• Title/Summary/Keyword: Animal welfare

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Development of a Biomimetic Wheeled Robot with Autonomous Eating Functionality (자율섭취기능을 갖는 바퀴구동형 생체모방로봇 개발)

  • Cho Ik-Jin;Lee Yun-Jung
    • Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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    • v.12 no.6
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    • pp.573-579
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    • 2006
  • Most of the recently developed robots are human friendly robots which imitate an animal or human such as entertainment robot, biomimetic robot and humanoid robot. Interest in these robots is increased because the social trend is focused on health, welfare, and graying. By these social backgrounds, robots become more human friendly and suitable or home or personal environment. The more biomimetic robots resemble living creature, the more human feels familiarity. Human feels close friendship not only when feeding a pet, but also when watching a pet having the food. Most of entertainment robots and pet robots use internal-type batteries and have a self-recharging function. Entertainment robots and pet robots with internal-type batteries are not able to operate during charging the battery. So far there have been a few robots that do not depend on an internal battery. However, they need a bulky energy conversion unit and a slug or foods as an energy source, which is not suitable for home or personal application. In this paper, we introduce a new biomimetic entertainment robot with autonomous eating functionality, called EPRO-1(Eating Pet RObot version 1). The EPRO-1 is able to eat a food (a small battery), by itself and evacuate. We describe the design concept of the autonomous eating mechanism of the EPRO-1, characteristics of sub-parts of the manufactured mechanism and its control system.

The Effects of Food Safety Accident on the Consumption of Eggs : Focusing on the Pesticide-related Accident (식품안전사고가 계란 소비에 미치는 영향: 계란의 살충제검출사고를 중심으로)

  • Han, Byeol;Yang, Sung-Bum
    • Korean Journal of Organic Agriculture
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    • v.27 no.1
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    • pp.17-32
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    • 2019
  • The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of pesticide-related accident on prices and sales of eggs and the perception of food safety accidents among consumers. For this, we analyzed the impact of the pesticide incident on consumers' purchases by separating large discount stores and eco-friendly specialty stores with econometrics methods. In addition, the value changes for each egg certification were analyzed after the accident. Perception of food safety accidents was conducted through a survey to investigate the awareness of the pesticide-related accidents, changes in purchases, and the causes of the pesticide accidents. Furthermore, the risk analysis was conducted. This results show the importance of trust and communication in food safety accidents between distributors, consumers and concerned authorities. Also, after the accident, consumers' interest and premium exist in the breeding process such as animal welfare, not only in the final product. Therefore in order to actively respond to food safety accidents such as pesticides-related accident, response and improvement are necessary considering various aspects such as risk assessment, risk management, and risk communication.

A Study on the Changes in Consumer Perceptions of the Relationship between Ethical Consumption and Consumption Value: Focusing on Analyzing Ethical Consumption and Consumption Value Keyword Changes Using Big Data (윤리적 소비와 소비가치의 관계에 대한 소비자 인식 변화: 소셜 빅데이터를 활용한 윤리적 소비와 소비가치의 키워드 변화 분석을 중심으로)

  • Shin, Eunjung;Koh, Ae-Ran
    • Human Ecology Research
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    • v.59 no.2
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    • pp.245-259
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    • 2021
  • The purpose of this study was to analyze big data to identify the sub-dimensions of ethical consumption, as well as the consumption value associated with ethical consumption that changes over time. For this study, data were collected from Naver and Daum using the keyword 'ethical consumption' and frequency and matrix data were extracted through Textom, for the period January 1, 2016, to December 31, 2018. In addition, a two-way mode network analysis was conducted using the UCINET 6.0 program and visualized using the NetDraw function. The results of text mining show increasing keyword frequency year-on-year, indicating that interest in ethical consumption has grown. The sub-dimensions derived for 2014 and 2015 are fair trade, ethical consumption, eco-friendly products, and cooperatives and for 2016 are fair trade, ethical consumption, eco-friendly products and animal welfare. The results of deriving consumption value keywords were classified as emotional value, social value, functional value and conditional value. The influence of functional value was found to be growing over time. Through network analysis, the relationship between the sub-dimensions of ethical consumption and consumption values derived each year from 2014 to 2018 showed a significantly strong correlation between eco-friendly product consumption and emotional value, social value, functional value and conditional value.

