Supplementary Readings - 3 | Animal Husbandry & Veterinary Science Optional for UPSC PDF Download

Natural Lighting in Animal Buildings

• Sunlight Benefits:
  • Sunlight is crucial for the health of both humans and animals.
  • Sun rays aid in the synthesis of vitamin D, especially important for young animals' growth.
  • Lack of sunlight can lead to health issues, higher morbidity, and mortality.
• Psychological Impact:
  • Good natural lighting positively influences the psychological well-being of animals and humans.
  • In human factories, artificial light for precision work may decrease productivity compared to natural light.
• Reproductive Cycle Influence:
  • Light, whether natural or artificial, influences the reproductive cycle in animals.
  • The onset of the sexual season in ewes is linked to decreasing daylight.
• Egg Production in Hens:
  • Egg production in laying hens is significantly influenced by light exposure.
  • Follicle-stimulating hormone production is stimulated under light, enhancing egg production.
  • Optimum winter egg production requires 13-14 hours of light daily.
• Germicidal Action of Sunlight:
  • Direct sunlight has germicidal effects, partly due to ultraviolet rays and thermal rays.
  • Tubercle bacilli and pathogenic bacteria are destroyed by sunlight.
  • Ultraviolet rays, however, do not penetrate regular window glass.
• Importance of Lighting in Animal Buildings:
  • Adequate lighting is essential for hygiene in animal buildings.
  • Lighting helps maintain cleanliness, contributing to effective management.
  • Well-lit environments aid in preventing the accumulation of unseen dirt.
• Role of White Surfaces:
  • Upper walls and ceilings in animal buildings should be white.
  • White surfaces enhance lighting and contribute to cleanliness.
  • White surfaces support better hygiene practices in animal husbandry.

Natural Lighting in Animal Buildings

• Optimal Building Placement:
  • Animal buildings like cowsheds and piggeries should be designed for maximum natural light.
  • Ideal orientation is with the long axes in a north-south direction to ensure maximum sunlight exposure during the day.
  • This orientation also minimizes direct exposure to colder aspects, especially on the northern side.
• Importance of North-South Orientation:
  • North-south orientation ensures one end of the building faces the cooler direction.
  • For example, in a dairy cowshed, the milk room is placed at the northern end for cooler temperatures and northern light.
• Efficient Natural Illumination:
  • Roof lighting is the most efficient form of natural illumination.
  • Especially crucial for cowsheds during milking operations, where light should concentrate on the cows' hindquarters.
  • To prevent heating effects, roof lights should be arranged on the north or east side, avoiding direct exposure to the sun.
• Overhead Lighting Options:
  • Fixed evenly spaced roof lights are one option for overhead lighting.
  • Combined lighting and ventilation systems in the ridge can also provide effective illumination.
• Challenges with Wall Lighting:
  • Wall lighting is less efficient than overhead lighting.
  • In double-range cowsheds, securing adequate illumination, especially at the hindquarters, can be challenging with wall lighting alone.
• Window Placement and Types:
  • Windows should face north or east to avoid direct sunlight on animals.
  • Adjustable hopper-type windows are recommended for all animal habitats, providing both light and fresh air.
  • Metal-framed windows have a higher initial cost but are more cost-effective in the long run.
• Balancing Lighting and Ventilation:
  • Proper planning ensures a balance between lighting and ventilation for a comfortable and well-lit animal environment.
  • This balance enhances animal well-being and contributes to efficient farming practices.

