Consequences of timing of organic enrichment provision on pig performance, health and stress resilience after weaning and regrouping

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dc.contributor.authorBuckova, K.
dc.contributor.authorMuns Vila, Ramon
dc.contributor.authorCeron, J.
dc.contributor.authorKyriazakis, I.
dc.date.accessioned2022-10-25T10:29:47Z
dc.date.available2022-10-25T10:29:47Z
dc.date.issued2022-09-29
dc.descriptionPublication history: Accepted - 20 August 2022; Published online - 29 September 2022en_US
dc.description.abstractMost pigs in slatted systems are provided with enrichment meeting only minimum legal requirements. We aimed to explore the effects of a novel enrichment treatment consisting of daily provided fodder beet and jute bags for pigs in slatted systems, and investigate the timing of enrichment provision on performance, health and stress resilience. We used 280 weaners allocated into standard (S, meeting only legal requirements consisting of a plastic toy and softwood) or enriched (E) treatment (n = 14 groups/treatment). At regrouping during the grower to finisher transition, pigs were either kept in the same treatment (EE, SS) or switched from enriched to standard (ES) and vice versa (SE); each treatment was replicated on five groups. Pigs were weighted at the start and end of weaner, and finisher stage, and feed intake was recorded. Occurrence of scouring, respiratory problems, locomotor disorders, tail, ear, and body lesions were recorded twice a week. Ten males per treatment were sampled for saliva on days 1, 2 and 4, either postweaning or after the housing switch. Saliva samples were analysed for cortisol, alpha-amylase, haptoglobin (Hp), and adenosine deaminase. Additionally, these pigs were sampled for hair at the start and end of weaner, and end of finisher stage to analyse for hair cortisol and cortisone. We found that E weaners consumed less feed (P = 0.04), had better FCR (feed conversion ratio, P = 0.03) and less ear lesions for two weeks postweaning (P = 0.04), and tended to have lower occurrence of scouring (P = 0.07) and higher salivary cortisol concentrations (P = 0.09) than S weaners. Effects of enrichment treatment during weaner stage on performance were carried through to finisher stage, with EE and ES pigs having better FCR (P = 0.0009) and higher BW (P = 0.0001) compared to SS and SE pigs. E treatment during finisher stage decreased feed intake (P = 0.04) and tended to decrease Hp levels (P = 0.07). There was a significant interaction between enrichment treatments during weaner and finisher stages on finisher body lesions: EE finishers had less lesions than SS, ES, and SE finishers (P = 0.04). There were no other significant differences caused either by enrichment treatment during weaner/finisher stage or their interaction. We conclude that the novel enrichment applied at weaner stage had positive effects on ear lesions and performance, which were carried through to finisher stage. Body lesions were affected by its application during both stages, with finishers receiving the enrichment treatment throughout (EE) having reduced body lesions than the rest of the finishers.en_US
dc.description.sponsorshipThis research was part of the EU-China HealthyLivestock project. The authors wish to acknowledge that HealthyLivestock is funded by the European Union H2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement number 773436. The European Commission’s support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.en_US
dc.identifierhttp://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12518/492
dc.identifier.citationBučková, K., Muns, R., Cerón, J. and Kyriazakis, I. (2022) ‘Consequences of timing of organic enrichment provision on pig performance, health and stress resilience after weaning and regrouping’, animal. Elsevier BV. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.animal.2022.100637.en_US
dc.identifier.issn1751-7311
dc.identifier.issn1751-732X
dc.identifier.urihttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.animal.2022.100637
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherElsevieren_US
dc.rights2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of The Animal Consortium. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).en_US
dc.subjectEnrichmenten_US
dc.subjectFinisher pigsen_US
dc.subjectRegroupingen_US
dc.subjectResilienceen_US
dc.subjectWeaner pigsen_US
dc.titleConsequences of timing of organic enrichment provision on pig performance, health and stress resilience after weaning and regroupingen_US
dc.typeArticleen_US
dcterms.dateAccepted2022-08-30
dcterms.dateSubmitted2022-05-09

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