The effect of Korea's policy to support the purchase of raw materials for export of livestock products

  • Jaesung Cho;Sanghyen Chai;Hanpil Moon
    • Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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    • v.49 no.4
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    • pp.761-769
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    • 2022
  • The Livestock Raw Material Purchase Fund is a policy to increase the export of livestock products by providing loans to exporters of livestock products (including byproducts). The policy started in 2015 and the annual budget is about 26 billion won. However, a quantitative evaluation of policy effects has not yet been made. Therefore, in this study, the economic surplus of the policy was analyzed using the equilibrium displacement model (EDM). From the results of the welfare analysis, from 2016 to 2019, producer surplus in the chicken and duck market increased by KRW 70.9 billion, while consumer surplus decreased by KRW 70 billion. In other words, the total economic surplus of the chicken and duck market increased by about one billion won during the same period due to the increase in export demand according to the policy. Therefore, the Livestock Raw Material Purchase Fund can be viewed as a policy to maintain and increase export demand for export livestock products and to improve the economic surplus of the livestock product market. Also, since the policy is based on loans, it does not place a burden on the government's finances. Therefore, this policy should continue in the future.

Development of Livestock Manure Additives for Ammonia Reduction in High School Field Education (고등학교 현장 교육에서의 암모니아 저감용 축분첨가제 개발)

  • Woo-Whan Jang;Sang-Chul Mun;In-Hag Choi
    • Journal of Environmental Science International
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    • v.32 no.10
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    • pp.741-744
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    • 2023
  • This study focused on high school laboratory research and the main purpose was to develop alternative additives for livestock waste and ammonia volatilization methods with high school students as participants and to provide information to business owners based on the results. Compared to the control groups, The bentonite and illite treatment groups had similar ammonia volatilization, pH, EC, and total nitrogen content. In particular, the alum and aluminum chloride mixed treatment group showed low pH and ammonia volatilization, and high EC and total nitrogen content for poultry litter. As a result, when focusing on high school laboratory research, the alum and aluminum chloride mixed agent treatment fulfilled its role as an alternative additive for ammonia reduction. In addition, this approach can be suggested as a method to solve difficulties in adapting to the field through a practical cooperative relationship with livestock farms.

Beak Trimming Methods - Review -

  • Glatz, P.C.
    • Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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    • v.13 no.11
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    • pp.1619-1637
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    • 2000
  • A review was undertaken to obtain information on the range of beak-trimming methods available or under development. Beak-trimming of commercial layer replacement pullets is a common yet critical management tool that can affect the performance for the life of the flock. The most obvious advantage of beak-trimming is a reduction in cannibalism although the extent of the reduction in cannibalism depends on the strain, season, and type of housing, flock health and other factors. Beak-trimming also improves feed conversion by reducing food wastage. A further advantage of beak-trimming is a reduction in the chronic stress associated with dominance interactions in the flock. Beak-trimming of birds at 7-10 days is favoured by Industry but research over last 10 years has shown that beak-trimming at day-old causes the least stress on birds and efforts are needed to encourage Industry to adopt the practice of beak-trimming birds at day-old. Proper beak-trimming can result in greatly improved layer performance but improper beak-trimming can ruin an other wise good flock of hens. Re-trimming is practiced in most flocks, although there are some flocks that only need one trimming. Given the continuing welfare scrutiny of using a hot blade to cut the beak, attempts have been made to develop more welfare friendly methods of beak-trimming. Despite the developments in design of hot blade beak-trimmers the process has remained largely unchanged. That is, a red-hot blade cuts and cauterises the beak. The variables in the process are blade temperature, cauterisation time, operator ability, severity of trimming, age of trimming, strain of bird and beak length. This method of beak-trimming is still overwhelmingly favoured in Industry and there appears to be no other alternative procedures that are more effective. Sharp secateurs have been used trim the upper beak of both layers and turkeys. Bleeding from the upper mandible ceases shortly after the operation, and despite the regrowth of the beak a reduction of cannibalism has been reported. Very few differences have been noted between behaviour and production of the hot blade and cold blade cut chickens. This method has not been used on a large scale in Industry. There are anecdotal reports of cannibalism outbreaks in birds with regrown beaks. A robotic beak-trimming machine was developed in France, which permitted simultaneous, automated beak-trimming and vaccination of day-old chicks of up to 4,500 chickens per hour. Use of the machine was not successful because if the chicks were not loaded correctly they could drop off the line, receive excessive beak-trimming or very light trimming. Robotic beak-trimming was not effective if there was a variation in the weight or size of chickens. Capsaicin can cause degeneration of sensory nerves in mammals and decreases the rate of beak regrowth by its action on the sensory nerves. Capsaicin is a cheap, non-toxic substance that can be readily applied at the time of less severe beak-trimming. It suffers the disadvantage of causing an extreme burning sensation in operators who come in contact with the substance during its application to the bird. Methods of applying the substance to minimise the risk to operators of coming in contact with capsaicin need to be explored. A method was reported which cuts the beaks with a laser beam in day-old chickens. No details were provided on the type of laser used, or the severity of beak-trimming, but by 16 weeks the beaks of laser trimmed birds resembled the untrimmed beaks, but without the bill tip. Feather pecking and cannibalism during the laying period were highest among the laser trimmed hens. Currently laser machines are available that are transportable and research to investigate the effectiveness of beak-trimming using ablasive and coagulative lasers used in human medicine should be explored. Liquid nitrogen was used to declaw emu toes but was not effective. There was regrowth of the claws and the time and cost involved in the procedure limit the potential of using this process to beak-trim birds.

