ANIMAL HUSBANDRY – SECTION-B MAY/JUNE, 2007

(b) Explain five factors that affects voluntary intake of feed by farm animals.

(c) State four function of saliva.

Solution

(a)Explain (i) rumination and Eructation — Refer from June 2003 Q2 (a) (iii)

(b)Factors affecting voluntary intake of feed by farm animals
The nature of the feed: Generally, farm animals’ voluntary feed intake is influenced by the type and nature of the feed whether it is roughages or concentrates.
The chemical composition of the feed (Diet composition): Generally, voluntary feed intake is increased with balanced diet than with unbalanced diets.
The bulky nature or otherwise of the feed: Although ruminant has very capacious sets of stomach, there is slow rate of digestion when the feed is too bulky, and this affect the feed intake.
Processing method of the feed: (i.e. How feed is processed): Reducing the particle size feed increases the activity of the rumen microflora by providing additional amount of nutrients. This increases voluntary feed intake. The power the feed are processed the less the feed intake.
Negative feedback from eating a particular feed: What animals learn from eating a particular feed would contribute to how much it eats on subsequent occasions.
Digestibility of the feed: The easy the digestibility of the feed the higher the voluntary feed intake by farm animals, all things being equal.
The general health status of the animal: The sum total of the strengths of signals received by the brain from many types of receptors from many parts of the body affect the rate of feed intake. The healthier the animal, the higher the voluntary feed intake.
The genotype and the physiological state of the animal: Generally, some breeds of animal have higher voluntary feed intake than others. In general, lactating animals have higher voluntary feed intake than non-lactating animals.
The prevailing environmental condition: Harsh environmental conditions like excess heat and coldness negatively affect the voluntary feed intake by farm animals. Ideal environment condition positively affects voluntary feed intake by farm animals.
The nutrient composition of the feed: Generally, marginal deficiencies of nutrient result in an increase in feed intake. However, severe shortage of essential nutrient causes intake to decline.

(c) Functions of Saliva — Refer from June 2003 Q2 (b) (i)

Solution

a) i) What is disease? —Refer from June 2005 Q2 (a) (i)
(ii) Conditions that could contribute to an increase iil parasite population in animal production.
(i)The general sanitation and hygiene condition in the farm.
(ii) The availability and number of host organisms.
(iii) Favourable breeding environment of the parasite in the farm
(iv) The nature and the housing condition of the farm (i.e. availability of the hiding areas for parasites).
(v) The waste disposal system of the farm including the disposal of dead animals
(vi) The rate of breeding of the parasites
(vii) The general management practices adopted in the farm (i.e. medication, vaccination, quarantine etc.).
(viii) Improper nutrition and ventilation in the farm.
(ix) Inadequate surveillance and late intervention in the control of pest population on the farm.

(b) Trypanosomiasis Disease (Sleeping Sickness)
Causal Organism: Caused by Trypanosome species. Some of these species include: Trypanosome gambiense
T. vivax
T. congolense
T. brucei
T. Simiae
T. rhodesiense

Mode of Transmission: The causative agent is transmitted through tsetsefly (Glossina spp.)
It affects both animals — cattle, sheep, goats, cats, dogs and even humans.

Symptoms: Incubation period of about 1 — 3 weeks followed by intermittent fever, anorexia, anaemia dullness and emaciation.
•Rapid pulse and respiration rate
•Secretion of pale mucous membrane
•In pregnant animals, abortion may occur
•Swelling of chest and abdomen
•Paralysis in hind legs may occur in horses
•Sudden death may occur

Control
•Give prophylactic drugs during movement of livestock, especially through tsetse fly belts.
•Eliminate tsetse fly through aerial spraying.
•Slaughter severely infected animals
•Eliminate weed plants from areas infested with tsetse fly
•Treat infected animals with ethiedium bromide, berenil, antrycide prosalts and antrycide methal sulphate.

3.(a) (i)State five desirable features of an animal house.
(ii) Explain briefly how each of the features you have stated contributes to increase in animal productivity.

(b) Give three reasons for keeping records on animal feed.

(c) Name two pests of stored feed.

Solution

(a)(i) & (ii) Desirable features of animal house

• Good animal house should have good orientation. Animal house should be built in such a direction that birds will benefit from enough sunlight both in the morning and the evening for increased production.
• Good animal house should have proper shade. This is to protect the animals against the vagaries of the weather.
•The walls of the building should be smooth so that parasites such as mites, lice, ticks cannot hide in the cracks and crevices in the walls.
• Good animal house should have adequate ventilation to allow free air movement through the house is important. This will help minimize dampness and respiratory diseases.
• The floor of the animal hose should be made of concrete and be made relatively smooth to facilitate effective cleaning and disinfection. The use of earth or wood makes cleaning difficult and may harbour pests.
• Animal house should be rodent proof and free from wild birds and other large pests which would animal feed and inflict physical damage to the animals.
• In the case of poultry houses and especially deep litter system, adequate litter material should be spread on the floor to absorb the watery parts of the faeces.

(b) Reasons for keeping records on animal feed
• Farmer keeps records on animal feed so that he does not run out of stock.
•It helps to determine what feed need to be replenished at what time. (know what need to be reordered.
•Records on animal’ feed are important so that particular feed which would be destroyed or go mouldy.
•Records on feed are important so that stock can be matched with production.
• Good records on feed help to monitor the rate of expenditure/use of the feed.
•Records on animal feed can help to timely defect any problem, example theft and deterioration.

(c) Pests of stored feed
•Rodent (e.g. mouse)
• Birds
•Weevils
•Grain borer (i.e. larger grain borers)

4. (a) State five ways reasons why a farmer may prefer rearing sheep rather than cattle.

