Acta Veterinaria Tomus XXV, Fasciculus 1. [antikvár]

STUDIES ON ROUGHNESS AND ENDURANCE OF FLOOR SURFACES IN ANIMAL HOUSESByA. B. KovácsDepartment of Surgery and Ophthalmology, University of Veterinary Science, Budapest(Received April 2, 1973)It is known from practical observations that management failures are often responsible for diseases of the extremities in swine.Concrete flooring, inadequate attendance (Behrens, 1961; Domán, 1972; Maclean, 1968; Nilsson, 1964; Osborne, 1950; Penny et al., 1963) and the lack of exercise associated with closed systems of management (A. B. Kovács, 1972) were shown to be causal or predis-posing factors and, apart from them, feeding errors and congenital abnormalities were alsó found to play a part (Claus, 1962; Hámori, 1972; Meyer, 1963; Rieck, 1961).Animals maintained in large-scale units require management systems apt to ensure optimál environmental conditions to eliminate or at least minimize deleterious factors, including those responsible for surgical diseases.Investigations of optimál flooring in animal houses have been centered on the wearing surface, the quality of which is decisive in respect of the health state of the foot. As yet no sys-tematic studies have been reported on the smoothness or roughness and abrasive resistance of stable floors, but certain erroneous views are gaining ground in respect of the desired quality of surface finish. Among others Gábor (1968) has advocated the roughening of floor surfaces for rendering them skid-proof.Apart from the main physical properties of the floor (thermic properties and bearing strength), wear resistance and surface finish are those main quality parameters which should be precisely established and taken into con-sideration at construction in order to prevent the foot diseases related to inap-propriate flooring.In the machine industry, the roughness values of metál surfaces are prescribed by well-defined criteria (Beer et al., 1968) which can, however, by no means be adapted for the evaluation of floor surfaces. As long as no mechanical, pneumatic, electric or optical instrument is available for direct determination of the roughness value of floor surfaces, the investigator is resorted to estimations based on comparison to certain commonly used objects.Materials and methodsThe roughness (smoothness) of floor surfaces was assessed indirectly by measuring the degree of attrition of the horny part of the foot on the ground that it is exposed to a much greater tear-and-wear on rough than on smooth surfaces.