Systematic Review of Swine Euthanasia Methods and Welfare Measures Reported

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This topic reviews the process used to gather, screen for relevance, and assess the quality of current literature regarding published methods of swine euthanasia as well as the summary of the results of the data analysis, including a description of the welfare measures included in papers describing euthanasia. More than 4,500 citations have been collected using terms for “euthanasia,” “slaughter methods,” and “swine”; preliminary screening removed articles that were either not relevant to the topic of swine or euthanasia/slaughter methods or not in English. The second level of screening segregates primary research articles from editorials/opinions, surveys, or other narrative reviews. Only primary research is used for the final quality assessment review and analysis, but review papers are used to check the thoroughness of the reference list. The final set of literature evaluates and compares measurements of pain and aversion, the achievement of death, and other physiologic parameters described in the euthanasia paper. The intent of this research is to provide this scientific body of literature to swine veterinarians and the swine industry as well as identify areas of opportunity where more research is needed. Further, the intent is to highlight areas where reporting is deficient or incomplete and improve the quality of reporting of papers describing euthanasia.

Space requirements of weaned pigs during a sixty-minute transport in summer

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The objective of this research was to establish a first estimate of the space requirements of weaned pigs during
transport in summer based on measures of animal well-being. The frequencies of standing, lying, sitting, standing/rearing on another pig, and lying/huddling on top of another pig were recorded using 1-min scan samples
during the entire duration of transport. Blood samples were collected and BW and lesion scores recorded from 32 pigs per space allowance for physiological and immune measures before and after transport. It was concluded that greater neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio and less lying behavior performed by pigs transported at 0.05 m2/pig suggest that a minimum space allowance of 0.06 m2/pig was preferable when transporting weaned pigs for 60 min during summer in this study.

Safety of a live attenuated Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae vaccine for swine

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This study evaluated the ability of a live attenuated E. rhusiopathiae strain to become persistently established in pigs after intranasal exposure and its potential to cause clinical signs consistent with swine erysipelas after being administered directly into the nasopharynx of healthy pigs. It was found that the live attenuated E. rhusiopathiae strain would unlikely revert to a virulat state when used in a field setting.

For more information the full article can be found at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/03781135

Investigations on genetic disease resistance in swine—A contribution to the reduction of pain, suffering and damage in farm animals

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This review deals with genetic disease resistance in pigs as a prospective opportunity to reduce pain, suffering and damage in swine production. Even under favourable terms of housing and management, infectious diseases are wide-spread, and have to be ranked among the major sources for suffering in international pig production. There is abundant
variability in resistance/susceptibility of pig populations and breeds to a number of pathogens, including several viruses, bacteria, and parasites, even at similar performance levels. Practical applications of disease resistance in farm animals and established knowledge on disease resistance in swine are presented. The difficulty lies in the identification of carriers of favourable gene variants. With tools and technologies developed in the context of genome projects, new opportunities to dissect the genetic control of host response to infection are presented with QTL analysis of Sarcocystis
miescheriana resistance given as an exemplary parasite model: this model demonstrates the existence of outstanding gene loci and their role for polygenic trait variability. It further provides evidence for common mechanisms involved in resistance to different pathogens. Although a long way from the model to markers for disease resistance, pain, suffering, and damage might be reduced by the applications of genetic disease resistance in pig production in the future.

For more information the full article can be found at http://journals.elsevierhealth.com/periodicals/applan/issues

Effects of Handling Procedures and Transport Vehicle Design on the Welfare and Meat Quality of Pigs under Canadian Conditions

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The main objective of phase 1 of this project was to assess the effects of vehicle design on the pigs’
microenvironment during transport under various weather conditions, the behavioural responses of pigs
to these conditions, and the impact on carcass and meat quality. Overall, many of the differences that were found between the two vehicles may have been the result of the logistics (loading and unloading order) of this commercial study. Furthermore, differences in core body temperature and behaviour variations between and within vehicles were clearly influenced by the season.

