Department of Animal Biosciences, Ontario Agricultural College, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada.
Pig Development Department, Teagasc Animal and Grassland Research and Innovation Centre, Fermoy, Ireland.
Vet Rec. 2021 Apr;188(8):e13. doi: 10.1002/vetr.13. Epub 2021 Jan 16.
We investigated the financial impact of different prevalence levels of severe tail lesions (STL) during the finisher stage associated with changes in average daily gain (ADG) in farrow-to-finish pig farms.
Prevalence of STL was estimated for 31 farrow-to-finish pig farms. Regression tree analysis was used to identify a threshold for STL associated with differences in ADG. Then, a financial analysis was carried using the Teagasc Pig Production model.
A threshold of ≥0.86% prevalence of STL was associated with a 4.8% decrease in ADG which translated into pigs requiring 7 days more to reach target slaughter weight than in farms below the threshold. Reduced ADG meant that farms with higher prevalence of STL used 3.6% more weaner and 1.4% more finisher feed per year increasing feed costs by 1.5%. This reduced mean annual farm profit by 15.1% in farms with higher prevalence of STL.
Our results provide an indication of the financial effects of STL in intensive pig production systems. The identified threshold for the prevalence of STL could provide a tangible target for farmers to focus on in developing strategies to reduce tail lesions and allow farmers to complete a cost benefit analysis of controlling STL.
我们研究了育肥阶段严重尾部损伤（STL）不同流行率水平对每头猪日增重（ADG）变化的经济影响。
对 31 个育肥-出栏猪场的 STL 流行率进行了估计。采用回归树分析确定了与 ADG 差异相关的 STL 阈值。然后，使用 Teagasc 猪生产模型进行了财务分析。
STL 流行率≥0.86%与 ADG 降低 4.8%相关，这意味着在高于阈值的农场中，猪需要多 7 天才能达到目标屠宰体重。较低的 ADG 意味着 STL 流行率较高的农场每年每头猪多使用 3.6%的断奶料和 1.4%的育肥料，从而增加饲料成本 1.5%。这导致 STL 流行率较高的农场的平均年度农场利润减少了 15.1%。
我们的研究结果表明了 STL 在集约化养猪生产系统中的经济影响。确定的 STL 流行率阈值可以为农民提供一个具体的目标，以制定减少尾部损伤的策略，并允许农民对控制 STL 的成本效益进行分析。
