Pregnancy maintenance and fetal loss assessment in Holstein cows through analyzing pregnancy-associated glycoproteins in milk

Fetal loss (FL) from the 45th day of gestation until calving can impose a significant economic burden on dairy farmers, resulting in lost profits and increased production costs. Pregnancy-associated glycoprotein (PAG) is commonly used for detecting pregnancy in cows. PAG is secreted by binucleated trophoblast cells of the placenta and regulated by more than 24 genes. The purpose of this study was to determine the PAG threshold for FL and a probability of pregnancy maintenance until calving based on milk PAG levels. Our results reveal that primiparous and multiparous cows that maintained pregnancy until the 40th week exhibited higher PAG sample-negative (SN) values in their milk in the 6th week of gestation than did those that experienced FL later in gestation. Pregnant cows with higher PAG SN values in the 6th week of gestation were more likely to maintain their pregnancies. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for predicting the probability of pregnancy maintenance was 0.722 for our prediction model. On the other hand, a milk PAG SN value of <0.192 indicated 95 % confidence that FL would occur between the 7th and 40th weeks of gestation. Milk PAG testing is a noninvasive sampling technique that does not induce additional stress in lactating cows. The study reveals that PAG SN values increase significantly in Holstein cows during the 6th week of gestation. The predictive model developed was effective in forecasting pregnancy outcomes up to the 40th week of gestation or calving. The model's performance is moderately good for field application and could be a useful tool for dairy producers.

Farmers' Perspectives of the Benefits and Risks in Precision Livestock Farming in the EU Pig and Poultry Sectors

More efficient livestock production systems are necessary, considering that only 41% of global meat demand will be met by 2050. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic crisis has clearly illustrated the necessity of building sustainable and stable agri-food systems. Precision Livestock Farming (PLF) offers the continuous capacity of agriculture to contribute to overall human and animal welfare by providing sufficient goods and services through the application of technical innovations like digitalization. However, adopting new technologies is a challenging issue for farmers, extension services, agri-business and policymakers. We present a review of operational concepts and technological solutions in the pig and poultry sectors, as reflected in 41 and 16 European projects from the last decade, respectively. The European trend of increasing broiler-meat production, which is soon to outpace pork, stresses the need for more outstanding research efforts in the poultry industry. We further present a review of farmers' attitudes and obstacles to the acceptance of technological solutions in the pig and poultry sectors using examples and lessons learned from recent European projects. Despite the low resonance at the research level, the investigation of farmers' attitudes and concerns regarding the acceptance of technological solutions in the livestock sector should be incorporated into any technological development.

Dust in pig buildings

It is well documented in the international scientific literature that airborne dust in pig houses can cause serious health problems for humans as well as for animals. Extensive research has been carried out in different countries during the last few decades to improve the scientific understanding of air quality issues related to intensive animal production. Research and review papers were presented at the international symposium on Dust Control in Animal Production Facilities, held in Denmark in 1999. Different techniques have been used in order to reduce dust burdens in pig confinement buildings, but up to date only the procedure of spraying oil or a mixture of oil and water has contributed to reducing the indoor dust concentrations significantly. This article summarizes the current level of understanding of dust issues in intensive animal production buildings, mainly on the basis of papers presented at the above-mentioned symposium.