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Feeding monogastric livestock in organic agriculture is challenging due to several tradeoffs between animal welfare aspects, resource efficiency, as well as ecological and social sustainability. Organic standards may even increase such conflicts, as is currently the case with upcoming new regulations regarding restrictions of feed sources for organic pigs in Europe. In order to contribute data for balancing reasons to minimize tradeoffs, we compared four different piglet diets, each targeted to reach a high protein quality by either a high proportion of soybean cake (SOY), inclusion of milk powder (MILK), fermentatively produced lysine (LYS) or conventional potato protein (POT). All diets were designed to meet the nutritional requirements of piglets in the best possible way, however they all represented different conflicts with either organic regulations or sustainability goals. In each of five consecutive runs, respectively three litters were assigned to every dietary treatment, resulting in 15 litters per treatment in total. In each litter, seven focus animals were defined. The piglets were studied from birth until 58 days of age. They were weaned at day 46 and sold from the farm at day 58. Piglets were individually weighed at an average age of 3, 21, 43, 50 and 58 days with simultaneous assessment of body condition score (BCS) and prevalence of diarrhea. Feed intake (FI) was recorded litter wise weekly, starting from week three. Feed conversion ratio (FCR) was calculated for the period after weaning. Statistical analysis was executed using linear mixed effect models. Regarding FI, FCR and daily weight gains, no treatment effect was found. Only at day 21, BCS was lower for piglets receiving POT. Prevalence of diarrhea increased after weaning for all treatments. All four tested diets led to similar weight gains and feed conversion in the piglets. Animals fed diet POT recovered better from diarrhea compared to the other treatments. A high soybean cake content or lysine supplementation in the diet was disadvantageous with regard to the occurrence of diarrhea. LYS diet led to signs of threonine deficit, indicating that lysine addition alone may not solve the issue. The addition of milk powder provided no extra benefit. In recognition of the health benefits, the use of 5% potato protein, even if it is sourced from conventional production, must still be considered as a sustainable option for feeding organic piglets. The sustainability implications are discussed in the paper.

Due to a rising demand for goat milk and goat milk products worldwide, it is likely that dairy goat production will be intensified in the future, with larger herds per farm. In Switzerland, as in many other countries with intensive farming systems, dairy goats are typically housed on deep litter, with little access to hard abrasive surfaces. Such housing conditions will result in wall horn overgrowth. The aim of this study was to gain profound knowledge on the occurrence of overgrown wall horn, its impact on claw health and locomotor behavior, and possible adverse effects on animal welfare. Additionally, housing and management factors that may contribute to non-physiological claw conditions were evaluated. To compare claw conditions after the summer grazing period and the winter indoor housing period, data were collected on 28 Swiss dairy goat farms in autumn and spring (621 goats in total). Claw lesions were recorded with the help of a “claw card” documenting each claw. Furthermore, pictures were taken of each claw to determine the severity of wall horn overgrowth. Locomotion behavior (activity, lying time and lying bouts) was recorded with three-dimensional accelerometers fixed to the goats’ hind legs. In autumn, 66.7% of the examined claws showed moderate overgrowth, 32.4% severe overgrowth and 0.9% no overgrowth. In spring, 47.4% of the examined claws were affected with moderate overgrowth, 52.6% with severe overgrowth and 0.0% with no overgrowth. Horn separation (48.1% of examined claws) and sole hemorrhages (16.0% of examined claws) were the most frequent lesions. In goats with severely overgrown claws, the risk of developing sole hemorrhages was doubled compared with moderate overgrowth. The occurrence rate of horn separation was lower if the trimmer had attended a special skills training course (p &lt, 0.001). Furthermore, locomotor activity (p &lt, 0.01) and the number of lying bouts per day (p &lt, 0.01) were higher in spring than autumn. Neither the goats’ activity nor the number of lying bouts per day differed before and after claw trimming. Finally, season and trimming were not associated with the goats’ total lying time. A certain extent of wall horn overgrowth in dairy goat claws cannot be avoided under the housing conditions typical for Swiss farms. Severe wall horn overgrowth is associated with an increase in the proportion of claws with sole hemorrhages. Therefore, regular and careful functional claw trimming, taking the housing situation (deep bedding, access to pasture, grazing on alpine pasture) into account, should be promoted.

