Research

Funding: BLE, 812.500 EUR

Project Details:
Pig diseases and injuries occur in all housing systems. Intensive care or treatment does not always result in healing so that animals have to be killed to avoid further pain or suffering. The Animal Protection Act fundamentally stipulates the protection of animal lives and well-being. In the case of serious diseases or injuries, the deci-sion which subject of protection needs to be preferred is inevitable. For pig farmers, the decision concerning killing an animal is considerably challenging. The aim of this project is to define simply collectable and valid criteria with which the well-being of diseased pigs can be accurately assessed and a responsible, justified decision can be made regarding the killing. The criteria should define the earliest possible time-point in the course of a disease at which an impairment of the well-being for protecting life is no longer acceptable and emergency killing becomes inevitable. The decision regarding the killing requires in addition an ethical evaluation, which includes safeguarding interests of the pig owners. The project should depict the complex process of decision-making concerning the killing of diseased pigs exem-plary for relevant diseases or injuries. Diseased or injured pigs of various age groups should be monitored during the entire course of disease by means of clinical exam-inations and supplementary photo and video documentation in order to generate data sets, which make a decision regarding the killing understandable. Finally, prac-ticable, illness-/injury-specific criteria catalogues should be compiled for livestock pigs and integrated in a training concept. A further aim of the project is to analyse the reasons why pig farmers have wrongly assessed the health status of affected animals. The training concept should therefore directly deal with these reasons.

Cooperation Partners:

ISN Projekt GmbH, Damme

Funding: Niedersächsisches Ministerium für wissenschaft und Kultur, 50.000 EUR

Project Details:
Studierenden der Tiermedizin soll eine Kategorisierungsstrategie für die Haltungsumgebung und Erkrankungen von Schweinen bereits in den ersten beiden Fachsemestern vermittelt werden, um in den späteren Semestern erworbenes Wissen zur Nutztiermedizin besser einordnen und damit besser lernen zu können. Damit wird auf fehlendes landwirtschaftliches Vorwissen der Studierenden und auf den Mangel an Nachwuchs für die Nutztiermedizin reagiert. Die Lehreinheit fokussiert sich auf die technischen Bedingungen in der Stallumgebung (z.B. Fütterungstechnik, Bodenbeschaffenheit), welche die Tiergesundheit maßgeblich beeinflussen. Diese bleiben den Studierenden bisher besonders fremd, sofern sie nicht auf einem landwirtschaftlichen Betrieb aufgewachsen sind. Es sollen dafür vier unterschiedliche Haltungssysteme für Schweine als 360°-Rundgänge gefilmt, für die interaktive Tourengestaltung vorbereitet und mit Informationsmaterial hinterlegt werden. Dazu wird jeweils ein klinischer Fall so aufgearbeitet, dass nur ein offener Blick sowie technischer und biologischer Grundverstand, der ab Studienbeginn vorausgesetzt werden kann, nötig sind, um die Arbeitsaufgabe im Sinne einer Schnitzeljagd zu lösen, bzw. das Grundproblem zu identifizieren. Alle Informationen, die darüberhinausgehend benötigt werden, um den Fall zu lösen, werden an Infopunkten zur Verfügung gestellt. Die Lernkontrolle erfolgt anhand eines weiteren Falls in einer der virtuellen Stallumgebungen ohne Infopunkte und wird asynchron durch den Lehrenden bewertet.

Project Details:
Animal welfare of pigs kept on farms includes both the well-being and the health of the animals. In Germany, there have been legal changes in relation to pig farming in recent years in order to achieve greater animal welfare. The study examines whether users inform themselves about topics concerning animal welfare in pig farming in Germany in forums and blogs and whether people with a professional background use these platforms to publish their personal opinions and evaluate emerging topics. For this purpose, the discussion content of Internet users with an obvious professional reference to pig farming is identified and their reaction to posts relating to animal welfare in pig farming is analyzed by means of a qualitative content analysis (Translated with DeepL.com (free version)).

Funding: BLE, 387.946 EUR

Project Details:
This cooperational project focusses on the development of an interactive, animal welfare-oriented sensor system that creates an intelligent housing environment for pigs to improve animals' well-being. Measurable environmental parameters such as air quality, temperature and lighting conditions are automatically recorded. In addition, animal activity, animal sounds and lying behaviour will be recorded using cameras installed in the barn. By an AI-based algorithm linked data serve as an active control of the barn environment. As soon as the AI detects noticeable patterns, a light regime or a projection of a moving lighting pattern in the barn environment starts. In parallel, a reward feeding is initiated, so that the exploratory behavior of pigs is directed. Since the system reacts to even the smallest changes and enables intelligent, animal-related environmental control, it represents a preventive approach that is intended to optimally support farmers in their animal observation. Digital linking of all data from the barn allows their evaluation despite their complexity supporting active animal health care.

