Impact of global climate change on the health,welfare and productivity of intensively housed livestock

Major scientific studies have shown that global warming(i.e.increasing average temperature of the Earth)is now a reality.The aims of this paper are to broadly review the underlining causes of global warming,the general effects of global warming on social and environmental systems and the specific effects of resulting from global warming phenomena severe fluctuations in weather patterns,particularly heat waves on livestock health,welfare and productivity.Finally this article aims to summarise some common sense climate control methods and more importantly to highlight the required future research and development(R&D)work that is necessary to achieve a new level of building environment control capability,and thus ensure that the intensive livestock industries will be able to cope with the changed external climate.With the increasing temperatures on a global scale,the most direct effect of the high temperature on the animals is heat stress,which has been proven to have a variety of negative effects on animal health,welfare and productivity.Different potential measures could be taken in future to alleviate the increased heat stress.Some of these measures are mere adaptations or improvements of current engineering solutions.However,facing the complex challenges of global warming and particularly resulting from it the rapid increase of the number of consecutive days with significantly higher than average temperatures will probably require novel solutions,including new designs based on solid engineering judgment,development of new engineering standards and codes to guide designs,the exploration of new and superior building materials,the need for better energy management,and the development of substantially more“intelligent”control systems that will balance changing exterior disturbances,interior building loads and demands to the biological needs of the occupants of the structures.

Detection of flock movement and behaviour of broiler chickens at different feeders using image analysis

The behaviour of broiler chickens has been extensively studied as a function of stocking density and environmental conditions,but limited information was reported in the scientific literature about the effect of feeder type on birds’feeding process.The main objective of this study was to assess the effects of three different feeder types in relation to the birds’behaviour in its surroundings.The analysed feeders were:tube-type with partition grid(F1);tube-type without partition grid(F2);and automatic type with partition grid(F3).The considered variables were:occupied area(OA);activity index(AI)(flock movement);total birds presented in the area(TB);and birds effectively eating(EE).OA and AI were calculated by computational image analysis while TB and EE were manually measured.The results indicated that the feeder type could have influenced the birds’behaviour regarding to OA(R2=0.56),TB(R2=0.48),and EE(R2=0.40),but AI(R2=0.01)was not found to be directly influenced by the feeder type.A higher percentage of birds effectively eating were found in F2(86.4%),which was the one with the largest free area to access the feed.Similar average number of total birds was found in F1,but with a lower percentage of individuals effectively eating(63.3%),which means that birds were nearby this feeder performing other behaviours.Since the assessed feeders were in the same house under the same conditions,it can be suggested that not only the free area to access the feed but potentially the design of feeders could have influenced the birds’feeding preference.The real beneficial effect of the adoption of partition grid on feed trays is still uncertain,and it is also unclear whether the financial value of reduced wastage would compensate the possible reduction in feed intake.