Swine production in Italy is characteristically oriented towards typical meat products. In 2007, the Italian pig population was more than 9 million head (Italian Pig Breeders Association ANAS, 2008). Pig farms numbered around 101,000 in 2007 and over 80% were concentrated in the four northern Italian regions of Lombardia, Emilia-Romagna, Piemonte and Veneto (ISTAT, 2008). This is why the dairy ...

The objectives of this study were to estimate the herd prevalence of major mastitis pathogens in bulk tank milk (BTM) in China dairy herds, to determine the relationship between the presence of mastitis pathogens and bulk tank milk somatic cell counts (BTSCC), and to investigate the impact of different dairy cattle farming modes and region on bacterial species. BTM samples collected from 894 da...

A questionnaire-based survey on veterinary herd health and production management services was conducted on 194 specialist dairy veterinarians and 466 dairy farmers. The farmers were randomly selected from greater than 6,000 farmer clients of the surveyed veterinarians. This paper reports these survey findings and the findings of an earlier survey conducted among the veterinarians. The survey in...

OBJECTIVES The purpose of this study was to determine exposure to whole-body vibration (WBV) and mechanical shock in rural workers who use quad bikes and to explore how personal, physical, and workplace characteristics influence exposure. METHODS A seat pad mounted triaxial accelerometer and data logger recorded full workday vibration and shock data from 130 New Zealand rural workers. Persona...

New Zealand’s success in raising agricultural productivity has been accompanied by higher input use, leading to adverse effects on the environment. Until recently, analysis of farm performance has tended to ignore such negative externalities. The current emphasis on environmental issues has led dairy farmers to target improvements in both environmental performance and productivity. Therefore, m...