Exploratory behaviour is an essential part of the behavioural repertoire of pigs. Providing pigs with a rooting area filled with appropriate material enables such behaviour and is therefore considered to improve animal welfare. Managing the hygiene of a rooting area, however, is often challenging when pigs use it also for elimination. Mixing corn pellets into the rooting material could increase use and exploration while reducing elimination behaviour. To investigate this hypothesis, we constructed rooting areas filled with compost produced from garden waste in four pens on a commercial organic farm. We compared two experimental pens (E) with rooting areas filled with compost, in which we mixed 2 kg of corn pellets every morning, with two control pens (C, rooting areas filled with compost only). The experiment started in October 2019 and lasted 34 weeks with seven replicates in total. Group size ranged between 21–35 pigs (N = 386). We registered behaviour once a week through direct observations of the complete outdoor area and additional video recordings of the rooting area. Behavioural variables of interest were activity status (i.e. standing/sitting or lying), rooting, agonistic and play behaviour. We assessed cleanliness of the rooting material via visual scoring and chemical analysis of compost samples. The latter included tests on dry matter content, conductivity, and ammonium concentration. Data were analysed with linear mixed-effects models. Results showed that there was a tendency for a higher total number of pigs in the rooting area in E than in C (p = 0.06). In E, more pigs were lying in the rooting area than in C (p = 0.04). There was no difference between treatments in rooting behaviour. In addition, the overall use of the outdoor run did not differ between treatments. Time of day influenced all recorded behaviours in the rooting area (p < 0.001). With increasing temperature, more pigs were present in the outdoor run (p < 0.001) and in the rooting area (p < 0.01) for both treatments. Conductivity and ammonium concentration in the compost increased the longer the compost remained in the rooting area (p < 0.001), but there was no difference between the two treatments. We conclude that mixing corn pellets into rooting material increases the use of the rooting area by heightening the overall presence of pigs in it but not its cleanliness.

A blinded placebo-controlled multi-center on-farm trial was conducted in dairy cows with subclinical ketosis to investigate effects of a multicomponent herbal extract. Blood ketone levels were measured weekly in early lactating cows from 16 Swiss herds. Cows were subclassified based on their initial blood-β-hydroxybutyrate levels (≥ 1.0 [KET-low, 84 cows] and > 1.2 mmol/L [KET-high, 39 cows]) and randomly distributed to 3 groups treated orally with herbal extract containing Camellia sinensis, Cichcorium intybus, Gentiana lutea, Glycyrrhiza glabra, Taraxacum officinale, Trigonella foenum-graecum, and Zingiber officinale, sodium propionate, or placebo twice a day for 5 days. Milk yield, milk acetone, blood-β-hydroxybutyrate, glucose, nonesterified fatty acids, gamma-glutamyl transferase, and glutamate dehydrogenase were analyzed over 2 wk. Linear mixed effect models were used for data analysis. No effects were found for nonesterifed fatty acids, gamma-glutamyl transferase, and glucose. Significantly higher glutamate dehydrogenase (29.71 U/L) values were found in herbal extract-treated animals compared to sodium propionate on day 7 (22.33 U/L). By trend, higher blood-β-hydroxybutyrate levels (1.36 mmol/L) were found in the placebo group of KET-high-cows on day 14 compared to the sodium propionate group (0.91 mmol/L). Milk yields of all treatment groups increased. Milking time and treatment showed a significant interaction for milk acetone: sodium propionate led to an immediate decrease, whereas herbal extracts resulted in a milk acetone decrease from day 7 on, reaching significantly lower milk acetone on day 14 (3.17 mg/L) when compared to placebo (4.89 mg/L). In conclusion, herbal extracts and sodium propionate are both likely to improve subclinical ketosis in dairy cows, however, by different modes of action.

