Effect of implementing an effective farrowing accommodation hygiene routine on clinical cases of disease, medication usage, and growth in suckling and weaned pigs

• Published in: Translational animal science 2024, Vol.8, p.txae095
• Main Authors: Halpin, Keely M, Lawlor, Peadar G, Arnaud, Elisa A, Teixé-Roig, Júlia, O’ Doherty, John V, Sweeney, Torres, O’ Brien, Triona M, Gardiner, Gillian E
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animal Health and Well Being
• ISSN: 2573-2102; 2573-2102
• DOI: 10.1093/tas/txae095

Abstract The few studies that have evaluated hygiene routines in farrowing accommodation to date have focused on pathogen elimination from pens, with little attention paid to pig growth and no information provided on pig health or medication usage. This study aimed to determine if implementation of an optimized farrowing accommodation hygiene routine could improve pig health and growth and reduce medication usage pre- and post-weaning (PW). Forty seven sows were blocked on parity, previous litter size and body weight and assigned to two treatments: T1) Basic hygiene: cold water washing only with minimal drying time; T2) Optimized hygiene: use of detergent and a chlorocresol-based disinfectant with a 6-d drying time. Total bacterial counts (TBC), Enterobacteriaceae counts and adenosine triphosphate (ATP) swabs were obtained from different areas within the farrowing pens. Pig growth and medication usage were monitored from birth to slaughter and carcass data were obtained at slaughter. On entry of sows to the farrowing pens, TBC and Enterobacteriaceae counts and ATP concentrations were lower on pen surfaces subjected to the optimized compared to the basic hygiene routine (P