Joerg Hartung

University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover | TiHo · Institute of Animal Hygiene, Animal Welfare and Farm Animal Behaviour

Modern broilers are usually raised in barren environments in large enclosed halls. Various environmental enrichment elements such as perches, elevated platforms, and similar structures were proposed for these barns with the aim of improving the welfare and well-being of the birds. This study compares and evaluates three different types of environme...

The aim of this study is to evaluate the influence of environmental enrichment on the growth performance, litter and/or air quality as well as animal welfare indicators of broilers. Control groups (CG) and trial groups (TG) were housed under identical conditions during six fattening runs, with the TG having three types of environmental enrichment a...

Simple Summary: Contactless physiological monitoring can be important for animal health and well-being. The current study investigated whether heart rate in pigs can be extracted automatically from videos without disturbing the pig and showed that this was possible with 4.69 beats per minute in mean absolute error. The study also tested different b...

The available floor space is an important welfare factor for cull sows during transportation. Sows of modern genetics reach a size and weight far exceeding those of fattening pigs. In most countries, there are no binding, consistent regulations for the maximum loading densities, especially for sows during road transportation. As a first step toward...

Animal welfare remains a very important issue in the livestock sector, but monitoring animal welfare in an objective and continuous way remains a serious challenge. Monitoring animal welfare, based upon physiological measurements instead of the audio–visual scoring of behaviour, would be a step forward. One of the obvious physiological signals rela...

Animal welfare remains a very important issue in the livestock sector but monitoring animal welfare in an objective and continuous way remains a serious challenge. Monitoring animal welfare based upon physiological measurements instead of audio-visual scoring of behaviour would be a step forward. One of the obvious physiological signals related to...

Heat stress (HS) often causes sudden death of humans and animals due to heart failure, mainly resulting from the contraction of cardiac microvasculature followed by myocardial ischemia. Cardiac microvascular endothelial cells (CMVECs) play an important role in maintaining vasodilatation. Aspirin (ASA) is well known for its protective abilities of f...

Fluoroquinolones are important therapeutics in human and veterinary medicine. This study aimed to retrospectively analyse sedimentation dusts from intensive-livestock-farming barns for fluoroquinolones and investigate the association between resistant Escherichia coli and the detected drugs. Sedimentation-dust samples (n = 125) collected (1980–2009...

In this study, the floor area covered by individual finishing pigs in various body positions was measured using a contrast-based planimetric method for computer-assisted analysis of two-dimensional images. Two hundred and thirty-two finishing pigs were weighed during the last fifth of the fattening period and measured in different body positions us...

Picture of the experimental set up on farm (Photo: H. Arndt).

In order to evaluate the in vivo therapeutic effect of oral administration of tilmicosin phosphate on mycoplasmal pneumonia in swine and its safety for the infected swine, the model of mycoplasmal pneumonia disease in swine was established by artificial infection, and indices such as efficiency, cure rate, death rate, the score of lung lesion, and...

Air quality has a direct influence on the health, welfare and performance of animals as well as on the health of farm workers undertaking different tasks in livestock buildings. Furthermore, air pollutants emitted from livestock buildings can reduce air, water and soil quality and potentially undermine the health of nearby residents. There is ample...

1. This experiment investigated the anti-apoptosis effects and the mechanism of aspirin action in the heat shock response of chicken myocardial cells in vivo, via changes in the heat stress protein Hsp90 and the rate of apoptosis. Broiler chickens were administered aspirin (1 mg/kg body weight) 2 h before exposure to heat stress, and then exposed t...

Housed pigs are exposed chronically to aerial pollutants, principally dust and ammonia, at concentrations that may affect performance, possibly by raising the incidence and prevalence of multi-factorial respiratory diseases. Tolerable limits for aerial pollutants are unknown. The aim of this experiment was to test the hypothesis that chronic exposu...

In conventionally kept fattening turkeys, beak trimming is a common method to reduce skin damages due to cannibalism. In Germany it is planned not to grant exemptions for beak trimming in turkey hens from 2019. There are several hypotheses as to why domestic turkeys injuriously peck. However, very little is known about the abnormal behaviour in tur...

