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Can increased dietary fibre level and a single enrichment device reduce the risk of tail biting in undocked growing-finishing pigs in fully slatted systems?
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2020-10-30
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Chou J-Y, O’Driscoll K, Sandercock DA, D’Eath RB (2020) Can increased dietary fibre level and a single enrichment device reduce the risk of tail biting in undocked growing-finishing pigs in fully slatted systems? PLoS ONE 15(10): e0241619. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal. pone.0241619
Abstract
This study evaluated the effectiveness of combined dietary and enrichment strategies to
manage tail biting in pigs with intact tails in a conventional fully-slatted floor housing system.
A 2 × 2 × 2 factorial design was used. Pigs had either a high fibre (weaner 5.3% and finisher
11.6% of crude fibre) or standard fibre diet (weaner 3.7% and finisher 5.9% of crude fibre).
In the weaner stage, pigs had either a spruce wooden post (supplied in a wall-mounted dispenser) or a rubber floor toy as a enrichment device, and in the finisher stage, they had
either the same or alternate enrichment item. Six hundred and seventy-two pigs were
assigned to 48 pens of 14 pigs and followed from weaning until slaughter. Individual tail
lesion scores and pen level behaviours were directly recorded every 2 weeks. Twenty-six
pens had tail biting outbreaks and 161 injured pigs needed removal for treatment. Pigs fed
with the high fibre diet performed more tail biting (p < 0.05) and tended to have a worse tail
damage scores than those fed the standard fibre diet (p = 0.08). Pigs which had the floor toy
as weaners and wood as finishers tended to have fewer tail lesions in the finisher stage than
their counterparts (p = 0.06). Pigs receiving the floor toy as enrichment interacted with the
enrichment more frequently overall (p < 0.001) and performed fewer harmful behaviours in
the weaner stage (p < 0.05). Overall, higher fibre in the diet in a relatively barren environment did not help reduce tail biting or tail lesions. Altering the fibre level in the pigs’ diet and
providing a single enrichment device to undocked pigs on fully slatted floors resulted in a
high level of tail biting and a large proportion of pigs with partial tail amputation.