Sanitary housing conditions modify the performance and behavioural response of weaned pigs to feed- and housing-related stressors

Abstract

<jats:p>Pigs are confronted with changes in farming practices that may affect performance and animal well-being. The sanitary conditions of the farm can have an impact on the ability of pigs to adapt to these changes. This study aimed to analyse how weaned pigs respond to common farming practices of changes in diet and housing in terms of performance, health and behaviour, and how these responses are affected by the sanitary housing conditions, qualified here as good or poor. At weaning at 4 weeks of age, 20 piglets were assigned to 10 blocks of two littermates and each pig within a litter was randomly assigned to one of two sanitary conditions. Pigs were housed individually and received a starter diet. A diet change occurred on day 12 post weaning (starter to weaner diets) and pigs were transferred to the grower unit on day 33 post weaning and continued to receive the weaner diet. From 43 days post weaning, pigs were offered a grower diet and were vaccinated against swine influenza on day 47 and 61 post weaning. On the basis of this design, three post-weaning phases were identified: phase I from day 1 to 11 (post weaning), phase II from day 12 to 32 (after the diet change) and phase III from day 33 to 42 (after the housing change). Individual BW was measured every 3 days, and feed refusals and faecal scores were recorded on a daily basis. Behavioural observations were performed during 28 days by using the instantaneous scan sampling method. Individual blood samples were collected at the end of each phase to analyse the plasma concentration of haptoglobin and on day 68 post weaning to analyse the anti-influenza immunoglobulins G (IgG). Poor sanitary conditions resulted in a decrease in daily gain, feed intake and gain to feed ratio of, respectively, 11%, 5% and 7% (<jats:italic>P</jats:italic>&lt; 0.05). Pigs in poor sanitary conditions had higher faecal scores (<jats:italic>P</jats:italic>&lt; 0.05), tended to have higher plasma haptoglobin concentration in phase II (<jats:italic>P</jats:italic>= 0.06) and had a higher anti-influenza IgG titre (<jats:italic>P</jats:italic>= 0.11). The diet change affected performance and behavioural responses of pigs in poor but not in good sanitary conditions. Housing change resulted in a 30% decrease in growth and an increase in behaviour oriented towards exploration and excitement. The results of this study show an effect of sanitary conditions on the responses of pigs to a diet change, whereas those to a housing change were little affected by the sanitary conditions.</jats:p>

Performance of pigs kept under different sanitary conditions affected by protein intake and amino acid supplementation

“…A lower ADG of LSC pigs was also found in other studies evaluating a contrast in sanitary conditions (Williams et al, 1997;Le Floc'h et al, 2009;Pastorelli et al, 2012a). This decreased ADG can be explained by the competition for use of nutrients between the immune system and for use in deposition in organs and body tissues.…”

“…If the enhanced requirements are not compensated for by greater intake, repartitioning of dietary protein or AA away from development and growth tissues occurs (Le Floc'h et al, 2009) toward use by the immune processes. This shift of nutrients, together with an often-observed reduction in feed intake in case of immune stimulation, reduces pig performance (Klasing and Johnstone, 1991;Pastorelli et al, 2012a).…”

The cortisol response to ACTH in pigs, heritability and influence of corticosteroid-binding globulin

“…Haptoglobin is a positive acute phase protein, which levels increase in response to pro-inflammatory situations such as microbial challenges (Heegaard et al, 2011) and poor environmental sanitary conditions (Pastorelli et al, 2012). Apart from immune stimuli, haptoglobin can also be released in response to other stressors like hot ambient temperature (Heo et al, 2005), transport (Piñeiro et al, 2007b) or unpredictable feeding practices (Piñeiro et al, 2007a).…”

Ultraviolet irradiation of spray-dried porcine plasma does not affect the growth performance of nursery pigs when compared with nonirradiated bovine plasma1

“…Pigs in the current study were weaned at 19 d of age and subjected to additional environmental and health challenges that were achieved by using unsanitary housing facilities (Pastorelli et al, 2012). Under these conditions, along with feeding nonmedicated diets, 80% of pigs fed the CON required injectable medications (expressed as morbidity) within the first 6 d after weaning (data not shown).…”

“…Pigs were housed in a mechanically ventilated, temperature-controlled facility that was not cleaned or disinfected after the previous group of pigs occupied the nursery. We chose this unsanitary environmental model to provide a mild and nonspecific disease challenge, which has been shown to cause a 12% decrease in ADG (Zhao et al, 2007) and a 5% decrease in ADFI after weaning (Pastorelli et al, 2012). The magnitude of this decrease in ADG and ADFI is comparable to changes observed under field conditions (Pastorelli et al, 2012).…”