• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• 제22권9호
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• pp.1334-1340
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• 2009

Sufficient food supply for all humans was, is, and will remain one of the main priorities for mankind. The choice between food from crops or animals is related to philosophical, religious and ethical, but also cultural and economical, values. However, the concept of sustainable agriculture takes into account the organization of food supply through future generations. Not only quantity, but also quality is important, especially in relation to food safety and the method of production. Specifically, the aspect of animal welfare is becoming increasingly important with the focus on stewardship and stockmanship, i.e. responsibility of humans for their animals. In the future, implications for sustainability in animal production may be of more concern to stewardship paired by stockmanship, responsibility, consciousness and morality. The moral as a basic concept of sustainable agriculture is to maintain continuous development in harmony with nature to meet requirements in the world for living creatures including human beings to live in and steward. The objective of this paper is to discuss the above issues from different viewpoints on sustainable food supply, increasing food consumption and environmental protection.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• 제29권7호
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• pp.1060-1064
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• 2016

With regard to animal welfare concerns, behavioral information of weaned and mixed piglets is great interest in swine production. The aim of this study was to demonstrate the change in behavior of weaned piglets over time in two different groups (littermates and piglets from different litters) after mixing. Two weaned groups of piglets (72 individuals in all) housed either with littermates or with foreign piglets (6 individuals in $1.8m{\times}1.4m$ pens, $28^{\circ}C{\pm}1^{\circ}C$ temperature) were observed with the aid of video technology for 9 consecutive hours on days 1, 2, and 3 after mixing. The behaviors of the weaned piglets in the control and treatment groups were significantly different among the days after mixing. Piglets were, however, more active and aggressive in the groups with foreign piglets. This study reveals a lower level of agonistic behavior in groups of piglets that came from the same litter.

• 한국유기농업학회지
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• 제31권4호
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• pp.469-477
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• 2023

Animal welfare has been gradually gathering more attention from consumers over time, making it increasingly important to assess the level of stress experienced by livestock. Traditionally, stress has been measured by collecting blood to assess cortisol levels, an action that can be considered distressing for the animal. Therefore, we aimed to explore the feasibility of using hair as an alternative medium to blood for stress assessment. We utilized B/F (blood collected at the farm), B/A (blood collected after transport to the auction), and H/A (hair collected at the auction after blood sampling) from calves at the age of 7-9 months transported from the farm to the auction. Hair underwent a washing and extraction process to utilize hair extracts, while blood was centrifuged to analyze using ELISA. The cortisol concentration in the blood was significantly higher in B/A compared to B/F (p<0.05), confirming that the calves experienced stress during transportation. Additionally, H/A was significantly lower than both B/A and B/F (p<0.0001). These results emphasized that cortisol in hair is not suitable for investigating short-term stress in livestock, as it is with blood. While measuring stress indices using hair may not be appropriate for replacing blood, it is considered a highly suitable practice for animal welfare, and further research in this area should be continued.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• 제57권3호
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• pp.9.1-9.5
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• 2015

Background: A simple binary scoring system (SBSS) was developed and used to assess the welfare measures of commercial broiler chickens in South Korea. We also correlated welfare measures with environmental parameters of broiler house. Our measures of welfare included lameness, hock burn (HB) and foot pad dermatitis (FPD), whilst environmental parameters included air temperature, relative humidity, air speed, light intensity, air quality (in particular carbon dioxide ($CO_2$) and ammonia ($NH_3$) concentrations) and airborne microbes. Results: The effect of environmental parameters on welfare measures was apparent even on 10-day-old broilers. A non-parametric correlation analysis revealed significant correlations between environmental parameters and welfare measures. The key environmental parameters were relative humidity and light intensity. The results indicate that there is a need for proper control of environmental conditions on poultry farms, which could reduce health problems and subsequently reduce disease and mortality. Conclusions: In conclusion, the simplicity of SBSS makes it preferable over more complex scoring systems and allows a farmer to more easily assess the welfare measures on their own farm.

• 한국산학기술학회논문지
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• 제21권11호
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• pp.825-832
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• 2020

소의 발정을 정확하게 탐지하는 것은 번식률을 향상시키는데 매우 중요하며, 현재 발정기 소의 행동 특성들을 활용한 다양한 발정탐지 기술들이 개발되고 있다. 본 연구에서는 우리나라 고유품종인 한우의 발정기 행동변화에 대한 기초자료를 수집하기 위하여 발정기 한우의 활동량, 승가행동 및 발성횟수 등에 대해 조사하였다. 총 4두의 한우 경산우를 공시하였으며, 각 개체별로 목걸이형 생체정보 수집장치(Bio-telemetry device)를 설치하였다. 발정이 확인된 날을 포함하여 발정 2일 전부터 발정 후 3일까지 총 6일간 이동거리, 승가행동 및 발성음을 비교 분석한 결과, 발정 2일 전부터 발정 1일 전까지 이동거리의 변화가 거의 없었으나, 발정이 확인된 당일부터 급격히 증가하였으며(p<0.001), 발정 후 1일 후부터는 서서히 감소하기 시작하였다. 또한 소의 활동량이 낮보다 밤 시간대에 더 활발한 것으로 나타났다. 반면, 승가행동은 발정 2일 전부터 발생빈도가 점점 증가하기 시작하여 발정 당일에 가장 높게 나타났으며(p<0.01), 전 시간대에 걸쳐서 불특정하게 나타나는 것을 확인할 수 있었다. 한편, 발성음의 경우 발정 당일에는 발성음 빈도가 증가하는 경향을 보였으나 유의적인 차이가 없었다(p>0.05). 발정기 한우의 승가행동은 발정 2일전부터 시작해서 발정 당일에 가장 높게 나타나는 특성이 있기 때문에 활동량보다 우선적으로 발정을 예측할 수 있는 지표로써 활용 가능할 것으로 보이며, 이 두 가지 지표를 함께 활용한다면 한우의 발정탐지율을 향상시키는데 도움이 될 것으로 판단된다. 발정탐지율을 높이기 위해서는 한우의 발정기 행동 특성과 관련하여 더욱 다양한 정보들이 필요할 것이다.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• 제61권6호
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• pp.366-370
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• 2019