(b) State five factors that affect the birth weight of piglets.

Solution
(a) Why a farmer may prefer rearing sheep rather than cattle
• Sheep are generally calm and easy to work on (in terms of management practices) than cattle.
• It may also be as a result of personal preference of the farmer.
•A farmer may prefer to rear sheep to cattle because2 of the choice and preference of the consuming public (market demands). The farmer’s target market may prefer mutton to beef.
•General the initial cost of raising or rearing sheep is far low than rearing cattle.
• Labour equipment for rearing sheep is also far lesser than that of keeping cattle.
• Sheep generally can feed on varied house waste than cattle and hence cost of feeding sheep may also be reduced as compared to cattle.
(b) Factors that affect the birth weight of piglets
•The breed of the pig (Genetic factor)
•The health status of the breeding stock (sow)
•The number of litters produced per pregnancy (litter size)
•The feeding regime (nutrition) giving to the sow especially at the last few months before parturition
•The general sanitary condition of the pig sty
• Age of dam (sows)

Season of parturition
The breed of the pig (Genetic factor): Different breeds of pig like landrace, Duroc Jersey, Large White, Ashanti Dwarf, Poland China etc. all have different litter size at the time of parturition.

The number of litter produced per pregnancy (litter size):
The larger the litter size per pregnancy the lesser the weight of the piglets.
The feeding regime (nutrition): The types of feed giving to pregnant animal most especially at the last few months before parturition have a remarkable effect on the piglet weight. If good nutritive feed is given to the dam, the piglet weight at birth will be high.
The general sanitation and health status of the animal:
The general sanitation and health status of the dam affect the birth weight of piglets. Diseased dam is likely to give birth to piglet with reduced weight as compared to healthy dam.
Age of the dam: Very young and very old sows give births to piglet with lower birth weight. Relatively older sows give birth to piglet with heavy weight.
Season of parturition: Experiments have shown that parturition of piglet of summer/rainy season when feed are in abundance have heavy litter weight than those that are born during the dry seasons.

5. (a) Explain the term candling.

(b) State five physical characteristics of a poor laying hen.

(c) State four advantages of natural incubation of eggs.

Solution

(a)Candling explained and how it is done
•Candling is done usually on the 7th and 18th day of incubation
•It may be done using a ray of light from the sun or by using a candler
•A ray of light is made to pass through the egg at one end and observed it from the other end.
•Candling is done in a well darkened room to allow for easy observation.
•An egg with a living embryo clearly shows a larger section containing the embryo and a smaller section which is clear containing the air space.

(b)Physical characteristics of a poor laying bird
• Poor laying birds usually have dull plumage
•Usually poor birds have pale and flat wattle
•Space or distance between public bones should be 1-2 fingers wide.
•Poor layers usually have dull face pigment.
• Poor layers have small round and dry vent.

(c)Advantages of natural incubation
•It is suitable for hatching few eggs.
•More eggs are likely to be hatched from the eggs set (i.e. high hatchability of eggs).
•Artificial incubation does not require any technical skills to manage them.
•It does not need much capital to run it (i.e. it relatively cheap).
• It does not need or require any external heat for embryo development.

6.(a) State any four characteristics of beef cattle,

(b) Identify any five management practices carried out on calves at pre-weaning stage and state three importance of each.

Solution

(a) Four characteristics of beef cattle:
• They are stocky and well filled flesh supported by short, strong and straight legs (i.e. they are muscular)
•They have higher growth rate
•They have a blocky body conformation (i.e. square shaped).
•They usually have well developed horn
•They have relatively high growth rate

(b) Management practices on calves at the pre-weaning stage:
•Disbudding/ Dehorning
•Castration
•Identification/marking
• Feeding and watering
•Vaccination
•Grooming (if necessary)
• Docking (if necessary)

Purpose/importance of carrying out each of the management practices above:
Disbudding /Dehorning
•There is economy of space
• Dehorning makes it easier to handle the animals
•Helps to eliminate injuries to attendants
•Reduce the destruction of hides of other animals
•Makes it easier to cart/transport the animals
• It avoids animals being entangled to death

Castration
•Castration makes the animal docile and easy to handle
•Castrated animals grow faster
•Castration helps to avoid inbreeding
•Castration removes unpleasant odour
•Castrated animals have tender meat
•It enhances the fattening of animals
•Helps to remove males with inferior characteristics.

Identification/Marking
•It enables record keeping
•For easy identification of animals among flocks for management practices like medication
•It removes disputes amongst farmers in terms of true ownership.
• Helps in performing experiments on them
•The origin/breed of the animal can easily be established.

Vaccination
• It helps to prevent outbreak of diseases among flock of animals

Grooming
•It helps to achieve cleanliness and enhance good appearance
•It helps to massage and stimulate blood and lymph circulation in the skin
•It helps to remove scruff and loosen hair
•Grooming helps remove lice and other skin’ parasites (ectoparasites)
• Milking cows are groomed to obtain clean milk devoid of contamination with fur/hair of animals.

Docking
•It facilitates mating or servicing
•It improves on the appearance of the animals

(c) (i) & (ii) Tethering explained and its disadvantages in goat production
Tethering: This is a semi-intensive system of keeping goats where rope is tied to the neck of the animal and fastened to a free or a pig such that the animal can only graze on the grasses within the rope parameters.
Disadvantages of tethering
•The animals are usually underfed. Most of the times the animals feed without
• The animals are exposed to harsh environmental conditions since they are left under the mercies of the weather
•By this method, only few animals can be reared at a given time.
• There is always danger of the animals strangling themselves with the rope to death.
• They cannot escape in case of danger like predators or fire.