Implementation of piglet castration under inhalation anaesthesia on farrowing farms
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Abstract Background Since 01.01.2021, suckling piglets may no longer be castrated without anaesthesia in Germany. Previous studies showed castration using isoflurane anaesthesia in combination with a suitable analgesic, meet the requirements of the German Animal Welfare Act. It can be carried out independently by farmers and other qualified persons with an automated and certified isoflurane device. Therefore, the aim of the present field study was to implement the use of three different anaesthetic devices for surgical castration of male piglets under automated isoflurane anaesthesia on 15 conventional pig farms in southern Germany. In addition, the depth of anaesthesia based on defensive movements, the labour time required in contrast to anaesthetic-free castration, castration-related anaesthetic incidents and the piglet mortality rate as well as occupational safety were investigated. For this purpose, farrowing batches of 11,574 piglets castrated under isoflurane anaesthesia (IA) were compared with the results of the 1568 piglets of anaesthetic-free farrowing batches (AF). Results In total, 80.1% of the castrated piglets showed sufficient depth of anaesthesia, although this varied significantly between devices. 1.7% of the piglets suffered an anaesthetic incident, of which 0.1% died during or within 24 h after anaesthesia. The required time for the complete working process differed significantly between AF (1.7 ± 0.8 min/piglet) and IA batches (2.2 ± 0.8 min/piglet) but not for castration itself. The mean isoflurane consumption was 0.57 ± 0.27 ml/piglet and differed significantly between the devices (p < 0.001). The isoflurane concentration in the ambient air of the person-related workplace safety measurements was below the internationally lowest value of 15 mg/m3 from Ontario and Israel. Conclusion In conclusion, 2 of the 3 types of devices used, a sufficient depth of anaesthesia during castration under isoflurane was achieved in 85% of castrated piglets. Anaesthetic incidents occurred in 1.7% of the animals, of which 0.1% died. Castration under isoflurane is more time-consuming than anaesthetic-free castration, but the castration time itself did not differ significantly. The occupational exposure limits were below the internationally lowest limit value of 15 mg/m3 for the persons involved. Even though castration under isoflurane is more time consuming than anaesthetic-free castration, it is a well-establishable method for practice and a dear improvement for animal welfare.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".