Risk Assessment of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza by Comparison of Biosecurity Level in Domestic Poultry Farms (국내 가금농장의 차단방역수준비교에 따른 고병원성 조류인플루엔자 발생 위험도 평가)

  • So, Hyun Hee;Bae, Yeonji;Mo, Inpil
    • Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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    • v.46 no.4
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    • pp.313-325
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    • 2019
  • In most cases of HPAI (highly pathogenic avian influenza) outbreaks, stamping-out operations are initiated by officially designating the affected premise, which is subsequently followed by depopulation of infected flocks. The primary objective of this study was to develop an evaluation method that correlates the level of biosecurity and the risk of having an HPAI outbreak in domestic poultry farms. A total of eight farms were selected nationwide, including layer farms, broiler farms, and an animal welfare type farm. The biosecurity level of the chosen poultry farms was assessed based on a total scoring index of 183 divided into three categories, general management (51), quarantine management (106), and sanitation management (26). Conclusively, the five layer farms (JS, GE, CS, HS, OE), scored higher overall scores compared to the animal welfare farm (CH) and broiler farms (JG, LB). In terms of scoring, which adds up to a total of 183 points, most layer farms scored between 130 and 157, while the two broiler farms and the welfare farm scored 45, 75 and 70, respectively. Next, an independent HPAI risk assessment of the farms was carried out. Regarding the correlation between biosecurity levels and HPAI risks, in the farms that presented a higher overall score in terms of biosecurity and outweighed the risks of HPAI, they tended to earn more points in the quarantine management category. The results of this study suggest that a viable system for evaluating biosecurity levels can establish strong correlations with the risk of having HPAI.

Comparative study on production, reproduction and functional traits between Fleckvieh and Braunvieh cattle

  • Cziszter, Ludovic-Toma;Ilie, Daniela-Elena;Neamt, Radu-Ionel;Neciu, Florin-Cristian;Saplacan, Silviu-Ilie;Gavojdian, Dinu
    • Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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    • v.30 no.5
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    • pp.666-671
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    • 2017
  • Objective: Aim of the current comparative study was to evaluate production outputs, reproduction efficiency and functional traits in dual-purpose Fleckvieh and Braunvieh cows, reared under temperate European conditions. Methods: A data-set from 414 Fleckvieh and 42 Braunvieh cows and 799 lactations was analysed. ID tag number, milk yield per milking session, number of steps/interval and milk conductivity were recorded and collected daily using AfiMilk 3.076 A-DU software (Afimilk Ltd., Kibbutz, Israel). Production and milk quality data were taken from the results of the official performance recordings and the reproductive outputs of cows were recorded by the research stations veterinarians. Comparisons between the two genotypes were carried out using the one way analysis of variance protocol, with categorical factor being considered the breed of cows. All the statistical inferences were carried out using Statistica software (StatSoft Inc., Tulsa, OK, USA). Results: Fleckvieh cows significantly outperformed ($p{\leq}0.05$) the Braunvieh herd, with average milk yields of $5,252.1{\pm}35.79kg$ and $4,897.6{\pm}128.94kg$, respectively. Age at first calving was significantly ($p{\leq}0.01$) influenced by the breed, with Fleckvieh heifers being more precocious ($32.8{\pm}0.29mo$) compared to those of Braunvieh breed ($35.7{\pm}0.84mo$). Reproduction efficiency as defined by the number of inseminations per gestation, calving interval, dystocia, days dry and days open, was not influenced by genotype (p>0.05). Incidences of sub-clinical mastitis, clinical mastitis, lameness and abortions were not influenced by the breed factor (p>0.05). Stay-ability of cows was significantly ($p{\leq}0.001$) influenced by genotype, with Braunvieh cows having an average age at culling of $117.88{\pm}11.78$ months compared to $90.88{\pm}2.89$ months in Fleckvieh. Conclusion: Overall, results have shown that genotype significantly influenced milk yield, age at first calving and longevity.

