Abstracts - Management

The influence of feed structure and pelleting on the development of gastric ulcers in pigs is well established. Some studies have shown a beneficial effect of access to straw on gastric health. However, the role of other factors, e.g. disease and stress, is not well understood.

This work could inform contingency planning that would lead to cost savings in the event of a future FMD outbreak and could also be applied to other infectious diseases.

African swine fever (ASF) is a major pig health problem, and the causative virus is moving closer to Western European regions where pig density is high. Stopping or slowing down the spread of ASF requires mitigation strategies that are both effective and practical.

This study provides the first indication that record keeping through an advisory service may help to lower the risk of tail biting, which is associated with improved farm performance.

Ear tagging causes a dramatic increase in cortisol levels compared with handling alone in piglets, which suggests that this procedure causes substantial distress.

These studies are the evidences that indirect transmission of PEDV through contaminated personnel, which occurs rapidly, and how fomite material and temperature impact viral stability over time.

We demonstrate the asymptomatic circulation of IAV-S in the Vietnamese pig population.

The aim of the study was to determine both environmental and infectious factors, influencing occurrence of bacterial enteropathogens in suckling piglets.

The data present bronchial scraping as an equally effective or even better alternative to bronchoalveolar lavage fluid for detecting main porcine respiratory disease complex agents.

The results confirm that a full removal capacity for doxycycline cannot be reached through the long-term storage of farm fertilizers.

This study provides descriptive information on the practice of piglet castration across 24 European countries.

Very few studies about the impact of microbial cleaning and administration during production on the environment in animal houses is available. Our results showed that competitive exclusion by probiotic type bacteria is not a valuable alternative for classical C&D.

Body weight and feeding system are determining factors for the welfare status, while group size was not proved to affect the welfare level under the studied conditions of pig fattening.

Prolonging the vacancy period in nursery units to 10 days after disinfection with no extra biosecurity measures has no impact on the environmental load of total aerobic flora, E. coli, faecal coliforms, MRSA and Enterococcus spp..

The commercial combination of Duroc breed, control diet, and 115-kg slaughter weight showed a balance in terms of performance, carcass, and quality traits.

The current study demonstrated that the expression of some piglet-directed behaviour was influenced by the system in which a gilt was born and reared.

This study used oxytetracycline (OTC) as a model antibiotic to study antibiotic degradation behavior in manure under the above two OTC addition methods.

It can be concluded that immunocastration could be interesting in pigs intended for dry-cured ham elaboration because in males improved the feed conversion ratio with no penalization of carcass or meat quality.

The current study demonstrated that the farrowing system design can influence sow behaviour, with pens allowing for more interactions between sows and their piglets.

Growing mixing level increased aggression, lesion and weight loss after mixing.

Deep-litter system composed of 60% sawdust and 40% rice husk was the most suitable with regard to reduction of environmental pollution.

The administration of an additional injection of 200 mg of gleptoferron at 2-weeks of age increased piglet Hb.

This study indicates that cross fostering was associated with lower risk for preweaning mortality.

Piglet pre-weaning mortality (PWM) is one of the major reproductive components that affects herd productivity in the swine industry.