Overweight and obesity induce serious health problems that exert negative effects on dog's welfare. Body condition score (BCS) is a common method to evaluate the body fat mass in animals. By palpating and observing fats under the skin it is possible to predict animal's body fat accumulation condition. BCS is also a useful tool to estimate body fat composition in dogs. However, BCS can be subjective when it was performed by non-professionals like pet's owners. To develop a method to avoid the misevaluation of BCS twenty-four Beagles were enrolled and performed BCS evaluation. In addition, the length of chest and abdominal girths were measured. In correlation analysis, the sizes of chest and abdominal girth were significantly correlated with BCS. Especially, the difference and ratio of the chest and abdominal length were highly correlated with the BCS. With that, we suggested that this simple measurement of chest and abdominal girths by a measuring tape would be an effective method to estimate BCS scores in dogs that helps non-professionals to manage their own dog's nutritional condition by monitoring body fat accumulation condition.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• 제29권6호
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• pp.895-900
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• 2016

The present study aims to confirm the influence of a horse-riding lesson program (HRLP) on the stress level of horses and riders by respectively analyzing their salivary cortisol concentration. Twenty-four healthy horses and 23 riders participated in this study. The horses were randomly classified into two groups for the horse riding lesson program: Class 1 (for the beginner lesson) and Class 2 (for the intermediate lesson). The Class 1 group consisted of 12 horses and 12 riders, while the Class 2 group consisted of 12 horses and 11 riders. Salivettes cotton wool swabs were used for saliva collection and the saliva analyses were conducted using a two-way analysis of variance for repeated measures with SAS version 8. As for the results, the average salivary cortisol concentration of all horses before HRLP significantly increased compared to the baseline (p<0.001) while it decreased after the HRLP. The results of the salivary cortisol concentration of the riders were similar to the horses' results. However, there was no difference during the HRLP between Class 1 and Class 2 in the horse or rider groups. The results suggest that the HRLP did not influence the stress level of the horses or riders. Thus, this study provides the necessary information and guidelines for future studies on stress in horses during riding and gives insight into better horse welfare and management options.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• 제31권9호
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• pp.1525-1534
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• 2018

Objective: The aim of this study was to examine the use of outcome-based observations within Assured Dairy Farm scheme (ADF), Soil Association Organic Standards (SA), and cross compliance (CC) farm assessment reports. Methods: A total of 449 ADF reports, 37 SA reports and 26 CC reports were analyzed and their objective comments categorized as either resource-based or outcome-based. Results: A mean of 61.0% of ADF questions were responded to with comments, in comparison to 25.0% of SA and, 21.0% of CC report questions. The SA and CC reports had significantly more outcome-based comments than the ADF (p<0.001). The assessors' tendency of choosing resource-based approach was revealed in the questionnaire results. Conclusion: Generally, the comments were comprehensive and contained professional judgements. Large numbers of comments provided in the ADF reports were mostly compliant and resource-based evidence, which serves as proof of assessment rather than aiding the certifying process. The inclusion of specific welfare outcome measures in the SA inspection likely increased the use of outcome-based comments in the reports, irrespective of whether the farm achieved compliance with a given standards. The CC scheme, on the other hand, focused on providing outcome-based evidence to justify noncompliant decisions.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• 제21권1호
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• pp.1-5
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• 2008

To analyze genetic effects on milk production traits, 164 unrelated Italian Jersey cows reared in 15 farms located in Southern Italy were characterized at the growth hormone locus. Using a Polymerase Chain Reaction-Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism protocol all three possible genotypes for the Leucine/Valine polymorphism were identified even if in the considered population the number of homozygous animals (Leucine/Leucine = 36; Valine/Valine = 28) was smaller than Leucine/Valine (n = 100) cows; the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium was verified. Statistical analysis showed that daily milk yield in the Leucine/Leucine genotype was higher (p<0.01) than in Leucine/Valine (22.76 kg vs. 16.96 kg ); cows with Leucine/Valine genotype differed significantly from Leucine/Leucine and Valine/Valine genotypes particularly in fat (4.95% vs. 4.13% and 4.82%, respectively) and protein content (4.00% vs. 3.47% and 3.79%, respectively). No significant effect on lactation length was observed.

• 한국수정란이식학회지
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• 제32권4호
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• pp.305-310
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• 2017

Miniature pig (minipig) has been considered as an important laboratory animal in the developmental biotechnology researches with respect to xenotransplantation, stem cell, somatic cell nuclear transfer and embryo transfer. Given that the laboratory minipigs are normally housed at an indoor facility, they pass the time with lying or sleeping unless it is feeding time. Therefore, it is necessary to provide environmental enrichments to satisfy their innate needs and to lessen atypical behaviors caused by stress, on the purpose of welfare. We quantitatively investigated the type of preferable enrichment for the laboratory minipigs as well as its effect on their daily life. They presented a great interest to the pliable pail but a rapid loss of attraction to non-preferable enrichments. When the daily life of the single housed minipigs was quantified based on duration of playing or resting, they were more actively engaged in lively activities in the presence of enrichments. In addition, the provision of enrichments could effectively alleviate the conflicts during group housing when new pen mate was introduced, resulting in reduction of wound cases. We believe the considerations of animal welfare are essential to the conduct of better research because animals in the non-stressful environment will be more physiologically stable and provide more reliable results in the animal experiments.