The pig industry faces many animal welfare issues. Among these, biting behaviour has a high incidence. It is indicative of an existing problem in biters and is a source of physical damage and psychological stress for the victims. We categorize this behaviour into aggressive and non-aggressive biting, the latter often being directed towards the tail. This review focusses specifically on predisposing factors in early life, comprising the prenatal and postnatal periods up to weaning, for the expression of aggressive and non-aggressive biting later in life. The influence of personality and coping style has been examined in a few studies. It varies according to these studies and, thus, further evaluation is needed. Regarding the effect of environmental factors, the number of scientific papers is low (less than five papers for most factors). No clear influence of prenatal factors has been identified to date. Aggressive biting is reduced by undernutrition, cross-fostering and socialization before weaning. Non-aggressive biting is increased by undernutrition, social stress due to competition and cross-fostering. These latter three factors are highly dependent on litter size at birth. The use of familiar odours may contribute to reducing biting when pigs are moved from one environment to another by alleviating the level of stress associated with novelty. Even though the current environment in which pigs are expressing biting behaviours is of major importance, the pre-weaning environment should be optimized to reduce the likelihood of this problem., Animal, 14 (3), ISSN:1751-7311, ISSN:1751-732X

Chewing behaviour of 23 lactating Swiss Fleckvieh cows was analysed in order to evaluate the predictive potential for quantitative dry matter intake in a roughage-based indoor cattle feeding system. Cows were fed total mixed rations (TMR) based on silages and hay with different concentrate supplements. They were kept in a tie stall enabling individual feed intake measurements. Two measurements were conducted within one month. Chewing behaviour was recorded with RumiWatch ® sensor collars, based on pressure tubes in the collar's noseband. Cows were equipped with collars for 96h per measurement period. First 24h were accounted as adaptation time; data of the subsequent 72h were used for analysis. Data included ruminating, eating (min/day), rumination boli (n per day), chewing frequency and intensity during ruminating (chews/min and chews/bolus), and activity changes (switching between ruminating, eating and idle; n per h). The constancy of parameters within cows across measurement days was tested with linear regression models. A linear mixed-effects model was applied to estimate a regression on measured feed intake. Average feed intake per day across all measurements was 19.7kg dry matter per cow, average eating time was 389min/day and ruminating time was 551min/day. For most of the chewing behaviour variables, factor ‘cow' was significant, while ‘day' was not, indicating a between-animals variance but good consistency of the data within animal. After a stepwise backward procedure in the mixed-effects model, the remaining significant variable was ‘chewing frequency' (chews per minute during rumination). Inclusion of ‘animal' as a random factor resulted in an equation with conditional R 2 =0.7. The model without random factor revealed a very low R 2 . In conclusion, the random factor model allowed estimation of individual changes in feed intake within animal but not across animals. Chewing behaviour measurements proved to have a potential for the detection of relative intake alterations with roughage-based TMR diets but data were not sufficient for quantitative estimations.

Organic pig husbandry systems in Europe are diverse – ranging from indoor systems with concrete outside run (IN) to outdoor systems all year round (OUT) and combinations of both on one farm (POUT). As this diversity has rarely been taken into account in research projects on organic pig production, the aim of this study was to assess and compare pig health, welfare and productivity in these three systems. Animal health and welfare were assessed using direct observation and records of 22 animal-based measures, comprising 17 health-, 3 productivity- and 2 behavioural measures. These were collected in pregnant sows, weaners and fattening pigs during direct observations and from records within a cross-sectional study on 74 farms (IN: n = 34, POUT: n = 28, OUT: n = 12) in eight countries. Overall, prevalence of several animal health and welfare issues was low (e.g. median 0% for pigs needing hospitalisation, shoulder lesions, ectoparasites

