ES2715899A2 - INSTALLATION OF EXPERIMENTATION AND EVALUATION ON ANIMAL NUTRITION OF A PRODUCT INTENDED FOR THE FEEDING OF AN ANIMAL (Machine-translation by Google Translate, not legally binding) - Google Patents

Abstract

Experimental and evaluation facility for animal nutrition of a product intended for the feeding of an animal, comprising: - a first zone with means adapted to the storage and manufacture of foods containing said product, - a second zone with means for accommodating the animals, the second zone being divided into at least two non-communicating spaces, separated by a partition, each space comprising at least one row of at least one housing means for the animals, including each means of accommodation: - a removable floor, - some uprights, - two first walls called principal, - two secondary walls called secondary, - two adjacent housing means in the same row that have a common secondary wall. (Machine-translation by Google Translate, not legally binding)

Description

INSTALLATION OF EXPERIMENTATION AND EVALUATION ON

ANIMAL NUTRITION OF A PRODUCT INTENDED FOR THE

FEEDING AN ANIMAL

The present invention relates to an experimentation and evaluation facility on animal nutrition of a product intended for the feeding of an animal, in particular, of a breeding animal.

A product intended for animal feed may be a raw material, an additive, a substance, a compound or a mixture of compounds. The animal nutrition sector is constantly looking for new products, of natural origin or not, in particular, as an alternative to medicines such as antibiotics.

The additives generally used in animal feed can be:

- technological: for example, preservatives, antioxidants, emulsifiers, stabilizers, pH regulators;

- Sensory: aromas, dyes;

- nutritional: vitamins, amino acids;

- zootechnical: compounds that have an action on the intestinal flora, on the quality of the meat.

However, with respect to animal nutrition, any product, of natural origin or not, must be approved for a given species in a given development phase. In this way, even natural alternative solutions, prior to their commercialization, must be identified and evaluated, in particular, at the level of their safety, their allegations, their useful doses, the animal species, the physiological phase of the animal , so as to respond to the different legislations in progress.

The implementation of these evaluations necessarily involves experimentation on the animal, which may consist of zootechnical tests on animals and requires specific tools and facilities. However, in parallel to the legislation in force on animal nutrition, which refers, in particular, to premixes, additives, raw materials and dietetic foods, and the veterinary drug, legislation also supervises the conditions of accommodation and animal experimentation in a broad sense. In addition, it is necessary to consider the breeding guides published by the industry professionals and the recommendations that come from the national authorities in terms of hygiene, safety food, but also ethics and animal welfare. Reference will be made in this regard to Directive 2010/63 / EU of the European Parliament and of the Council on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes, as well as the European Convention on the protection of vertebrate animals used for experimental purposes or with other scientific purposes.

In this way, rules and regulations are established that refer to the welfare of animals both at European and international level.

Therefore, it is convenient to have tools and facilities that respect all these regulations. However, these rules and regulations evolve over time reinforcing some demands and adding new ones. In addition, another difficulty in following these rules is that they formulate housing conditions that vary from one animal species to another. For example, the minimum floor area imposed for pigs is not identical to that imposed for chickens, even when they are brought to live weight.

In this way, it is found that some current tools and experimental facilities are doomed to become obsolete or do not allow to house different animal species, or even the same species in different physiological phases. In addition, it is necessary to validate a product intended for animal feed by several tests carried out in parallel, on several batches of animals, so that statistical significance is concluded.

On the other hand, another drawback of the current experimentation and evaluation facilities on animal nutrition is that they do not allow all stages of the assessments to be conveniently implemented on the ground. Indeed, an evaluation method comprises all the following stages: the manufacture of the food containing the product to be tested and the raw materials coming from different possible geographical areas, the distribution of the test food to the animals during a period, the reproduction of the environmental conditions adapted to the animal species considered and its physiological phase, the control, care and monitoring of the animals, the recovery of the data from the animal that allow the evaluation. In particular, it is noted that the current facilities do not allow the manufacture, on the spot, of food containing the product to be tested and this in the just amounts necessary for the evaluation, as well as the analysis of the technical characteristics of the materials raw materials used in the test food.

In addition, current facilities do not allow the realization of Experiments and evaluations in several species or in the same species in different phases of development.

It is in this context that the depository company has worked, so that an experimentation and evaluation facility on animal nutrition is proposed, which responds to the norms and rules in force in respect and welfare of the animal and that is flexible and evolutive , so that it adapts to the evolutions of these rules and regulations without needing imposition and costly transformations.

Another purpose of the present invention is to propose an installation of this type that allows the implementation of all stages of the evaluation methods, from the manufacture of the product to be tested to the collection of the data from the animal and necessary for the evaluation , in particular, zootechnical data.

