The effect of conventional and deep litter housing on belly composition of finished Large White x Landrace gilts

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

2005

Conference Title

Tenth Biennial Conference of the Australasian Pig Science Association

Place of Publication

Christchurch

ISBN

978-0-9806880-4-7

ISSN

1324-9177

Keywords

pigs, swine

Disciplines

Meat Science

Abstract

The inherent differences in the physical and thermal environment of conventional and deep-litter housing systems for pigs are likely to affect the deposition of fat and lean tissue during growth. The differences in thermal conductivity between concrete flooring and straw bedding may affect the deposition of fat. In addition, the ingestion of bedding could also affect fat deposition by diluting the energy content of the diet. Bedding consumption is also likely to alter the digestible amino acid and digestible energy ratio of the diet and the amino acid requirements of pigs, and these requirements may not be accounted for in the formulated diet. In turn, this could cause variation in growth and carcass quality (van Barneveld et al., 2003). In this study we hypothesised that the tissue distribution in growing pigs would differ between pigs housed on deep litter and pigs housed conventionally. We also expected the impact of housing type on fat deposition and distribution would be more pronounced during the finishing period because the proportion of fat deposited in the total gain increases with age.

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