Types Of Livestock Production Research Articles

Monitoring for Infectious Disease in Cattle Operations

Infectious diseases are among the most important problems in all types of livestock production. Costs can be tremendous to a single operation for diagnosing and treating sick animals, or associated with death losses. However, these probably are far outweighed by such hidden costs as associated with decreased production efficiency or lost production opportunities. Less-immediate losses that also must be considered include those linked to the inability to market stock because of the potential spread of infection.

Chronic bronchitis in farmers.

Chronic bronchitis was studied in relation to work time and years of exposure in farming, as well as to production type, dusty occupation outside farming, and the combination of work exposure and smoking, in a population of farmers. In 1989 a representative cohort of 10,792 farmers and spouses was selected from a government register and invited to participate in a cross-sectional study in 1991. The total response rate was 80%. There were 33% part-time farmers, and among the men 32% of the full-time and 42% of the part-time farmers had worked in dusty occupations outside farming. Bronchitis symptoms were recorded on a self-administered questionnaire, spirometric data were obtained, and internal reference equations were calculated for forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1.0). The exposure factors of importance for chronic bronchitis were full-time farming versus part-time farming, livestock production types (poultry, dairy, swine, horse and combinations), and occupational dust exposure outside agriculture. The combinations of the work exposure factors were significant and showed a 2- to 3-fold increase in risk for chronic bronchitis. Combinations with smoking showed up to a 6-fold increase in risk. Over the age of 50 years, chronic bronchitis was a risk factor for airway obstruction defined as the standardized residuals for FEV1.0 less than -2 for both nonsmokers (OR 2.8, 95% CI 1.1-6.8) and smokers (OR 8.5, 95% CI 5.1-14.3). Work exposure factors in farming and other dusty occupations enhance the risk for chronic bronchitis from 2- to 3-fold for farmers. In combination with smoking the risk increases to up to 6-fold.

1.1 The desirability and implications of encouraging intensive animal production enterprises in developing countries

The apparent superior productivity of livestock systems in most developed countries, compared with those in most developing countries, has been well documented and is quantified for five major types of livestock production in Table 1.1.1. It is likely, however, that this productive superiority is not anything like as great as these data suggest. For example, a large number of the cattle and buffaloes producing beef in developing countries will almost certainly be also used for work purposes, the majority of the females will produce some milk for human consumption and all will produce manure that may be used as fertilizer or fuel. Also, large numbers of pigs and poultry in developing countries are reared as scavengers and are not fed highly-priced grain or other concentrate feeds.