Effect of floor type on the growth performance and health status of growing-finishing pigs
Keywords:
SWINE, PIGGERIES, FLOORS, CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS, GROWTH RATE, WATER UPTAKE, ANIMAL HEALTH, ANIMAL WELFARE, ANIMAL PERFORMANCE, EXPERIMENTATION
Abstract
Using a factorial design: two full floor types, concrete vs. concrete waterproofed with resin (resin floor) and two slat types, concrete vs. metal, were used to house 72 pigs in four rooms (18 pigs/room). During the experimental period which lasted from 22.9 kg to 112.7 kg live weight the four groups of pigs received the same feed. Growth, water consumption and health status of the pigs as well as subjective odour level inside the rooms were studied. The resin floor with metal slats tended (P<0.1) to improve feed conversion efficiency and positively affected (P<0.03) pig health. In the room with the resin floor and metal slats odour level was significantly lower than in the other three rooms. The potential predictive function for the relationship between average daily water consumption (WC, in L) and feed average daily intake (FADI, in kg) is WC = 2.692 x FADI sup(1.265). Odour level increased with pig live weight. The use of resin as an impermeable floor material is promising for housing growing, finishing pigs.Downloads
Download data is not yet available.
Published
2008-12-01
How to Cite
Garcimartín, M., Ovejero, I., Vázquez Minguela, J., & Daza, A. (2008). Effect of floor type on the growth performance and health status of growing-finishing pigs. Spanish Journal of Agricultural Research, 6(4), 559-565. https://doi.org/10.5424/sjar/2008064-350
Issue
Section
Animal production
© CSIC. Manuscripts published in both the print and online versions of this journal are the property of the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, and quoting this source is a requirement for any partial or full reproduction.
All contents of this electronic edition, except where otherwise noted, are distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence. You may read the basic information and the legal text of the licence. The indication of the CC BY 4.0 licence must be expressly stated in this way when necessary.
Self-archiving in repositories, personal webpages or similar, of any version other than the final version of the work produced by the publisher, is not allowed.