Another purpose of the invention is also to allow the realization of experimentation and evaluation in several species or in the same species, but in different phases of its development.

For this purpose, the invention has as an object experimentation and evaluation facility on animal nutrition comprising:

- a first zone comprising means adapted to the storage and manufacture of food containing said product, - a second zone comprising means for housing the animals, the second zone being divided into at least two spaces, non-communicating, separated by a partition, each space comprising at least one row of at least one housing means for the animals, including each accommodation means:

- a removable floor,

- some uprights,

- two first so-called main walls, one facing the other, each main wall being pivoted between a first upright and a second upright,

- two secondary walls called "secondary" facing each other, perpendicular to the first walls, each mounted by a sliding connection on two uprights, each secondary wall having a support on each of its faces to mount by a sliding connection a third wall called tertiary wall between two secondary walls,

- two adjacent accommodation means in the same row that present a common secondary wall.

In this way, the installation according to the invention makes it possible to achieve all of the purposes mentioned above. In particular, the means of housing the animals are perfectly adjustable in terms of size. In effect, each secondary wall that makes up each housing means includes brackets for installing there an additional wall, called the tertiary wall, which allows, in this way, to divide the housing means into two parts. This may be necessary depending on the species and the size of the animals housed. Also, the secondary wall separating two adjacent housing means can be removed very easily, so that these two housing means only form one of them and, thus, offer a larger interior space. Therefore, the installation is flexible and evolutionary, so that it adapts to the animals, depending on the species and its development phase. In addition, it allows to anticipate changes in the size of accommodation, rules and regulations that must be respected.

The installation according to the invention also allows the whole of the stages of the evaluation to be carried out in a single site, from the manufacture of the food that integrates the product to be tested, in quantities just necessary for the study, to the analysis of the data collected about the animals.

Advantageously, each sliding joint is composed of a guiding means in translation which is presented by each upright and each support and which is suitable to cooperate with a corresponding means presenting each secondary or tertiary wall.

In particular, according to one embodiment, each upright and each support have, as a guide means in translation, a corner which is suitable for cooperating with a slot provided along the lateral edges of the secondary and tertiary walls.

Of course, any means allowing the installation by sliding connection of an additional wall can be considered.

Advantageously, each support separates the face of the wall that presents it in two symmetrical portions.

Advantageously also, each wall is divided into several subparts juxtaposed one above the other.

According to one embodiment of the invention, each wall has supports for mounting, by means of a sliding connection, so-called quaternary walls between a main wall and a tertiary wall.

It is also possible to divide each accommodation means into four parts by inserting there other walls, called quaternary walls that can be mounted between a tertiary wall and a main wall.

According to a characteristic of the invention, there are provided means for recovering the defecations under each floor of each housing means.

According to one embodiment of the invention, each housing means comprises removable means for distributing food and removable means for distributing water.

Advantageously, the installation comprises a third zone comprising maintenance means for said installation, in particular, a technical room consisting of means for controlling the environmental conditions prevailing in the second zone consisting of brightness, temperature, hygrometry , air flow velocity, gaseous environment.

Advantageously also, the installation also comprises one or several other zones chosen from among a zone for analyzing the data collected on the animals, an animal care area, a laundry area.

The features of the invention mentioned above, as well as others, will be made clearer by reading the following description of an example of embodiment, said description being made in relation to the attached drawings, among which:

Fig. 1 is a schematic representation seen from above of an experimentation and evaluation facility on animal nutrition according to an embodiment of the invention,

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of an animal housing area in an animal nutrition experimentation and evaluation facility according to an embodiment of the invention,

Fig. 3 shows an animal housing means according to the invention.

FIG. 1 illustrates an experimental experimentation and evaluation unit 1 for animal nutrition of a substance, the substance intended to be added to the feed of the animal species that is the object of the evaluation.

The installation 1 comprises a first zone 100 destined, on the one hand, to the storage of the product to be evaluated and of the materials that allow the manufacture of the foodstuffs and, on the other hand, to the manufacture of the foods that contain said product. To do this, this zone 100 comprises any equipment necessary for the manufacture of the foods that they will be distributed to the animals throughout the evaluation method. Thus, in particular, weighing devices, devices, shredders, mixers, powder or liquid dosing devices, granulation devices, such as presses or also any known means for the preparation of food will be found. for animals, in particular, for breeding animals.

The installation 1 comprises a second zone 200 comprising means for housing the animals, such as the means 204 and 205, which will be described in detail in the following.

The installation 1 comprises a third zone 300 comprising means for maintaining, in particular, controlling the environmental conditions prevailing in the second zone 200. These means allow, for example, to regulate the brightness L, the temperature T, the H hygrometry, the air flow velocity F and the gaseous environment G of zone 200.

