Udder health when drying off and at herd level supported by sensor systems

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Sensor systems currently are used to identify cows with signs of clinical mastitis. However, sensor systems have much more potential to support the farmers’ operational management of udder health.

Cows needing attention at drying off typically have an intramammary infection and need to be identified for appropriate treatment as part of a selective dry cow therapy program. Because there are disadvantages to both false positive and false negative alerts, the sensitivity and specificity of sensor systems should be equally high (over 90%). Alerts should be provided at an appropriate time (a few days before drying off) and detection performance should be reasonable.

Monitoring of udder health at the farm level can be done by combining sensor readings from all cows in the herd. Novel herd-level key performance indicators can be developed to monitor udder health daily. Disturbances at the group or herd level can be detected more quickly by utilizing sensor-based key performance indicators. Sensitivity should be reasonably high and because of the costs for further analysis of false positive outcomes, the specificity should be at least 99.5%. Moreover, sensor-based key performance indicators may be used to evaluate the effectiveness of dry cow and lactational therapy.

How can the management of clinical and subclinical mastitis be supported by sensor systems?

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Current sensor systems aim to detect cows with abnormal milk or mastitis. Although they may be less accurate than visual detection in detecting clinical mastitis, sensor systems have the advantage of multiple measurements per day. Mastitis detection, however, should be approached from a need to intervene (management support) perspective rather than based on clinical mastitis paradigms.

Cows with severe clinical mastitis need to be identified and treated properly as fast as possible. Sensor systems should have a very high sensitivity (at least 95%), combined with a high specificity (at least 99%) within a narrow time window (maximum 12 hours) to ensure that close to all cows with true cases are detected quickly. Since very sick animals may not visit a milking robot, detection algorithms need to take additional data into account, not only milk sensor data.

Cows that do not need immediate attention have a risk of progressing into severe clinical mastitis. However, they should get the chance to cure spontaneously under close monitoring. Intervention is needed for cows at risk of developing chronic mastitis, leading to production losses and increased risk of pathogen transmission. Sensor alerts should have a reasonable sensitivity (at least 80%) and a high specificity (at least 99.5%). The time window may be relatively long (around 7 days). Additional actions may contain further diagnostic testing.

The 7 important and individual steps in the optimal cleaning and disinfection protocol for livestock barns 

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Cleaning and disinfection (C&D) of livestock barns between production cycles is crucial in achieving a good farm biosecurity. Optimal C&D takes 7 individual steps that need to be executed chronologically!

  1. Start with dry cleaning the barn to remove coarse manure, emptying feeders and waterlines, and removing finer dirt . The less organic material remains, the more efficient the C&D will be, saving product, water and time.
  2. In step 2 the barn is soaked first only with water and next with water and detergent for better dissolving of fats and dirt. Foam is to be preferred for its longer contact time, better visibility and effectiveness. Foam the barn from floor to ceiling upwards for longer contact time. Leave enough time for the foam to work on the dirt before the next step of rinsing with a high pressure washer between 50 and 120 bar.
  3. Rinse the barn from ceiling to floor downwards to prevent recontamination of the cleaned upper surfaces.
  4. Next, very important is step 4: drying before disinfection. Make sure to clear feeders and drinking cups from rinsing water and dry the floor. It is crucial to prevent dissolution of the disinfection product to ensure its efficacy!
  5. Disinfection in step 5 can be done in various ways: wet, thermal disinfection, foam, fumigation or combinations. Also all loose material, central corridors, technical and office rooms, clothing and footwear need C&D.
  6. Step 6 is drying of the disinfection solution. Rinse the animal feeders and drinkers to prevent the incoming animals to ingest any disinfection product.
  7. The last step, whilst very important is often overlooked: testing the efficacy of your C&D protocol which should not be limited to visual inspection but ideally involves taking bacteriological swabs to assess the pathogen load in the barn.

On farm hatching of broiler chicks to improve broiler welfare, health and performance and lower the need for antibiotics in broiler production. 

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Conventional broiler chicks that are transported to the broiler farm shortly after birth can suffer from the stress of handling in the hatchery, feed and water deprivation, and during the transport. This stress is detrimental for the birds’ immunological and physiological development resulting in less resilient birds.

