Application of disruptive management technologies in pig housing lacking animal welfare: productive, behavioral and economic evaluation

Abstract

In the specific field of animal production, disruptive technologies seek to progress in the life quality of individuals in confinement conditions and provide solutions to health and production problems generated by the high stocking rate per unit area. As a particular case, this study addresses the problem of emerging management in the field of pig behavior to generate better production, economic benefit, and environmental sustainability in conditions that value life and animal welfare. The convergent management techniques in the fattening stages have always had the male as an individual subjected to surgical or biological castrations in order to control the sexual behavior of puberty and promote productive efficiency in group living conditions, but not in the females that must reach a live slaughter weight at an older age due to their condition as females and go through puberty in sexually active groups, decreasing their daily weight gains and lengthening the age at slaughter. It is then possible to change the paradigm and use biological castration not only in both males and females, to improve productive efficiency and the animal environment by reducing fights and bodily damage in early puberty that are a consequence of selection and breeding. hybridization crosses today. Biological innovation guarantees productivity, well-being, and economic benefit superior to routine convergent techniques, regardless of the hybrids exposed to the new technology.