Minimum Glass Areas Recommended for Animal Habitats

• Cowsheds:
  • Roof Lighting: At least 4 sq. ft. per cow.
  • Wall Lighting: Slightly more than roof area for wall lighting.
  • Window Type: Hopper-type windows, 4 ft. x 3 ft., for each three single pens.
• Calf Houses:
  • Roof Lighting: Desirable at the rate of 50-60 sq. ft. per calf.
  • Window Type: Hopper-type windows for single pens, pro-rata for larger pens.
• Stables:
  • Roof Lighting: Minimum 4 sq. ft. of glass for roof lights for each pair of horses.
  • Window Area: Alternatively, 12 sq. ft. for windows.
• Piggeries - Loose Boxes:
  • Roof Lighting: 50 sq. in. per pig or equivalent window area.
  • Window Placement: A window opposite each pen.
• Poultry Houses:
  • Minimum Area: At least 0.5 sq. ft. per bird.
• Artificial Lighting Requirements:
  • Adequacy: Ensure sufficient light for the work area.
  • Consistency and Uniformity: No flicker, uniform lighting over the necessary work area.
  • Prevention of Glare: Avoid harsh, blinding light.
  • Shadow Avoidance: Ensure no shadows interfere with work.

Electric Lighting in Animal Habitats

• Advantages of Electric Light:
  • Clear and clean artificial illumination.
  • No combustion by-products.
  • Easily directed to specific areas.
  • Minimal fire hazard if installed correctly.
• Recommendations for Farm Buildings:
  • Adequate lighting planning for both new and existing structures.
  • Proper arrangement of lamps for good illumination over working areas.
  • Example: In a single-range cowshed, two lights along the feeding passage and at least three lights behind the cows are advisable.
  • Use of bulkhead type fittings for wall mounting, suitable for cowsheds and dairies.
  • Placement of suspended lights over central gangways in double-range buildings.
  • Consideration of fluorescent lighting for effectiveness.
  • Provision of portable lights and plugs for flexibility in veterinary operations.
• Caution on Cheap Electrical Installations:
  • Emphasis on the need for safe and reliable electrical installations.
  • Farm electrification should be carried out by specialized firms.
• Alternative Lighting Options:
  • Coal-gas lighting: Provides good illumination but warms the air and poses fire risks.
  • Acetylene gas, petrol gas, or paraffin-oil lamps: Options in areas without electricity or gas.
  • Hurricane lamps: Old-fashioned, but not ideal for clean milk production.
  • Paraffin-vapour lamps: Safer, economical, and suitable for various purposes.

Storage and Handling of Animal Products

Impact of Climate:

• Tropical climates, humid or arid, accelerate the deterioration of stored animal products.
• Increases processing and handling costs.
• Affects livestock industry development in certain areas due to economic challenges.

Acclimatization in Animals: Understanding the Basics

• Definition of Acclimatization:
  • Acclimatization refers to the complex processes through which animals adapt to their environment.
• Importance of Acclimatization:
  • Vital for animals introduced to new environments.
  • Failure to acclimatize can lead to deterioration.
• Challenges in Tropical Environments:
  • Temperate-type livestock face stresses like climatic, nutritional, and disease factors in tropical regions.
  • Acclimatization is crucial for overcoming heat stress.
• Temporary vs. Permanent Acclimatization:
  • Temporary acclimatization involves adjustments in heat loss, production, or tissue tolerance.
  • Permanent acclimatization may result from changes in behavior, physiological reactions, or inherited traits.
• Behavioral Changes in Livestock:
  • Livestock in tropical environments exhibit sluggish movements to reduce muscular heat production.
  • Examples include bulls being more tractable, poultry becoming slower, and cattle grazing more at night.
• Physiological Adaptation:
  • Hormonal changes may occur in response to environmental shifts.
  • Reduction in adrenal activity may impact energy production and reproductive performance.
• Selection for Morphological Characteristics:
  • Animals may be selected based on traits aiding acclimatization.
  • Characteristics include large skin area, short light-colored hair, and pigmented skin.
• Method for Breed Evaluation:
  • Evaluate the possibility of easy acclimatization by constructing climographs.
  • Plot mean monthly air temperatures against mean monthly relative humidities in both environments.
• Conclusion:
  • Understanding acclimatization factors is crucial for intentional breeding of animals suited for tropical environments.

