THE BEHAVIOR OF PIGS IN LAIRAGE IN RELATION TO THEIR POST-WEANING MANAGEMENT - RESULTS OF A POSTAL SURVEY

Lairage staff at 11 abattoirs were asked to rate which producers regul arly provided pigs which were 'easy' (EH) or 'difficult' (DH) to handl e, on a scale of one (very DH) to five (very EH). A postal questionnai re, dealing with various aspects of post-weaning farm management, was then given to the four or five producers sending the most EH and the f our or five producers sending the most DH pigs to each abattoir. Of 10 5 questionnaires sent, information on 26 EH and 27 DH systems was retu rned. The median number of replies per abattoir was two for both EH an d DH systems. In most systems (77%) pigs experienced three or four hou sing stages from weaning to slaughter. In each of the first five housi ng stages, more EH pigs had access to daylight (mean of 86% +/- 11.5 ( SD)) than DH pigs (mean of 64% +/- 10.1 (SD), P < 0.05, two-sample t t est), More EH systems provided straw in the first three housing stages , although over all stages the difference was not significant During h ousing stage two, the difference in provision of straw between the sys tems was most marked, with 58 per cent of EH and 27 per cent of DH sys tems providing straw. Distance walked between housing stages three to four and four to five was significantly greater for EH compared to DH systems (EH mean of 64m +/- 24.1 (SD), versus DH mean of 22m +/- 14.0 (SD), and EH mean of 73m +/- 17.2 (SD), versus DH mean of 23m +/- 8.5 (SD), P < 0.001 and 0.01 respectively, two-sample t test). At loading for pre-slaughter transport, moving from daylight to daylight conditio ns occurred in 65 per cent of EH and 25 per cent of DH systems. Overal l, the results provide circumstantial evidence that environmental fact ors can affect ease of handling, and hence pig welfare during pre-slau ghter transport and lairage.