Around 150 fur farming consultants, veterinarians, researchers, fur farmers and others interested in the latest news in fur research attended the annual theme day on current mink research at Aarhus University’s Foulum site, which according to tradition was held on the third Tuesday in September.

This year's theme day featured the practical part of research in mink production, covering a variety of topics ranging from mink mating and reproduction to the reduction of nitrogen emissions from animal manure. Summaries of the contributions from the theme day have been published in a report by DCA – Danish Centre for Food and Agriculture. Scientists from Aarhus University were responsible for eight of the twelve representations in the report.

Numbers of mink kits and their viability increase

Litter size is an important factor in mink production. Scientists from Aarhus University are working closely with the industry in a four-year project that aims to devise products and management strategies to increase the number of viable kits in a litter. The project started this year with a study of the factors relating to nesting material and nesting boxes, feeding of females in the first half of the lactation period, and time of weaning.

At the theme day, scientists from Aarhus University presented initial results on two feeding strategies for females that have just given birth. The scientists found that females fed ad libitum from birth can maintain a high milk production for longer than females fed restrictively.

Focus on welfare

There is much focus on animal welfare where aspects such as cage design, management and breeding can all have an effect. Scientists from Aarhus University described at the meeting an experiment that uses a combination of factors to reduce the number of bite marks on mink. Previous studies at Aarhus University have shown that bite marks can be selected against effectively if the social interaction of all the mink in the cage is included in the form of a group selection.

Environmental factors are also important and these are examined both on a private farm and at the research farm at Foulum. On the private farm, early weaning and the move of mink into group housing resulted in fewer bite marks on the pelts. Such a result was not observed at the research farm, so scientists are still searching for the decisive management and environmental factors that affect the number of bite marks.

The same scientists also described a study on welfare and production in females housed under different conditions. This experiment involved standard cages and two-story climbing cages as well as occupational material in the form of a shelf and either large or small diameter tubes. The conclusion was that the number of bite marks increases with the number of females in the cage. A larger number of females in the cage also means each animal has less opportunity to use the shelf. The diameter of the tube does not seem to affect the incidence of fur chewing and it could not be demonstrated that welfare was better for paired mink in two-story climbing cages with shelves than for mink in standard cages with shelves.

Turbo on breeding progress

On the breeding front, everything indicates that mink breeding can make use of the same modern genetic technology that has revolutionised cattle breeding and is being adopted for other farm animals and plants, namely genomic selection. Genomic selection uses markers on the entire genome to predict breeding value. It combines data on animal appearance (phenotype) with pedigree, if known, which can further enhance the certainty of the assessment of breeding value.

The scientists explained that according to preliminary results, the use of genomic selection in mink can increase overall economic growth compared with traditional breeding. With genomic selection, it is possible to achieve genetic progress for traits that have been difficult to improve through conventional breeding – properties such as litter size, fur quality and percentage of dry females.

The report (in Danish) ”Temadag om aktuel minkforskning”, DCA report no. 45, September 2014 can be read here. 

For additional information please contact: Senior Researcher Steen Henrik Møller, Department of Animal Science, telephone: +45 8715 7926, email: SteenH.Moller@agrsci.dk