Effects of exposing pigs to moving and odors in a simulated slaughter chute

Effect of previous ramp exposure and regular handling on heart rate, ease of handling and behaviour of near market-weight pigs during a simulated loading

“…Even if EXERCISE pigs required less human intervention during handling, they were not faster to move. This observation does not confirm the results reported in the literature, which showed that pigs that had the experience of being moved were faster to load into a trailer (Geverink et al 1998;Krebs and McGlone 2009). In the present study, EXERCISE pigs may have been slow to move because they were less fearful of the handler (Geverink et al 1998;Hemsworth et al 2002).…”

“…However, the cone may have been considered as an enrichment object, associated with a play situation, and have become a positive reinforcement as described by Skinner (1969), encouraging the animal to walk up the ramp. Using the same method, Krebs and McGlone (2009) showed that it was easier to load pigs that had been trained by associating a reward (object and odour) to the task of getting on the truck. In the present study, the absence of the cone during the test may have decreased their willingness to go up the ramp.…”

“…Pigs were considered as exploring (as defined in Table 1 Á involving touching with mouth or snout) the ramp when they were investigating the ramp, while they were considered as exploring the cone when they were going straight to the cone without exploring the ramp. Krebs and McGlone (2009) showed that there can be a strong and beneficial association between an object (or reward) and a task such as loading when animals were trained to get on a truck using a ramp. The quality (ramp or cone exploration, Table 1) and quantity of interactions were monitored for each pig by taking pictures (Pentax Optio W90 12.1 MP, Mississauga, ON) every 3 min from 0900 to 1700, every day except on days 6 and 7.…”

“…During the growing and finishing periods, pigs are exposed to little variation in their environment and have infrequent interactions with handlers (Benjamin 2005;Krebs and McGlone 2009). However, during the transportation process, pigs are submitted to a variety of physical and psychological stressors, such as mixing with strangers, vibration, temperature or transport Abbreviations: AIC, Akaike's information criterion; BOTH, both trainings; BP, bottom pen; CON, control; EXERCISE, physical training; HR, heart rate; RAMP, psychological training; SA, space allowance; SEM, standard error of the mean; TP, top pen duration (Perremans et al 2001;Barton-Gade 2008;Fitzgerald et al 2009;Sutherland et al 2009).…”

“…Negative handling (e.g., the use of an electric prod) reduces this motivation (Gonyou et al 1986;Hemsworth et al 1986). Experience with handling and coming out of the home pen during the weeks prior to transport to slaughter has been shown to have a beneficial effect on pigs' willingness to move and to reduce loading time (Abbott et al 1997;Geverink et al 1998;Krebs and McGlone 2009). Pigs exposed to a loading ramp once a day for 1 wk prior to slaughter showed a lower heart rate and took less time to complete a handling course compared with naı¨ve pigs (Lewis et al 2008).…”