Ej. Hunter et al., THE BEHAVIOR OF PIGS IN LAIRAGE IN RELATION TO THEIR POST-WEANING MANAGEMENT - RESULTS OF A POSTAL SURVEY, Animal welfare, 6(2), 1997, pp. 139-144
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.