This literature review describes organic pig production in Sweden, its advantages and disadvantages, but also how its problems can be reduced or solved. Organic Pigs have the possibility to a more natural behaviour than conventional Pigs. With outdoor Pigs comes problems, especially during wintertime, concerning water and feed supply, thermal environment and supervision. Parasites and leakage of plant nutrients are other difficulties that comes with outdoor Pigs. All problems and difficulties can be reduced or put right through correct management.

Rearing in organic pig production differs from conventional rearing; Pigs have outdoor access and larger space allowances. Regardless of production system all Pigs are transported before slaughter and during transport Pigs are crowded together in a new environment and in a space smaller than they are used to. As Pigs in organic herds are reared at even larger space allowances than conventional Pigs, such crowding could possibly have a stronger impact on pig behaviour and well-being. Six pig producing herds, three conventional and three organic, were visited and Pigs from each herd were enclosed during 12 minutes in a test area corresponding to the crowding on a transport vehicle. During the crowding, Pigs? behaviour was observed, before and after enclosure in the test area skin lesion scores were recorded, and also measures of heart girth (for weight estimation) was done.

The study concerns the unloading of Pigs at the slaughter house, both from the Pigs view and from the transporters view. The study has been carried out at the slaughter house (SLP) in Helsingborg, Sweden. It includes a questionnaire to all transporters (65 % response) and a direct observation of the unloading. The transporters handling of the Pigs, their use of different equipment and the response of the Pigs has been studied. The Pigs behaviour at unloading and their reactions to environmental factors has also been studied.

Today, Pigs are moved on farm, between farms, between countries and to abattoirs. This movement of live Pigs requires handling practices that are designed for the purpose. The objective of this study was to research the use of paddle in moving Pigs, to investigate if there were different methods of paddle practice, explore the time efficiency of different kinds of paddle use and if there were any time variations in methods that varied in intensity of touch. This study was done on two Swedish abattoirs for a total of five weeks. A total of 22 transporters working at two different abattoirs where studied during unloading of Pigs at the abattoirs.

Active immunization against gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) is an alternative to surgical castration of male Pigs to avoid boar taint. The aim of this study, including 128 Pigs, was to evaluate the effect of a GnRH-vaccine Improvac® on performance and on social and sexual behaviour. Male Pigs were assigned to three treatments; surgical castration at four days of age, immunization against GnRH and no castration. Vaccination was performed eight and four weeks before slaughter. Surgically castrated male Pigs had significantly lower daily weight gain during the suckling period than entire male Pigs (235 vs.

Transportation of Pigs might be a welfare problem. Stress during and after transportation can negatively affect the meat quality or cause carcass damages, which leads to major economic losses every year. The transportation chain can be divided into several stages; loading, transport and unloading. This literature review focuses on unloading of Pigs from a transport. When arriving at an abattoir Pigs can be fatigued and need to be as smoothly unloaded as possible.

Transportation of Pigs might be a welfare problem. Stress during and after transportation can negatively affect the meat quality or cause carcass damages, which leads to major economic losses every year. The transportation chain can be divided into several stages; loading, transport and unloading. This literature review focuses on unloading of Pigs from a transport. When arriving at an abattoir Pigs can be fatigued and need to be as smoothly unloaded as possible.

Each year 225 million Pigs are transported within the European Union (EU) for slaughter, fattening and breeding. This results in poor animal welfare due to the fact that animals are exposed to several numbers of stress factors in the vehicle during loading, transit and unloading. Animal welfare can be defined as how well the animal attempts to cope with its environment and during transport there is often severe difficulty for the Pigs to cope properly. There is a growing societal concern for animal welfare. This resulted in that the European Union enacted a law called the EU-regulation with certain directives of how to improve the welfare of the animals during transport.

Assessing and measuring post-operative pain in all animals is a challenge, but doing it in small mammals, for example guinea Pigs, presents an even larger difficulty. Validated pain scales developed for use in dogs in clinical practice are currently available, but no such scale has been widely accepted for use in guinea Pigs in the veterinary setting. In this experimental study, six guinea Pigs that had undergone surgery and anaesthesia were observed for behavioural changes that could be associated with pain. The six guinea Pigs were also given pain scores with the use of Colorado State University Feline Acute Pain Scale (CSU-APSF), a scale which uses both behaviour when not handled, body tension and response to palpation to evaluate pain intensity. The six guinea Pigs showed a number of different behaviours, for example rigid posture, fixed stare and ?wet dog response? (the body is vigourosly shaken), that could be associated with pain.

Studies on wild boars have shown that piglets at 10 to 12 days of age can be introduced to Pigs outside the litter without fighting. In today's production systems, the litters are kept in separate pens until weaning. At that point, the litter is divided and the piglets are placed together with piglets from other litters. This usually leads to aggressions among the piglets and may cause stress. This literature review aims to find out how piglets perceive other Pigs in their surroundings.

Organic animal husbandry has received a lot of criticism lately. The aim of this literature review was to examine if the rules and principles of organic pig farming give better or worse welfare in comparison to the conventional systems in Sweden. Health, physiology and behaviour have been used as indicators of welfare in this study. This is due to the importance of using more than one indicator in welfare assessments. Studies have shown that organic Pigs have more remarks on joints when slaughtered, but these remarks can be reduced by vaccination against erysipelas.

The aim of this study was to detect antibodies in swine serum against proteins in soy beans, wheat, oat and barley. Two methods were used: agar gel immunodiffusion test (AGID), and SDS-PAGE followed by immunoblotting. The sera examined originated (I) from piglets younger than one week (negative control), (II) Pigs from a feed trial with soy bean in a herd with PMWS, and (III) Pigs inoculated with Brachyspira hyodysenteriae and Escherichia coli after being fed with soy. The AGID-test was negative concerning all examined sera which were analysed against proteins in soy bean, wheat, oat and barley. In the experiment based on immunoblot antibodies were demonstrated within all three groups of examined Pigs.

The purpose with this study was to find out if tailbiting Pigs have a higher or lower daily weight gain than non-tailbiting Pigs in the same pen before tailbitingbehaviour occur. The purpose was also to compare the occurrence of tailbiting between different breeds (Swedish Landrace, Yorkshire and Hampshire). Tailbiting among Pigs has been a problem for pigfarmers a long time. Tailbiting means reduced animal welfare for the pig and economical loss for the farmer. The results of this study are based on statistical analyses.

Pigs are often mentioned as relatively intelligent animals when compared to other nonhuman species. Despite this knowledge, the vast majority of Pigs are kept under conditions that lack opportunities to satisfy their cognitive needs. Therefore, a need to evaluate the present scientific studies about pig cognition was acknowledged, in order to evaluate to what extent the knowledge is applied in the husbandry of finishing Pigs. If a considerable lack of application was determined, suggestions about how to use the obtained information to improve pig welfare were also to be made. A synthesis of the present literature was made, and it could be concluded that a considerable amount of studies had been carried out in the present area. The Pigs of today appear to have the same behavioural and cognitive needs as their ancestor, the wild boar.

Animal welfare is of increasing concern in present society. In commercial pig farming, animal welfare problems are common. One of the causes for these problems is the barren environment in which Pigs are housed, which can cause oral manipulation of pen mates. Providing straw might be one solution to this problem. Another solution could be reached through genetic selection.