Pregnant sows are often subjected to food restriction, which can compromise their welfare. High fibre diets can mitigate the feeling of hunger and, consequently, improving welfare and productivity. The aims of this study were: 1) to measure the impact of feeding pregnant gilts with high fibre diet (HFD) on welfare and performance indicators and 2)...

1. Specific legal requirements for keeping pullets are not available in the European Union. However, two of the most important rearing factors for pullets are sufficient perching and feeder space. Both factors represent horizontal space dimensions which derive from the body width of the birds. • To determine the body width of two strains of layer...

In the public debate about modern animal production methods, the voice of the farmer is rarely heard. Little is known about the daily work and economic pressure the single farmer is exposed to and what he thinks and feels about the increasingly complex production systems with demanding new control and monitoring technologies such as PLF. In a limit...

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a major human health problem and recently, domestic animals are described as carriers and possible reservoirs. Twenty seven S. aureus isolates from five turkey farms (n = 18) and two broiler farms (n = 9) were obtained by culturing of choana and skin swabs from apparently healthy birds, identifi...

Hsp60 is a typical mitochondrial protein in eukaryotes, and is involved in facilitating the correction of misfolded protein back into the correct conformation. Previous, we identified aspirin-induced HSPs in response to heat stress [1]. To investigate whether Hsp60 can protect against death under heat stress, we used lenti-siRNA to knock down the e...

It is controversially discussed whether the stocking densities set by the EU Directive 2007/43/EC allow a species-appropriate housing of broiler chickens. To calculate the exact area broilers occupy due to their physical size and shape, planimetric measurements using a colour-contrast method were carried out. In total, 1949 photographs of standing...

To determine whether Hsp90 expression is connected with cellular apoptotic response to heat stress and its mechanism, chicken (Gallus gallus) primary myocardial cells were treated with the Hsp90 promoter, aspirin, and its inhibitor, geldanamycin (GA), before heat stress. Cellular viability, heat-stressed apoptosis and reactive oxygen species (ROS)...

In a retrospective study, 119 sedimentation dust samples stored between five and 35 years from various barns of intensive livestock farming were evaluated for the occurrence of cultivatable Escherichia coli. Growth of E. coli occurred in 54 samples. Successful cultivation was achieved in samples from as early as 1994. The frequency of detection inc...

Our recent studies have displayed the protective functions of aspirin against heat stress (HS) in chicken myocardial cells, and it may be associated with heat shock proteins (HSPs). In this study, we further investigated the potential role of HSPs in the aspirin-induced heat stress resistance. Four of the most important HSPs including HspB1 (Hsp27)...

Background: The need for organic food of animal origin has increased rapidly in recent years. However, effects of organic animal husbandry on food safety have not been rigorously tested especially in meat turkey flocks. This study provides for the first time an overview on the prevalence and genetic diversity of Campylobacter species (spp.) in fiv...

1. To understand the potential protection of HSP90 induced by aspirin against heat stress damage in chicken myocardial cells, enzyme activities related to stress damages, cytopathological changes, the expression and distribution of HSP90, and HSP90 mRNA levels in the myocardial cells exposed to heat stress (42°C) for different durations with or wit...

To understand the potential association of heat stress resistance with HspB1 induction by aspirin (ASA) in chicken myocardial cells, variations of HspB1 expression and heat stressed-induced damage of myocardial cells after ASA administration were studied in primary cultured myocardial cells. Cytopathological lesions as well as damage-related enzyme...

1. Sufficient floor space is a fundamental precondition for poultry to perform normal behavioural patterns. To calculate and determine stocking densities, it is essential to know the absolute minimum surface area required by any given animal (body space). Additional space is required for characteristic behaviours (behavioural space) and for adequat...

Microorganisms in the air of poultry enterprises may pose a risk to the respiratory health of the employees. The concentrations can vary widely depending on animal age or housing system. In this study, the differences between a floor-keeping system, an aviary, a free-range system and a small colony system (german Kleingruppenhaltung) are to be show...

The popularity of food produced from animals kept under an organic regimen has increased in recent years. In Germany, turkey meat consumption has increased. Despite several studies assessing the susceptibility of campylobacters to various antibiotics in poultry, no sufficient data exists regarding the antimicrobial resistance of campylobacters in o...

