• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.57 no.1
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• pp.1.1-1.11
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• 2015

Background: Due to increased interest in animal welfare, there is now a need for a comprehensive assessment protocol to be used in intensive pig farming systems. There are two current welfare assessment protocols for pigs: Welfare Quality$^{(R)}$ Assessment Protocols (applicable in the Europe Union), that mostly focuses on animal-based measures, and the Swine Welfare Assurance Program (applicable in the United States), that mostly focuses on management- and environment-based measures. In certain cases, however, animal-based measures might not be adequate for properly assessing pig welfare status. Similarly, welfare assessment that relies only on environment- and management-based measures might not represent the actual welfare status of pigs. Therefore, the objective of this paper was to develop a new welfare protocol by integrating animal-, environment-, and management-based measures. The background for selection of certain welfare criteria and modification of the scoring systems from existing welfare assessment protocols are described. Methods: The developed pig welfare assessment protocol consists of 17 criteria that are related to four main principles of welfare (good feeding, good housing, good health, and appropriate behavior). Good feeding, good housing, and good health were assessed using a 3-point scale: 0 (good welfare), 1 (moderate welfare), and 2 (poor welfare). In certain cases, only a 2-point scale was used: 0 (certain condition is present) or 2 (certain condition is absent). Appropriate behavior was assessed by scan sampling of positive and negative social behaviors based on qualitative behavior assessment and human-animal relationship tests. Results: Modification of the body condition score into a 3-point scale revealed pigs with a moderate body condition (score 1). Moreover, additional criteria such as feed quality confirmed that farms had moderate (score 1) or poor feed quality (score 2), especially those farms located in a high relative humidity region. Conclusions: The developed protocol can be utilized to assess welfare status in an intensive pig farming system. Although further improvements are still needed, this study is a first step in developing a pig welfare assessment protocol that combines animal-, environment-, and management-based measures.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.226-232
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• 2019

The biological wastewater treatment is more eco-friendly and can be used effectively in wastewater for a variety of purposes than that of the conventional treatment. In particular, the wastewater treatment using microalgae in biological treatment processes has attracted great attention due to its ability to remove economically nutrients from wastewater and have many advantages as a renewable energy source. This study was investigated to establish the optimal growth conditions for microalga Scenedesmus obliquus. Additionally, the removal efficiencies of nutrients (N, P) and heavy metals (Cu, Zn) from the synthetic wastewater were evaluated. As a results, the optimal growth conditions were established at $28^{\circ}C$, pH 7, and light and dark cycle of 14 : 10 h. In the evaluation of nutrient removal efficiencies at each concentrations of 500, 1,000, 5,000, and 10,000 mg/L, the removal rates were 17.6~70% N and 8.4~34% P in the single treatment and 12.0~58.0% N and 3.0~40.3% P in the binary mixture treatment. In addition, the evaluation of heavy metal removal efficiencies at each concentrations of 10, 30 and 50 mg/L, the removal rates were 13.7~40.3% Cu and 10.0~30.0% Zn in the single treatment and 16.0~40.0% Cu and 12.0~20.0% Zn in the binary mixture treatment. Based on the results of the study, it appears that Scenedesmus obliquus can be used for the removal of nutrients and heavy metals from the swine wastewater.

• Journal of Korean Biological Nursing Science
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.16-22
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• 2011

Purpose: Hand washing has received renewed emphasis in recent years as Swine flu epidemic threaten health of public. This study aimed to describe measures used to prevent new types of influenza (NTI); describe hand washing frequency; and analyze the relationship of hand washing to locus of control, uncertainty, and state anxiety. Methods: One hundred thirty three adults participate in the questionnaire survey in which participants indicated measures they used to prevent NTI, frequency of handwashing for the prevention of NTI. They also responded to questions related to locus of control, uncertainty and state anxiety. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation and multiple regression. Results: A majority (66.9%) of the participants indicated that handwashing was an important measure to prevent NTI. Importance of hand-washing was related the highest among the measures they used and it was significantly related to participants who had high score in internal locus of control. Other significant factor to the hand-washing behavior was state anxiety, which explained 6.9% of the frequency. Conclusion: According to the results of this study, majority of participants indicated that handwashing was one of the most important measures to prevent NTI. Nurses need to continue educating public the importance of handwashing and pay attention to personal characteristics such as internal locus of control and anxiety to promote hand-washing.

