ResearchBib Share Your Research, Maximize Your Social Impacts
Sign for Notice Everyday Sign up >> Login

Practical quantification of animal welfare in pigs of small producers in southern Veracruz, Mexico

Journal: REVISTA MVZ CÓRDOBA (Vol.26, No. 3)

Publication Date:

Authors : ; ; ; ;

Page : 1-8

Keywords : Pigs; livestock management; castration; cleaning; humid tropics;

Source : Downloadexternal Find it from : Google Scholarexternal

Abstract

Objective. To quantify the animal welfare of pigs of small producers in communities of southern Veracruz. Materials and methods. We carried out a study in ten production units where we performed a diagnosis and analyzed ten variables in the categories of feeding, housing, health, and behavior of piglets according to the Welfare Quality® protocol of the European Union, which were scored on a 0 to 1 scale, where 0= none, 0.5= fair, and 1= ideal animal welfare. Results. The human-animal relationship was satisfactory; however, there was low thermal comfort associated with the type of facilities. The main indicators of animal welfare were feeding 0.9±0.235, housing 0.6±0.319, health 0.7±0.252, and behavior 0.9±0.192. Conclusions. The quantification of animal welfare allows the practical identification of management aspects that producers have developed intrinsically, such as the human-animal relationship and cleanliness of the facilities. Animal welfare can be quantified in a practical way, offering management alternatives to the producers, who develop adequate (frequent cleaning of the facilities) and inadequate (low-protein diets, tail docking, and castration) activities

Last modified: 2022-05-05 01:30:10