures and more rapid decreases in antibiotic concentrations, there is currently no compelling justification for producers to expend additional resources needed to achieve the more rapid rates of antibiotic removal. Pathogen reduction in manure piles requires careful and consistent management to ensure all parts of the pile are treated.

Source: Agricultural Research Service

A flock of sheep at pasture – a seemingly idyllic scene. But appearances can be deceptive: If the animals are suffering from scrapie, entire flocks may perish.

Scrapie is an infectious disease in which prions destroy the animal’s brain, rather like BSE (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy or mad cow disease). The brain becomes porous, the sheep lose their orientation, they suffer from strong itching sensations and scrape off their fleece. Eventually, the infected animals die.

Researchers have recently discovered that prions, the pathogens that cause scrapie in sheep, can survive in the ground for several years and animals can become infected via contaminated pastures.

It is difficult to contain the disease – all too often, scrapie will break out again on the same farm several months or years after it has apparently been eradicated.

• Are the prions transmitted not only by direct contact, but also by the environment – perhaps by the pastures?
• How long do prions that get into the pasture via the saliva and excrements of the sick animals, persist in the ground?

Scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology in Schmallenberg, Germany, investigated these questions on behalf of the German Ministry for Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety.

“We mixed soil samples with scrapie pathogens to find out how long the pathogens would survive,” says Dr. Björn Seidel, who headed the investigations. “Even after 29 months, in other words more than two years, we were still able to detect prions in the soil.

“The soil actually seems to increase the infectiousness of the pathogens. The incubation period – the time it takes for the disease to break out – is exceedingly short even after the prions have persisted in the soil for 29 months. All of the animals that were given contaminated soil became sick within a very short time. These results indicate that fresh incidences of scrapie among sheep are due to contaminated pastures.”

The results of the study reveal that sheep may even become infected from the surface water, though the risk of infection is much lower in this case. There is no danger to humans, however: scrapie pathogens seem unable to affect them.

Another cause for concern is chronic wasting disease (CWD). Like BSE and scrapie, this is caused by prions, but it mainly affects deer. The numbers of infected animals in North America are rising steeply.

Source: Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology

Sneaking up behind a 1,000 pound Thoroughbred with a case of the hiccupsand yelling “Boo!,” is not advisable for several reasons.  For one, you might just get a surprise of your own.

The medical term for the noise we commonly refer to as hiccups is synchronous diaphragmatic flutter or singultus.  In horses, it has been called “thumps” since 1831 when a veterinarian first reported a thumping noise coming from the abdomen of a horse that just ran 13 miles.

“Thumps in and of itself is not a problem,” says Dr. Cristobal Navas de Solís, an equine internal medicine resident at the University of Illinois Veterinary Teaching Hospital.  “But if a horse does have thumps, there is usually an underlying cause that needs to be treated.”

Many horses with the anomaly are endurance athletes that have an electrolyte imbalance and significant fluid loss after an exhaustive workout.  For example, thumps is common in Arabian horses competing in long distance races that last 25, 50, or even 100 miles.

“Typically these patients are dehydrated and have low blood calcium levels, but once you treat the underlying problem the thumps usually disappear on their own.”

Thumps in horses, and hiccups in humans, are slightly different variations upon the same theme.  For one, hiccups in humans are not commonly associated with electrolyte imbalances.

Secondly, the location from which we hear the characteristic noise coming also differs in horse and man.  The “hic” we hear in humans is caused by the closure of the vocal chords after the diaphragm spasmodically contracts, quickly inflating the lungs.  In horses, however, veterinarians and owners that have witnessed the ailment can attest that the abnormal noise comes from the animal’s side.

Low blood calcium levels are the classic abnormality associated with thumps.  This may make the phrenic nerve, which runs along both sides of the heart and controls diaphragm movements, more easily excitable.  But it is also a good idea to check all electrolyte levels, especially magnesium, potassium, sodium and chlorine.

In a typical scenario with a dehydrated horse and abnormal electrolyte levels, the phrenic nerve might begin to fire at the rate of which the atria of the heart contract.  In short, the nerve is inappropriately obeying firing instructions from the heart, instead of the brain, to control diaphragm movements.

“Usually we see the horse’s abdomen contract 40-50 times per minute. Typically, each contraction occurs at the same time the heart beats, but in rare cases that does not always happen, nor do the thumps have to occur on both sides of the horse.”

Though hiccups in humans are quite harmless, thumps in horses are usually linked to an abnormality that warrants attention.  If you hear the telltale sounds — and don’t suspect your horse has merely gotten into the Kentucky bourbon — contact your veterinarian as soon as possible.

Source: Dr. Cristobal Navas de Solis
University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine

Summer is a time of war against the tiny, wingless, blood-eating fleas that make our pets miserable during hot, humid days.

While extremely annoying to both pets and humans, the flea is a fascinating insect, according to University of Illinois veterinary parasitologist Dr. Allan Paul. Its body is flattened slightly to allow it to move between the coarse fur of a cat or dog with ease, and its long, specially adapted legs allow it to jump up to 200 times its own body length.

Adult fleas will spend the majority of their lives on a host animal if they are able to find one. Once on the host, an adult female flea can lay up to 50 eggs per day, or about 2,000 eggs in a lifetime. These eggs will then fall off the animal and hatch into larvae within a few days.

