September 2011 - Iowa Pork Producers Association

Floor space and journey time research
increases profits for swine producers
By Jennifer Shike, University of Illinois
Recent University of Illinois research
confirms that the swine industry has
come a long way in the past 10 years
to improve pig transportation and
handling. In this study led by graduate
student Chad Pilcher, researchers
discovered that an optimum allocation
of floor space per pig during transport
and a longer journey time allow pigs to
better handle transportation stress.
Mike Ellis, U of I professor of animal
sciences, said their research started
10 years ago when it became
apparent that losses of pigs during
the transportation process had
increased since the early 1990s.
This caused great concern in the
swine industry from both an
animal welfare and economic
perspective.
“Our goal was to understand
why those losses were occurring
and develop approaches to
minimize them,” Ellis said.
“Significant funding from the
National Pork Board and several
commercial companies, including
ELANCO Animal Health and
The Maschhoffs, allowed us to
perform research in a controlled,
commercial setting. It’s a great
example of how the industry
came together to attack a problem
and make positive change.”
One of the challenges of this type
of research is controlling the
factors such as animal handling
that contribute to losses, he said.
By working with commercial
producers to perform on-farm
research, Ellis’s team was better
able to control who worked
with the pigs and how they were
handled while remaining in
typical commercial conditions.
“We were able to perform
controlled research where the
pigs were handled the same so
we could evaluate journey time
and floor space,” Ellis said. “We
discovered that the lower the
floor space available per pig,
the higher the losses can be.
However, there is evidence that
you can give them too much floor
space. When pigs are transported,
they are more likely to be thrown
about if there is too much open
space. If they are closer, but not
too close, they can help support
each other.”
20 SEPTEMBER 2011