Abstracts - Management

Increasing the weaning age can be an effective strategy to improve the overall performance in a commercial system. Results of this study imply that 25 d is the optimal weaning age.

Piglet performances were not improved nor impaired when split-suckling was applied during the first day of life. However growth was impaired when litters were intensively split-suckled during first three days of life.

Following tailor-made implementation of alternative measures, a substantial reduction of antimicrobial use in pig production was achievable without jeopardizing animal health.

Procaine, lidocaine, bupivacaine, and mepivacaine are highly effective at reducing signs of nociception during castration under light isoflurane anesthesia.

Structure, size and flavour should be considered when choosing enrichment material. Out of the materials tested, maize kernels in straw were the most attractive for pigs.

Adding ramps to nursery pig housing is a simple way to speed loading of market hogs, while providing benefits to efficiency and behavior in the nursery.

Pigs exposed to carbon dioxide made more escape attempts but fewer squeals than pigs exposed to nitrous oxide.

Scoring of tail lesions and defining intact tails in undocked pigs at the abattoir.

A 3D machine vision system has the potential to automate tail posture detection and provide early warning of tail biting on farm.

Sows that had a good relationships with their handler tended to have more total and weaned pigs. Weaning performance was better for farmers who valued good animal-human relationships.

Sorting piglets by birth weight can affect colostrum intake and sorting by birth order affects immunocrit levels. Both birth weight and birth order have effects on traits that are important for prenatal growth and survival.

Early development of gilt progeny may be delayed compared with sow progeny and a number of anatomical differences present at birth are also present at weaning.

Gentle handling of growing pigs could reduce their anxiety and increase intimacy between the pigs and handlers. However, it had little effect on pig performance, carcass quality, and meat quality.

A lower frequency of behavioral aversive responses was observed in the intradermal route of vaccine administration group than in the intramuscular group.

Weaning is a critical phase in a pig’s life. Group housing of non-littermates before weaning may favour socialisation and hence reduce weaning stress.

Sow vaccination decreased influenza infections in piglets at weaning. Influenza positive gilts at entry were associated with positive piglets at weaning.

The more straw provided (between 10 and 500 g) the higher the daily weight gain. The feed conversion ratio was not affected by the amount of straw provided.

Transmammary delivery of firocoxib to piglets reduces stress and improves average daily gain after castration, tail docking, and teeth clipping.

Effectiveness of each analgesia drug and drug combination was evaluated using behavioral indicators, vocalization, and facial grimace analysis. All treatment groups with buprenorphine were able to alleviate tail docking-associated pain.

If the farmer could get an alarm when a pen of pigs is at high risk of developing tail damage, the farmer would be able to take timely action to prevent tail damage in specific pens.

Sampling technique validated to monitor PRRSV-2 using serosanguinous exudate or processing fluids (PFs) from tissues obtained during tail docking and castration provides a general framework to interpret PRRSV-2 surveillance program results more accurately.

Gradually weaned pigs performed better around transitions than abruptly weaned pigs and gradual weaning resulted in beneficial long-term effects on behavior.

Caffeine positively affected the vitality of the piglets, as indicated by greater vitality scores than that for the control group.

This study expands the concept of coping style in farm animals, particularly in terms of individual stress reactivity and disease susceptibility, and thus contributes to the understanding of the biology of animal welfare.