Animal Well-being
Assessment of lameness, pain and culling risk in sows
February 25, 2010By John Deen
Lameness has long been identified as a concern in sow herds. It is usually recognized as a painful condition and as potentially detrimental to the future productivity of that sow. Lameness is...
Animal Well-being
Systematic Literature Review and Needs Assessment of Housing Systems for Gestating Sows in Group Pens with Individual Feeding
December 22, 2009By Harold Gonyou
Over the past 10 years, animal scientists, veterinarians, producers, and animal rights groups have debated the welfare implications of either housing sows in gestation stalls or in groups....
Animal Well-being
Methods to reduce the pain associated with castration
November 15, 2009By Mhairi Sutherland
Surgical castration of male piglets is a common management practice carried out on commercial swine farms to prevent aggressive behavior and the occurrence of boar taint. However, the procedure of...
Animal Well-being
Retrofit an optimized gestation stall system based on sow well-being: A pilot study
October 27, 2009By Janeen L. Salak-Johnson PhD
Sow housing has become a controversial welfare issue for pork producers. We cannot begin to implement costly alternative housing systems without scientific data that support these changes that could...
Animal Well-being
Is tail docking necessary and if so, how long should the tail be?
September 30, 2009By John McGlone
Tail docking of piglets is a routine procedure on farms to control tail biting behavior, however docking can cause an acute stress response. The objectives of this research were to 1) determine if...
Animal Well-being
Comparison of chute design on the ease of loading finisher pigs. How does this affect their performance, welfare parameters and overall economics to the producer?
June 8, 2009By Anna Johnson
Marketing and transportation stress not only costs the industry due to fatigued, injured and dead pigs, but has a direct impact on the quality of pork delivered to the consumer. The loading process...
Animal Well-being
Impact of Auto-sort Systems on Pig Welfare
February 2, 2009By Janeen L. Salak-Johnson PhD
A series of studies were designed to determine any impact of various autosort layouts on pig productivity and welfare. To accomplish this, Exp 1, we compared food-court, fast-lane, and water-pen...
Animal Well-being
An Industry Education Program for Understanding the Basics of the Space Allocation Debate in Pig Production
January 30, 2009By James Kliebenstein
The efficient use of facility space for swine production has been a key economic and production issue since the introduction of confinement production facilities. Stocking density decisions have...
Animal Well-being
Development of improved trailer designs and transport management practices that create the optimum environment for market weight pigs during transport and minimize transport losses
October 9, 2008By Michael Ellis
The micro-environment experienced by pigs on the trailer during transport is critical for animal well-being and, potentially, impacts transport losses and, ultimately, pork quality. Environmental...
Animal Well-being
Long distance transport of breeding stock
September 30, 2008By John McGlone
Breeding stock are frequently shipped considerable distance from isolated high-level biosecurity facilities to farms across North America. Little scientific data exists on the reproductive or...
