Factors influencing farmers' responses to welfare legislation: A case study of gestation sow housing in Flanders (Belgium)   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

Frank A.M. Tuyttens  Ester Struelens  Suzy Van Gansbeke  Bart Ampe 《Livestock Science》2008,116(1-3):289-299

In the light of the EU ban on individual confinement of gestating sows which will have to be fully implemented by 2013, a survey was conducted among a representative sample of Flemish pig producers. The questionnaire was sent by post to 250 farmers in 2003 and 352 farmers in 2005 of which 219 and 296, respectively, provided valid responses via telephone. The percentage of respondents housing (some of) their sows in group was 10.5% in 2003 and 16.2% in 2005. These farmers were more likely to have a successor than farmers housing their sows individually. The most common group housing systems were free access stalls (24%) followed by electronic feeding stations (21%), ad libitum feeding (20%), feeding stalls/troughs (18%), and drop/trickle feeding systems (13%). Interval (4%) and electronic feed dispensers (0%) were very rare in Flanders. The main criteria for having chosen a particular group housing system related to sow health and welfare, investment costs and amount of labour. The relative importance of economic reasons has increased over time. Users were generally rather satisfied with their group housing system. Farmers using group housing for all their sows were more satisfied than farmers using both group and individual housing. Users of ad libitum feeding systems (and feeding stalls/troughs) were more satisfied than users of electronic feeding stations. A minority of respondents was planning to change to group housing within two years time (4.1% in 2003 and 7.4% in 2005). These tended to be young farmers with a large sow herd and 58% reported to opt for free access stalls. The main reason why the remaining respondents were not planning to change to group housing yet is that they will stop farming activities before 2013. This reason was particularly important for older small-scale farmers without a successor. In contrast, the lack of financial resources and security was particularly important for young farmers of a large sow herd with a likely successor. An increasing group of farmers (often without a successor) reported to delay changing to group housing because they consider individual housing more profitable. These results show that, in Flanders, the conversion to group housing is taking place slowly, that the reasons for not converting yet vary according to the farmers' age, the likelihood of a successor and herd size, and that there are differences between operational group housing systems concerning herd size, age of the system, sow management and user satisfaction.  相似文献   

Pharmacokinetics and electrophysiological effects of sotalol hydrochloride in horses          下载免费PDF全文

B. Broux  D. De Clercq  A. Decloedt  L. Vera  M. Devreese  R. Gehring  S. Croubels  G. van Loon 《Equine veterinary journal》2018,50(3):377-383

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Postharvest quality of apple predicted by NIR-spectroscopy: Study of the effect of biological variability on spectra and model performance     

Els Bobelyn  Anca-Sabina Serban  Mihai Nicu  Jeroen Lammertyn  Bart M. Nicolai  Wouter Saeys 《Postharvest Biology and Technology》2010,55(3):133-143

The effect of cultivar, season, shelf-life and origin on the accuracy of near infrared (NIR) calibration models for the soluble solids content (SSC) and firmness of apple was studied based on a large spectral data set based on approximately 6000 apple fruit from different cultivars, origins, shelf-life exposure time and seasons. To interpret the variance in the spectra with respect to biological variability, functional analysis of variance (FANOVA) was used. From the FANOVA analysis it was concluded that the effects of cultivar, origin and shelf-life exposure time on the NIR spectra were all significant. The largest differences in the spectra were found around the water absorption peaks (970, 1170 and 1450 nm). External validations using independent data sets showed that the accuracy of the models increased considerably when more variability was included in the calibration data set. In general the RMSEP for predictions of the SSC were in the range 0.6–0.8 °Brix, while for Magness Taylor firmness it was 5.9–8.8 N, depending on the cultivar. It was shown that atypical data can lead to large validation errors. It is, therefore, important to collect a calibration data set which is sufficiently representative for future samples to be analyzed with the developed calibration models and to develop simple procedures for model adaptation during practical use.  相似文献   

Restoring dry Afromontane forest using bird and nurse plant effects: Direct sowing of Olea europaea ssp. cuspidata seeds     

Raf Aerts  Wouter Maes  Eva November  Aklilu Negussie  Martin Hermy  Bart Muys 《Forest Ecology and Management》2006,230(1-3):23-31

To identify the perspectives of seed sowing for reforestation of degraded dry Afromontane savanna in exclosures in northern Ethiopia, seeds of a fleshy-fruited, secondary climax tree, Olea europaea ssp. cuspidata, were placed under two pioneer shrub species (Euclea racemosa and Acacia etbaica) and in open microhabitats. Seed removal and germination rates were examined. The effects of bird ingestion, manual pulp removal and mechanical endocarp treatments on germination rates were also studied.

