Affiliation:
1. Clinic for Ruminants and Pigs, Clinic for Reproduction and Large Animals, Veterinary Faculty, University of Ljubljana, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
2. Institute of Preclinical Sciences, Veterinary Faculty, University of Ljubljana, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
Abstract
Animal welfare is important; therefore, veterinarians and other animal welfare experts try to use different tools for pig welfare assessment. Several welfare protocols are available for pig welfare assessment, and one of the most used is Welfare Quality (WQ) protocol®. Elevated values of cortisol can be indicative of stress and, therefore, poor welfare. Our aim was to assess the correlation between serum cortisol levels from individual samples and oral fluid cortisol levels in group samples with the grades received for pig welfare using the WQ protocol®. Samples were taken at six different commercial pig farms. Animals were divided into age-dependent categories: 5 weeks old (w/o); 7 w/o; 9 w/o; 11 w/o weaners; fatteners; and breeding sows (10 pigs/category). Cortisol was determined in individual sera and group samples of oral fluid (OF), and was compared to values considered to be physiological. Based on WQ protocol® answers, five farms’ welfare level was deemed acceptable, and one was enhanced. Four out of 29 sera and 5 out of 30 OF samples were considered physiological, while in most other samples it was elevated. The correlation between cortisol levels in sera, OF, and WQ protocol® scores was not statistically significant. The cortisol level in OF should be just one of the welfare indicators, i.e., alongside the WQ protocol® filled out by a welfare expert.
Funder
Slovenian Research Agency
Subject
Plant Science,Agronomy and Crop Science,Food Science
Reference21 articles.
1. Pig welfare assessment: Development of a protocol and its use by veterinary undergraduates;Wright;J. Vet. Med. Educ.,2009
2. Development of pig welfare assessment protocol integrating animal-, environment-, and management-based measures;Renggaman;J. Anim. Sci. Technol.,2015
3. Welfare Quality® Consortium (2009). Welfare Quality® Assessment Protocol for Pigs, Welfare Quality® Consortium.
4. Review of the assessment of animal welfare with special emphasis on the “Welfare Quality® animal welfare assessment protocol for growing pigs”;Czycholl;Arch. Anim. Breed.,2015
5. Larsen, M.L.V., Wang, M., and Norton, T. (2021). Information Technologies for Welfare Monitoring in Pigs and Their Relation to Welfare Quality®. Sustainability, 13.
Cited by
2 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献