A COMPARISON OF PRODUCTIVITY AND WELFARE OF GROWING PIGS IN 4 INTENSIVE SYSTEMS

Productivity, behaviour and injury was compared in four housing treatm ents for pigs within one building: deep-straw, Straw-Flow (R), bare-co ncrete and slats, Three replicates of four uniform lots of entire male pigs (15 per treatment) were studied. The pigs were grown from 27 to 90 kg liveweight. They were offered food and water ad libitum. Due to significantly greater food intake, the pigs from the pooled treatments with straw grew significantly faster than pigs from the pooled treatm ents without straw. There were no significant differences in food-to-g ain ratio. Pigs with straw spent a large proportion of their time mani pulating it. Pigs without straw were less active and spent more time m anipulating the pen hardware and other pigs. Pigs with straw played mo re than those without straw. Pigs in the pooled treatments with straw had significantly lower injury scores. Adventitious bursitis of the ho ck was significantly reduced by keeping pigs on deep-straw and signifi cantly increased by keeping pigs on slats. The welfare of pigs with st raw appeared better than those without straw. There were few significa nt differences between the two straw treatments or between the two tre atments without straw.