Pulp removal promoted seed germination, in particular in seeds without endocarp manipulation. Seed removal, presumably by rodents, was concentrated in narrow strips along linear soil conservation structures, and not different between shrubs and open microhabitats. In the absence of water stress, humus types did not have a significant effect on germination rates. Under field conditions however, germination was higher under Euclea canopies. The observed facilitative effect of Euclea shrubs on germination may be attributed to moisture retention effects, related to the deep humus layer and canopy architecture, preventing desiccation and promoting imbibition of seeds. When readily available Olea seeds are not used for seedling production, direct sowing of seeds in the humus under dense Euclea shrubs could offer a cheap complement to planting of nursery-raised seedlings for forest restoration projects in recovering Afromontane savanna.  相似文献   

Role of nonmigratory mottled ducks (Anas fulvigula) as sentinels for avian influenza surveillance     

Rollo SN  Ferro PJ  Peterson MJ  Ward MP  Ballard BM  Lupiani B 《Journal of zoo and wildlife medicine》2012,43(1):168-170

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Fuzzy control of the cleaning process on a combine harvester     

Geert Craessaerts  Josse de Baerdemaeker  Bart Missotten  Wouter Saeys 《Biosystems Engineering》2010,106(2):103-111

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Ethylene-insensitive tobacco shows differentially altered susceptibility to different pathogens   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

Geraats BP  Bakker PA  Lawrence CB  Achuo EA  Höfte M  van Loon LC 《Phytopathology》2003,93(7):813-821

ABSTRACT Transgenic tobacco plants (Tetr) expressing the mutant etr1-1 gene from Arabidopsis thaliana are insensitive to ethylene and develop symptoms of wilting and stem rot when grown in nonautoclaved soil. Several isolates of Fusarium, Thielaviopsis, and Pythium were recovered from stems of diseased Tetr plants. Inoculation with each of these isolates of 6-week-old plants growing in autoclaved soil caused disease in Tetr plants but not in nontransformed plants. Also, when 2-week-old seedlings were used, nontransformed tobacco appeared nonsusceptible to the Fusarium isolates, whereas Tetr seedlings did develop disease. Tetr seedlings were not susceptible to several nonhost Fusarium isolates. In contrast to results with Fusarium isolates, inoculation of 2-week-old seedlings with a Thielaviopsis isolate resulted in equal symptom development of nontransformed and Tetr tobacco. In order to explore the potential range of pathogens to which Tetr tobacco plants display enhanced susceptibility, the pathogenicity of several root and leaf pathogens was tested. Tetr plants were more susceptible to the necrotrophic fungi Botrytis cinerea and Cercospora nicotianae and the bacterium Erwinia carotovora, but only marginally more to the bacterium Ralstonia solanacearum. In contrast, the biotrophic fungus Oidium neolycopersici, the oomycete Peronospora tabacina, and Tobacco mosaic virus caused similar or less severe symptoms on Tetr plants than on nontransformed plants. Total peroxidase activity of Tetr plants was lower than that of nontransformed plants, suggesting a role for peroxidases in resistance against necrotrophic microorganisms. A comparable range of pathogens was examined on Arabidopsis and its ethylene-insensitive mutants etr1-1 and ein2-1. With the exception of one Fusarium isolate, ethylene insensitivity increased susceptibility of Arabidopsis plants to a similar spectrum of necrotizing pathogens as in tobacco. Thus, both ethylene-insensitive tobacco and Arabidopsis plants appear to be impaired in their resistance to necrotrophic pathogens.  相似文献   

A novel system for gene silencing using siRNAs in rice leaf and stem-derived protoplasts   总被引：2，自引：0，他引：2  

Rebecca Bart  Mawsheng Chern  Chang-Jin Park  Laura Bartley  Pamela C Ronald 《Plant methods》2006,2(1):13-9

Background  

Transient assays using protoplasts are ideal for processing large quantities of genetic data coming out of hi-throughput assays. Previously, protoplasts have routinely been prepared from dicot tissue or cell suspension cultures and yet a good system for rice protoplast isolation and manipulation is lacking.  相似文献   

Bluetongue virus antibodies in wild red deer in southern Belgium     

Linden A  Mousset B  Grégoire F  Hanrez D  Vandenbussche F  Vandemeulebroucke E  Vanbinst T  Verheyden B  de Clerck K 《The Veterinary record》2008,162(14):459

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What the practicing veterinarian should know about rat bite fever     

Abma R  Boer H  Douma G  van Hoeck B  Lipman L  Gaastra W 《Tijdschrift voor diergeneeskunde》2008,133(16):668-670

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