Simple Summary Surgical castration of male piglets without pain treatment and anaesthesia is not only a welfare problem but also violates the integrity of the animals. The favoured alternatives of raising entire male pigs (EM) with or without immunocastration (vaccination against boar taint) may, however, impose additional welfare problems under the current housing and management conditions. This focused review is intended to summarise the current state of scientific knowledge and practical reports on critical welfare issues and risk factors. Raising EM with or without subsequent immunocastration could be a welfare conform, future-oriented alternative to conventional surgical castration of pigs, provided that they are kept in a healthy and socially stable environment with sufficient physical resources, as safeguarded by measures of enhanced animal care and management control. Abstract For a long time, scientists assumed that newborns have a severely limited sense of pain (if any). However, this assumption is wrong and led to a “start of the exit” from piglet surgical castration. Some of the currently discussed or already implemented alternatives such as general or local anaesthesia during surgical castration raise additional welfare concerns as well as legal problems and/or are hardly applicable. The favoured long-term, welfare-friendly “gold standard” is to raise entire male pigs (EM). However, this may also impose certain welfare problems under the current conventional housing and management conditions. The specific types of behaviour displayed by EM such as mounting and aggressive behaviours but also increased exploration, which are partially linked to sexual maturation, increase the risk for injuries. The current status of knowledge (scientific literature and farmer experiences) on housing of EM suggests that environmental enrichment, space, group-stability, social constellation, feeding (diet and feeder space), health and climate control are critical factors to be considered for future housing systems. From an animal welfare point of view, an intermediate variant to be favoured to reduce problematic behaviour could be to slaughter EM before reaching puberty or to immunize boars early on to suppress testicular function. Immunization against endogenous GnRH can reduce EM-specific problems after the 2nd vaccination.

Insects will likely play an important role as protein sources for livestock in the future. Many insect species are able to convert materials not suitable for human nutrition – or even waste – into valuable protein with a favourable amino acid composition for poultry and other livestock. A feeding trial with partly de-fatted meal of dried Hermetia illucens larvae (Hermetia meal) reared on vegetarian by-products of the pasta and convenience food industry was carried out in small groups of Lohmann Selected Leghorn laying hens (four rounds, 10 hens/round). Experimental diets H12 and H24 contained 12 and 24 g/100 g Hermetia meal replacing 50 or 100% of soybean cake used in the control feed, respectively. After three weeks of feeding experimental diets, there were no significant differences between feeding groups with regard to performance (egg production, feed intake). There was a tendency (P=0.06) for lower albumen weight in the H24 group; yolk and shell weights did not differ. No mortality and no sign of health disorders occurred. Plumage as well as wound scores remained stable during the feeding period and did not differ between treatments. Dry matter of faeces increased with increasing proportions of Hermetia meal in the diet, with a significant difference between H24 and the control (P=0.03). An increase of black faecal pads was observed in the H12 and H24 groups. Overall, these results suggest Hermetia meal can be a valuable component of layer diets. However, insect meal production still has to become economically more viable through upscaling production and, especially, legislative issues have to be solved.

While glucogenic substances in ketosis prevention are commonly used, there is a lack of clinical studies about the effectiveness of ketosis therapy in particular by means of sodium propionate and herbal extracts. Fresh cows between 5 and 50 days in milk of 25 Swiss and German dairy farms were tested weekly for ketone bodies in blood. From 283 cows, 121 (42.8%) exceeded the threshold of 1.0 mmol/l blood-β-hydroxybutyrate (BBHB). Thereof 84 cows were randomly assigned to three treatments on each farm. Treatment SP-H was composed of sodium propionate (120 g per application) and an aqueous extract of seven herbs (13.5 g drug equivalent per application), treatment SP comprised pure sodium propionate (120 g per application) and treatment PL was a placebo. All preparations were fluid (in total 350 ml per application) and were supplemented with organic molasses (2%) and water. Applications were given orally twice a day shortly after milking for a period of four days. During an observation period of two weeks, milk yield and milk parameters (acetone, protein, urea), body condition score and BBHB were recorded. All three treatment groups had similar initial conditions, except for a non-significantly lower ketone body concentration in blood and milk in group PL. The results indicated a reduction of ketone bodies in all three treatment groups. Mean values in group SP never differed significantly from those of group PL regarding the observed parameters. During the first week of observation milk-acetone (MAC) concentration was reduced in all treatment groups: mean values in group SP-H were on the lowest level and differed significantly from those in group SP (p=0.035) and PL (p

In order to assess chronic stress in entire and castrated male pigs and to describe effects of a provision of grass silage in those pigs, a 2 × 2 × 2 factorial experiment comprising the factors castration, chronic intermittent social stress and provision of grass silage was carried out with 147 growing-finishing pigs from 25.6 to 102.1 kg body weight. The experimental design allowed investigating interactions between the three factors, but only few were statistically significant. Stress exposure consisted of repeated short-term confrontations with unfamiliar pigs and short-term separations. Carcasses of stress-exposed pigs had thicker back-fat, lower lean meat percentage and a different fatty acids composition of the adipose tissue. While entire males differed strongly from castrates in performance, carcass characteristics and adipose tissue properties, we found no evidence for an increased level of chronic stress in entire males compared to castrates. Provision of grass silage increased stomach weight and reduced dressing percentage, but did not impair performance, adipose tissue properties or meat quality.

