Abstracts - Management

Early intermittent neonatal maternal separation created stress and affected the growth performance of piglets during suckling. However, the growth rate was improved by compensatory measures during late weaning.

Findings may explain numerically lower pregnancy and farrowing rates in sows mixed two days post-service.

The jute material and piglet nests positively impacted sow welfare and piglet measures but did not translate into improved piglet survival.

These findings highlight the complexities involved when forming social preferences and present a platform for further exploring the motivations for preferential associations among intensively farmed pigs.

Heritability estimates for all studied traits suggest they could be suitable as a method of phenotyping aggression and fear/boldness for genetic selection purposes.

Physical and ambient conditions affecting pen and pig cleanliness and air quality.

Resilience to weaning stress was associated with behavioral differences in finishing gilts at mixing and when faced with novel situations.

Group housing gestating sows 2 days after breeding compromised litter size; however, mixing gilts on days 1 to 4 after breeding did not impair reproductive performance.

Results show the importance of differentiating between low viable and viable crushed piglets for the interpretation of risk factors for crushing losses.

The metal hut appears to be the best compromise considering thermal environment, behavior, and litter survival.

Castrated piglets treated with transdermal flunixin demonstrated lower total pain scores and required less analgesic intervention immediately post-castration compared to castrated piglets receiving no treatment.

A similar M. hyopneumoniae detection pattern was observed regardless of gilt flow.

The live-born piglets of sows that were more active the day before farrowing, standing and in other activity than drinking and eating, had higher survival rates.

Lift crate sows evidenced an increase in hair cortisol values along with the benefit of the higher survival rate of piglets before weaning.

Floor feeding large pellet creep feed starting 4 days preweaning improved nursery pig growth performance and fallout rates.

Neonatal care treatment may be useful to reduce mortality in low birth weight piglets and could affect carcass fatness and meat quality.

This study observed impacts of both proximity to weaning and transport duration on piglet welfare indicators.

Drier conditions substantially increased the use of bait sites by wild pigs.

Results suggest that orbital tightening and ear position may be reliable facial action units for the piglet grimace scale.

The study shows it is feasible to use a system to quantify the water use and wastage patterns of pigs in farm buildings.

Little evidence was found that most scents attracted wild pigs.

For short-term fixation of five days around farrowing on commercial farms, the farrowing crate should be opened in the evening.

Illuminance could be used to divide the pens into functional areas and, thus, help in meeting pigs’ behavioural needs.

These results suggest no benefit in piglet performance from increasing the width of farrowing pens.