Behavior and performance of pigs previously housed in large groups

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This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of social familiarity and initial BW variation at mixing on performance and welfare of pigs born to group-housed lactating sows. The results indicated that grouping unacquainted
pigs derived from large groups induced overt aggression, associated injuries and initial reduction in performance, which causes welfare concerns on mixing pigs born to group-housed lactating sows.

For more information the full article can be found at http://jas.fass.org/

Experimental infection of SPF pigs with Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae serotype 9 alone or in association with Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae

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The purpose of this study was to compare in SPF pigs, the pathogenicity of an Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae serotype 9 strain 21 (isolated from the palatine tonsils of a healthy gilt on a French nucleus pig farm). The results show that the presence of A. pleuropneumoniae serotype 9 in a pig herd may be clinically unnoticed and that M. hyopneumoniae may potentiate A. pleuropneumoniae infection.

For more information the full article can be found at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/03781135

Influence of straw length, sow behaviour and room temperature on the incidence of dangerous situations for piglets in a loose farrowing system

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Crushing of piglets can be a major problem in loose-housing farrowing systems. In this study, we investigated the influence of straw of different lengths provided as nest-building material, sow behaviour and room temperature on the incidence of dangerous situations for the piglets. Piglets were defined as in danger of being crushed if they were trapped by the sow’s body or if they jumped aside in response to the lying down or rolling behaviour of the sow.

The behaviour of 22 Large White sows and their piglets was video-recorded from 10 h before farrowing until 72 h afterwards. The sows were kept in loose farrowing pens equipped with a creep area and a heating lamp. For a period of 5 days (48 h before the expected farrowing until 72 h after farrowing) 11 sows each had access to either 2 kg of long-stemmed straw or 2 kg of short-cut straw provided on the floor.

Sows in pens with short-cut straw manipulated the pen equipment more frequently during the 10 h before farrowing than sows in pens with long-stemmed straw (P = 0.02). The number of dangerous situationswas associated positively with the time the sow spent nest-building during farrowing (P < 0.01) and with the occurrence of events in which she
laid down laterally without leaning against a wall and with more than two piglets present during the first 3 days after farrowing (P = 0.04). The incidence of dangerous situations also decreased over the first days after farrowing (P < 0.001), increased with the time the sow spent moving around before lying down (P = 0.04), and was inversely related to the duration of the lying-down movement (P = 0.05). Moreover, the more piglets there were present during a lying-down movement the higher was the incidence (P = 0.02), especially if they were not grouped on only one side of the sow’s body (P = 0.03). Room temperature was associated positively with the time it took the piglets to get to the creep area after birth (P = 0.01) and negatively with the time they spent there (P = 0.02) but did not affect the incidence of dangerous situations. Straw length had no significant influence on the total pre-weaning piglet mortality or the proportion of piglets crushed.

In conclusion, we found that sow behaviour was hardly affected by straw length but had a major influence on the occurrence of situations with a risk of crushing piglets.

Postnatal piglet husbandry practices and well-being: The effects of alternative techniques delivered separately

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The aim of this study was to evaluate stress responses evoked by 2 alternative methods for performing the following processing procedures: 1) teeth resection—clipping vs. grinding; 2) tail docking— cold vs. hot clipping; 3) identification—ear notch vs. tag; 4) iron administration—injection vs. oral; 5) castration— cords cut vs. torn. When measures of behavior, physiology, and productivity were used, the responses to teeth resection, tail docking, and identification were shown to be altered by the procedural method, whereas responses to iron administration and
castration did not differ. The time taken to carry out the procedure would appear to be an important factor in the strength of the stress response.

For more information the full article can be found at http://jas.fass.org/

Infection, excretion and seroconversion dynamics of porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) in pigs from post-weaning multisystemic wasting syndrome (PMWS) affected farms in Spain and Denmark

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Longitudinal case–control studies were performed in post-weaning multisystemic wasting syndrome (PMWS) affected farms from Denmark and Spain using similar designs. It was found that sensitivity and/or specificity values observed from both tests used separately or combined suggested that quantitative PCR and/or serology tests are not apparently able to substitute histopathology.

For more information the full article can be found at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/03781135