Effect of space allowance and mixing on growth performance and body lesions of grower-finisher pigs in pens with a single wet-dry feeder

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dc.contributor.authorCamp Montoro, Jordi
dc.contributor.authorBoyle, Laura Ann
dc.contributor.authorSola-Oriol, David
dc.contributor.authorMuns, Ramon
dc.contributor.authorGasa, Josep
dc.contributor.authorGarcia Manzanilla, Edgar
dc.date.accessioned2021-02-02T12:01:58Z
dc.date.available2021-02-02T12:01:58Z
dc.date.issued2021-01-06
dc.descriptionPublicationhistory: Accepted - 17 December 2020; Published online - 6 January 2021.en_US
dc.description.abstractBackground: Low space allowance (SA) and mixing may result in reduced growth performance (GP) and animal welfare issues because of adverse social behaviours directed to pen mates. This could be exacerbated in pens with single space feeders owing to social facilitation of feeding behaviour. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of SA and mixing on GP and body lesions (BL) in pens with one single space wet-dry feeder. Results: Two experiments were conducted on grower-finisher pigs from 10 to 21 weeks of age. In Exp1, pigs (N = 216) were assigned to three SA; 0.96m2/pig (n = 6 pens; 10 pigs/pen; SA96), 0.84m2/pig (n = 6; 12 pigs/pen; SA84) and 0.72m2/pig (n = 6; 14 pigs/pen; SA72), in a randomized design. In Exp2, pigs (N = 230) were used in a 2 × 2 factorial randomized design considering SA and mixing as treatments. Pigs were assigned to two SA; 0.96m2/pig (n = 10 pens; 10 pigs/pen; SA96) and 0.78 m2/pig (n = 10; 13 pigs/pen; SA78) and were either mixed or not at the entry to the finishing facility. GP was not affected by SA (P > 0.05) in either experiment. In Exp2, non-mixed pigs were 5.4 kg heavier (P < 0.001), gained 74 g more per day (P = 0.004), consumed 101.8 g more of feed per day (P = 0.007) and tended to have higher feed efficiency (P = 0.079) than mixed pigs from 11 to 21 weeks of age. Number of BL was affected by SA in both experiments. In Exp1, SA72 pigs had 74.4 and 97.4% more BL than SA96 and SA84 pigs at 20 weeks of age respectively (P < 0.01). In Exp2, SA78 pigs had 48.6, 43.6 and 101.3% more BL than SA96 pigs at 12, 16 and 21 weeks of age respectively (P < 0.05). Mixing did not affect the number of BL from 12 to 21 weeks of age in Exp2 (P > 0.05). Conclusion: Mixing had a considerable effect on growth performance thus, strategies to avoid or mitigate mixing should be considered. Although space allowance had no effect on growth performance, high number of body lesions in the lower space allowance indicates that space allowances equal or below 0.78 m2/pig are detrimental to the welfare of pigs despite following the EU legislation.en_US
dc.description.sponsorshipJordi Camp Montoro was supported by the Teagasc Walsh Scholarship Scheme grant-in-aid project Introducing new feeding programs and facilities for Irish finishing pigs ref. 0415. The funders had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.en_US
dc.identifierhttp://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12518/208
dc.identifier.citationCamp Montoro, J., Boyle, L. A., Solà-Oriol, D., Muns, R., Gasa, J. and Garcia Manzanilla, E. (2021) ‘Effect of space allowance and mixing on growth performance and body lesions of grower-finisher pigs in pens with a single wet-dry feeder’, Porcine Health Management. Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 7(1). doi: 10.1186/s40813-020-00187-7.en_US
dc.identifier.issn2055-5660
dc.identifier.urihttps://doi.org/10.1186/s40813-020-00187-7
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherSpringer Science and Business Mediaen_US
dc.rights© The Author(s). 2021 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. Toen_US
dc.subjectAnimal welfareen_US
dc.subjectGroup sizeen_US
dc.subjectPigen_US
dc.subjectRegroupingen_US
dc.subjectStocking densityen_US
dc.titleEffect of space allowance and mixing on growth performance and body lesions of grower-finisher pigs in pens with a single wet-dry feederen_US
dc.typeArticleen_US

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