Means to reduce piglet stress caused by tail docking
Posted in Animal health & welfare, Food quality and security, Pigs on February 26th, 2010Stress due to tail docking in piglets is reduced by using a hot iron compared with blunt cutting.
Pigs
Select for within-litter piglet birth weight uniformity to reduce mortality
Posted in Animal health & welfare, Food quality and security, Pigs on February 26th, 2010The variability in piglet birthweight can be reduced by breeding along with other factors such as avoiding very large litters and high backfat gain during pregnancy
White painted races could reduce pig stress during handling
Posted in Animal health & welfare, Food quality and security, Pigs on February 26th, 2010White painted handling races can improve handling ease which is of particular benefit to breeds such as Hampshires.
Mixing piglets at weaning is disruptive and reduces performance
Posted in Animal health & welfare, Food quality and security, Pigs on February 26th, 2010Keep litter mates together to reduce aggression and increase post-weaning weight gain.
Reducing drinker ‘switching’ reduced water wastage in pigs
Posted in Animal health & welfare, Environment, Food quality and security, Pigs on February 26th, 2010Placing water drinkers apart and the use of bowl rather than bite drinkers will save water costs.
Multiple enrichment devices reduce pig aggression and injury
Posted in Animal health & welfare, Food quality and security, Pigs on February 26th, 2010Provide multiple hanging chains in pig grower pens at weaning to reduce stress and injury
Genotype has the greatest influence on pig performance whereas improvements due to vaccination against PCV2 is dependent on herd health status
Posted in Animal health & welfare, Pigs on October 14th, 2009Take Home Message: Focus on pig genotype to improve growth rate and carcass composition with benefits due to vaccination dependent on herd health status
Genotype has the greatest influence on pig performance – in terms of growth rate and body composition – even when a vaccine against Porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) is used. In trials [...]
Rearing environment is a key factor in determining pig gut microbiota
Posted in Animal health & welfare, Environment, Pigs on August 21st, 2009Rearing environment may affect the gut microbiota – and therefore the health – of pigs.
Pig breeds respond differently to nutrient supply
Posted in Environment, Food quality and security, Pigs on August 21st, 2009Different pig breeds respond differently in terms of fat deposition to the levels of nutrients supplied, particularly protein and energy.
Rapid pig growth in the finishing period can increase meat tenderness
Posted in Food quality and security, Pigs on August 21st, 2009Pork tenderness increases when pigs are grown relatively rapidly in the finishing period. But although fast growth will benefit tenderness, it won’t necessarily benefit meat odour or flavour.