Livestock Housing Essentials: Ensuring Animal Well-being

• Definition of Housing:
  • Housing refers to structures designed for providing shelter, control, or protection to animals.
• Impact of Cold Environmental Conditions:
  • In cold environments, mammals and birds use energy for body heat, impacting their productivity.
  • Cold stress can lead to weight loss, poor food conversion, and, for newborn animals, it can be fatal.
• Importance of Shelter, Insulation, and Heat:
  • Shelter, insulation, and sometimes heat are essential to mitigate the effects of cold on livestock.
  • Adequate protection is crucial, especially considering factors like wind and precipitation.
• Ventilation for Health:
  • Proper ventilation is necessary to prevent the buildup of harmful gases like ammonia.
  • Inadequate ventilation can lead to health hazards for both animals and personnel.
• Temperature Requirements for Young Stock:
  • Additional heat is provided for young animals like chicks, maintaining around 35°C at hatching.
  • Newborn piglets also require warmth initially for their well-being.
• Insulation and Ventilation for Older Livestock:
  • Effective insulation in walls and roofs during winter, combined with good ventilation, is vital for older livestock.
  • Bedding may be provided, except in systems with automatic waste disposal.
• Optimizing Lighting for Productivity:
  • Lighting intensity and photoperiodicity are critical for managing egg production, feed intake, and growth rate in poultry.
• Outdoor Livestock Considerations:
  • Animals kept outdoors, with wind breaks, shelter in bad weather, shade in summer, and avoiding muddy conditions, tend to be healthier.
• Historical Housing Challenges:
  • In the past, animal housing often led to overcrowding in dark, damp, and poorly ventilated buildings, causing various health issues.
• Modern Challenges and Solutions:
  • Some modern buildings may have ventilation issues, leading to condensation and health problems.
  • Commercial competition can drive practices like overcrowding, requiring interventions like rod lighting, but these may have short-term gains.
• Balancing Intensivism and Animal Welfare:
  • Intensivism should be balanced to avoid disease incidence and excessive drug use, emphasizing a return to good animal husbandry.
• Economic Considerations:
  • Feeding concentrates to keep animals warm is four times costlier than ensuring proper housing in severe winters.
• Key Takeaway: Ensuring proper housing, ventilation, and lighting is crucial for the well-being and productivity of livestock, balancing economic considerations with animal welfare.

Impact of Housing on Animal Feeding and Health

• Scavenging Opportunity:
  • Housing influences the feeding habits of animals.
  • Confined pigs on concrete lack the opportunity for normal scavenging.
• Deficiencies and Special Rations:
  • Animals confined to concrete may face mineral or vitamin deficiencies.
  • Special rations are required to address deficiencies, especially in Vitamin A and B.
• Vitamin Deficiencies in Cattle:
  • Lack of Vitamin A supplement in store cattle can lead to blindness on many farms.
• Residual Infection Risks:
  • Residual infection is a concern in buildings shared by different species like calves, pigs, and turkeys.
  • Cross-infection between species, such as a specific strain of E. coli, may occur.
• Disease Spread between Species:
  • In buildings shared by different animals, there is a risk of cross-infection.
  • For instance, a building used for calves and pigs may lead to cross-infection between pigs and turkeys.
• Specific Infection Example:
  • Affection with Trichostrongylus axei is common in the land surrounding buildings.
  • This infection is shared by cattle, sheep, horses, and goats.
• Key Consideration: Housing conditions impact the health and feeding habits of animals, necessitating special rations and precautions to avoid deficiencies and diseases, especially in shared environments.

Building Materials for Animal Housing

Bricks

• Should be regular in size, shape, texture, and well-burnt.
• Free from cracks, flaws, sharp on edges, and produce a clear ringing sound when struck.
• Slightly damaged bricks suitable for concealed positions, if hard and well-burned.
• Porous bricks unsuitable for foundations or external walls due to water absorption.
• Economical to use cement and lime mortar for agricultural buildings, providing durability and water resistance.

Ordinary Building Bricks

• Vary in size based on brickworks or district, can be hand-made or machine-made.
• Hand-made bricks usually wire-cut, lack a frog, resulting in a heavier brick.
• Machine-moulded bricks are more regular, may have a frog, and often bear brickworks' name.
• Available in various shapes like bullnose for rounded corners, splayed for openings, and more.