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus has been previously known as a major human health problem. Recently, MRSA infections are progressively expanded and can be found in companion animals, horses and food animals, mostly in pigs and poultry. Detection of resistant bacteria from poultry flocks is of public health interest. For this reason, Met...

The development of organic turkey production increased in recent years. The antimicrobial resistance of Campylobacter isolated from organic reared turkeys in Germany not vigorously tested. This study provides information about antibiotic resistance in Campylobacter isolated from turkeys reared on organic and conventional farms in Germany. Ninety s...

The protective effect of aspirin during exposure to heat stress in broiler chickens was investigated. We assayed the pathological damage, expression and distribution of Hsp90 protein and the hsp90 mRNA expression in chicken heart tissues after oral administration of aspirin following exposure to high temperature for varying times. Heat stress induc...

Due to the increasing intensification of livestock farming, installation of air cleaning systems is mandatory in some areas to protect the surroundings from emissions. The aim of the study was to detect whether and to what extent bio-aerosols can be reduced by air cleaning systems and how far their amount increases by these systems. Comparison of r...

In: Venglovský, J., Gregová, G., Č ornejová, T. (Hrsg.): Proc. of the XVII International Congress of the International Society for Animal Hygiene “Animal hygiene and welfare in livestock production – the first step to food hygiene”, Košice, Slovakia, 07.-11.06.2015; 2015, S. 29-31 ISBN 978-80-8077-462-2

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus has been previously known as a major human health problem. Recently, MRSA infections are progressively expanded and can be found in companion animals, horses and food animals, mostly in pigs and poultry. Detection of resistant bacteria from poultry flocks is of public health interest. For this reason, Met...

We investigated whether acetyl salicylic acid (ASA) protects chicken myocardial cells from heat stress-mediated damage in vivo and whether the induction of Hsp27 expression is connected with this function. Pathological changes, damage-related enzyme levels, and Hsp27 expression were studied in chickens following heat stress (40 ± 1 °C for 0, 1, 2,...

To investigate the mechanism of sudden death as a result of stress-induced damage to heart tissue and myocardial cells and to investigate the cardioprotective role of Hsp70 during heat stress, the distribution and expression of Hsp70 was evaluated in the heart cells of heat-stressed rats in vivo and heat-stressed H9c2 cells in vitro. After exposure...

The aim of the present study was to identify the correlation between expression of heat shock protein 47 (Hsp47) and stress injury in heat-stressed myocardial cells and to compare variations in Hsp47 expression in rat myocardial cells exposed to different heat stress for varying periods in vitro and in vivo. Exposure to heat stress at 42°C resulted...

The aim of the present study was to investigate the association between heat shock protein (Hsp) 70 expression kinetics and heat stress‑induced damage to rat myocardial cells in vitro and in vivo. The results showed that the activity of heart injury‑associated enzymes, including aspartate aminotransferase and creatine kinase, significantly increase...

To investigate the protective role of Hsp60 against stress damage and its role in the sudden death of stressed animals, changes in the levels of Hsp60 protein and hsp60 mRNA of myocardial cells in vivo and in vitro were studied. In addition, the relationship between Hsp60 expression and heat-induced damage was also studied. Rats were exposed to a t...

Regardless of age, mixing of pigs requires the establishment of a social hierarchy determined by aggressive interactions. The common method to sort piglets after weaning by weight and to mix them to new groups can lead to violent rank order fighting followed by injuries, general stress and reduced weight gain. Therefore, an optimal management is es...

The concentrations of airborne staphylococci found in the environment of livestock production systems were compared with the predicted values from a Lagrangian dispersion model and from a Gaussian model to match and thus to determine the accuracy of these two dispersion models. The forecast values of both models deviated considerably from the measu...

The concentrations of airborne staphylococci found in the environment of livestock production systems were compared with the predicted values from a Lagrangian dispersion model and from a Gaussian model to match and thus to determine the accuracy of these two dispersion models. The forecast values of both models deviated considerably from the measu...

The air in farm livestock buildings contains a variety of contaminants which contribute significantly to the development of respiratory diseases in the animals kept in the building and the people working there. The proportion of animal keepers who complain of respiratory symptoms related to working in farm animal buildings is 12-20%. The main compo...

