Behavioral, thermoregulatory, and operational aspects of shallow pool pens used in gilts production

Abstract

This work was conducted to assess behaviors, thermoregulatory, and operational aspects of gilt breeding (Body weight, 25–110 kg) whilst the animals were housed in 2-cm deep shallow pool pens (SPP), without the addition of water, compared to the use of fully compact floor pens (TSF) during the winter and summer seasons. Commercial female strains for high lean tissue accretion were used, housed in grower/finisher pens for 108 days (11 animals/pen, 1.2 m2/animal). Instantaneous observations of behavior were carried out every 12 min between 7:00 and 19:00 hours throughout the six days of the raising period. At the end of the raising period, the operational aspects of cleaning the facilities were analyzed. A 2 × 2 factorial scheme design was used, with two types of floors and two seasons, with three replicates. The average temperatures in winter and summer were 19.9 ± 2.2°C and 24.5 ± 2.3°C, respectively. The use of SPP reduced aggressive behavior and increased exploratory behavior, increased the time for the daily cleaning, and reduced the time for the final cleaning of the pens.