Facing Bricks

• Special bricks for a durable and sanitary finish, used with ordinary brickwork.
• Enhance the appearance and quality of walls.

Enamelled Bricks

• Finished with coloured or white enamel on surfaces.
• Enamel doesn't rely on brick body for color.
• Enamelling involves dipping surfaces in enamel solution before firing.

Salt-Glazed Bricks

• Ordinary fireclay bricks with common salt thrown on the surface in the kiln.
• Results in a light or dark brown glaze, making it the cheapest impervious facing brick.
• Suitable for lower parts of animal habitation walls, providing a washable and sanitary surface.

Building Materials for Construction

Perforated Bricks

• Ordinary building bricks with perforations running from bed to bed.
• Used for ventilation purposes, replacing gratings.

Tiles

• Roofing tiles, often red, made from good plastic clay.
• Plain tiles used for various applications, available in different qualities.
• Should not be laid at a flatter pitch than 45 degrees.
• Pantiles, common on sheds, have a rough texture, may require torching underneath for wind protection.
• Glass pantiles available for insertion in pantiled roofs.

Building Stones

• Divided into two classes: igneous rocks (granite, whinstone, trapstone) and sedimentary rocks (sandstone, limestone).
• Granite suitable for stable-yard paving, steps, and thresholds.
• Whinstone used for road-metal, concrete floors, and paving setts.
• Sandstone preferred for rubble building and hewn work due to regular texture.
• Limestone examples include Portland stone, Kentish Rag-stone, and Bathatene, used for various construction purposes.

Slate

• Welsh slates have good cleavage, easily split into thin sheets.
• Westmorland slates are hard, tough, durable, and available in pleasing colors.
• Scottish slates are thick and heavy but very durable.

Evaluating Building Materials

• Slate Quality:
  • A good slate produces a sharp ring when struck.
  • It withstands trimming and handling without fracturing.
  • Weight test: Immersing slates in water for 24 hours; good slates don't absorb water above the water line.
• Thick Slate Usage:
  • Thick slates may form cisterns and containers but are not recommended.
  • Joints in such structures tend to leak, making them unhygienic and unreliable.

Lime, Mortar, and Cement

• Lime for Building:
  • Obtained by heating limestone or similar substances containing calcium carbonate.
  • Burned to eliminate carbon dioxide and moisture.
• Portland Cement:
  • Crucial for various construction purposes.
  • Derived from chalk and clay, mixed in a 'wet' process, settled, dried, burned, and ground to a fine powder.
  • Cement strength depends on grinding fineness.
• Cement Mortar:
  • For building purposes, a mix of three parts sharp sand and one part Portland cement with clean water.
  • Must be used fresh as it sets rapidly.
  • Unused mortar should not be mixed with fresh material the next day.
• Cement Concrete:
  • Used for foundations, walls, and other structures.
  • Composed of clean broken stones, bricks, or gravel, graded sand, Portland cement, and clean water.
  • Proportions vary based on the work nature, aggregate, and cement quality.
  • Recommended proportions for ordinary foundations:
    • Stone/bricks broken to pass a 3-inch ring: 4 parts
    • Clean sharp sand: 2 parts
    • Portland cement: 1 part
    • Water in sufficient quantity.
  • Mixing on a solid platform, not on soil, turning over twice dry and once wet, and immediately placing in foundation trenches.

