Piglet Processing and Swine Welfare

Excellent article. We do not castrate in Australia generally although immunocastration does take place our farm is unable to use the product due to our contract arrangements where the supermarket chain has specified it cannot be used (however accepts pigs from other sources which have been treated). We cut teeth as I concure grinding is awful process. Cutting however must be carried out by well trained and caring staff and management MUST audit the process regulalry for welfare reasons but productivity reasons. Broken teeth or damaged gums impact on performance. We tried to avoid cutting teeth and found when weaning numbers were low for what ever reason did not pose a problem. But as soon as you weaned 11 plus per sow the problems were significant and lead to infections in the face and problems with sows udders. We dont cut tails on commercial pigs only on F1 we sell outside as farmers require this. Our own replacements are generally long tailed and even though 100% AI find this create no problems. We see no tail biting but this may well be because our growers are in a straw based system. The key is monitoring and ensuring staff understand the implications of not doing the job right. One bad welfare event will wipe out 10 years of good work overnight. The greatest threat to this is management of the sick bay. Yes, decisions must be science based but consumers do care but it is our industries responsibility to ensure that decisions are made in light of the right information and this article was a great starting point.