Nutrients are essential for the health and survival of human beings and animals. Also, they play a major role in enhancing reproductive efficiency. The aim of the current study was to investigate the effects of sodium butyrate (SB) on reproductive performance and colostrum composition in gilts. A total of 40 Large White×Landrace replacement gilts (at the age of 160 to 175 days) were fed either a standard diet (control group, n=20) or standard diet top dressed with encapsulated SB at the level of 500 mg/kg (SB group, n=20) from 1 month before mating to 7 days after farrowing. The rate of gilts regular return to estrus after insemination was lower in SB group than the control group. The total number of piglets born (P=0.179) and the litter weight at birth (P=0.063) did not differ between the two treatment groups. However, the mean BW at day 7 tended to be greater in SB group (P=0.051) and average daily gain of piglets was greater (P=0.011) compared with control group. Colostrum samples were collected at parturition and the concentrations of total protein (P=0.197), cholesterol (P=0.161) and lactose (P=0.923) were not influenced by SB supplementation. However, compared with control gilts, colostrum from SB-treated gilts contained lower triglyceride (P=0.050). Moreover, colostrum concentrations of prolactin (P=0.005) and leptin (P=0.006) were significantly lower in SB group. No significant differences were noted for the colostral concentrations of cortisol (P=0.899), thyroxine (P=0.891) or triiodothyronine (P=0.194). The concentration of lipopolysaccharide in colostrum was not influenced by SB supplementation (P=0.972). However, colostrum from SB-treated gilts had significantly lower tumor necrosis factor α (TNFα) (P=0.030) and higher immunoglobulin A (IgA) (P=0.042). Collectively, SB supplementation could reduce the rate of gilts return to estrus, alter the composition of colostrum and enhance the growth rate of piglets. Moreover, SB could alter the immune function of newborn piglets through decreased production of TNFα and increased IgA concentration in colostrum.

Finding ways of increasing animal production with low external inputs and without compromising reproductive performances is a key issue of livestock systems sustainability. One way is to take advantage of the diversity and interactions among components within livestock systems. Among studies that investigate the influence of differences in animals’ individual abilities in a herd, few focus on combinations of cow breeds with contrasting features in dairy cattle herds. This study aimed to analyse the performances and management of such multi-breed dairy cattle herds. These herds were composed of two types of dairy breeds: ‘specialist’ (Holstein) and ‘generalist’ (e.g. Montbeliarde, Simmental, etc.). Based on recorded milk data in southern French region, we performed ANOVA: (i) to compare the performances of dairy herds according to breed-type composition: multi-breed, single specialist breed or single generalist breed and (ii) to test the difference of milk performances of specialist and generalist breed cows (n = 10 682) per multi-breed dairy herd within a sample of 22 farms. The sampled farmers were also interviewed to characterise herd management through multivariate analysis. Multi-breed dairy herds had a better trade-off among milk yield, milk fat and protein contents, herd reproduction and concentrate-conversion efficiency than single-breed herds. Conversely, they did not offer advantages in terms of milk prices and udder health. Compared to specialist dairy herds, they produce less milk with the same concentrate-conversion efficiency but have better reproductive performances. Compared to generalist dairy herds, they produce more milk with better concentrate-conversion efficiency but have worse reproductive performances. Within herds, specialist and generalist breed cows significantly differed in milk performances, showing their complementarity. The former produced more milk for a longer lactation length while the latter produced milk with higher protein and fat contents and had a slightly longer lactation rank. Our results also focus on the farmers’ management of multi-breed dairy herds underlying herd performances. Three strategies of management were identified and structured along two main axes. The first differentiates farmers according to their animal-selection practices in relation with their objectives of production: adapting animal to produce milk with low-feeding inputs v. focussing on milk yield trait to intensify milk production. The second refers to the purpose farmers give to multi-breed dairy herds: milk v. milk/meat production. These initial insights on the performances and management of multi-breed dairy herds contribute to better understanding the functioning of ruminant livestock systems based on individual variability.

