RESUMO
A guide for animal welfare assessment of fattening pigs recommends recording some of the indicators for a sample of the animals from a herd. However, it is not certain whether the herd's level of welfare can be correctly judged using a random sample. Therefore, both the true prevalences of welfare indicators in a full census and the estimated prevalences of the indicators based upon simulated samples taken according to five strategies (termed S1 to S5) were determined. Deviations from the true level of animal welfare in the herd due to the sampling were recorded and analyzed. Depending on the strategy, between 12% and 43% of the samples over- or underestimated the true prevalences by more than 50%. The validity of the sampling strategies was evaluated using the normalized root-mean-squared error (NRMSE) and the relative bias (RB). In terms of accuracy, the strategies differed only slightly (between NRMSE = 0.13 for S2 and NRMSE = 0.19 for S4). However, the strategies varied more obviously regarding the bias (between RB = -0.0002 for S1 and RB = -0.0370 for S5). The described results are the outcome of an initial case study on the sample validity of the indicators and have to be verified using the data of more herds.
RESUMO
The welfare of farm animals is being increasingly discussed in society and politics. To evaluate animal welfare, indicator systems are often used. Such a system has been developed by the German Association for Technology and Structures in Agriculture and suggested in the publication "Animal Welfare Indicators: Practical Guide-Pigs". The association's aim is to provide farmers with a useful method for recording the welfare of pigs. Crucial for the acceptance of the guide by farmers is a high degree of feasibility of the recommended indicators as well as the proposed methods for their recording. To evaluate this, 40 farmers keeping fattening pigs were interviewed. The guided semi-structured interview was conducted on the farms after the farmers evaluated the welfare of their fattening pigs according to the guide. The results are: Apart from the indicators faecal soiling and tail length, all the other eleven indicators are accepted for the assessment of fattening pig welfare by a majority of the interviewed farmers (between 57.5% and 90% acceptance per indicator). Furthermore, the feasibility of the individual indicators was assessed as being positive. The relationship between time expenditure and benefit was rated on a five-point scale at an average of 3.1 (medium), which clearly shows that there is a need for further development of this guide. Some possible changes with a potential for improvement could be identified; for example, the aggregation of the results after the collection of the individual indicators to an overall result that can be compared and interpreted.
RESUMO
It has been known for some years now that the occurrence of lameness in horses is closely related to the characteristics of the riding surface and that respiratory tract diseases can be induced by airborne particles. To ensure both optimal rideability (e.g., grip, elasticity, etc.) and low dust production, riding surfaces have to be regularly attended to, which also includes watering the floor. However, at present, it is not known what the individual moisture content of the various types of riding surface should be to ensure optimal rideability or what their potential for releasing dust is at the time of optimal rideability. The aim of the present study was to determine the moisture content, the density as weight/liter, particle size distribution and the release of airborne particulate matter (APM) with a diameter <10 µm (PM10) of the footing material from three types of indoor riding arena surfaces considered to have optimal rideability. Loose footing material samples were taken from the surfaces of 25 indoor riding arenas [5 pure sand (S), 10 sand-wood chips (SW), and 10 sand-fibre (SF)] and investigated under standardized conditions. The evaluation of the surface's rideability was carried out subjectively by the respective facility manager. The ambient particulate monitor TEOM 1400a was used to measure the PM10 production from the footing samples. Although, according to the facility managers, all of the investigated riding surfaces had optimal rideability at the time of sampling; obvious differences could be found with respect to their moisture content, density, particle size distribution, and release of APM, both between and within the 25 indoor arenas. The moisture content of SW (14.96 ± 4.00%) was significantly higher than that of SF (8.99 ± 2.95%; P = .0046), but the S moisture content (10.82 ± 2.65%) was not significantly different to either of them (S vs. SW: P = .0982 and S vs. SF: P = .2446). With respect to the release of APM, it could be shown that the average release from SF was 2.50-5.47 times higher than either for the S or SW (CSum-S: 12.81 mg/m³air, SW: 5.86 mg/m³air, and SF: 32.06 mg/m³air; t-test-S vs. SW: P = .3882, S vs. SF: P = .2560, and SW vs. SF: P = .0031). The reason for this was the extremely high APM release in three of the ten investigated SF samples. In addition, significant differences were also observed in the APM release within the three individual types of footing. Although no factors significantly affected the release of APM in either the S or SW footings, the density of the SF footing was found to have a significant influence on its APM production: the higher the density, the lower the APM release. The density itself was related to both the footing's moisture content and fiber content. The reason why SF footings with a low density (associated with a high fibrous material content) and a high moisture content tended to cause a greater release of APM is that there was a segregation of the fibrous material caused by the measuring technique used. This led to the fibrous material rising to the top of the sample resulting in a release of APM directly from this material. To prevent such a high release of particles from SF footings with a high fiber content occurring in practice, such footings should be regularly and adequately watered, and any segregation of the fibrous material should be prevented using suitable arena grooming techniques.