The larvae will then develop in the environment, thriving in warm, moist, dark places like under furniture, decks, and yard waste. Within 7 to 10 days the flea larvae will form a cocoon, entering the pupa state. With the proper conditions, the pupa will develop into adults within 1 to 2 weeks.

The pupa is a resilient life stage for the flea. If environmental conditions are not right, the pupa may not emerge from its cocoon for months.

No life stage of the flea can survive freezing, which is why flea populations and infestation problems decline significantly after the first frost of the year. The pupa stage, however, can survive winter in indoor environments and in areas where freezing and frost does not occur, making pets susceptible to fleas year round.

“Unfortunately, the hot and humid summer days lend the ideal conditions for flea development and during the summer the flea life cycle will take around 28 days to complete,” explains Dr. Paul “Thankfully, preventing and controlling fleas is much easier today than it was a decade ago as safer, more effective, and easier to use products have become readily available to the public”

According to Dr. Paul, topical and oral flea preventatives are usually enough to stop any flea infestation in its tracks. However, in cases of heavier infestations your veterinarian may recommend increasing the frequency at which the preventative is applied or spot treating the areas in your home or yard where fleas thrive.

While the majority of the products on the market will work to some degree, not all flea preventions are created equal, and with even the best flea preventative on the market, fleas may still appear.

No product on the market is able to kill fleas instantly. Give your pet’s medication some time to work; the fleas that you might see have likely not bitten your pet yet and will die before laying any eggs.

“The best way to look for fleas is to check your pet for flea dirt, a pepper flake-like substance that is actually flea feces,” says Dr. Paul. “The most likely place to find flea dirt is at the base of the tail or any other area where the animal usually cannot reach to groom.”

If you are administering a preventative medication after an infestation has already occurred, it is important to remember that preventative medications work best if given before fleas have a chance to jump onto your pet. Once the medication has time to circulate through your pet’s system you should see a huge difference in the flea population.

Dr. Paul recommends thoroughly washing your pet’s bedding and vacuuming your house, including under and on the furniture and any other area in which your pet spends a lot of time. This will remove a large portion of the eggs, larva, and pupa that reside in these areas. Bathing your pet will help to remove the adult fleas and give your pet some relief until the flea medication has a chance to take effect.

Source: Sarah Dowling
Veterinary Extension/Office of Public Engagement
University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine

from The Book of Draft Horses
The Gentle Giants That Built the World
by Donna Campbell Smith

Cracked and chipped hooves are a common problem if the draft horse’s environment is too dry. If the frog is dry, it loses its elasticity and ability to aborb shock when the hoof hits the ground. This can lead to lameness. An old time remedy, axle grease or burnt cyclinder oil, applied to the hoof, will actually seal out moisture and cause the hoof to be even drier. A better approach is to try to wet the ground around the water trough by letting water run over when filling it. The hoof will absorb some of that moisture while the horse stands to drink. Packing the hoof with wet clay will keep the bottom of the hoof moist. Moisturing hoof ointments are available. Do not cover the whole hoof, but apply only to the live tissue at the cornet band.

U.S. pork producers are facing economic hardships so serious that many producers will leave the business. In an attempt to offer assistance, the Illinois Pork Producers Association (IPPA) and University of Illinois Extension have developed a program titled Managing Pig Production in Tough Times.

The online program covers decision areas for producers: Price Risk, Reproduction, Health/Employees, Management, Engineering, Nutrition, Feeding Programs.

Additionally, a special call-in program has been scheduled to deal with questions. The program will be from 7 to 8 p.m. on August 19. Those with questions may dial-in at 1-800-347-8268. The meeting’s identification number is 6455 and the password is 0819.

“We realize that these have been and continue to be very rough times for pork producers dealing with escalating input costs,” said Phil Borgic, a pork producer from Nokomis and current IPPA president.

“IPPA continues to look for ways to provide information that helps pork producers through these difficult financial times. This program has assembled a diverse group of experts who have focused in on some specific items that pork producers can do on their operations. These on-line seminars will allow producers to access the information when it works best for them.”

The same Global Positioning System (GPS) technology used to track vehicles is now being used to track cows.

Agricultural Research Service (ARS) animal scientist Dean M. Anderson has taken tracking several steps further with a Walkman-like headset that enables him to “whisper” wireless commands to cows to control their movements across a landscape —- and even remotely gather them into a corral.

Anderson and his colleagues at the ARS Jornada Experimental Range in Las Cruces, N.M. envision a time when these technologies will be used for a range of applications, from intensive animal operations to monitoring and controlling the movements of some wildlife species and even household pets.

Anderson previously patented technology for virtual fencing termed Directional Virtual Fencing (DVF) that centered around giving cows “left” and “right” sensory signals to cause them to move away from an irritating suite of cues.

Researchers at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory have developed and prototyped a miniaturized electronics package for DVF devices that is solar- powered and is packaged as a headset device. The circuit board contains a processor, data storage, WiFi for remote communication, audio and electrical stimulation electronics, a GPS receiver, and sensors such as magnetometers and accelerometers that record the body orientation and configuration of the animal.

The commands vary from familiar “gathering songs” sung by cowboys during manual round-ups, to irritating sounds such as sirens and even mild electric stimulation if necessary to get cows to move or avoid penetrating forbidden boundaries.

Source: Agricultural Research Service