The impact of the sanitary environment on health, pubertal development and sex odour of male pigs

Séverine Parois (1) , Anaëlle Faouen (1) , Nathalie Le Floc'H (1) , Armelle Prunier (1)

1 PEGASE - Physiologie, Environnement et Génétique pour l'Animal et les Systèmes d'Elevage [Rennes]

Previous studies have shown that the sanitary environment can affect the health and growth of pigs. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the effect of a chronic inflammation induced by a degraded sanitary environment on the pubertal development of boars and on boar taint. Boars from a commercial cross line were allocated at 139 (±0.1) days of age (D0) and 81.3 (±0.6) kg of live weight either to good (n=61) or poor sanitary conditions (n=54) for 4 weeks. The poor environment was previously soiled by noncontemporary pigs, poorly ventilated, not cleaned during treatment; the good environment benefited from reinforced hygiene measures. Inflammatory status and pubertal development were evaluated on D0 and D27 by measures on blood samples (blood formula, inflammatory proteins; testosterone, estradiol). Every week, boars were weighed, sampled for saliva (estrone, inflammatory protein CRP) and their rectal temperature was measured. Fat was collected on D27 by biopsy and at slaughter (116.7±0.4 kg live weight) to measure boar taint compounds (androstenone, skatole, indole). Pigs in the poor environment were dirtier (P<0.001). The treatment had a slight effect on rectal temperature (D7: 38.4±0.04 vs 38.6±0.06 °C, P<0.001; and D14: 38.3±0.04 vs 38.6±0.04 °C, P<0.001) and a marked effect on fat skatole (0.037 vs 0.082 μg/g of pure fat) and indole (0.039 vs 0.14 μg/g) with higher values for boars in the poor environment (P<0.0001). Overall, treatment had no clear impact on the inflammatory status, the pubertal development and androstenone of the boars. However, the soiled increased markedly the dirtiness and fat skatole.

Domaines: Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]

Séverine Parois, Anaëlle Faouen, Nathalie Le Floc'H, Armelle Prunier. The impact of the sanitary environment on health, pubertal development and sex odour of male pigs. 67. Annual Meeting of the European Federation of Animal Science (EAAP), Aug 2016, Belfast, United Kingdom. Annual Meeting of the European Association for Animal Production, 22, 2016, Annual Meeting of the European Association for Animal Production. ⟨hal-01455941⟩