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Establishing Sprinkling Requirements on Trailers Transporting Market Weight Pigs in Warm and Hot Weather
Animals
  • Rebecca K. Kephart, Iowa State University
  • Anna K. Johnson, Iowa State University
  • Avi Sapkota, Texas Tech University
  • Kenneth J Stalder, Iowa State University
  • John J. McGlone, Texas Tech University
Document Type
Article
Publication Version
Published Version
Publication Date
1-1-2014
DOI
10.3390/ani4020164
Abstract

This study was conducted July of 2012 in Iowa, in WARM (<26.7 °C) and HOT (≥26.7 °C) weather. Four sprinkling methods were compared, with one treatment being randomly assigned to each load: control- no sprinkling (not applied in HOT weather), pigs only, bedding only, or pigs and bedding. Experiment 1 used 51 loads in WARM- and 86 loads in HOT weather to determine sprinkling effects on pig measures (surface temperature, vocalizations, slips and falls, and stress signs). Experiment 2 used 82 loads in WARM- and 54 loads in HOT weather to determine the sprinkling effects on transport losses (non-ambulatory, dead, and total transport losses). Experiment 1 found that, in WARM weather, there were no differences between sprinkling treatments for surface temperature, vocalizations, or slips and falls (p ≥ 0.18). However, stress signs were 2% greater when sprinkling pigs- or bedding only- compared to control (p = 0.03). Experiment 2 found that, in WARM and HOT weather, sprinkling did not affect non-ambulatory, dead, or total transport losses (p ≥ 0.18). Although the current study did not find any observed sprinkling effects for pig measures or transport losses it is extremely important to note that the inference space of this study is relatively small, so further studies should be conducted to see if these results are applicable to other geographical regions and seasons.

Comments

This article is from Animals 4 (2014): 164, doi:10.3390/ani4020164. Posted with permission.

Rights
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Copyright Owner
Rebecca Kephart, et al
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Citation Information
Rebecca K. Kephart, Anna K. Johnson, Avi Sapkota, Kenneth J Stalder, et al.. "Establishing Sprinkling Requirements on Trailers Transporting Market Weight Pigs in Warm and Hot Weather" Animals Vol. 4 Iss. 2 (2014) p. 164 - 183
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/anna_butters-johnson/53/