On-farm hatching is an innovative concept preventing the burden of this stress because eggs which have been incubated for 18 days are being hatched directly on the broiler farm. The hatched chicks have instant access to water and feed, allowing for better development of their intestines and organs. This concept results in healthier and more robust animals that are more resilient to disease pressure. The concept is available through different suppliers offering specific systems (Nestborn®, One2Born® and X-treck (Vencomatic)), varying in labour requirements, ease of use and investment.

Depending on the farm-specific availability of labour, capital and desired production scheme different solutions can be interesting. On-farm hatching needs to fit in the production schedule since you need extra time to prepare your shed for the next cycle which can create a peak in labour requirements. Additionally, some extra costs for heating the shed three days earlier will be incurred. Still, savings on medicine use are possible as well as improvements to the technical performance of the birds which may help to offset additional costs. Field trials in Flanders on two farms transitioning from conventionally hatched broilers to the NestBorn concept have shown a reduction in their antibiotic usage for the NestBorn chicks compared to conventional broiler chicks. Antibiotic use measured as mg active substance per stocked chicken decreased by 62.76% on average and on 18 out of 27 production cycles no antibiotics were used in the NestBorn system.

Connected audits to protect pig health 

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In France, three connected tools funded by the Ecoantibio Plan have been designed by IFIP to carry out self-diagnostics on pig health management : PorcProtect, Batisanté and Porcisanté. These three tools, available on smartphones or PCs, are complementary, approaching the issue of helath protection in different ways. PorcProtect focuses on biosecurity in 30 questions for a quick grid, and in 320 questions for a full grid; Bâtisanté provides an update on the management of buildings and livestock equipment in 64 questions illustrated by photos, covering areas including climate and ventilation, access to water and food, quality and type of floors, cleaning and disinfection of rooms, etc. Porcisanté manages interventions on animals in 70 questions also illustrated by photos, including colostral intake, care of piglets, management of sow feed, breeding management, etc.

They all allow farmers to review the basics and their regulatory compliance. A report is produced with a color code according to the rate of risky practices (red high risk, orange medium risk, green low risk). Prioritization of the actions to be corrected is therefore immediate. Technical sheets are also included to present areas for improvement. A comparison with the results of previous audits on the same farm is possible in the three tools as well as a comparison with other farms in PorcProtect.

Search «batisante» or  «porcisante» in the Play store or Apple store. Website: porcprotect.ifip.asso.fr

GVET : to get an electronic medicine books for pigs

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In France, 90% of pig farmers record veterinary treatments in a paper register but 25% say they are ready to use an electronic version. GVET, funded by the Ecoantibio plan, facilitates this process on PC or smartphone by providing a standardized catalog of veterinary drugs to speed up the entry of the names of the drugs, the dose, the duration of treatment, and the withdrawal time prior to slaughter.

GVET also monitors antibiotic usage for each type of animal (sows, suckling piglets, weaned piglets, fattening pigs) with indicators validated by ANSES.

Data from farms are centralized in a national database hosted at IFIP to allow publication of collective references on antibiotic usage in France. Farmers will be able to compare their results with benchmarks to discuss ways of improvement with their veterinarians and meet societal expectations.

Two manufacturers have integrated GVET into their softwares : Isagri (in Ediporc and Pig’up) and Asserva (in Smartpharm). Deployment in the field is therefore operational. However, there is still a lot of educational work to do with farmers to help them change their habits and computerize their treatment register, without their having any regulatory obligation to do so.

Practical aspects of milking dairy cows

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Milking dairy cows is a complex action, which has to take into account the physiological aspects of the animal, hygiene, quantity and quality of milk, as well as the work ergonomics. The milking of dairy cows must be carried out within a specified time (8 min), which coincides with the secretion of the oxytocin hormone, which is responsible for the ejection of milk. Workers are careful that the milking is complete, to extract the entire amount of milk and fat, and to prevent mastitis. Those who carry out milking must ensure that the milking machine does not cause pain to the animal, as it may retain milk. Also, the physiology of milking is very complex and involves many factors that favor the ejection and evacuation of milk.

