Identification of factors affecting fattening efficiency of commercial pig herds and analysis of their impact at different performance levels

Abstract

Improving fattening efficiency is an important goal of breeding commercial pigs, especially for the large-scale pig farms. Fattening efficiency index (FEI) can be used to evaluate the fattening efficiency. The aim of this study was to identify the factors affecting the fattening efficiency of commercial pigs in large-scale pig farms and further study the impact of these factors on the production performance of commercial pig batches at different production levels. The data of 9,570 batches was mainly consisted of four parts (farm facilities, general information of piglets, production performance of nursery pigs and finishing pigs). A total of 28 variables were evaluated by the multi-variable linear regression models. The differences in production factors significantly correlated with FEI at piglets-finishing stage were compared among high-performing (HP), moderate-performing (MP), and low-performing (LP) batches of commercial pigs during the nursery and finishing stage. Among the 28 variables, 18 were significantly correlated with fattening efficiency (P < 0.05), including 11 continuous variables and seven discrete variables. The significant differences among the 11 consecutive variables in the HP, MP, and LP batches of commercial pigs mostly persisted from the piglets-nursery stage to the growing-finishing stage, ultimately affecting the FEI at piglets-finishing stage. For the seven significant discrete variables, the HP batches had a lower proportions in owned source of piglets, number of the purchasing piglets in spring and winter, number of batches in the East and North regions and five-way crossbred pigs, while a higher proportions in the use of closed circuit television video (CCTV) and wastes treatment system. The fattening efficiency of commercial pigs in large-scale pig farms was comprehensively affected by farm facilities, piglets, and production performance at nursery and finishing stage. The low fattening efficiency may have started at the end of nursery stage.