• Journal of Embryo Transfer
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.225-228
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• 2015

Understanding the behavior of transgenes introduced into oocyte or embryos is essential for evaluating the methodologies for transgenic animal production. To date, many studies have reported the production of transgenic pig embryos with, however, low efficiency in environment of blastocyst production. The aim of present study was to determine the expression and duration of transgene transferred by intracytoplasmic sperm injection-mediated gene transfer (ICSI-MGT). Embryos obtained from the ICSI-MGT procedure were analysed for the expression of GFP and then for the transmission of the transgene. Briefly, fresh spermatozoa were bound to exogenous DNA after treatment by Triton X-100 and Lipofectin. When ICSI-MGT was performed using sperm heads with tails removed, the yield of blastocyst (25.3%), treated with Lipofectin (18.8%) and Triton X-100 (19.2%) were observed. Treatments of Lipofectin or Triton X-100 did not further improve the rates of blastocysts. Moreover, the apoptosis rates of embryos were obtained from the control and LIpofectin groups (8.7%, 9.7%, respectively), but were significantly higher in the Triton X-100 group (13.0%). Our results demonstrated that ICSI-MGT caused minimal damage to oocytes that could develop to full term. Moreover, the embryos derived by ICSI-MGT have shown prolonged exogenous DNA expression during preimplantation stage in vivo. However, more efforts will be required to improve the procedures of both sperm treatments cause of high frequency of mosaicisms.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.61 no.3
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• pp.147-153
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• 2019

A goal for swine farming is the improvement in the number of live-born and weaned piglets per sow. Hence, the effect of parities should consider the correlation between the component traits of reproductive performance, weaning, and duration. Sows were housed in farrowing pens (W 2.2 ${\times}$ D 1.8 ${\times}$ H 1.2 m) on a partially slatted plastic floor. Twenty sows used in this study were between the first and sixth parity in gilts (P1), parity 2-5 (P3), and parity 6-9 (P6). Data collection by parity was classified into three categories: (1) reproduction performance (gestation length, total number of piglets born, number of piglets live born, number of piglets stillborn, total piglet birth weight; (2) weaning traits (weaning period, number of piglets weaning, total piglets weaning weight); (3) duration traits (farrowing duration, placenta expulsion duration, time from last piglet to first placenta, average birth interval, and tail wagging behavior). Gestation length was higher in P6 than P1 and P3 of different parity sows. The maximum value in P1 and P3 was 117 days, but the median value in P6 was 117 days (p < 0.05). The total number of piglets born (p = 0.113), number of piglets live born (p = 0.118), number of still piglets born (p = 0.151), and total piglet birth weight (p = 0.117) were not affected by parity. The number of live piglets was higher than the other parities by an average of $15.6{\pm}2.1$ in P1. The duration of farrowing was the lowest at 22.2 min in P6, but the maximum value was 42.2 min more than other parities (p = 0.355). Weaning traits of sows also did not differ significantly (p > 0.05), but the weaning period from P1 was lower than that of the other parities (p = 0.170). The number of piglets weaned was 10 heads on average in P1, P3, and P6 (p < 0.05). However, the mean values of the total piglet weaning weight (p = 0.377) of P6 (62.0 10.4 kg) were higher than those of P1 (54.9 10.2 kg) and P3 (58.4 13.6 kg). The placenta expulsion duration was higher in P6 than that in P1 and P3 (p = 0.447). The time from the last piglet to first placenta was be lower in P3 than that of the other parities (p = 0.206). The average birth interval was higher in P3 than that of the other parities (p = 0.156). Tail wagging (count) behavior was higher in P6 than in the other parities (p = 0.065). The data showed that the reproduction performance, total piglets born, and weight were higher in the gilts group, and higher in the weaning trait than that in the P6 group. This study examined the relationship between reproductive performance, birth interval and tail motion according to sow parity. Regarding duration, farrowing duration was lower in P6 than that in the other parities, but placenta expulsion and tail wagging were higher in P6 than in the other parities. Therefore, it is possible that the results from these sows could be used as basic data for effective farm management.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.102-113
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• 2000

