Addendum: Sommavilla, R. et al. Season, Transport Duration and Trailer Compartment Effects on Blood Stress Indicators in Pigs: Relationship to Environmental, Behavioral and Other Physiological Factors, and Pork Quality Traits. Animals 2017, 7, 8
The authors would like to add that “Sebastien Goumon was supported by Grant No MZERO0716 from the Czech Ministry of Agriculture” in the Acknowledgement Section of their paper published in Animals [...]
Season, Transport Duration and Trailer Compartment Effects on Blood Stress Indicators in Pigs: Relationship to Environmental, Behavioral and Other Physiological Factors, and Pork Quality Traits
Simple Summary Factors, such as ambient conditions, travel duration and vehicle design/compartment location have an impact on the welfare of pigs during transport, carcass bruises and meat quality. Based on this, we aimed to assess the effects of these factors on blood creatine kinase, lactate and cortisol concentrations in 384 pigs and assess their relationships with trailer temperature, and pigs’ heart rate and gastrointestinal tract temperature, behavior, carcass damage scores and meat quality. Although increased blood cortisol and creatine-kinase levels appear to indicate a physical stress condition in transported pigs, the weak to moderate correlations with environmental and other animal welfare indicators suggest that blood stress parameters can only be used as a complementary measurement in the assessment of the pigs’ response to transport stress. Abstract The objective of this study was to assess the effects of the season, travel duration and trailer compartment location on blood creatine-kinase (CK), lactate and cortisol concentrations in 384 pigs and assess their relationships with trailer temperature, heart rate and gastrointestinal tract temperature (GTT), behavior, carcass damage scores and meat quality. Blood CK was greater in pigs transported in summer (p = 0.02), after 18 h transportation (p < 0.001) and in pigs located in C4, C5 and C10 (p = 0.002). In winter, the concentration of blood lactate was higher (p = 0.04) in pigs transported for 6 h in C5. Pigs located in C10 showed higher (p = 0.01) concentration of cortisol than those transported for 18h in C4 in summer. The highest correlations were between blood cortisol and GTT (r = 0.53; p < 0.001), and between blood CK and GTT (r = 0.41; p < 0.001), truck temperature (r = 0.42; p < 0.001), and pHu in the longissimus muscle (r = 0.41; p < 0.001). In conclusion, although increased blood cortisol and CK levels appear to indicate a physical stress condition in transported pigs, the weak to moderate correlations with environmental and other animal welfare indicators suggest that blood stress parameters can only be used as a complementary measurement in the assessment of the pigs’ response to transport stress.
Hapten inhibition of passive antidextran dextran anaphylaxis in guinea pigs. Role of molecular size in anaphylactogenicity and precipitability of dextran fractions.
High titred antidextran antisera have been raised in rabbits by prolonged immunization with soluble conjugates between isomaltose oligosaccharides or dextran mw 4,400 and bovine serum albumin in complete Freund’s adjuvant. Guinea pigs sensitized with such antisera exhibited anaphylactic shock on i.v. challenge with fractions of hydrolyzed B512 dextran. The severity of anaphylaxis depended on the amount of sensitizing antibody and the dose and molecular size of the challenging dextran fraction. In maximally sensitized animals, fractions of mw 3,600 or larger were anaphylactogenic and smaller molecular size fractions were nonanaphylactogenic. In submaximally sensitized animals, dextran fractions of mw 10,500 or less were foundnonanaphylactogenic. In addition, nonanaphylactogenic dextran fractions produced desensitization, i.e. protection from anaphylaxis due to subsequent or simultaneous injection of more high molecular and anaphylactogenic dextran fractions. When the molar ratio in a mixture of nonanaphylactogenic/anaphylactogenic fractions was about 7.6, protection was complete with reduction of mortality from 100 to 0%. A molar ratio of 1.9, corresponding to a 13-percent by weight admixture of nonanaphylactogenic dextran, still significantly reduced mortality from 100 to 50%. From the ability to form precipitates with antidextrans and to elicit anaphylaxis in sensitized guinea pigs, and from the absence of these properties, the approximate molecular size range of bivalent and monovalent dextran B512 fractions was found to correspond to mw 3,600 and mw 1,430, respectively. The practical applicability of hapten inhibition is discussed.