This study aimed to evaluate potential effects of two different diet formulations, which varied in terms of protein ingredients, on the development and severity of FPD in fattening turkeys. Two consecutive trials were performed using wood shavings as a common bedding material. In each trial, the birds were divided into 2 groups with almost an ident...

The objective of this study was to investigate the mechanism of heat shock protein 90 alpha (Hsp90α) protection against heart damage resulting from heat stress by detecting Hsp90α mRNA, Hsp90α protein, protein localization, and cell damage in primary myocardial cells of neonatal rats in response to heat stress in vitro. The cells were heat-stressed...

The aim of this study was to investigate whether mixing of piglets in different group compositions after weaning can affect the social hierarchy formation. The linearity of the social hierarchy and the type of dyadic relationships between all possible pairs of individuals within a group were analysed using sociometric parameters. We studied the hie...

The aim of this study was to test a method to automatically detect aggressive behaviour in pigs, by using an activity index and a multilayer feed forward neural network. An experiment was carried out on a mixed group of 11 male pigs weighing on average 23 kg. During the first 3 days after mixing, the pigs were recorded for video analysis. Out of th...

Relationships between αB-crystallin expression patterns and pathological changes of myocardial cells after heat stress were examined in vitro and in vivo in this study using the H9C2 cell line and Sprague-Dawley rats, respectively. Histopathological lesions, characterized by acute degeneration, karyopyknosis and loss of a defined nucleus, became mo...

To understand the mechanism underlying the sudden animal death caused by acute heart failure during heat stress, the relationships among the heat-induced pathological changes and apoptosis and the variations in the levels of protective Hsp90α and its mRNA in the heat-stressed primary myocardial cells of neonatal rats in vitro were studied by cytopa...

The aim of the study was to test whether aggressive actions among piglets could be redirected by an automatically generated sound signal followed by a sweet food reward. Per round, four litters of 25-day-old piglets (BHZP breed) were trained 5 times per day over 8 days to expect a sweet feed reward from a dog feeder after hearing a specific sound....

In: Berckmans, D.; Vandermeulen, J. (Hrsg.): Precision livestock farming '13 6th European Conference on Precision Livestock Farming, Leuven, Belgium, 10.-12.09.2013; 2013, S. 449-457 ISBN 978-90-8826-333-0

Over a period of one year the concentrations of different groups of airborne microorganisms were determined with different methods (Impingement, Impaction, and fluorescence microscopy) at three locations (Urban, rural, forest) in Northern Germany. In addition the dust concentrations were measured. For the microorganisms a clear seasonal course with...

The mechanisms involved in sudden animal death due to acute heart failure during heat stress are not well understood. We examined the relationship between heat stress-induced variations of protective Hsp60 and expression of its regulatory factor, HSF-1, in heat-stressed primary myocardial cells of neonatal rats in vitro through cardiac enzyme detec...

The relationship between heat shock protein (Hsp) expression and meat quality was assessed in pigs. Carcasses from 2 h and 6 h transported pigs had higher temperatures and lower pH and water holding capacity values in the longissimus dorsi and gluteus maximus superficialis muscles. Long journeys were associated with increased creatine kinase (CK) l...

Castration of piglets with the use of isoflurane-anaesthesia in combination with an analgesic has been proven to be a welfare-friendly approach. However, castration is performed with an equipped anaesthetic device which is not profitable for small farms. Thus, this study aimed at investigating whether sharing the anaesthetic device among farms resu...

Neonatal rat primary myocardial cells were subjected to heat stress in vitro, as a model for investigating the distribution and expression of Hsp27 and αB-crystallin. After exposure to heat stress at 42°C for different durations, the activities of enzymes expressed during cell damage increased in the supernatant of the heat-stressed myocardial cell...

A SHORT HISTORY OF LIVESTOCK PRODUCTION J. Hartung Institute for Animal Hygiene, Welfare and Farm Animal Behaviour, University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Foundation, Germany Conclusions / Abstract This chapter reviewed the developments of animal farming from the ancient days until present times, mainly concentrating on the Central European r...