Practical Quantification of Animal Welfare in Pigs of Small Producers in Southern Veracruz, Mexico

Abstract

Objective. To quantify the animal welfare of pigs of small producers in communities of southern Veracruz. Materials and methods. We carried out a study in ten production units where we performed a diagnosis and analyzed ten variables in the categories of feeding, housing, health, and behavior of piglets according to the Welfare Quality®protocol of the European Union, which were scored on a 0 to 1 scale, where 0= none, 0.5= fair, and 1= ideal animal welfare. Results. The human-animal relationship was satisfactory; however, there was low thermal comfort associated with the type of facilities. The main indicators of animal welfare were feeding 0.9±0.235, housing 0.6±0.319, health 0.7±0.252, and behavior 0.9±0.192. Conclusions. The quantification of animal welfare allows the practical identification of management aspects that producers have developed intrinsically, such as the human-animal relationship and cleanliness of the facilities. Animal welfare can be quantified in a practical way, offering management alternatives to the producers, who develop adequate (frequent cleaning of the facilities) and inadequate (low-protein diets, tail docking, and castration) activities.