This study was conducted to investigate the expandibility of sludge treatment by earthworm through real scale experiment and the optimum counter-plan for organic sludge treatment. For the purposes, sludge removal efficienciesof night-soil using earthworm and it's behavior according to the transplanting methods of the earthworm on non-cover worm bed or in the green house worm bed were compared. Sludge uptake rates on non-cover worm bed for 6 months were $0.27{\sim}0.33ton/m^2$ and the excrement of earthworm yields $0.15ton/m^2$(44.1~46.7% of raw night soil sludge dosage). These results were not much different from the worm bed in the green house. The average and maximum earthworm density were about $6.5kg/m^2$ and $7kg/m^2$ respectively on the non-cover worm bed. The density of the worm bed was comparatively higher in spring and fall terms but lower in summer. The amount of old earthworm was much plenty than young earthworm on the non-cover worm bed, resulting in reverse distribution type of pyramid. From the experiments on non-cover worm bed(7,000 pyeong)and in the green house worm bed(1,200 pyeong), it was concluded that landfill and transporting cost could be reduced when the earthworm was applied for the night-soil sludge treatment. Profits from the excrement sale of earthworm was 9,600,000 won. Through this study, it was founded that earthworm treatment method for organic sludge are much more environmentally sound than landfill treatment.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.13 no.12
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• pp.1717-1725
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• 2000

The objective was to determine the relationship between feed intake levels and patterns, and growth performance and body composition of barrows and gilts using automatic feed intake recording equipment (F.I.R.E.). This system records the time of visits to the feeder and the duration and size of meals for individual animals housed in groups. Ninety-six crossbred pigs were grown from $33.4{\pm}0.51$ to $109.7{\pm}1.39kg$ live weight over a 13-week period. Eight mixed-sex groups of 12 pigs were used and 4 dietary treatments were compared giving 2 pens per treatment. The dietary treatments consisted of corn-soybean meal diets with differing protein levels which ranged from 14.7% to 19% between 30 to 55 kg, from 13.3% to 16.9% between 56 and 85 kg, and from 12.3% to 16.8% for the remainder of the study. Animals were ultrasonically scanned to measure loin-eye area and backfat thickness to estimate carcass fat-free lean content at the beginning and end of the study. Barrows had higher daily feed intake than gilts (2.67 vs. 2.46 kg resp. p<0.05) which was the result of a longer feeder occupation time per visit (4.77 vs. 4.54 min, resp. p<0.05), higher feed consumption rates (30.4 vs. 29.0 g/min, resp. p<0.05), and higher feed intakes per visit (136.9 vs. 126.8 g, resp. p<0.01). Gilts had less backfat and greater loin-eye area than barrows (p<0.05). Diet had no significant effect on growth performance and had limited impact on feeding patterns. Body weight showed high correlations with ADG (r=0.74), feed intake per visit (r=0.51) and feed consumption rate (r=0.69). Positive correlation were also found between daily feed intake and feed intake per visit (r=0.45), feeder occupation time per day (r=0.56), and feed consumption rate (r=0.55), and between daily feed intake and backfat thickness (r=0.32) and feed consumption rate and loin-eye area (r=0.32). There were negative correlations between number of feeder visit per day and daily feed intake (r=-0.54), and between feed intake per visit and number of feeder visits per day (r=-0.43). However, correlations between feed intake traits and carcass traits were generally low. Visits to the feeder were greatest during the morning (0700 to 1100 h) and lowest during the evening and nighttime. These results highlight limited variation among the sexes in feeding patterns and suggest important relationships between feeding behavior and feed intake.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.97-101
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• 2006

Certain amino acids are essential precursors of a variety of important biomolecules in addition to their major function as protein building blocks. ${\delta}$-Aminolevulinic acid (ALA) is synthesized from the condensed form of succinyl-CoA with glycine after decarboxylation catalyzed by ALA synthase. The objective of the study was to determine the effects of ALA supplementation on growth performance, behavioral characteristics and hematological/immune status in nursery pigs. A total of 144 pigs weaned at 21 d of age were allotted to three dietary treatments representing (-) control (w/o antibiotics; NC), (+) control (w/carbadox at 50 mg/kg; PC), and the treatment group with ALA supplementation (0.05%; TA). Each treatment had 6 pens (replicates) with 8 pigs per pen. Pigs were fed phase 1 (21.9% CP, 1.40% Lys) and 2 (20.6% CP, 1.15% Lys) experimental diets for 3 and 2 wks, respectively. Feed intake and weight gain were measured weekly during phase 1 and at the end of phase 2. At the end of phase 2, blood samples were taken and analyzed using an automated hematology analyzer. Skin color and activity of pigs (48 h) from all pens in each treatment were measured at the second week of phase 2. Growth performance was not affected (p>0.05) by the dietary supplementation of ALA during the 5 wk nursery period. Pigs in the TA (6.46) and PC (6.68) had a higher (p<0.05) number of red blood cells ($10^6cell/{\mu}L$) than pigs in the NC (6.15). Pigs in PC (12.16) had a higher (p<0.05) hemoglobin level (g/dL) than pigs in the NC group (11.29) and the TA group (11.47). Pigs in the TA and PC had darker (p<0.05) and less (p<0.05) yellow skin color than pigs in the NC. Pigs in the PC tended (p = 0.081) to be less active than pigs in the other groups. There were no differences in behavioral characteristics between the NC and the TA. The data suggest that ALA supplementation has no adverse effects on growth performance of nursery pigs. Moreover, ALA supplementation increased red blood cell counts which may be beneficial to pigs.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.1-39
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• 1971