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the effect of feed restriction during pregnancy on reproductive performance of rabbit does and growth performance and meat quality of their offspring. A total of 26 primiparous non lactating does were equally divided into two treatment groups: the control group (C, n=13) that was fed ad libitum throughout gestation and the feed restricted group (R, n=13) that was fed to 75% of maintenance energy requirements from the 7th to the 26th day of gestation. Rabbit offsprings were weaned at 35 days of age and grown until the 72 days of age when they were slaughtered for meat quality assessment. Meat quality traits measured were pH24, colour (L*, a*, b*), percentage of released water, cook loss, shear values and intramuscular fat. At kindling, R does produced smaller litter weights compared with those of does from group C, 447.8 and 591.4 g, respectively, and smaller individual kit birth weights, 56.2 and 71.5 g, respectively (P<0.05). Ratio of stillborn kits and mortality rate from parturition until weaning was higher (P<0.05) in the R group, 21.4% and 11.1%, respectively, in comparison with the C group, 8.1% and 3.5%, respectively. Litter size and gestation length were unaffected by maternal undernutrition. Kit birth weight treatment differences were eliminated at weaning because of compensatory growth (P>0.05). Performance and meat quality characteristics of fattening rabbits at 72 days of age were not influenced by gestational feed restriction of their mothers (P>0.05). Taking into consideration that, simultaneous gestation and lactation in rabbit does may be simulated by gestational feed restriction, results of the present study suggest that lactating does can support a simultaneous gestation without any adverse effect on the offsprings’ quantitative and qualitative performance at the expense of increased mortality rates at parturition and until weaning.

Crude glycerin, a potential energy source for ruminant animals, has been evaluated, mainly, in diets with high starch content. However, a limit number of studies have evaluated the inclusion of crude glycerin in low starch diets. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of the association of crude glycerin with corn grain or citrus pulp on carcass traits and meat quality of Nellore bulls (n=30, 402±31 kg initial weight). The treatment consisted of: CON=control, without crude glycerin; CG10=10% of crude glycerin and corn grain; CG15=15% of crude glycerin and corn grain; CP10=10% of crude glycerin and citrus pulp; CP15=15% of crude glycerin and citrus pulp. The performance parameters and carcass traits were not affected by treatments (P>0.05). The inclusion of crude glycerin decreased yellow color intensity and increased fatty acids pentadecanoic and heptadecenoic in meat (P<0.05), without affecting neither the concentration of polyunsaturated fatty acids nor the relationship of saturated and unsaturated fatty acids. The association of crude glycerin with corn or citrus pulp has no adverse effects on carcass characteristics and meat quality.

In this study, a data set of 2922 lactating dairy cows in a sample of 64 conventional and organic dairy farms with Holstein Friesian cows in Germany and 31 conventional dairy farms with the dual purpose breed Fleckvieh in Austria was used to screen for correlations between the occurrences of different integument alterations. All cows were housed in cubicle systems. Alterations were classified as hairless areas (H), scabs or wounds (W) or swellings (S) and assessed at 15 locations of the cows’ body. Highest median farm prevalences were found at the joints of the legs, which are already commonly included in studies on integumentary alterations: median farm prevalence was 83% for S and 48% for H at the carpal joints, followed by H (38%) and S (20%) at the lateral tarsal joints and H at the lateral calcanei (20%). Additional body parts with notable median prevalences for H were the hip bones (13%), pin bones (12%) and sacrum (11%). Three cluster models, with 2, 5 and 14 clusters, were built by hierarchical clustering of prevalences of the 30 most relevant alteration location combinations. Clustering revealed that location overruled type of lesion in most cases. Occasionally, clusters represented body segments significantly distant from each other, for example the carpal joints and lateral and dorsal calcanei. However, some neighbouring areas such as the medial and lateral hock area should be analysed separately from each other for causal analysis as they formed distinct clusters.