Wall Finishing Materials

• Cement Plaster:
  • Mixture of clean, sharp or fine sand and Portland cement (3:1 or 4:1).
  • Used for rendering outer surfaces of walls, partitions, byres, piggery partitions, etc.
  • Avoid excessive cement richness to prevent hair-cracks; sand-face finish is preferable.
  • Enables rounded corners, angles, and hygienic finishes in stables.
• Rough-Casting:
  • Outer face of walls covered with cement plaster finished with pebble or crushed stone dashing.
• Reinforced Concrete:
  • Fine concrete reinforced with iron or steel rods or expanded steel sheets.
  • Widely used for stanchions, posts, beams, partitions, load-bearing walls, tanks, stall divisions, upper floors, etc.
• Mineral Rock Asphalt:
  • Natural limestone impregnated with natural bitumen.
  • Used for paving roadways, platform roofs, and basement walls (tanking).
  • Laid in two ways: 'powder-work' for roadways and 'mastic work' for various applications.
• Powder-Work:
  • Rock asphalt ground to a fine powder, roasted, and spread on a concrete foundation.
  • Beaten into position with hot iron rammers, creating a hard and durable roadway.
• Mastic Work:
  • Rock asphalt mixed with Trinidad bitumen and other ingredients, molded into blocks.
  • Blocks melted on-site, mixed with additional materials, and spread in two layers.
  • Requires careful application to exclude air or gas bubbles, tough and durable when properly executed.
• Felts and Bituminous Roof Covering:
  • Various felts available in rolls for building purposes.
  • Cheaper felt suitable for covering roof boarding before slating.
  • Higher-grade haired felts treated with coal-tar oil or bitumen for better durability.
  • Used for deafening floors, suitable for temporary or less important structures, easy to install by unskilled labor.

Preventing and Dealing with Dry Rot in Buildings

• Common Occurrences:
  • 'Dry rot' often found in underground floors, attacking joists and flooring boards.
  • Ventilation is crucial, especially in areas not cleared of debris and properly covered with surface concrete.
• Risk Areas for 'Dry Rot':
  • Unventilated roof spaces enclosed by timber can be susceptible to 'dry rot.'
  • Leaks and infected timber create conditions for rapid growth and decay.
  • Presence often indicated by a musty odor and characteristic atmosphere.
• Fungus Characteristics:
  • Rapid growth in early stages, resembling frost, later developing a mushroom-like skin.
  • May spread over joints in brickwork, plaster, masonry, seeking moisture.
  • Nourishment derived only from woodwork, with soft, unseasoned sapwood being highly susceptible.
• Preventive Measures:
  • No cure once 'dry rot' attacks; removal of affected parts is the only safe procedure.
  • Affected parts and adjacent areas should be carefully removed and burned.
  • Replacement with sound, well-seasoned timber coated with creosote oil is essential.
  • Scorched surfaces of walls and existing woodwork can be treated with a blow-lamp and a 1 to 2 per cent solution of corrosive sublimate for additional precaution.
  • Copper sulfate solution is an alternative, albeit less effective.
• Wall Construction:
  • Walls serve primarily as protection from cold, wind, and rain.
  • Secondary roles include supporting the roof, upper floors, and providing a structure for stall divisions and fittings.
  • Wall construction should prioritize durability, weather resistance, and support functions.

Constructing Durable Walls for Buildings

• Foundation Preparation:
  • The foundation trench should remove topsoil, reaching firm clay, sand, gravel, or rock.
  • Ensure a leveled or stepped formation for concrete foundations.
  • Concrete trench width matches the exact width of the concrete used.
• Foundation Thickness and Width:
  • Thickness depends on soil nature; a rule is never less than 9 inches, preferably 12 inches for typical farm buildings.
  • Width is typically 9 to 12 inches more on each side than the wall thickness for proper bearing.
• Alternative to Concrete Foundations:
  • In the rare case of not using concrete, brick footings (projections) can be formed, but they have drawbacks.
  • Concrete foundations are recommended due to monolithic strength, moisture resistance, and overall durability.
• Brickwork for Farm Buildings:
  • 9-inch solid load-bearing brick walls with necessary piers meet farm building requirements.
  • Piers, if needed, are placed on the exterior, minimizing breaks in wall surfaces.
  • Reinforcement may eliminate the need for piers, requiring expert advice.
  • In exposed areas or with porous bricks, consider cavity system construction or external rendering.
• Cavity System and External Rendering:
  • Cavity system: Suitable for exposed positions or porous bricks, providing additional weather resistance.
  • External rendering: Enhances weather resistance; materials like Portland cement, lime, sand, and various cement finishes can be used.
• Framed Structures:
  • In framed structures, brickwork used for panel filling should be bonded into steel stanchions or concrete piers.