Environment, facilities, and management of hospital pens in growing and finishing pig farms: a descriptive study

Abstract

-The objective of this study was to describe the housing system in the hospital pens on growing and finishing (GF) pig farms. This work was developed by using a questionnaire and was conducted between January and April, 2016. Forty-four GF commercial farms (a total of 41,111 animals) were involved, seeking to raise issues concerning the facilities of the hospital pens, environment, management, feeding and the reasons for transferring the animals to these accommodations. About 98% of the evaluated farms had, at least, one hospital pen. Most of these farms presented a percentage of animals evaluated (PAE) in the infirmary, of less than 1.5% of the total capacity of the animal housing on the farm. In 93.48% of the farms, the criterion used to transfer the animals to the infirmaries was when they were identified as "impaired, hurt, suffering". In 47.83% of the cases, there were no differences between the hospital and common pens regarding the general management of the animals. The facilities and environment characteristics were similar in almost all hospital pens. Respiratory problems were the main reason for transferring pigs from the common to hospital pens. Under the conditions of this study, sufficient hospital pens exist on farms and overcrowding or competition for resources among pigs are avoided. However, there is no established standard among respondents about where to place the recovered animals.

Producers' knowledge and perception about environmental enrichment and materials used in pig farms

“…The high occurrence of metal chains and tires has previously been verified in a smaller sample of Brazilian farms (Pierozan et al, 2017), and the low prevalence of straw and other substrates confirms that these materials have low acceptance among Brazilian producers, mainly because they are considered impractical (Hötzel et al, 2009). In Europe, a similar study in 2008 found that Dutch farms also used numerous metal chains as well as more sophisticated objects such as rubber or plastic balls (either suspended or placed on the floor), plastic or rubber pet toys, and organic materials such as wood, straw, and sawdust (Bracke, 2017).…”

“…Farms that house gestating sows in pens only or in crates and pens are predominant (Callegari et al, 2020). It is considered that Brazilian pig farms use objects (Hötzel et al, 2009;Pierozan et al, 2017), even empirically and arbitrarily, without considering the scientific precepts of the subject, and therefore, the characteristics described above may not be present, and the benefits of enriching the environment may not be attained.…”