Abstract
The aim of the study was to investigate variations in lengths and lesions in claws of culled sows and to evaluate their association. All four feet of 185 sows from three Greek farrow-to-finish farms (Farm A: 57 sows; Farm B: 64 sows; Farm C: 64 sows) were examined for lesions and their lengths were measured. All claw lengths were lower in sows of farm C compared to those from sows of B and A. Claw lengths in sows of farm B were lower compared to those from A for all lateral toes of front feet and for all medial and four out of three lateral toes of rear feet. Sum of length measurements of the main toes of the front feet (SLF) associated with lesions on sole, white line and heel of front feet, while sum of length measurements of the main toes of the rear feet (SLR) associated with all lesions of the rear feet. The lengths of the main toes were correlated with the length of dew claws on front and rear feet. Overall, sows’ claw lesion severity and claw lengths may differ between farms and frequency of lesions is higher in longer claws.
Highlights
Published: 4 July 2021The pig is tetradactylous with two main weight-bearing digits and two accessory ones with no load-carrying capacity [1]
The values of all measured lengths for each of the eight hoof and dewclaw were significantly lower in samples from sows of genetic line C compared to those from sows of genetic lines
The present study showed that claw overgrowth and claw lesions are a common problem in Greece with evident variations between genetic lines
Summary
Published: 4 July 2021The pig is tetradactylous with two main weight-bearing digits and two accessory ones with no load-carrying capacity [1]. The increased awareness of claw quality importance in sow breeding herds has guided researchers to focus on studying the frequency and severity of hoof growth abnormalities and lesions [8,9,10,11,12,13]. Both visual scoring [7,8,9,10,14] and quantitative measurements [15,16,17,18,19,20,21] of claw lengths have been employed to detect overgrowth.
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