Cooperation Partners:

Universität Vechta

Peter Kenkel GmbH

Fraunhofer Institut für Zerstörungsfreie Prüfverfahren

VetVise GmbH

Project Details:
Frequencies of Glaesserella parasuis isolates resistant against various antimicrobial substances will be compared in the years 2006-2021

Results:

Wiencek I, Hartmann M, Merkel J, Trittmacher S, Kreienbrock L, Hennig-Pauka I. Temporal Patterns of Phenotypic Antimicrobial Resistance and Coinfecting Patho-gens in Glaesserella parasuis Strains Isolated from Diseased Swine in Germany from 2006 to 2021. Pathogens 2022; 11: 721. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2021.802570

Funding: BLE/ Unterauftrag FLI, 78.300 EUR

Project Details:
Pig production has grown dramatically worldwide over the last 20 years, leading to increased herd sizes
with weekly production cycles of piglets. In the meantime, the dynamics of infections with swine influenza A
viruses (swIAV) have changed, from epizootic acute respiratory
outbreaks to a self-sustaining infected status of affected herds. Moreover, the genetic and antigenic
diversity of swIAVs in European pig populations has dramatically increased in recent years. Thus, novel
reassortants and antigenic variants have emerged regionally, that can escape control strategies based on
vaccines licensed for use in Europe. The self-sustaining forms of swine influenza (SI) in large holdings
adversely affect animal health and welfare, and prompts the excessive use of antibiotics when swIAV is
associated with other respiratory pathogens in the porcine respiratory disease complex (PRDC), resulting in
severe economic losses. There is an urgent need to increase knowledge of within-herd virus dynamics and
evolution in order to design intervention and prevention measures to limit swIAV persistence in intensive
herds and counteract continuous production losses and emergence of new swIAVs.The objectives of the
research project PIGIE are:
- to define the epidemiological and economic factors that drive the prevalence and dynamics of swIAV in
large pig herds,
- to evaluate the impact that swIAV enzootic infections have on animal welfare, production parameters and
economic productivity,
- to study the genetic and antigenic diversity of swIAV in Europe,
- to identify the host-pathogen factors that would foster swIAV evolution,
- to provide a better understanding of long-lasting and protective immunological memory responses
developed in the infected hosts,
- to identify mitigation points in continuously infected herds,
- to implement and evaluate control strategies that would help to counter sustained infections in closed
intensive herds.

Cooperation Partners:

FLI, Riems

Funding: Pharmacosmos A/S Holbaek (Dänemark), 35.200 EUR

Project Details:
Uniferon is an injectable 20% iron dextran for prevention and treatment of anaemia in swine. 200 mg iron is routinely administered to piglets within the first days of life to prevent development of anaemia. Empirical observations show, that iron deficiency can develop within the first four weeks of life despite this early preventive measure due to the high growth rates of modern cross-bred pigs. While the product Uniferon can be used in flexible volumes, so that an adaptation of the iron amount administered is possible, the competitor product Forceris can only be used in a fixed dosage of 1.5 ml containing 200 mg iron -gleptoferron in combination with 45 mg toltrazuril as a coccidiostaticum. The advantage of this combinatory product to address two different diseases by one single shot is counteracted by the lack of adjustment of the necessary amount of iron to prevent anaemia as long as possible. Different iron treatments in suckling piglets should be evaluated to review the traditional recommendations for iron applications and adjust them according to the higher genetic potential for growth in modern pig breeds if necessary.

Project Details:
The aim of this project is to characterize the situation of S. suis-related disease outbreaks on farms. The main influence of PRRSV circulation on farms, specific S. suis genotypes and pathotypes on tonsils and predefined environmental factors on the occurrence and development of S. suis-related disease will be assessed. The aim is to elaborate recommendations for practice with regard to outbreak prevention on farms.

Cooperation Partners:

Kooperationspartner des EU Projektes PigsSuis (PROGRAM FOR INNOVATIVE GLOBAL PREVENTION OF STREPTOCOCCUS SUIS, Referenznummer 727966

Funding: SP Europäische Innovationspartnerschaften (Landwirtschaftskammer Niedersachsen), 89.794 EUR

Project Details:
In two pig farms in three subsequent nursery periods animal health data, daily weight gain and
treatments will be compared between two identical piglet rearing compartments. In one
compartment the drinking water pipes will be cleaned prior to arrival of piglets by an innovative
cleaning process. The cleaning process combines mechanical cleaning forces using a mobile
flushing device equipped with a constant pressure system, with a new chemical cleaning concept.
The cleaning substance is based on the synergistic interaction of vitamins, organic acids, metal
ions and detergents, each of which attacking different target structures of pathogens. The
process resulted in a strong antimicrobial efficacy and in destruction of extracellular nucleic acids
(e.g. genes coding for resistance against antimicrobials). The effectiveness of the cleaning
process will be verified by chemical and microbiological examination of water pipe deposits prior
to and after cleaning. The cost-effectiveness of the process will be evaluated by performance
data, expenditure of time and material costs.

Project Details:
The risk assessment tool for African swine fever (ASF traffic light)developed by the Verbund Transformationsforschung agrar Niedersachsen, University of Vechta, which is so far established in Germany and Switzerland, will be translated into Polish and applied on pig farms in Poland. The scores obtained are compared with those of German farms of the same size. Regional differences in biosecurity on pig farms are identified.

Cooperation Partners:

Barbara Grabkowsky, Verbund Transformationsforschung agrar Niedersachsen, Universität Vechta