Abstracts - Facilities and equipment

Adding ramps to nursery pig housing is a simple way to speed loading of market hogs, while providing benefits to efficiency and behavior in the nursery.

Pig activity changes can be recorded using passive infrared detectors which could serve as a monitoring tool for early detection of behavioral changes.

A 3D machine vision system has the potential to automate tail posture detection and provide early warning of tail biting on farm.

Grow-finish pigs located in peripheral pens had greater body temperatures and reduced gain-to-feed ratios despite similarities in pen ambient temperature and relative humidity between all pens.

Computational fluid dynamics model outputs could provide insight on which environmental drivers affect pigs’ lying location choice, even before a hog building is built and stocked.

The stress conditions with the highest accuracy in the detection were cold and thirst. Infrared skin temperature is a promising assessment of stress conditions.

A higher set-point temperature significantly lowered odour emissions compared to the reference, and had the potential to lower NH3 emissions.

Wood appears to be a safe material to use as environmental enrichment for pigs and a softer wood species were preferred by pigs with equal preference for the rubber floor toy.

The more straw provided (between 10 and 500 g) the higher the daily weight gain. The feed conversion ratio was not affected by the amount of straw provided.

The objective was to determine the effects of varying the number of pigs per feeder hole and group size on feed intake onset, growth performance, and lesions in nursery pigs.

According to the results, the same sow behavior can have different consequences in pens vs. in crates.

The objective of this pilot study was to determine if a fluorescent powder (Glo Germ) could be used to study the transfer of contamination from livestock trailers to the center alleyway and pens in the barn during marketing events.

Straw in a rack was found to be the best material to meet the behavioural needs of pigs.

The objective was to determine if the addition of a bench entry system in a commercial swine facility with a shower lowers the risk of personnel introducing environmental contamination.

Most of the tested organic materials are probably not likely to pose a hygienic risk to pigs and are suitable as enrichment material.

Conductive cooling pads have the potential to cool swine under both high temperature and high humidity conditions.

Under current biosecurity practices, a substantial risk exists for the spread of PRRS virus due to truck sharing.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the combined effect of biofilter media depth and moisture content on removal of gases from a swine barn.

High temperatures around farrowing (25°C) compromise crated sows' welfare, with a potential negative impact on offspring performance.

ATP bioluminescence method can be used as a supplementary tool for monitoring surface cleanliness of transport trailers in a rapid, simple, inexpensive and reliable way.

Enriching the sow environment and diet during gestation therefore improved sow welfare and reduced piglet mortality at and soon after birth.

Results suggest that drinker type can affect water disappearance rates; further research is needed to quantify the amount of water wastage.

The objective was to compare tunnel ventilated finishing barns with cool cell pads (PAD) or without (CONTROL) for barn climate and pig temperature.