Welfare and production implications of piglet husbandry treatments in outdoor systems

Abstract

In indoor systems it is routine practice to carry out a number of husbandry tasks with young piglets. These include clipping ‘eye’ teeth to prevent damage to the udder of the sow and the faces of litter mates, and injecting iron to prevent anaemia. Considerable debate exists about the necessity for carrying out such tasks in outdoor systems where the animals are less used to being in close proximity to humans and where any disruption of maternal behaviour can have much more serious consequences.550 piglets (PIC line 12 x PIC synthetic Meatline boars) in 49 litters were used in a factorial experiment to determine the effects of (a) leaving piglet teeth intact or clipping them at birth and (b) injecting 2ml of iron dextran at 2-4 days after farrowing or leaving piglets untreated.Each alternate litter farrowing had their teeth clipped, and half of the piglets within each litter received an iron injection. Sows and piglets were scored for damage on days 7 and 14 post-farrowing and at weaning using a linear scale from zero (no wounding) to three (severe laceration with prominent wounds). Once a week, the location and suckling behaviour of all the animals involved in the experiment was observed for three hours. Blood samples were taken from each piglet of the first fifteen litters to be weaned and analysed for haemoglobin content.