Tail Lesions and Losses of Docked and Undocked Pigs in Different Farrowing and Rearing Systems

Maria Gentz, Anita Lange, Sebastian Zeidler, Christian Lambertz, Matthias Gauly, Onno Burfeind and Imke Traulsen
Additional contact information
Maria Gentz: Department of Animal Sciences, Livestock Systems, Georg-August-University, Albrecht-Thaer-Weg 3, 37075 Göttingen, Germany
Anita Lange: Department of Animal Sciences, Livestock Systems, Georg-August-University, Albrecht-Thaer-Weg 3, 37075 Göttingen, Germany
Sebastian Zeidler: Department of Animal Sciences, Breeding Informatics, Georg-August-University, Margarethe von Wrangell-Weg 7, 37075 Göttingen, Germany
Christian Lambertz: Faculty of Science and Technology, Free University of Bolzano, Universitätsplatz 5, 39100 Bolzano, Italy
Matthias Gauly: Faculty of Science and Technology, Free University of Bolzano, Universitätsplatz 5, 39100 Bolzano, Italy
Onno Burfeind: Chamber of Agriculture of Schleswig-Holstein, Gutshof 1, 24327 Blekendorf, Germany
Imke Traulsen: Department of Animal Sciences, Livestock Systems, Georg-August-University, Albrecht-Thaer-Weg 3, 37075 Göttingen, Germany

Agriculture, 2020, vol. 10, issue 4, 1-11

Abstract: This study aimed to investigate the effects of farrowing and rearing systems on tail lesions and losses of docked and undocked pigs. Pigs from three farrowing systems: Conventional farrowing crate (FC), free farrowing (FF) and group housing of lactating sows (GH) were randomly allocated to different rearing systems: A conventional system (CONV), where the pigs were regrouped and transferred to conventional finishing pens at ten weeks of age or a wean-to-finish (W-F) system, where the pigs remained in their pens until slaughter with higher space allowance during rearing. Weekly, tail lesions and losses were assessed individually. The incidence of tail lesions was higher in undocked CONV pigs compared to undocked W-F pigs (maximum: CONV 58.01%, W-F 41.16%). The rearing system had a significant effect on tail losses at the end of finishing (CONV 67.63%, W-F 38.2%). The significant effect of the rearing system might be explained by higher space allowance during rearing and reduced regrouping stress for W-F pigs. In conclusion, farrowing systems showed no effects, but the W-F rearing system reduces the frequency of tail lesions and losses; the curves of tail lesions increased slower and stayed on a lower level, which resulted in lower losses as well.

Keywords: tail lesions; tail losses; farrowing system; rearing system; undocked pigs; docked pigs; rearing; fattening; scoring; assessment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/10/4/130/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/10/4/130/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jagris:v:10:y:2020:i:4:p:130-:d:346171

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

More articles in Agriculture from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().