Effects of transport duration on the health and welfare of early weaned pigs
Due to the physiological differences between weaned piglets and market hogs, additional data on their response to transport are needed for age-specific evidence-based recommendations. A cohort study was conducted to observe weaned piglets undergoing short duration (SD, <3 h), or long duration (LD, >30 h)...
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Ken Engele
Sow mortality in Canadian Swine Herds
Sow mortality is an area of increasing concern as production records indicate a significant increase in spontaneous death losses over the past 10-20 years. This project gathered information on sow mortality in Canadian herds through a literature review, a producer survey, visits to 13 farms...
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Ken Engele
Effective piglet enrichment: effects on development and reduction of damaging behaviours
Tail biting is a behavioural problem that impacts pig welfare and the economics of pork production. Environmental enrichment can reduce damaging behaviours, but practical information on enrichments for young pigs is lacking. The project contained two studies to evaluate enrichment at two life stages to...
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Ken Engele
Investigating novel biomarkers of welfare in swine
Biomarkers are objective and quantifiable characteristics of biological processes. There are many measures taken to evaluate acute experiences that influence animal welfare, such as measurement of cortisol, a hormone that increases in acute stress after aggression. There is currently a lack of reliable biomarkers that...
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Ken Engele
Evaluating the impact of early life management of piglets on lifetime welfare and performance
The first 12 weeks of a pig’s life is a critical period of development, and what a pig experiences during this period of time will shape how an individual responds to subsequent life events, leading to consequences for the overall health and resilience of the...
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Ken Engele
A new method for improving animal welfare oversight: routine monitoring of pig carcasses
Animal care verification requires the accurate evaluation and quantification of animal welfare. Assurance schemes typically rely on farm audits for animal care verification, which are time consuming, incur cost for the producer and can pose a biosecurity risk. One approach to increase the consistency and...
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Ken Engele
Can slat-compatible enrichment influence the behaviour and response of pigs to a disease challenge?
Rearing pigs in highly enriched environments with a greater space allowance and provision of substrates (straw, mushroom compost, sawdust, wood branches) for rooting and chewing has been found to reduce the disease susceptibility of pigs to co-infection with PRRSV and Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae, increasing the speed...
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Ken Engele
Play behaviour and its role to enhance pig welfare and production
This project is funded by the NSERC Industrial Research Chair program, a five-year research program focusing on emerging questions in swine welfare. Goal 2 will investigate whether play can be used as a tool to support positive welfare and beneficial production characteristics in pigs reared...
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Ken Engele
Pigs consume more water when stressed
Two novel technologies consisting of an individual water consumption system (IWCS) and infrared thermography system (ITHS) were installed in a finishing room. The individual water consumption system (installed in each pen) was composed of a nipple drinker attached to a water flow meter, and an...
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Ken Engele
Effects of long distance transport on early-weaned pigs
While transporting weaner pigs is a common practice in swine production, there is very little published research on how this process impacts piglet health and welfare. To address this gap, Dr. Jennifer Brown and colleagues at the University of Guelph and University of Saskatchewan are...
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Ken Engele