Risks associated with preweaning mortality in 855 litters on 39 commercial outdoor pig farms in England

Abstract

litters. Overall, 1274 liveborn piglets (13.5%) died before weaning. A mixed effect binomial model was used to investigate the associations between preweaning mortality and farm and litter level factors, controlling for litter size and number of piglets stillborn and fostered. Increased risk of mortality was associated with fostering piglets over 24 hours of age, organic certification or membership of an assurance scheme with higher welfare standards, farmers' perception that there was a problem with pest birds, use of medication to control coccidiosis and presence of lame sows on the farm. Reduced mortality was associated with insulated farrowing huts and door flaps, women working on the farm and the farmer reporting a problem with foxes.

Animal Welfare and Production Challenges Associated with Pasture Pig Systems: A Review

“…Low temperatures could cause hypothermia in pre-weaning and recently weaned piglets in pasture systems; thus, becoming a potential risk for their welfare [29,49,50]. Pigs managed under low temperatures grow slower and are more susceptible to diseases such as pneumonia caused by Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae [51].…”

“…Pasture systems are more favorable for animal welfare than confinement systems [12,35,49,136], because pigs have a better chance of expressing their species behavioral habits, such as organizing in groups and interacting with their peers, exploring the habitat, foraging, grazing, rooting, and wallowing in the mud, when compared with indoor-reared pigs [136]. Behaviors such as grooming and play are self-rewarding and can be considered an ethological need which ensures welfare of the animals.…”

“…In outdoor systems, piglet mortality has been associated with factors related to the environment [41,44,224]. Most deaths are the consequence of sows crushing piglets (causing injuries and even death), hypothermia, and starvation, and often happen during the first week of life [43,49,127]. Another important threat to health during this stage is diarrhea (Clostridium, coccidiosis (Isospora suis and Cryptosporidium spp), E. coli, and occasionally rotavirus).…”

“…Shade, preferably from natural vegetation, helps reduce the influence of solar radiation and high temperatures on animals and can alleviate thermal stress [20,30,49]. All animals in the group should have simultaneous access to shaded areas.…”

Large Lemurs: Ecological, Demographic and Environmental Risk Factors for Weight Gain in Captivity

“…To enable model comparisons for hypothesis-testing, next we reduced our dataset to animals with complete data across all variables. We followed a similar model-building approach to KilBride et al [58], although we evaluated interactions. Initially, we assessed univariable associations between predictors and our outcome using the same linear mixed models and procedure already described (here, varying intercepts and slopes never gave a better fit to the data than varying intercepts only).…”