Pressures from consumers concerned with sow well-being in gestation stalls have encouraged producers to consider how to transition from individual gestation stalls to pens in existing buildings. The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance and well-being of sows in pens that were retrofitted from stalls (2.1 by 0.55 m). Large pens (5.5 by 7.3 m) housed 26 sows and small pens (5.5 by 1....

BACKGROUND This study aimed to assess the effectiveness and safety of percutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (PENS) in migraine treatment. METHODS Sixty-two patients with at least 2 migration attacks each month were recruited and randomly divided into a verum PENS group and a sham PENS group in a ratio of 1:1. All patients received verum or sham PENS 30 minutes daily, 5 times weekly for 12...

A semi-field study was carried out to evaluate the effect of two medicinal herbs, individually and in combination, on growth performance, carcass traits, nutrient digestibility and immune response of broiler chickens.  A total of 384 one-day-old straight-run Arbor Acres broiler chickens were allocated into 24 floor pens prepared in a commercial broiler house. Pen-groups were fed one of the foll...

The maintenance of feedlot pen surfaces, which includes removal of manure and replacement of fill soil, is a time-consuming and expensive process. Pond ash (PA), a by-product of coal-fired electrical generation, has been proposed as a feedlot pen surface amendment because of its foundational support characteristics. A study was conducted to compare the performance of PA-surfaced pens to traditi...

Materials and methods: Three studies were conducted. Two weeks post nursery placement, pigs 17 to 23 days old were evaluated to determine WTA using the Swine Welfare Assurance Program behavioral protocol. Pigs were observed at 4:00 pm the day before injection and at 4:00 pm 24 hours later, 6 hours post injection. The difference between the two WTA scores is reported as a decrease in percent wil...

Although cattle are reservoirs, no validated method exists to monitor Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli O157 (STEC O157) on farms. In 29 Midwestern United States feedlot pens we compared culturing faeces from the individual cattle to: (1) culturing rope devices that cattle rub or chew; and (2) culturing a composite of faecal pats. Eighty-six per cent (68-96%) of pens were classified correc...

Odorant pens are used by medical practitioners and researchers to assess olfactory dysfunction. Despite their routine use, there are currently no data on the gas-phase odorant concentrations released from the pen tips or whether these concentrations scale linearly with the aqueous-phase concentrations inside the pens. The commercially available Sniffin' Sticks odor threshold test containing n-b...