The installation 1 comprises a fourth zone 400 for the analysis of the data collected on the animals. Indeed, throughout the evaluation, physical and physiological data on each animal are collected, such as weight, temperature, behavior, defecations. In particular, the defecation of the animals is recovered comfortably according to the needs of the trial. The installation 1 comprises any means that allows the manipulation and analysis of this data.

The installation 1 also comprises a fifth zone 500 for the care of the animals, such as an infirmary and a sixth zone 600 of laundry of any material used in the installation.

The accommodation area 200 includes, in this embodiment, two spaces 201, 202 separated by a partition 203. The two spaces 201 and 202 are not in communication with each other. Each of these spaces is intended to house the animals on which an evaluation is carried out. In this way, it is possible to evaluate the same substance in:

- the same animal species, but in two different development phases, respectively housed in a space 201,202, under the same environmental conditions or not,

- two different animal species, respectively housed in a space 201,202, under the same environmental conditions or not.

To do this, each space 201, 202 of the accommodation area 200 contains means for accommodating the animals that are advantageously arranged according to rows, such as the rows R1 to R6 in the space 201 and R7 to R12 in space 202. The rows of each space are parallel to each other and are separated from one another by circulation spaces of persons or animals, such as space C1 separating rows R1 and R2.

Each space 201, 202 can accommodate an animal species, for example, pigs in space 202 and chickens in space 201.

Referring to FIG. 3, four housing means 204, 205, 206 and 207 of the same row are shown in detail, for example, the row R1.

The structurally identical housing means being described below, will describe the characteristics of the housing means 205. This includes a removable floor 210 that can be a grate, for example made of stainless steel or plastic, or a solid, covered or not from straws or sawdust shavings. Underneath the floor 210 there is a means of recovering liquid, solid and / or semiliquid defecations (not visible in Fig. 3), such as a reservoir, accessible from a zone 250 that is lower than the ground 210 The means of recovery of the defecations allows the transport for the further analysis of the defecations in the zone 400 or, simply, allows the emptying.

The housing means 205 has two first walls 211 and 212, so-called main walls, facing each other and a total number of four uprights 213, 214, 215, 216. Each main wall, such as the wall 211, is mounted pivoting between a first upright 214 and a second upright 215. The wall 211 can be mounted, for example, on hinge on the upright 214 and locked on the upright 215. In this way, these walls 211 and 212 form doors that open into the spaces C1, C2 between two rows, respectively R1 / R2 and R2 / R3 (Fig. 1).

Preferably, each main wall 211, 212 is suitable for pivoting on each of the uprights that support it. For example, the wall 211 is suitable for pivoting on the upright 214 or on the upright 215 thereby allowing an opening on the right or on the left. The mounting of the wall 211 between the uprights 214 and 215 according to this embodiment is described below.

The upright 215 has a plurality of fittings 217 extending in the direction of the wall 211 and each provided with an opening, the openings all being in the same axis vertical to the floor. The wall 211 has along its two lateral edges slits for receiving the fittings 217. The lateral edge of the wall 211 that is in front of the upright 215 is also perforated from part to part along a vertical axis to the floor, so as to enable a cavity 220 for a rod 218. The rod 218 is intended to be inserted in the openings of the fittings 217 and in the cavity 220 of the wall 211. Then, this is fixed to the upright 215. The wall 211 is mounted on the upright 214 in an identical manner to the mounting on the upright 215. A rod 119 is then provided to ensure the fixing on the upright 214 .

When the rod 218 is removed and the rod 219 remains established, the wall 211 can pivot about the axis of the rod 219. When the rod 219 is removed and the rod 218 remains established, the wall 211 pivots about the axis of the rod 218 Each rod 218, 219 can serve both as a pivot axis or as a locking means.

The mounting of the wall 212 between the uprights 213 and 216 is performed identically to what has just been described for the wall 211.

The housing means 205 also has two second walls 221 and 222, called secondary walls, arranged one opposite the other perpendicular to the main walls 211 and 212. Each of these second walls 221, 222 is mounted by a sliding connection on two uprights, respectively 213, 214 and 215, 216. Each sliding connection is composed of a guiding means in translation presented by each upright 213, 214, 215, 216, which cooperates with a corresponding means presented by each secondary wall 221,222. To do this, each upright 213, 214, 215, 216 has, as a guiding means in translation, a corner, for example, 2131, which is suitable for cooperating with a slot, for example, 2211, enabled throughout of the side edges of the secondary walls 221,222.