Eco-efficiency is a useful guide to dairy farm sustainability analysis aimed at increasing output (physical or value added) and minimizing environmental impacts (EIs). Widely used partial eco-efficiency ratios (EIs per some functional unit, e.g. kg milk) can be problematic because (i) substitution possibilities between EIs are ignored, (ii) multiple ratios can complicate decision making and (iii) EIs are not usually associated with just the functional unit in the ratio’s denominator. The objective of this study was to demonstrate a ‘global’ eco-efficiency modelling framework dealing with issues (i) to (iii) by combining Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) data and the multiple-input, multiple-output production efficiency method Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). With DEA each dairy farm’s outputs and LCA-derived EIs are aggregated into a single, relative, bounded, dimensionless eco-efficiency score, thus overcoming issues (i) to (iii). A novelty of this study is that a model providing a number of additional desirable properties was employed, known as the Range Adjusted Measure (RAM) of inefficiency. These properties altogether make RAM advantageous over other DEA models and are as follows. First, RAM is able to simultaneously minimize EIs and maximize outputs. Second, it indicates which EIs and/or outputs contribute the most to a farm’s eco-inefficiency. Third it can be used to rank farms in terms of eco-efficiency scores. Thus, non-parametric rank tests can be employed to test for significant differences in terms of eco-efficiency score ranks between different farm groups. An additional DEA methodology was employed to ‘correct’ the farms’ eco-efficiency scores for inefficiencies attributed to managerial factors. By removing managerial inefficiencies it was possible to detect differences in eco-efficiency between farms solely attributed to uncontrollable factors such as region. Such analysis is lacking in previous dairy studies combining LCA with DEA. RAM and the ‘corrective’ methodology were demonstrated with LCA data from French specialized dairy farms grouped by region (West France, Continental France) and feeding strategy (regardless of region). Mean eco-efficiency score ranks were significantly higher for farms with <10% and 10% to 30% maize than farms with >30% maize in the total forage area before correcting for managerial inefficiencies. Mean eco-efficiency score ranks were higher for West than Continental farms, but significantly higher only after correcting for managerial inefficiencies. These results helped identify the eco-efficiency potential of each region and feeding strategy and could therefore aid advisors and policy makers at farm or region/sector level. The proposed framework helped better measure and understand (dairy) farm eco-efficiency, both within and between different farm groups.

This paper reviews strategies and methods to improve accuracies of genomic predictions from the perspective of a numerically small population. Improvements are realized by influencing one or both of the main factors: (1) improve or increase genomic connections to phenotypic records in training data. (2) Models and strategies to focus genomic predictions on markers closer to the causative variants. Combining populations into a joint reference population results in high improvements when combining populations of the same breed and diminishes as the genetic distance between populations increases. For distantly related breeds sophisticated Bayesian variable selection models in combination with denser markers sets or functional subsets of markers is needed. This is expected to be further improved by the efficient use of sequence information. In addition predictions can be improved by the use of phenotypes of genotyped and non-genotyped cows directly. For a small population the optimal approach will combine the above components.

