D2—Lancaster Fannins, Saturday, July 21,1984
Maryland researchers develop
COLLEGE PARK, MD. -
Scientists with the University of
Maryland Agricultural Ex
periment Station (UMAES) have
developed a rapid detection
system for a strain of avian in
fluenza, a virus responsible for the
destruction of more than 14 million
chickens and turkeys in the mid-
Atlantic region in the last 12
months.
According to the scientists,
having the system two years ago
could have saved poultry farmers
and allied industries in Penn
sylvania some of the estimated
$l5O million lost through the
quarantine and destruction of
flocks.
“The detection system is called
ELISA. Actually, it is an assay that
has been used for other types of
poultry viruses and adapted to
detect avian influenza,” said Dr.
David B. Snyder, principal in
vestigator in the project and a
UMAES researcher assigned to the
LIVESTOCK
LATEST
StUMU'vrv
Cornell breeding system
boosts lamb production
ITHACA, N.Y. A new lambing
system developed by animal
scientists at Cornell University has
the potential to dramatically in
crease production of this seasonal
meat. This meas more profit
potential for farmers; for con
sumers, it means the possibility of
high quality, lean lamb year
round.
“The system has the potential of
boosting lamb production per ewe
by as much as 67 percent,” says
Brian Magee, the initator of this
new “accelerated lambing
system.”
Another major advantage of this
system for sheep farmers is that
five lamb crops can be managed in
a yearly cycle. Thus, the cash flow
from a sheep enterprise could be
made constant.
Nicknamed “Star”, the new
method calls for dividing the year
into five, 73-day intervals. On a
round calendar, the five starting
dates represent five points to form
a star shape, hence the nickname,
Magee explains.
The Cornell method is ready for
adoption by sheep farmers
throughout the world who have the
feed, labor, and adequate housing
for sheep during harsh weather in
order to profit from accelerated
lambing.
Migee is manager of the sheep
barn at Cornell’s Animal Science
Teaching and Research Center in
Harford, New York. He and
Douglas Hogue, professor of
animal science in the New York
State College of Agriculture and
Life Sciences at Cornell, developed
the new lambing method using
Dorset and Finnsheep.
Here is how the new system
works. Ewes lambing during
January (the first 30 days of the 73-
day interval) are separated from
avian flu rapid detection
Virgima-Maryland Regional
College of Veterinary Medicine at
the university.
Snyder and team colleague Dr.
Warren W. Marquardt said
laboratory and field tests of the
ELISA system showed it is more
sensitive, diagnoses avian in
fluenza faster and sooner than
other conventional forms of
disease detection.
“This means that ELISA can
detect avian influenza even when
concentrations of antibody to the
disease in a flock are low,” Snyder
said.
“It also means that ELISA takes
less tune to analyze flock blood
samples. Hundreds of samples can
be analyzed in a few hours, where
other methods take anywhere from
12 to 48 hours for the same number
of samples.
"Finally, it appears ELISA can
detect antibodies against avian
influenza earlier in the disease’s
life cycle in a bird than the con
ventional detection methods,”
their lambs in early March and
exposed to a ram between mid-
March and mid-April, early in the
second 73-day interval. These ewes
than could lamb a second time
within a 12 month period. Mean
while, other portions of the flock
breed and lamb on a staggered
schedule.
Under the Cornell system, each
ewe has a chance to produce five
lamb crops in three years, two
more than the traditional once-a
year lambing.
“Increased production ef
ficiency and year-round marketing
of lamb should improve the quality
of lamb at a reduced cost,” Magee
says.
Another advantage of this new
management system is that it
allows farmers to make better use
of their hay crops in the fall
because ewes not in breeding can
feed on the hay. Traditionally, the
exemption
HARRISBURG - State
Agriculture Secretary Penrose
Hallowed recently announced that
the Environmental Protection
Agency has notified him that the
emergency exemption granted to
Pennsylvania for use of Larvadex
by poultry flock owners has been
withdrawn.
The state Agriculture Depart
ment had requested and received
approval from EPA for the
emergency use of Larvadex
premix as a poultry feed in
secticide to control flies, which are
transmitters of the avian influenza
vims. The use has been permitted
Larvadex
Snyder added.
Laboratory and field tests
showed that ELISA could detect
antibodies against avian influenza
as few as eight days after a bird
became infected. One conventional
method did not detect avian in
fluenza until 21 days after in
noculation with the disease.
Another failed to detect infection
for 35 days.
Most animal disease experts
agree that failure to detect avian
influenza early enough played a
significant role in the final
destruction of more than 14 million
birds in the mid-Atlantic region.
Says Snyder; “The most often
used method of detection is so
insensitive to the disease that it
may have lulled the poultry in
dustry into a false sense of
security.”
By the time anyone knew what
was infecting flocks, it was too
late. The disease was too widely
spread, according to Snyder.
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4.
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last regrowth on hay fields is not
harvested because in addition to
being too cool and damp to be
bailed, the estrogenic compounds
in this feed may suppress fertility
during fall breeding. With the
“Star” system, lactating ewes and
weaned lambs being raised for
market can graze on this nutritious
feed.
