Abordaje práctico sobre cómo mejorar el bienestar en los bovinos

Current challenges of humanity require a new paradigm for animal production, and invest time and attention to the development of new production techniques that take into account the principles of sustainability and animal welfare science. To do this, we must be committed to promoting animal welfare and health, ensure environmental sustainability, consumer satisfaction and profitability for producers. To change our relationship with animals there is no need for changes in market conditions or large investments, it is enough to know better the needs of the animals we raise, the management system adapted to its characteristics. Even in the most favorable management conditions, on farms that have technological resources and trained personnel, there is much to change, especially in the daily management of the animals. Some of the risks more evident in the traditional systems of beef production are: problems during parturition, morbidity and mortality of calves, lack of shade in the pastures, improper handling of animals, risk of injury, inadequate infrastructure, poor management practices during routine processing (marking, castration, vaccination, dehorning), poor welfare during loading, transport, unloading and slaughter. To remedy this, you can adopt good management practices, which have been shown to reduce risk and improve the welfare of cattle in different stages of the production chain. The objective of this review is to show some of the risks that reduce the welfare of cattle and examples of how the adoption of best management practices impact on improving the productivity of these production systems. Finally, some indicators for assessing welfare in production systems are shown.

Ambiente térmico y el bienestar de los cerdos en el período de descanso previo al sacrificio

The research aimed to evaluate the relationship between the thermal environment of the rest pens in a pig slaughterhouse and the surface temperature (ST) of the animals as well as the effect of intermittent water spraying on thermal comfort. There were two visits to slaughter industrial being in each selected three pens of rest, one for control treatment (no spray throughout the period) and two for the treatment of intermittent spraying water (30 minutes intervals with constant spray followed by 30 minutes then turned off). Assessments began at the time of discharging animals in which are taken the thermographic images from lots using an infrared thermographic camera. After housing in the pens, were registered the thermographic images and the respiratory frequency (RF) every five minutes for four hours. Were evaluated the temperature, relative humidity and temperature-humidity index (THI). Considering the values of THI was observed that the animals remained in a condition of comfort only at the time of his arrival at the slaughterhouse. The ST and RF of the animals kept in the pens without sprinkler system (control) showed a linear increase in function of time of day, with increasing temperature. The treatment with intermittent sprinkling of water was observed oscillatory behavior of the ST and RF, however it was always lower than the control treatment, even in times when the water sprinklers were turned off. The time required of spray to reduction and stabilization of the ST of the animals was limited to the combination of temperature and relative humidity, being estimated at 25 minutes at times of higher THI. The maximum environmental temperature during evaluation was 28.4 oC.