Scollo Annalisa, Abbas Mustansar, Contiero Barbara, Gottardo Flaviana
Department of Veterinary Sciences, University of Torino, 10095 Grugliasco, Italy.
Department of Animal Medicine, Production and Health, University of Padova, Viale dell'Università 16, Agripolis, 35020 Legnaro, Italy.
Animals (Basel). 2023 Jan 15;13(2):305. doi: 10.3390/ani13020305.
Tail biting is an economical and behavioral problem in the pork production system worldwide and systematic tail docking has been applied for decades to decrease the risk of its onset. However, legal and market-driven requirements are leading pig producers to rear undocked animals. The aim of this work was to monitor tail, pluck (lungs, pleurae, and liver), stomach, carcass, and thigh lesions in slaughtering pigs belonging to either docked or undocked batches. A total of 525 batches were evaluated at slaughter: 442 docked and 83 undocked batches. The presence of tail lesions was only recorded in undocked batches (44.0 ± 0.402 vs. 0.2 ± 0.2% compared to docked ones, p < 0.001), with a prevalence of severe chronic lesions of 27.3% ± 0.032, suggesting that more and alternative wide efforts to manage long-tailed animals are needed. On the contrary, docked animals showed more frequent ear lesions (9.6% ± 0.037 vs. 4.6% ± 0.019; p = 0.0001). Severe lung lesions were found more frequently in undocked animals (9.2% ± 0.043 vs. 6.6% ± 0.011, p = 0.006), as well as gastric ulcers (26.1% ± 0.021 vs. 20.3% ± 0.37, p = 0.006). These lesions might share the same predisposing factors of tail lesions; the latter might be investigated as an iceberg indicator for other pathological conditions in undocked pigs and eventual causal association among lesions in these organs should be explored.
咬尾是全球猪肉生产系统中一个涉及经济和行为的问题，系统性断尾已应用数十年以降低其发生风险。然而，法律和市场驱动的要求正促使养猪生产者饲养未断尾的猪。这项工作的目的是监测属于断尾或未断尾批次的屠宰猪的尾巴、摘取物（肺、胸膜和肝脏）、胃、胴体和大腿的损伤情况。在屠宰时共评估了525个批次：442个断尾批次和83个未断尾批次。仅在未断尾批次中记录到尾巴损伤（与断尾批次相比为44.0±0.402%对0.2±0.2%，p<0.001），严重慢性损伤的患病率为27.3%±0.032，这表明需要做出更多且不同的广泛努力来管理长尾猪。相反，断尾猪的耳部损伤更为常见（9.6%±0.037对4.6%±0.019；p = 0.0001）。未断尾猪中严重肺部损伤更为常见（9.2%±0.043对6.6%±0.011，p = 0.006），胃溃疡也是如此（26.1%±0.021对20.3%±0.37，p = 0.006）。这些损伤可能与咬尾损伤有相同的诱发因素；咬尾损伤可能作为未断尾猪其他病理状况的冰山指标进行研究，并且应探索这些器官损伤之间最终的因果关联。
