Effect of space allowance and mixing on growth performance and body lesions of grower-finisher pigs in pens with a single wet-dry feeder

Abstract

Background Low space allowance (SA) and mixing may result in reduced growth performance (GP) and animal welfare issues because of adverse social behaviours directed to pen mates. This could be exacerbated in pens with single space feeders owing to social facilitation of feeding behaviour. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of SA and mixing on GP and body lesions (BL) in pens with one single space wet-dry feeder. Results Two experiments were conducted on grower-finisher pigs from 10 to 21 weeks of age. In Exp1, pigs (N = 216) were assigned to three SA; 0.96 m2/pig (n = 6 pens; 10 pigs/pen; SA96), 0.84 m2/pig (n = 6; 12 pigs/pen; SA84) and 0.72 m2/pig (n = 6; 14 pigs/pen; SA72), in a randomized design. In Exp2, pigs (N = 230) were used in a 2 × 2 factorial randomized design considering SA and mixing as treatments. Pigs were assigned to two SA; 0.96 m2/pig (n = 10 pens; 10 pigs/pen; SA96) and 0.78 m2/pig (n = 10; 13 pigs/pen; SA78) and were either mixed or not at the entry to the finishing facility. GP was not affected by SA (P > 0.05) in either experiment. In Exp2, non-mixed pigs were 5.4 kg heavier (P < 0.001), gained 74 g more per day (P = 0.004), consumed 101.8 g more of feed per day (P = 0.007) and tended to have higher feed efficiency (P = 0.079) than mixed pigs from 11 to 21 weeks of age. Number of BL was affected by SA in both experiments. In Exp1, SA72 pigs had 74.4 and 97.4% more BL than SA96 and SA84 pigs at 20 weeks of age respectively (P < 0.01). In Exp2, SA78 pigs had 48.6, 43.6 and 101.3% more BL than SA96 pigs at 12, 16 and 21 weeks of age respectively (P < 0.05). Mixing did not affect the number of BL from 12 to 21 weeks of age in Exp2 (P > 0.05). Conclusion Mixing had a considerable effect on growth performance thus, strategies to avoid or mitigate mixing should be considered. Although space allowance had no effect on growth performance, high number of body lesions in the lower space allowance indicates that space allowances equal or below 0.78 m2/pig are detrimental to the welfare of pigs despite following the EU legislation.

Effects of Reduced Space Allowance and Heat Stress on Behavior and Eye Temperature in Unweaned Lambs: A Pilot Study

“…Lambs in the LSA group also suffered more aggressions when lying compared to the C group. This increased aggressivity is in agreement with results in cattle [ 39 ], pigs [ 40 ], and camels [ 41 , 42 ] kept at limited space allowances. Although aggressive behaviors have been rarely observed among female sheep kept on pasture [ 43 ], limited resources such as restricted area shelter have been found to enhance aggressive behaviors also in sheep [ 30 , 44 , 45 ].…”

Effects of dietary chromium propionate and space allowance on performance and carcass responses of growing-finishing pigs

“…Pigs are subjected to several stressors in the production system including space restriction during the finishing phase. It has been documented by numerous studies that reduced floor space results in reduced growth performance ( Flohr et al, 2016 ; Johnston et al, 2017 ; Thomas et al, 2017 ; Carpenter et al, 2018 ; Lei et al, 2018 ; Wastell et al, 2018 ; Lerner et al, 2020 ) and increase the incidence of abnormal behavior, including aggression, and tail biting ( Anil et al, 2007 ; Montoro et al, 2021 ). However, the negative outcome of increased prevalence of skin lesions in low space allowance conditions has not been observed in all studies as shown by Johnston et al (2017) .…”

Effect of Phase Feeding, Space Allowance and Mixing on Productive Performance of Grower-Finisher Pigs

“…Mixing is a common management strategy used to sort pigs by weight in order to decrease BW variability and facilitate farm management practices. However, previous research stated that mixing fails to reduce final BW variability in individual pig weights within a pen [11,12], and that it may affect growth performance [13][14][15] and pig welfare due to the establishment of a new social hierarchy after re-grouping [16].…”

“…Previous studies reported findings on the effects of SA and PF on growth performance in grower-finisher pigs [1,4,22]. However, very little attention has been paid to the role of mixing on productive performance in grower-finisher pigs over the last two decades [13][14][15]. Moreover, there has been little discussion about how SA and mixing or whether SA and PF interact with each other in field conditions [13,15].…”