Toke Munk Schou

• Ph.D, Animal Science, Aarhus University
• Head of R&D at ENORM Biofactory

Increasing human population size and income growth are causing an increasing demand for food and feed. Insects are a more sustainable alternative to conventional animal source proteins, as they can convert waste and by-products from the agricultural industry into biomass for commercial feed for livestock and, potentially, serve as a food source for...

Increasing population size and income growth are causing and increasing demand for food and protein of animal origin. Insects are an interesting alternative to conventional animal source proteins as they can convert by-products from the agricultural industry to biomass for commercial feed for livestock and potentially as a food source for human con...

Temperature has profound effects on biochemical processes as suggested by the extensive variation in performance of organisms across temperatures. Nonetheless, the use of fluctuating temperature (FT) regimes in laboratory experiments compared to constant temperature (CT) regimes is still mainly applied in studies of model organisms. We investigated...

Simple Summary Previous studies of wild caught mink in Denmark showed that 30–80% had recently escaped from farms. Therefore, it is debated whether a self-sustaining feral mink population is established in Denmark or whether the population rests upon a continuous contribution of captive-born farm mink. Knowledge regarding the reproduction and morta...

The feral mink population in Denmark consists of two groups of animals; mink born in the wild and mink that have recently escaped from farms. The aims of this study are; 1) to estimate the reproduction and mortality of wild-born and captive-born mink and 2) to estimate the age of mink based on the width of pulp cavity (% of tooth width) in the cani...

On farms, female mink are exposed to acute stressors multiple times due to handling, capturing and transport with restricted movement being a typical part of the mating procedure. We hypothesised that no relocation (group NON; i.e. omitted from one trapping and one transport to a novel cage) or direct relocation after second mating (group DIRECT; i...

Maternal care is essential for the viability of altricial offspring. A relatively high ratio of offspring in captivity die before the age of maturity due to low birth weight, large litters at birth, hypothermia, crushing, diseases and failed maternal care. Failed maternal care is thought primarily to be caused a) by hindrance to perform maternal be...

We investigated whether nest building and nest site preference are temperature dependent in female mink. We designed two experiments: in Experiment 1, female mink had access to unheated (7 °C, Room7C group) or heated (25 °C, Heated25C group) nest boxes; in Experiment 2, female mink had free choice of nest boxes at three temperatures (7 °C, 16 °C, a...

The timing of the onset of maternal-related nest building in American mink is unknown, and it is expected that farmed mink are highly motivated to perform nest building during times with restricted access to nesting material on mink farms. Not fulfilled motivations due to thwarting can lead to stress response with increased HPA-axis output and perf...

We investigated the effects of nest box climate on early mink kit mortality and growth. We hypothesised that litters in warm nest boxes experience less hypothermia-induced mortality and higher growth rates during the 1st week of life. This study included data from 749, 1-year-old breeding dams with access to nesting materials. Kits were weighed on...

Denne undersøgelse viser, at halm har flere funktioner ved hold af mink. Mink kan æde halm fra redekasselåget, mens redebygning begrænses, hvis adgang til halm kun er her. Omkring fødsel ses god effekt af halm i buret kombineret med overdække. Undersøgelsen fortsætter resten af 2016 med avlstæver og afkom. http://web.agrsci.dk/djfpublikation/index...

Sårskorper forekommer, når hvalpene er 6-7 uger gamle og langt hyppigere hos tævehvalpe end hos hanhvalpe. Sårskorperne opstår uden forudgående synligt åbne sår. Ekstra vandforsyning til hvalpene reducerede forekomsten af sårskorper samt åbne eller delvist åbne sår hos tævehvalpe.

Vi fandt, at minktæver har motivation for redebygning i vinterperioden, selv inden parring og yngelpleje. Denne effekt ses kun, såfremt halm tildeles inde i burene fremfor oven på redekassens låg. Modsat forventet reducerede adgang til halm inde i burene ikke forekomsten af unormal adfærd. Til gengæld medførte tildeling af halm i burene fra 15. jan...

Social behavior is broadly defined as the interaction between members of the same species that changes their subsequent behavior. Isolation has been shown to affect behavioral traits such as courtship, mating aggression, foraging, learning and memory. This study investigated the effect of isolation (8 days) on adult Musca domestica locomotion. We f...

Denne undersøgelse viser, at der er potentiale for at benytte minks evne til at føle glæde som en velfærdsindikator. Korrelationerne mellem minktævers vægt og adfærdsmæssige reaktioner i testene; Konsumeringsrate, Pindetest, Ukendt Objekt-test, stemmer overens med de korrelationer fundet hos gnavere med reduceret glædeskapacitet (anhedoni). http:...

The behavior of ectotherm organisms is affected by both abiotic and biotic factors. However, a limited number of studies have investigated the synergistic effects on behavioral traits. This study examined the effect of temperature and density on locomotor activity of Musca domestica (L.). Locomotor activity was measured for both sexes and at four d...

Examination of Mink's ability to taste sugar and potential preferences Loss of sweet taste ability has occurred for several species within the order Carnivora, and also within the family Mustelidae to which the mink belong. This study contains two sweet taste experiments with choice between a pure-water-solution and a sugar-water-solution (sucrose...

Although locomotor activity is involved in almost all behavioral traits, there is a lack of knowledge on what factors affect it. This study examined the effects of sex–ratio and density on the circadian rhythm of locomotor activity of adult Musca domestica L. (Diptera: Muscidae) using an infra–red light system. Sex–ratio significantly affected loco...