“Undoubtedly, some ewes in any
flock have such long anestral
periods cycles of infertility
that they will not lamb on any
accelerated schedule, but don’t
count your flocks out until you
have tried the ‘Star’ system,”
Magee says.
He adds: “Careful attention to a
few important details of feeding,
breeding, and management will go
along way toward releasing the
tremendous production potential of
sheep.”
emergency
withdrawn
in the following counties: Adams,
Berks, Chester, Cumberland,
Dauphin, Delaware, Franklin,
Lancaster, Lehigh, Montgomery,
Northumberland, Perry,
Schuylkill and York.
Hallowell said that as a result of
the EPA action, the shipment, sale
and use of Larvadex as a poultry
feed additive in Pennsylvania
would be halted. He advised
poultrymen that unopened con
tainers of the product may be
returned to the dealer from which
they were purchased or returned to
the manufacturer.
Q| Pork Prose
Turn-Around Crates For Sows
Folks associated with the swine
industry know what a gestation
crate is-a device that saves both
labor and feed by restricting
movement of the sow. She can
stand up, lie down, eat and sleep,
but little else.
We’re also aware that some
people, many who aren’t
associated with the hog industry,
are questioning the use of gestation
crates They wonder if we’re
depriving a sow of a behavior need
by putting her into a crate.
J. M. McFurlane and S. E. Curtis
at the University of Illinois, have
been conducting experiments with
a special “turn-around” crate to
learn if turning around is a
preference of confined gilts.
They are using two sizes of
crates in the study. At one end, the
crates widen to 44 to 48 inches and
at the other end they taper to a
point. The center sections are
either 22 or 24 inches wide. So
they’re similar to conventional
crates, except that gilts are per
mitted to turn with a minimum of
effort.
To be sure that the “view” from
either end of the crate was equal
during the study, the scientists
surrounded all sides of the crates
with black plastic. And they of
fered feed and water in one of four
waysr
'lf/
-Feed and water at the wide end.
-Feed and water at the narrow
end.
Growth hormone may
increase carcass quality
LUBBOCK, Tx. - The meat of
the future will be leaner, but
meeting that goal will not be easy,
stated Dr. Rick Olsen at the
Reciprocal Meat Conference held
recently at Texas Tech University.
“To the consumer, less fat will
mean a more acceptable and
perhaps healthier product that will
require less trimming and cost
less,” said Dr. Olsen, a researcher
in die Reproductive and Growth
Physiology Unit of The Upjohn
Company. “For the livestock in
dustry, meanwhile, it will mean
that animals will require less feed
with resulting lowered feed costs
and lessening demands for feed
stuffs potentially available for
feeding the human population.”
Dr. Olsen continued to cite
literature which suggests that the
use or manipulation of growth
hormone (GH) levels in domestic
livestock may beone way to ef
fectively reduce the amount of fat
in a carcass while maintaining
weight gain and generally in
creasing protein gain.
“While available data indicate
that treatment with GH is an ef
fective way to stimulate carcass
protein and decrease carcass fat,
there are some problems in doing
so; lack of conclusive evidence,
economics, negative incentive
provided by the grading/pricing
system and difficulties in
delivering GH to the growing
animal. All of these problems need
to be addressed before the use of
GH is feasible in the animal in
dustry,” Dr. Olsen reported.
“In spite of the problems,
researchers and producers need
Kenneth B. Kephart
Extension Livestock Spec
University of Del.
-Feed at the wide end, water at
the narrow end.
-Water at the wide end, feed at
the narrow end.
What did they learn from this
study 7 Given the chance, gilts turn
around a lot-almost 12 times a day
on the average. And when placed
in the wider crate (25” wide at the
center), gilts turned more often
than those in the 22-inch crates.
When the feed and water were
located at opposite ends of the
crate, it was clear that the gilt
would have to turn around sooner
or later. But gilts in this study
turned around just as often when
feed and water were at the same
end.
The direction a gilt faced had
nothing to do with what her
neighboring gilt was doing.
In short, gilts will turn around
for no obvious reason. This means
that turning around might be a
behavior need in the pregnant gilt.
Will turning around have any
effect on production? So far, no
data has been collected at Illinois
to answer that question.
At first glance these behavior
experiments might seem to be of
little value. But the fact is, we
know very little about pig
behavior. We need this kind of
information. Knowing more about
what makes a pig tick will make
you a better manager. And it could
be our “ace-in-the-hole” if the
animal welfare movement really
gets a gnp on our Congressmen.
not assume that GH will never
become a vital part of the industry.
It is possible that the research
should focus not on GH alone, but
on compounds which stimulate GH
secretion. The most obvious
candidates - growth hormone
releasing factors - are gaming
interest now in the research field,
and seem to have greater poten
tial.”
Dr. Olsen explained that
research conducted with growth
hormone releasing factors (GRF)
has indicated that GRF has
potential benefits over GH such as
the possibility of lower production
costs and higher potency, but that
many of the same problems en
countered for GH also exist for
GRF.
“While the prospects for growth
hormone releasing factors are
somewhat brighter than for GH,
overcoming the research and
development challenges will
require enthusiastic acceptance of
the challenges and innovative
solutions,” Dr. Olsen concluded.
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