Regardless of the milking system adopted, the practical performance of milking involves the observance of some basic rules: the cows are milked at the same hours of the day and at regular intervals; milking is carried out quietly, in similar environmental conditions. These rules aid the development of favourable conditioned reflexes, and avoid triggering the mechanisms of inhibition of milk ejection (adrenaline synthesis). The training of milking staff is directly related to the efficiency of milking (a worker serves 30-35 cows per hour) and milk and udder hygiene (it is very important to clean teats before the start of milking and at the end of milking). The degree of hygiene is quantified by the total number of germs and the number of somatic cells.

EPRUMA best-practice guidelines for the use of antimicrobials in food-producing animals

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Several guidance documents relating to the prudent use of antimicrobials have been published by different public, professional and industry bodies. This resulted in better understanding/improved practices by veterinarians and animal owners/keepers. Much of the guidance is also readily accessible in different EU languages.

One of the bodies producing these guidance documents at EU level is EPRUMA, a European multi-stakeholder platform which has already released two best-practice guidelines (brochures) for the use of antibiotics in food-producing animals. You may find them on their website: www.epruma.eu

The brochures explain the role and benefits of antibiotics in animal health and the description of best-practices for their use. They also give guidance on indoor and free-range production, housing, biosecurity, nutrition, etc. and include a decision tree on the use of veterinary antibiotics in food-producing animals. The guidance should be, of course, further tailored to the local situation of an individual farm. The final implementation should be shared responsibility between the farmer and other professional visitors to the farm such as veterinarians, feed and husbandry experts, and biosecurity specialists.

Efforts made by farmers and these professional consultants, supported by all other stakeholders, will result in an optimal level of animal health and welfare. Consequently, this facilitates and drives the responsible use of veterinary medicines, according to the principle ‘as little as possible and as much as necessary’.

Breeding for resilience in poultry: dual purpose chickens  

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Resilience is the capacity of an animal to be minimally affected by external or internal negative agents or to rapidly recover from it. By choosing a more resilient breed of poultry, farmers can also reduce antimicrobial usage, obtaining both healthy and easier-to-manage flocks.

Improvement of resilience can be accomplished by different strategies. One strategy is to increase resilience by genetic selection in breeding programs. The advantage of genetic selection, in contrast to management improvements, is that it can be a longer-lasting solution. Furthermore, it can be done through adequate resilience-improving breeding programs. For example, dual-purpose breeds or local (traditional) breeds have shown to be more resilient than more conventional breeds.

Dual-purpose chickens can be used for the production of eggs and the cockerels for meat production, and like local (traditional) breeds they may be less susceptible to clinical disease and may recover from illness faster. On the production side, it is true that dual-purpose chickens tend to lay fewer eggs per year than the highly-selected breeds. However, there seems to be an increasing number of initiatives, including organic production, which allow farmers to market these differentiated quality products and provide them with added value.

In conclusion, choosing the right breed for resilience is a matter of good research and the choice should be fit for the particular production system. Nevertheless, it must be also considered that indicators for general resilience for poultry have not yet been defined clearly by researchers.

Sensor technology and data monitoring in dairy cows

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Sensors that can measure physiological, behavioral and production indicators in dairy cows (milk yield, temperature, animal’s activity, etc.) may assist farmers to improve animal health and welfare and identify diseased cows earlier.

Currently there are different sensors available on the market, such as sensor systems for mastitis detection (e.g. electrical conductivity), oestrus detection for dairy cows, oestrus detection for youngstock, and other sensor systems (e.g. weighing platform, rumination time sensor, temperature sensor, milk temperature sensor, etc.).

These technologies and their adoption provide benefit to farmers by frequently monitoring dairy cattle without disturbing natural behavioral expression. The implementation of these tools via e.g. computer-controlled programs can become valuable instruments for improving detection rates, gaining insights into the fertility level of the herd, improving profitability of the farm, and reducing labor.

For example, clinical mastitis can be predicted by changes in the electrical conductivity of foremilk, enabling early treatment and significantly limiting the severity of the disease. In many cases, it may also prevent the appearance of any visible signs of infection.

On the other hand, a monitoring system based on feeding time of the individual cow can identify changes in feeding activity. It is expected that the farmer’s inspection of dairy cows that change their average feeding time in combination with other monitoring systems, will lead to earlier detection of mastitis and oestrus. Early detection and veterinary treatment of mastitis and oestrus is expected to be beneficial for both cow welfare and farm profitability.