The purpose of present study was to investigate the possibility to immunize guineapigs and swine against Metastrongylus apri infection by the administration of irradiated infective larvae. Four main experiments were undertaken. Firstly, three groups of infective larvae irradiated at $3{\times}10^4r$, $4{\times}10^4r$, and $5{\times}10^4r$ respectively were inoculated to guineapigs and their immunogenic effects were examined from the clinical, anatomical, and serological viewpoints to decide the optimal dose of X-ray for the atenuation of them. Secondly, the migratory behavior of the larvae irradiated at the optimal dose was compared with that of normal infective larvae. Thirdly, pigs were inoculated with each 5,000 infective larvae irradiated at the optimal dose and the clinical, anatomical and serological responses of them before and after challenge were examined. Fourthly, the heated extract of adult M. apri which had been used as an antigen in the serological examinations was analyzed and compared with that of adult Ascaris suis and of adult Trichuris suis by immunoelectrophoretic method. The results obtained are summerized as follows: 1) The optimal dose of X-ray for the atenuation of the infective larvae which can minimize the pathogenecity but keep the antigenecity of the infective larvae was $5{\times}10^4r$. 2) Guineapigs could become completely resistant to subsequent challenge infection by the administration of 1,000 infective larvae irradiated at $5{\times}10^4r$, without showing any symptom of disease before and after the challenge. 3) There were some indication that guineapigs could acquire complete immunity after they overcome the infection with normal infective larvae. 4) It was shown that, in guineapigs, the $5{\times}10^4r$-irradiated larvae can migrate to the large intestine and mesenteric lymph node within a day, where they stay for as long as 16 days to stimulate the host's immunity. 5) It also was shown that, in guineapigs, the normal infective larvae challenged to resistant guineapigs can migrate to the large intestine and mesenteric lymph node, where they are affected by the immune mechanism of host within 10 days without further migration. 6) Pigs could become partially resistant to subsequant challenge by the administration of 5,000 infective larve irradiated at $5{\times}10^4r$; no clinical symptom occurred after the administration, but milder symptoms of parasitic bronchitis were observable after the challenge infection and fewer number of worms were detected from the lungs at autopsy compared with severe symptoms and much number of worms in control pigs. 7) It was shown that, in pigs, a few of the $5{\times}10^4r$-irradiated larvae can migrate to the lungs, where they stay for as long as 104 days in stunted and sterile states; their body-lengths were short and their uteri developted no eggs. 8) There was evidence that the male larvae were more susceptible to X-ray than the female larvae. 9) Antibodies relating to the administration with $5{\times}10^4r$-irradiated or normal larvae were detected from the sera of both guineapigs and pigs by means of indirect haemagglutination and agar diffusion precipitin tests. Relatively higher antibody titers were recorded by the former test, but precipitin bands were demonstrable only when the positive sera were concentrated in one tenth of original volume in the later one. 10) The antibody titers of pig sera began to rose on 14 days, kept their peak during the period from 14 th day to 21st day, and fell to a low level on 28 days after the administration of $5{\times}10^4r$ or normal infective larvae. 11) A slight increase in gamma globublin of the pig sera occurred following the administration. The gamma globulin level showed a tendency to fluctuate in acordance with the antibody level. 12) A marked eosionophilia occurred in pigs on 7 or 14 days following the administration. The eosinophil count showed the same tendency to fluctuate as the gamma globulin did. 13) It was shown that the serum antibodies detected by the heated extract of adult Metastrongylus apri react crossly with the heated extract of adult Ascaris suis but not with that of adult Trichuris suis in indirect haemagglutination and agar diffusion preciption reactions. 14) The heated extract of adult Metastrongylus apri could he divided into 9 antigenic components by immunoelectrophoresis, one (arc 4) of which was shown to be common to both extracts of adult Ascaris suis and adult Trichuris suis, and the other one (arc 9) to only the extract of adult Ascaris suis.