The same secondary wall 221 separates two adjacent housing means 205 and 206. The sliding joint allows the secondary walls to be installed quickly and simply. Its non-fixed character makes the means of accommodation easily modulated. In this way, it is possible to remove the secondary wall 222 that separates the housing means 205 and 206, so that only one accommodation means is obtained and, therefore, a larger space for the animal or animals.

Each secondary wall 221, 222 has supports 223, 224 provided for mounting a supplementary wall 225, called a tertiary wall, by means of a sliding connection. In this way, two supports 223, 224 are presented on each side of a secondary wall 221, 222 separating the face in two symmetrical portions. Therefore, a third wall 225 can be arranged perpendicular to the secondary walls 221, 222, so that the housing means 205 is divided into two equal surface parts. This may be necessary depending on the weight of the animals. and regulations that impose a rule in force concerning the weight of the animal as a function of a surface.

The sliding connection is identical to that which allows the installation of the secondary walls 221, 222. In fact, each support 223, 224 has, as a guide means in translation, a corner which is suitable to cooperate with a slot enabled to along the lateral edges of the tertiary wall.

Each main wall 211, 212, secondary 221, 222 or tertiary 225 is divided into several subparts simply juxtaposed one above the other. This allows to vary the height of the walls depending on the needs.

To facilitate also the establishment of the walls, handles are provided, such as the handle 229 for each subpart of each wall.

In this way, it is found that the accommodation means 204, 205, 206, 207 are completely modular in terms of surface in the floor and in volume, so that they are adaptable to any type of animal.

As this is visible in Fig. 3, each upright 213, 214, 215, 216 has a corner turned towards the circulation space C1 or C2 of the one in front. Then, it is possible to install walls between two uprights of two adjacent rows, so that a circulation space is momentarily closed. The installation of these walls in the circulation space is made by sliding joints identical to those described above. This allows, in particular, to make the animals leave, for example, so that the accommodation means are cleaned. Fig. 2 illustrates the establishment of a wall 230 between the second row R2 and the third row R3, to close the circulation space C3.

Also provided for each housing means are movable food distribution means and removable water distribution means. It can be mangers, gutters, trays, plates, troughs provisionally fixed by any appropriate means on one or more walls inside a housing means.

Claims (10)

1. Installation (1) for experimentation and evaluation of a product intended for animal nutrition comprising: - a first zone (100) comprising means adapted to the storage and manufacture of food containing said product, - a second zone (200) comprising means for housing the animals (204, 205, 206, 207, 260 ), the second zone (200) being divided into at least two spaces (201, 202), non-communicating, separated by a partition (203), each space (201, 202) comprising at least one row (R1 to R14) of at least one housing means for the animals (204, 205, 206, 207, 260), including each housing means (205): - a removable floor (210), - some uprights (213, 214, 215, 216), - two first walls (211,212) called main, one in front of the other, each main wall (211) being pivotally mounted between a first pillar (214) and a second pillar (215), - two second called secondary walls (221, 222) facing each other, perpendicular to the first walls (211,212), each one (221) (222) mounted by a sliding connection on two uprights (213, 214) (215 , 216), each secondary wall (221, 222) presenting a support (223, 224) on each of its faces to mount by means of a sliding connection a third wall called tertiary wall (225) between two secondary walls (221,222), - two adjacent housing means in the same row that have a common secondary wall. Installation (1) according to claim 1, characterized in that each sliding joint is composed of a translation guide means which is presented by each upright (213, 214, 215, 216) and each support (223, 224) and which is suitable for cooperating with a corresponding means that each secondary wall presents (221,222). Installation (1) according to claim 2, characterized in that each upright (213, 214, 215, 216) and each support (223, 224) have, as guide means in translation, a corner (2131) which is suitable to cooperate with a slot (2211) enabled along the lateral edges of the secondary walls (221,222). 4. Installation (1) according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that each support (223, 224) separates the face of the wall that presents it in two symmetrical portions. Installation (1) according to one of the preceding claims, each wall (211,212, 221,222, 225) being divided into several subparts juxtaposed one above the other. 6. Installation (1) according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that each third wall (225) has supports to mount by a sliding connection four quaternary walls between a main wall (212) and a tertiary wall (225) . Installation (1) according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that means are provided for recovering the defecations under each floor (210) of each accommodation means (205). 8. Installation (1) according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that each housing means comprises movable food distribution means (240) and removable water distribution means (270). Installation (1) according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that it comprises a third zone (300) comprising means for maintaining said installation (1), in particular, a means of controlling the prevailing environmental conditions in the second zone consisting of luminosity (L), temperature (T), hygrometry (H), air flow velocity (F), gaseous environment (G). 10. Installation (1) according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that it comprises one or more other zones chosen from among an area (400) for analyzing the data collected on the animals, an area (500) for caring for animals , an area (600) of laundry.