Colostrum is an essential source of immunoglobulin G (IgG) for neonate piglets. However, colostrum IgG content and nutritional composition can vary considerably among sows due to age, parity, feeding regime and immunological background. Currently, there is no practical way to obtain information about colostrum IgG concentration at herd level. We evaluated sows’ colostrum IgG content on-farm using a Brix refractometer and its performance was compared with that of an IgG ELISA. In addition, nutritional compositions of the colostrum samples were analyzed using Fourier transform IR spectroscopy. Colostrum samples (5 to 6 ml) (n=153) were obtained within 0 to 3 h of farrowing. However, to obtain a 24 h IgG profile for 11 sows, colostrum samples were collected at 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 16 and 24 h after farrowing. A 0.3 ml of freshly drawn colostrum sample was used for the on-farm measurement of Brix percentages using a digital refractometer shortly after collection. The remaining fractions of the samples were frozen and submitted to laboratory analysis for total IgG, using a commercially available pig IgG ELISA kit. For nutritional composition analysis, a 35 ml colostrum sample (n=34) was obtained immediately after birth of first piglet from the first three pairs of frontal teats. Colostrum concentrations of IgG averaged 52.03±30.70 mg/ml (mean±SEM) at 0 to 3 h after farrowing. Concentration of IgG decreased on average by 50% during the 1st day of lactation (P<0.01). Sow parity did not influence colostrum concentrations of IgG. Differences in colostrum composition were recorded between two herds and among the parity groups (P<0.05). The Brix refractometer measurement of colostrum and the corresponding log transformed IgG measurements from the ELISA were moderately correlated (r=0.63, P<0.001, n=153). Based on the classification we suggest here, low levels of IgG (14.5±1.8 mg/ml) were recorded for colostrum samples with Brix readings below 20%. Borderline colostrum IgG content (43.8±2.3 mg/ml) had Brix readings of 20% to 24%, adequate colostrum IgG content (50.7±2.1 mg/ml) had Brix % readings of 25% to 29% and very good IgG colostrum content (78.6±8.4 mg/ml) had Brix readings >30%. Colostrum IgG concentration is highly variable among sows, Brix measurement of a sows’ fresh colostrum is an inexpensive, rapid and satisfactorily accurate method of estimating IgG concentration, providing indication of differentiation between good and poor IgG content of colostrum.

In Western countries the dietary guidance emphasizes the need to decrease the intake of saturated fatty acids and to replace them with polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), particularly long chain n-3 PUFA (LC-PUFA). The production of poultry meat having a lower fat content and healthier fatty acid (FA) profile is a hot topic for the poultry industry, and the possibility to identify genotypes able to produce meat with a higher LC-PUFA content deserves attention. The aims of the present study were to evidence in chicken (i) a genotype-related different expression of the desaturating enzymes delta-6 (Δ6, EC 1.14.99.25), delta-5 (Δ5, EC 1.14.19.) and delta-9 (Δ9, EC 1.14.19.1); (ii) the impact of the hypothesized different expression on the meat FA composition; (iii) the distribution of desaturase products in the different lipid classes. Slow (SG), medium (MG) and fast (FG) growing chickens fed the same diet were evaluated either for the relative expression of FADS1, FADS2 and SCD1 genes in liver (by q-PCR), or for the FA composition of breast meat. MG and particularly SG birds showed a greater expression of FADS2 and FADS1 genes, a higher Δ6 and Δ5 activity (estimated using desaturase indices), and consequently a higher LC-PUFA content in the breast meat than FG birds. The relationship between genotype and desaturating ability was demonstrated, with a significant impact on the PUFA content of breast meat. Due to the high consumption rate of avian meat, the identification of the best genotypes for meat production could represent an important goal not only for the food industry, but also for the improvement of human nutrition.