In organic and other enriched housing systems, straw is commonly used as enrichment material for pigs. Its positive effects on health and behavioural welfare are well known. However, potential additional impacts of roughages (other than straw) have rarely been investigated. On six organic farms, we therefore investigated how providing grass silage affects behaviour, gastric health and performance of growing-finishing pigs. Per farm, two to four pens were included in the experiment, with group sizes ranging from five to 26 pigs (total n = 368), and stocking density ranging from 1.65 to 3.50 m2 per pig during finishing. Groups were provided with either grass silage (SIL) or straw (CON) in a rack. Long-stack straw was used as bedding material in all pens. Skin and tail lesions and tear staining were assessed four times throughout the fattening period, and behavioural observations were conducted three times. After slaughtering, pathological damages in the gastric mucosa were scored (score 0–6). Slaughter weight, lean meat proportion and proportion of polyunsaturated fatty acids in body fat were obtained. Data were analysed using linear mixed effect models and parametric bootstrap. Providing grass silage did not alter pen-mate directed manipulations (P > 0.1). Prevalence of tail lesions was too low to confirm numerical differences statistically (0.2% of all assessments in SIL vs 2.6% in CON). Pigs with access to grass silage were occupied longer with substrate (silage or straw) than CON pigs (P = 0.01). The prevalence of slight to severe damages in the gastric mucosa was not affected by treatment (score 0 vs. 1–6; P > 0.1). However, among those pigs that had damages at all, severe damages including gastric ulcers were less frequent in pigs provided with grass silage (score 1–4 vs. 5–6; P = 0.03). The overall prevalence of gastric ulcers (score 6) was 0.7% of all pigs in SIL and 6.1% in CON groups. No impact of grass silage provision was found for slaughter weight, lean meat proportion and body fat quality parameters. In conclusion, our results demonstrate that grass silage is an appropriate feed and enrichment material to stimulate species-specific foraging behaviour and to reduce the development of gastric ulcers.

Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physbeh.2018.07.019; Entire male pigs display more aggressive and sexual behaviour. This might cause a condition of chronic stress and impair their welfare. In order to assess chronic stress in entire and castrated male pigs, as well as effects of providing grass silage as occupational and feed material on behaviour and health, we carried out a 2 × 2 × 2-factorial experiment with 147 growing-finishing pigs. Factors investigated were castration (entire/castrated), chronic intermittent social stress exposure (yes/no) and access to grass silage (yes/no), as well as their interactions. The stress exposure treatment consisted of repeated short-term confrontations and separations. We recorded different behavioural variables, circadian rhythm of salivary cortisol, response to an ACTH (adrenocorticotropic hormone) challenge test, pathological changes in the gastric mucosa and morphology of the intestinal epithelium. Stress exposure caused a decrease in posture changes and head knocks/bites in the home pen. Reference indicators affected by stress exposure did not differ between entire and castrated male pigs, indicating that there is no permanently increased baseline level of stress in entire male pigs. However, entire males responded more pronouncedly to the stress exposure compared to castrated males in terms of posture changes and play behaviour. Pigs provided with grass silage showed more play behaviour and less manipulative behaviours than pigs not receiving grass silage. Stress treated pigs had more hyperkeratosis in the gastric mucosa and gastric ulcers, while offering grass silage reduced such changes. In conclusion, our results indicate that the increased behavioural stress response of entire male pigs might require some adaptations in housing and management of entire male pigs. Gastric ulceration scoring turned out to be a potential post mortem indicator for chronic stress. Finally, providing roughages like grass silage could be a means to positively affect behaviour and gastric health in pigs.