No abstract

The grower-finisher stage accounts for 64% of the total on-farm herd water use. Part of this is consumed by the pigs, but a part is also wasted. Drinking water usage and wastage is affected by different factors. We investigated how different group sizes and different levels of enrichment affect water usage (ingested plus wasted), water wastage, behavior and performance in grower-finisher pigs. Pigs (n = 672), 11 weeks of age (77 ± 2 days) were used for the experiment. The effect of group size: SMALL (12 pigs), MEDIUM (24 pigs), and LARGE (48 pigs) was assessed across two levels of enrichment (LOW—wooden post, hanging rubber toy, HIGH—Same as LOW + fresh grass). There was no effect of group size on water use or wastage. Pigs with HIGH enrichment (10.4 ± 0.4 L/pig/day) used less water than LOW enrichment (11.0 ± 0.4 L/pig/day; p < 0.001). The water wastage/drinker/hour was lower in pens with HIGH enrichment than LOW (p = 0.003). The drinking bout number (p = 0.037) and total occupancy/hour (p = 0.048) was also higher for pens with LOW than HIGH enrichment. Aggressive and harmful behaviour were performed less in LARGE groups and pens with HIGH enrichment. Thus, HIGH enrichment allowance reduced water usage and wastage so may have benefits for the environment, as well as animal welfare.

(2015) A crosssectional study on the prevalence and risk factors for foot and limb lesions in piglets on commercial farms in Ireland. Preventive Veterinary Medicine, Volume 119 (Number 3-4). pp. 162-171. Permanent WRAP url: http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/67195 Copyright and reuse:The Warwick Research Archive Portal (WRAP) makes this work of researchers of the University of Warwick available open access under the following conditions. Copyright © and all moral rights to the version of the paper presented here belong to the individual author(s) and/or other copyright owners. To the extent reasonable and practicable the material made available in WRAP has been checked for eligibility before being made available.Copies of full items can be used for personal research or study, educational, or not-forprofit purposes without prior permission or charge. Provided that the authors, title and full bibliographic details are credited, a hyperlink and/or URL is given for the original metadata page and the content is not changed in any way. Publisher statement: NOTICE: this is the author's version of a work that was accepted for publication in Preventative Veterinary Medicine. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Preventive Veterinary Medicine, Volume 119 (Number 3-4). pp. 162-171. A note on versions:The version presented here may differ from the published version or, version of record, if you wish to cite this item you are advised to consult the publisher's version. Please see the 'permanent WRAP url' above for details on accessing the published version and note that access may require a subscription. AbstractA cross-sectional survey of 68 integrated Irish pig farms was conducted to determine the prevalence and risk factors for foot and limb lesions in 2948 piglets from 272 litters. One litter was selected per age category; 3-7 days, 8-14 days, 15-21 days and 22-28 days per farm. All piglets were examined for sole bruising, sole erosion, coronary band injuries, limb abrasions, alopecia, swollen limbs and swollen feet and scored from 0 to 3 based on relative size. Environmental parameters were recorded for each litter examined. A questionnaire was completed on management, health and performance factors for each farm. The overall prevalence of each lesion was calculated and multilevel mixed effect logistic regression models were used to elucidate risk factors. The prevalence (farm range) of lesions were: sole bruising = 61.5% (7-100%), sole erosion = 34.1% (0-100%), coronary band injuries = 11.3% (0-46%), limb abrasions = 55.7% (11-98%), alopecia = 24.8% (0-83%), swollen limbs = 2.4% (0-11%) and swollen feet = 4.4% (0-14%). Age was negatively associated with sole bruising (OR 0.42; CI 0.37, 0.50) and coronary band injury (OR 0.69; CI 0.60, 0.81) and po...