Crop–livestock production is claimed more sustainable than specialized production systems. However, the presence of controversial studies suggests that there must be conditions of mixing crop and livestock productions to allow for higher sustainable performances. Whereas previous studies focused on the impact of crop–livestock interactions on performances, we posit here that crop–livestock organization is a key determinant of farming system sustainability. Crop–livestock organization refers to the percentage of the agricultural area that is dedicated to each production. Our objective is to investigate if crop–livestock organization has both a direct and an indirect impact on mixed crop–livestock (MC–L) sustainability. In that objective, we build a whole-farm model parametrized on representative French sheep and crop farming systems in plain areas (Vienne, France). This model permits simulating contrasted MC–L systems and their subsequent sustainability through the following indicators of performance: farm income, production, N balance, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (/kg product) and MJ consumption (/kg product). Two MC–L systems were simulated with contrasted crop–livestock organizations (MC20–L80: 20% of crops; MC80–L20: 80% of crops). A first scenario – constraining no crop–livestock interactions in both MC–L systems – permits highlighting that crop–livestock organization has a significant direct impact on performances that implies trade-offs between objectives of sustainability. Indeed, the MC80–L20 system is showing higher performances for farm income (+44%), livestock production (+18%) and crop GHG emissions (−14%) whereas the MC20–L80 system has a better N balance (−53%) and a lower livestock MJ consumption (−9%). A second scenario – allowing for crop–livestock interactions in both MC20–L80 and MC80–L20 systems – stated that crop–livestock organization has a significant indirect impact on performances. Indeed, even if crop–livestock interactions permit improving performances, crop–livestock organization influences the capacity of MC–L systems to benefit from crop–livestock interactions. As a consequence, we observed a decreasing performance trade-off between MC–L systems for farm income (−4%) and crop GHG emissions (−10%) whereas the gap increases for nitrogen balance (+23%), livestock production (+6%) – MJ consumption (+16%) – GHG emissions (+5%) and crop MJ consumption (+5%). However, the indirect impact of crop–livestock organization doesn’t reverse the trend of trade-offs between objectives of sustainability determined by the direct impact of crop–livestock organization. As a conclusion, crop–livestock organization is a key factor that has to be taken into account when studying the sustainability of mixed crop–livestock systems.

The effects of different dietary levels of maize silage (10% v. 36% DM) and group size (7 v. 14 animals) were assessed on growth performance and in vivo digestibility of 28 male fattening buffaloes. In addition, the effects of diet on meat quality and group size on behaviour and immune response were separately evaluated. Animals were weighed and assigned to three groups. The high silage – low size group (HL) was fed a total mixed ration (TMR) containing 36% DM of maize silage and consisted of seven animals (age 12.7±2.6 months; BW 382.2±67.7 kg at the start of the study). The low silage – low size group (LL) was fed a TMR containing 10% DM of maize silage and consisted of seven animals (age 13.0±2.7 months; BW 389.4±72.3 kg). The high silage – high size group (HH) was fed the 36% maize silage DM diet and consisted of 14 animals (age 13.9±3.25 months; BW 416.5±73.9 kg). Total space allowance (3.2 indoor+3.2 outdoor m2/animal) was kept constant in the three groups, as well as the ratio of animals to drinkers (seven animals per water bowl) and the manger space (70 cm per animal). Growth performance, carcass characteristics and digestibility were influenced neither by dietary treatment nor by group size, even if the group fed 36% maize silage diet showed a higher fibre digestibility. No effect of diet was found on meat quality. Group size did not affect the behavioural activities with the exception of drinking (1.04±0.35% v. 2.60±0.35%; P<0.01 for groups HL and HH, respectively) and vigilance (2.58±0.46% v. 1.20±0.46%; P<0.05 for groups HL and HH, respectively). Immune responses were not affected by group size.

The present study examined the possibilities and consequences of selecting pigs for reduced aggression and desirable maternal behaviour. Data were recorded from 798 purebred Large White gilts, with an age of 217±17.7 (mean±SD) days, which were observed at mixing with unfamiliar conspecifics. The reaction of the sows towards separation from their litter was assessed for 2022 litters from 848 Large White sows. Sows’ performance during their time in the farrowing unit was scored based on the traits farrowing behaviour (i.e. need of birth assistance), rearing performance (i.e. litter quality at day 10 postpartum (pp)), usability (i.e. additional labour input during lactation period e.g. for treatments) and udder quality of the sow (i.e. udder attachment). For agonistic behaviour, traits heritabilities of h2=0.11±0.04 to h2=0.28±0.06 were estimated. For the sow’s reaction towards separation from her litter low heritabilities were found (h2=0.03±0.03 for separation test on day 1 pp and h2=0.02±0.03 for separation test on day 10 pp). Heritabilities for lactating sow’s performance (farrowing behaviour, rearing performance, usability of the sow and udder quality) in the farrowing unit ranged from h2=0.03±0.02 to h2=0.19±0.03. Due to these results it can be assumed that selection for these traits, for example, for udder quality or reduced aggression, is possible. Antagonistic associations were found between separation test on day 1 pp and different measures of aggressiveness (rg=−0.22±0.26 aggressive attack and rg=−0.41±0.33 reciprocal fighting). Future studies should determine economic as well as welfare-related values of these traits in order to decide whether selection for these traits will be reasonable.