Effect of stress during slaughter on carcass characteristics and meat quality in tropical beef cattle

  • Carrasco-Garcia, Apolo A.;Pardio-Sedas, Violeta T.;Leon-Banda, Gloria G.;Ahuja-Aguirre, Concepcion;Paredes-Ramos, Pedro;Hernandez-Cruz, Bertha C.;Murillo, Vicente Vega
    • Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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    • v.33 no.10
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    • pp.1656-1665
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    • 2020
  • Objective: This study aimed to determine the effects of stress during slaughter of beef cattle on physiological parameters, carcass, and meat quality at a Federal Inspection Type slaughterhouse located in the southeast of Mexico. Methods: A total of 448 carcasses of male Zebu×European steers with an average age of 36 months were included. Carcass assessment of presence of bruises and bruise characteristics was carried out on each half-carcass. Blood variable indicators of stress (packed cell volume, neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio, glucose, cortisol concentration) and meat quality parameters (pH, color, shear force, drip loss) were evaluated. Results: Of the 448 carcasses evaluated, 81% of the carcasses showed at least one bruise; one bruise was detected in 36.6% and two bruises in 27.0% of animals. Of the 775 bruises found, 69.2% of the bruises were grade 1 in region 3. Of the 448 carcasses studied, 69.6% showed hyperglycemia (6.91 mmol/L); 44.3% and 22.7% showed high (74.7 ng/mL) and extremely high (108.8 ng/mL) cortisol levels, respectively, indicative of inadequate handling of animals during preslaughter and slaughter. Of the carcasses evaluated, 90.4% had a pH ≥5.8 with an average of pH 6.3. In both pH groups, meat samples showed L values >37.0 (81.6%) and a shear force >54.3 N; meat pH≥5.8 group showed a drip loss of 2.5%. These findings were indicative of dark, firm, and dry (DFD) meat. According to principal component analysis, grades 1 and 2 bruises in region 3 and grade 1 bruises in region 5 were highly associated with cortisol, drip loss, and color parameters b and h and were negatively associated with L, a, and C. Conclusion: The bruises probably caused by stress-inducing situations triggered DFD meat. Appropriate changes in handling routines in operating conditions should be made to minimize stress to animals during the slaughter process to improve animal welfare and meat quality.

At slaughtering and post mortem characteristics on Traditional market ewes and Halal market ewes in Tuscany

  • Sargentini, Clara;Tocci, Roberto;Campostrini, Matteo;Pippi, Eleonora;Iaconisi, Valeria
    • Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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    • v.58 no.9
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    • pp.35.1-35.10
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    • 2016
  • Background: The aim of this work was the comparison between the carcass and the meat ewes of the regional Traditional market and the Islamic religious (Halal) market. Methods: Thirty and 20 at the end of career traditional market and Halal market ewes were slaughtered following the EC (European Council, 2009) animal welfare guidelines. Live weight of ewes was taken and dressing percentage of carcasses was calculated. On every carcass zoometric measurement and the evaluation trough the EU grid rules were performed. On the Musculus longissimus thoracis of 12 Traditional market carcasses and 11 Halal market carcasses the physical-chemical and nutritional analysis were performed. Consumer tests for liking meat ewe were performed in order to find consumer's preference level for Traditional and Halal markets ewe meat. Considering as fixed factor the ewe meat market (Traditional and Halal), results were submitted to oneway Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and to Principal Component Analysis (PCA). Results: The Halal market ewes have shown lower dressing percentages ($42.91{\pm}0.82$ vs $46.42{\pm}0.69$) and lower conformation score ($4.5{\pm}0.5$ vs $7.8{\pm}0.4$). The Halal market meat showed higher cooking loss in oven ($37.83{\pm}1.20$ vs $32.03{\pm}1.15%$), lesser Chroma value ($18.63{\pm}0.70$ vs $21.84{\pm}0.67$), and lesser Hue angle value ($0.26{\pm}0.02$ vs $0.34{\pm}0.02$). This product had also lower fat percentage ($4.2{\pm}0.4$ vs $7.09{\pm}0.4$). The traditional market meat had higher percentage in monounsatured fatty acids (MUFA) ($43.84{\pm}1.05$ vs $38.22{\pm}1.10$), while the Halal market meat had higher percentage in ${\omega}3$ poliunsatured fatty acids (PUFA) ($5.04{\pm}0.42$ vs $3.60{\pm}0.40$). The consumer test showed as the ewe meat was appreciate by the consumers. Conclusions: Both meat typologies have shown good nutritional characteristics. The traditional market meat had higher MUFA composition, and a better MUFA/satured fatty acids (SFA) ratio, while the Halal market meat had higher PUFA composition. These results were also supported by the PCA. The consumers preferred the traditional market meat.