A novel technology consisting of an individual water consumption system (IWCS) was installed in a finishing room; it was composed of a nipple drinker attached to a water flow meter, and an RFID reader (and antenna) to capture individual pig data. To assess whether this novel technology was capable of detecting pigs that may be stressed due to routine practices, two stressors were introduced during the trial: (1) moving pigs to the barn hallway and handling them through a pre-defined route for 10 minutes, and (2) mixing unfamiliar groups of pigs. Pigs weighing 20-25 kg were transferred into a finishing room and remained there for 10 weeks, until reaching 105-110 kg.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Water Consumption and Handling
Regardless of stress induction, water consumption increased as the trial progressed. At the start of the trial, grower pigs had an average water consumption of about 4,014 mL/day; this increased to 5,876 mL/day towards the end of the trial when pigs were nearing market weight.
At the start and middle of the trial, pigs tend to consume more water after the moving activity. On average, pigs consumed about 3,890 and 5,226 mL 24 hours before stress was induced at the start of the trial and middle of the trial respectively, increasing to 4,138 and 5,878 mL after the stress was induced. These results may imply that grower pigs consumed more water when stressed. No apparent trend was observed for water consumption towards the end of the trial.
Water Consumption and Mixing
In contrast to the moving activity, water consumption generally decreased 24 hours after mixing unfamiliar pigs into the pen. Pigs consumed an average of about 5,387 mL/day of water prior to the mixing activity; this decreased to 4,738 mL/day 24 hours after mixing occurred. The decrease in water consumption might be due to aggression that occurred after mixing, which subsequently prevented some of the pigs from drinking. This observation may have also caused the no apparent increase in water consumption from the start to the end of each trial.
CONCLUSION
Using the individual water consumption system, it was observed that grower pigs tend to consume more water when stressed. The system also confirmed that water consumption increased as the pig grew regardless of stress induction.
Inducing stress due to moving and mixing had no considerable negative impact on pig production performance.
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— Submitted by Prairie Swine Cenetre