In modern dairy cattle breeding, genomic breeding programs have the potential to increase efficiency and genetic gain. At the same time, the requirements and the availability of genotypes and phenotypes present a challenge. The set-up of a large enough reference population for genomic prediction is problematic for numerically small breeds but also for hard to measure traits. The first part of this study is a review of the current literature on strategies to overcome the lack of reference data. One solution is the use of combined reference populations from different breeds, different countries, or different research populations. Results reveal that the level of relationship between the merged populations is the most important factor. Compiling closely related populations facilitates the accurate estimation of marker effects and thus results in high accuracies of genomic prediction. Consequently, mixed reference populations of the same breed, but from different countries are more promising than combining different breeds, especially if those are more distantly related. The use of female reference information has the potential to enlarge the reference population size. Including females is advisable for small populations and difficult traits, and maybe combined with genotyping females and imputing those that are un-genotyped.

The efficient use of imputation for un-genotyped individuals requires a set of genotyped related animals and well-considered selection strategies which animals to choose for genotyping and phenotyping. Small populations have to find ways to derive additional advantages from the cost-intensive establishment of genomic breeding schemes. Possible solutions may be the use of genomic information for inbreeding control, parentage verification, within-herd selection, adjusted mating plans or conservation strategies.

The second part of the paper deals with the issue of high-quality phenotypes against the background of new, difficult and hard to measure traits. The use of contracted herds for phenotyping is recommended, as additional traits, when compared to standard traits used in dairy cattle breeding can be measured at set moments in time. This can be undertaken even for the recording of health traits, thus resulting in complete contemporary groups for health traits. Future traits to be recorded and used in genomic breeding programs, at least partly will be traits for which traditional selection based on widespread phenotyping is not possible. Enabling phenotyping of sufficient numbers to enable genomic selection will rely on cooperation between scientists from different disciplines and may require multidisciplinary approaches.

The objective of this study was to determine if a diet supplemented simultaneously with vitamins C and E would alleviate the negative effects of heat stress, applied between 28 and 42 days of age, on performance, carcass and meat quality traits of broiler chickens. A total of 384 male broiler chickens were assigned to a completely randomized design, with a 2×3 factorial arrangement (diet with or without vitamin supplementation and two ambient temperatures plus a pair-feeding group) and 16 replicates. Chickens were kept in thermoneutral conditions up to 28 days of age. They were then housed in groups of four per cage, in three environmentally controlled chambers: two thermoneutral (22.5 and 22.6°C) and one for heat stress (32°C). Half the chickens were fed a diet supplemented with vitamins C (257 to 288 mg/kg) and E (93 to 109 mg/kg). In the thermoneutral chambers, half of the chickens were pair-fed to heat stressed chickens, receiving each day the average feed intake recorded in the heat stress chamber in the previous day. Meat physical quality analyses were performed on the pectoralis major muscle. No ambient temperature×diet supplementation interaction effects were detected on performance, carcass, or meat quality traits. The supplemented diet resulted in lower growth performance, attributed either to a carry-over effect of the lower initial BW, or to a possible catabolic effect of vitamins C and E when supplemented simultaneously at high levels. Heat stress reduced slaughter and carcass weights, average daily gain and feed intake, and increased feed conversion. Growth performance of pair-fed chickens was similar to that of heat stressed chickens. Exposure to heat stress increased carcass and abdominal fat percentages, but reduced breast, liver and heart percentages. Pair-fed chickens showed the lowest fat percentage and their breast percentage was similar to controls. Heat stress increased meat pH and negatively affected meat color and cooking loss. In pair-fed chickens, meat color was similar to the heat stressed group. Shear force was not influenced by heat stress, but pair-fed chickens showed the tenderest meat. In conclusion, reduction in growth performance and negative changes in meat color in heat stressed chickens were attributed to depression in feed intake, whereas negative changes in body composition, higher meat pH and cooking loss were credited to high ambient temperature per se. Diet supplementation with vitamins C and E as antioxidants did not mitigate any of these negative effects.

