Dr. John Deen - Connecting the Dots: Animal Health, Well-Being & Productivity

Connecting the Dots: Health, Well-Being

& Productivity

John Deen

College of Veterinary Medicine

• Humane Methods of Slaughter Act 1978• extended the 1958 policy to all Federally inspected

slaughter plants

• Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) enforces the Act

• veterinarian and inspectors present

Committees…

• AASV• NPB• PAACO• CFI• ACAW• AVMA• AAA• FAO• Validus

Certified Big Red Apple

“For Large Animal EnrichmentScented for swine and stall animals’

pleasure”

Three points

• Welfare is about pigs and not PR• Ethics are personal not institutional• Caregivers are the experts

Welfare is a classic economic problem:• Addressing unlimited demand with a very

restricted amount of resources

• Is it a profit maximization model with specific welfare constraints?

• Is it an optimization model with values placed on welfare?

• Is it a marketing problem?

Welfare policy• The efficient allocation of scarce resources to a

population– Implicitly, some or all desired outcomes will not be

maximized– Usually modeled across one species– Multiple species and needs create a difficult problem to

solve

Who administers welfare policy?• Government• NGO’s• Marketing chains• Farmers

• Do we improve welfare by

moving the average or

addressing outliers?

Freedom from hunger and thirst

by providing ready access to fresh water and a diet to maintain full health and vigor

Freedom from discomfort

by providing an appropriate environment including shelter and a comfortable resting area

Freedom from pain, injury or disease

by prevention or rapid diagnosis and treatment

Freedom to express normal behavior

by providing sufficient space, proper facilities and company of the animal's own kind

Freedom from fear and distress

by ensuring conditions and treatments, which avoid mental suffering

Five freedoms (FAWC- UK- 1993)

Negative statesThirst HungerMalnutrition (predisposition) Hunger, MalaiseDiscomfortPainInjury (predisposition) PainDisease (predisposition) MalaiseTo express Normal Behavior Boredom (?)FearDistress

Are they signals?

Are Flourishing Animals Fine?

1. Yes – if they are functioning well(the performance axiom (Stan Curtis))

2. Yes – feelings are designed to ensure proper function

(evolutionary biology)

3. Maybe… but is it natural (right) (teleology and ontology)

Four Functions to Flourish

• Feed – take in adequate nutrition• Fight – compete and adapt in difficult

conditions (disease, heat etc)• Flight – avoid difficult adverse conditions• Reproduction – replacement

Failure to Flourish

• Feed intake/absorption inadequate• Inability to adapt to adverse conditions• Inability to avoid adverse conditions• Inability to reproduce•• Inhibitions:• Physical• Environmental• Infectious• Other pigs•

What are the mechanisms of functional inhibition?

• Physical– Inability or reluctance to move or position body to

eat, reproduce etc

• Inflammatory– Inhibition of appetite, reproduction, and competition

• Pain– Behavioral inhibition of competing function

Ballerina’s are tough!

Courtesy Zinpro Performance Minerals

The Flaw of Averages

Proposed path model for sow retention

Lameness

Low productivity

Should be culledOR =3.1

OR = 1.0OR =2 .7

OR = 2.3

Sensitivity and specificity of detecting tail ender in nursery using different weaning weight cut off

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

7 8 9 10 11Weight cut-off

%

Sensit Specif

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Firstmixing

Secondmixing

Day 28 Day 56 Day 84 Day 108

Day in the pen

Per

cent

age No injury

Slight injury

Obvious injury

Severe injury

Injury levels in vulva of sows in pens with ESF at different stages of gestation

Risk post farrowing

0

5

10

15

20

Pro

po

rtio

n o

f M

orta

lity

(%

)

0 153045607590105120135150165180Days after farrowing

Percentage of death and euthanasia among sows and gilts (dead & destroyed) based on the day of removal.

02468101214161820222426

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

Perc

enta

ge

Sow-Euthanasia

Sow-Death

Gilt-Euthanasia

Gilt-Death

Aristotle: A Good Narrative

• Logos is appeal based on logic or reason.• Ethos is appeal based on the character of the

speaker. • Pathos is appeal based on emotion.

– HL Green: The three types of persuasion, if you are a classically trained orator, are ethos, pathos, and logos. If your training was obtained in modern times, you have an additional tool-statistics. 

“It is comfortingly easy to care about animals:

to care for them requires skill, patience, and humility”

(John Webster)