Posted on April 8th, 2016%
Failure to provide effective analgesia to animals in noxious studies contravenes the obligation to refine animal experimentation and, by increasing ‘noise’ in physiological data sets, may decrease the scientific validity of results.
Pig models of surgical conditions are becoming increasingly important and used for translational work. This review aimed to determine the extent to which the recent biomedical literature describes pain assessment and alleviation in pigs recovering from experimental surgery. Continue reading Abstracts: Pain management in pigs undergoing experimental surgery; a literature review (2012-4)
Posted on April 4th, 2015%
Given that surgical castration is a painful practice performed on millions of pigs every year, a need to identify novel reliable pain assessment tools exists in order to test anaesthetic and analgesic protocols that may reduce related pain.
Two treatments were considered: handling (H) and surgical castration (C). Physiological (cortisol, lactate, glycaemia, rectal and eye temperature) and . . . → Read More: Abstracts: Can novel methods be useful for pain assessment of castrated piglets?
Posted on January 29th, 2014%
Bruises in pigs inflicted by blunt trauma are a significant animal welfare problem, and affected skin and underlying muscle are regularly submitted for forensic investigation.Central to the evaluation is an assessment of the age of the bruises. This paper presents cases of bruises in pigs sent for forensic investigation that were collected retrospectively.
Data comprised photographs of . . . → Read More: Abstracts: Forensic cases of bruises in pigs
Posted on November 9th, 2013%
Transport of animals is a stressful procedure often resulting in significant losses for the slaughter plant. This study aimed to determine whether or not pigs would benefit from a loading density (low density (LD)) (179 kg/m2) below the normal EU standard loading density (normal density (ND)) (235 kg/m2).
Eight similar, 550-km-long road journeys were followed in which fattening pigs were transported across Germany from farm to slaughter plant. During each journey all pigs were transported at LD (n=4) or ND (n=4). Continue reading The effect of reduced loading density on pig welfare during long distance transport
Posted on September 27th, 2013%
Abnormal tail biting behaviour is a major welfare problem for pigs receiving the behaviour, as well as an indication of decreased welfare in the pigs performing it. However, not all pigs in a pen perform or receive tail biting behaviour and it has recently been shown that these ‘neutral’ pigs not only differ in their . . . → Read More: Behavioural and brain gene expression profiling in pigs during tail biting outbreaks – evidence of a tail biting resistant phenotype
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