Lameness in dairy cows is an important welfare issue. As part of a welfare assessment, herd level lameness prevalence can be estimated from scoring a sample of animals, where higher levels of accuracy are associated with larger sample sizes. As the financial cost is related to the number of cows sampled, smaller samples are preferred. Sequential sampling schemes have been used for informing decision making in clinical trials. Sequential sampling involves taking samples in stages, where sampling can stop early depending on the estimated lameness prevalence. When welfare assessment is used for a pass/fail decision, a similar approach could be applied to reduce the overall sample size. The sampling schemes proposed here apply the principles of sequential sampling within a diagnostic testing framework. This study develops three sequential sampling schemes of increasing complexity to classify 80 fully assessed UK dairy farms, each with known lameness prevalence. Using the Welfare Quality herd-size-based sampling scheme, the first ‘basic’ scheme involves two sampling events. At the first sampling event half the Welfare Quality sample size is drawn, and then depending on the outcome, sampling either stops or is continued and the same number of animals is sampled again. In the second ‘cautious’ scheme, an adaptation is made to ensure that correctly classifying a farm as ‘bad’ is done with greater certainty. The third scheme is the only scheme to go beyond lameness as a binary measure and investigates the potential for increasing accuracy by incorporating the number of severely lame cows into the decision. The three schemes are evaluated with respect to accuracy and average sample size by running 100 000 simulations for each scheme, and a comparison is made with the fixed size Welfare Quality herd-size-based sampling scheme. All three schemes performed almost as well as the fixed size scheme but with much smaller average sample sizes. For the third scheme, an overall association between lameness prevalence and the proportion of lame cows that were severely lame on a farm was found. However, as this association was found to not be consistent across all farms, the sampling scheme did not prove to be as useful as expected. The preferred scheme was therefore the ‘cautious’ scheme for which a sampling protocol has also been developed.

Changes in the drinking behaviour of pigs may indicate health, welfare or productivity problems. Automated monitoring and analysis of drinking behaviour could allow problems to be detected, thus improving farm productivity. A high frequency radio frequency identification (HF RFID) system was designed to register the drinking behaviour of individual pigs. HF RFID antennas were placed around four nipple drinkers and connected to a reader via a multiplexer. A total of 55 growing-finishing pigs were fitted with radio frequency identification (RFID) ear tags, one in each ear. RFID-based drinking visits were created from the RFID registrations using a bout criterion and a minimum and maximum duration criterion. The HF RFID system was successfully validated by comparing RFID-based visits with visual observations and flow meter measurements based on visit overlap. Sensitivity was at least 92%, specificity 93%, precision 90% and accuracy 93%. RFID-based drinking duration had a high correlation with observed drinking duration (R 2=0.88) and water usage (R 2=0.71). The number of registrations after applying the visit criteria had an even higher correlation with the same two variables (R 2=0.90 and 0.75, respectively). There was also a correlation between number of RFID visits and number of observed visits (R 2=0.84). The system provides good quality information about the drinking behaviour of individual pigs. As health or other problems affect the pigs’ drinking behaviour, analysis of the RFID data could allow problems to be detected and signalled to the farmer. This information can help to improve the productivity and economics of the farm as well as the health and welfare of the pigs.