Abstract
Antibiotics (AB) are used in intensive pig production systems to control infectious diseases and they are suspected to be a major source of antibiotic resistance. Following the ban on AB use as growth promoters in the EU, their prophylactic use in-feed is now under review. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of removing prophylactic in-feed AB on pig health and welfare indicators. Every Monday for six weeks, a subset of 70 pigs were weaned, tagged and sorted into two groups of 35 pigs according to weight (9.2 ± 0.6 kg). AB were removed from the diet of one group (NO, n = 6) and maintained in the other group (AB, n = 6) for nine weeks. Ten focal pigs were chosen per group. After c. five weeks each group was split into two pens of c.17 pigs for the following 4 weeks. Data were recorded weekly. Skin, tail, ear, flank and limb lesions of focal pigs were scored according to severity. The number of animals per group affected by health deviations was also recorded. The number of fights and harmful behaviours (ear, tail bites) per group was counted during 3×5min observations once per week. Data were analysed using mixed model equations and binomial logistic regression. At group level, AB pigs were more likely to have tail (OR = 1.70; P = 0.05) but less likely to have ear lesions than NO pigs (OR = 0.46; P<0.05). The number of ear bites (21.4±2.15 vs. 17.3±1.61; P<0.05) and fights (6.91±0.91 vs. 5.58±0.72; P = 0.09) was higher in AB than in NO pigs. There was no effect of treatment on health deviations and the frequency of these was low. Removing AB from the feed of weaner pigs had minimal effects on health and welfare indicators.
Highlights
Antibiotics (AB) are an effective tool to control and treat infectious diseases in intensive production systems where high densities of animals facilitate the spread of pathogens [1,2,3]
No difference were found between AB and NO pigs for total body lesion (TBL) (13.4 ± 0.39 vs. 12.5 ± 0.37), front body lesion (FBL) (7.7 ± 0.23 vs. 7.3 ± 0.22), or rear body lesion score (RBL) (5.5 ± 0.22 vs. 5.8 ± 0.26) scores of focal pigs (P > 0.05)
Removing prophylactic antibiotics from the feed of weaner pigs had minimal effects on lesions related to welfare, health indicators and negative behaviours on this farm, suggesting that other farms using in-feed prophylactic antibiotics may be able to remove them without affecting pig health and welfare
Summary
Antibiotics (AB) are an effective tool to control and treat infectious diseases in intensive production systems where high densities of animals facilitate the spread of pathogens [1,2,3]. There is an overreliance on their usage and farmers often see them as the only solution to disease challenges [4, 5, 6]. Prophylactic use of AB in feed around weaning is common on Irish pig farms [7, 8]. This could contribute to create AB resistance [9] which is a major global. Effect of removing in-feed antibiotics on pig welfare and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript
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