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To verify the effect of 2 housing systems (with and without a pool and an ample outdoor lot) on behavior and milk yield, 45 lactating buffalo cows were group-housed in a free stall open-sided barn with concrete floor where they re...
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To verify the effect of 2 housing systems (with and without a pool and an ample outdoor lot) on behavior and milk yield, 45 lactating buffalo cows were group-housed in a free stall open-sided barn with concrete floor where they received 10 m~2 /head as space allowance (group NP); 43 cows were group-housed in a similar barn, but had access to an outdoor yard (36 m~2/head) and a concrete pool of 208 m~2 (group WP). Animals were subjected to 8 sessions of instantaneous scan sampling at approximately 10-d intervals. Behavioral variables were expressed as proportions of subjects observed in each category of posture and activity. In addition, rapid behaviors such as agonistic, social, and reproductive interactions, social licking, and self-grooming were recorded continuously. These variables were expressed as number of interactions per animal. At the end of each hour of observation, temperature and relative humidity were recorded. In WP the proportion of animals observed wallowing was 0.476 ± 0:034, whereas lower proportions were observed standing (0.389 ± 0.029) or lying (0.141 ± 0.021) outside the pool. In NP the proportions of animals observed standing and lying were 0.452 ± 0.042 and 0.548 ± 0.042, respectively. A significant relationship between mean temperatures recorded on observation days and proportion of animals in the pool was observed (r_s = 0.41). Fewer animals from group WP were observed idling compared with buffaloes from group NP (0.44 ± 0.024 vs. 0.509 ± 0.024, respectively), whereas more WP animals were involved in investigative activities than NP cows (0.099 ± 0.009 vs. 0.042 ± 0.009, respectively). A greater number of social interactions (sniffing and nuzzling) and social lickings were observed in group WP than in group NP (0.120 ± 0.010 vs. 0.067 ± 0.010, and 0.151 ± 0.018 vs. 0.090 ± 0.018, respectively). The WP buffalo cows had a greater milk yield than NP cows (11.73 ± 0.31 vs. 10.78 ± 0.28 kg/d, respectively), whereas no differences
between groups were observed for protein (4.86 ± 0.04 vs. 4.80 ± 0.03% for WP and NP, respectively) and fat contents (8.49 ± 0.14 vs. 8.38 ± 0.13% for WP and NP, respectively). We conclude that the provision of a pool and an ample outdoor paddock can have beneficial effects on welfare and milk production of buffaloes.
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The present study was aimed to assess the effect of information about the farming system and welfare of artificially (AR) and ewe-reared lambs (ER) on meat acceptability. An 84-consumer panel was asked to give three types of evalu...
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The present study was aimed to assess the effect of information about the farming system and welfare of artificially (AR) and ewe-reared lambs (ER) on meat acceptability. An 84-consumer panel was asked to give three types of evaluation for both products: tasting without information (perceived liking); information without tasting (expected liking); tasting with information (actual liking). For both products, the expected liking was significantly different from the perceived liking (P < 0.001), thus indicating that a disconfirmation occurred. The consumers found ER meat worse than expected (negative disconfirmation) and AR meat better than expected (positive disconfirmation). No significant difference between perceived and actual liking was observed for ER lamb (P > 0.05), whereas, for the meat produced by AR lambs actual liking was lower than perceived liking (P < 0.001). However, consumers did not completely assimilate their liking in the direction of expectations, as indicated by the fact that expectancy for AR lamb was significantly lower than actual acceptability (P < 0.001). Mean scores of perceived liking were higher for the meat produced by AR animals as compared to ER lambs (P < 0.05). Conversely, expected and actual liking scores were higher for meat from ER lambs than for meat from AR animals (P < 0.001 and P < 0.05, respectively). These results show that information about animal welfare, expressed in terms of rearing conditions, can be a major determinant of animal-based food acceptability, thus providing a potential tool for meat differentiation.
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We present the first detailed measurement of incoherent photoproduction of neutral pions to a discrete state of a residual nucleus. The ~(12)C(?, p~0)~(12)C_(44 MeV)~* reaction has been studied with the Glasgow photon tagger at MA...
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We present the first detailed measurement of incoherent photoproduction of neutral pions to a discrete state of a residual nucleus. The ~(12)C(?, p~0)~(12)C_(44 MeV)~* reaction has been studied with the Glasgow photon tagger at MAMI employing a new technique which uses the large solid angle Crystal Ball detector both as a p~0 spectrometer and to detect decay photons from the excited residual nucleus. The technique has potential applications to a broad range of future nuclear measurements with the Crystal Ball and similar detector systems elsewhere. Such data are sensitive to the propagation of the A in the nuclear medium and will give the first information on matter transition form factors from measurements with an electromagnetic probe. The incoherent cross sections are compared to two theoretical predictions including a A-hole model.
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This study aimed to verify whether consumers confirm their willingness to pay extra costs for higher animal welfare standards in a situation where a potential purchase performed by consumers, such as the Vickrey auction, is used. ...
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This study aimed to verify whether consumers confirm their willingness to pay extra costs for higher animal welfare standards in a situation where a potential purchase performed by consumers, such as the Vickrey auction, is used. A 104-member consumer panel was asked to rate its willingness to pay (WTP) for plain and low-fat yogurts in 3 information conditions: tasting without information (blind WTP), information about animal welfare without tasting (expected WTP), tasting with information about animal welfare (actual WTP). Information was provided to the consumers under the form of labels indicating the level of animal cleanliness and freedom of movement (5-point scale, from poor to very good). Consumers were influenced by information about low standards of animal welfare (low cleanliness and low freedom of movement) and moved their willingness to pay in the direction of their expectations. However, the discrepancy between expectancy and actual WTP was not totally assimilated, indicating that WTP was also expressed in relation to other aspects (e.g., the sensory properties of the products). Conversely, the information concerning high standards of animal welfare (high cleanliness and high freedom of movement) was able to affect expectancy but had an effect on actual WTP only when the most acceptable yogurt was offered to the consumers. In the case of discordant information on animal welfare, partly indicating high levels of welfare (freedom of movements) and low levels of welfare (cleanliness), expected WTP was always lower than blind WTP. However, when the least acceptable product was presented, they completely assimilated their actual WTP to the expectations. Conversely, with the most acceptable yogurt, no assimilation occurred and sensory properties prevailed in orienting consumer WTP. Within each product, consumers expressed a higher WTP for products with labels indicating high welfare
standards as compared with yogurts with labels reporting intermediate and low welfare standard. These results show that information about animal welfare, if given to the consumers, can be a major determinant of consumer WTP for animal-based food products. However, information about high standards of animal welfare should be paired with products presenting a good eating quality.
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摘要 :
This Letter was published online on 17 November 2006 with an incorrect reference citation in the caption of Fig. 1. The caption of Fig. 1 should read as "The unpolarized (a) and the helicity dependent (b) total inclusive photoabso...
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This Letter was published online on 17 November 2006 with an incorrect reference citation in the caption of Fig. 1. The caption of Fig. 1 should read as "The unpolarized (a) and the helicity dependent (b) total inclusive photoabsorption cross section on ~2H obtained in this work (filled circles) are compared to previous unpolarized results [10] (open circles), [19] (stars), and to the predictions of the nuclear AFS model [3]. The predicted sum of all free NΠ channels from the MAID [20,21] analysis is also shown up to E_γ = 450 MeV. Only statistical errors are shown.". The caption has been corrected as of 10 January 2007. The caption is incorrect in the printed version of the journal.
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