On Saturday, October 14, 2007, Special lecture for the Society was held in National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Shinjuku, Tokyo. The lecturer was Prof. Yoko Niiyama in Faculty of Agriculture, Kyoto University. Prof. Niiyama is well known with her research in food system, agricultural economy and recently the risk perception theory, and with her contribution to the establishment of traceability system in Japan. In her 2-hour lecture, she introduced the history and overview of the theories on risk perception, demonstrated details of some practical studies. The lecture was very structural and suggestive to various fields of the Society. The participants, ca. 40 people, were very interested in her talk, and raised many questions to her after the lecture. These discussions were also active and fruitful.

View full abstract

The decreasing longevity in female pigs(females)was a serious problem in sustaining animal resources in the swine industry. The main objective of this study was to identify herd management factors associated with female longevity on commercial farms. A database containing production measurements was created by abstracting the data files of 123 farms that participated in the PigCHAMP data-share program in Japan. Parity at culling was used as a prime measurement of female longevity. A model was built to assess the association between herd management factors and parity at culling. The mean parity at culling was 4.70 (SD = 0.94). In regression analysis using backward elimination with a centering technique, higher percentage of multiple matings, higher percentage of reserviced females, higher farrowing risk, and lower culling rate were found to be the herd management factors that were associated with higher parity at culling(P < 0.05). Lactation length, gilt pool size, herd size, and replacement rate were not associated with parity at culling(P > 0.10). It is recommended that producers change their management systems to increase the percentages of multiple matings, the percentage of reserviced females, and the farrowing risk, and to decrease the culling rate in order to improve female longevity.

View full abstract

Diarrhea of pre-weaning calf seriously affects the management of cattle farms. Awareness and hygienic measures against this diarrhea vary between cattle farming systems, as faming practices vary. To understand these differences, we analyzed results of the nationwide questionnaire survey for diarrhea, which was carried out in the fiscal year of 2003. Analysis was conducted using data of 536 cattle farms, which kept pre-weaning calf at the time of the survey. For comparison, beef farms were classified into three types of farming systems, namely breeding farms, grower and finisher farms, and farms containing all stage of cattle. Dairy farms were also divided into two types by farm size. As a result, all types of beef farms showed relatively higher awareness and took hygienic measures against the diarrhea than dairy farms. On the other hand, farmers' notice to the diarrhea and incidence rates of rotavirus infection and coccidiosis, indicated that pre-weaning calf diarrhea occurred more often in beef farms than dairy farms. From these results, we considered that pre-weaning calf diarrhea caused problems in beef farms than dairy farms. Efficient and effective measures against this disease should be considered according to the type of farming system.

View full abstract