Transport stress is both an animal welfare issue, resulting in animal losses and fatigued animals at slaughter, and a meat quality issue, resulting in carcass depreciation and meat quality defects. Both issues may result in significant economic losses for the industry. The welfare of pigs during...

This chapter discusses the regulatory, behavioural, housing and welfare aspects of chickens and pigs in intensive production systems.

This chapter presents guidelines that large scale animal producers and big companies of meat and egg producing animals should follow in order to assure the public that the welfare of animals are being considered such as proper space allowance, ability to move, cage-free hens, and stress free...

Spacing behaviour is of considerable importance for social species that live in closely associated social groups. Spacing of animals falls into two general types: individual space that is defined in terms of the individual and hence moves with it; and home range and territory, which refer to a...

The welfare of pigs during transport depends on many interacting factors, such as the condition of the animal, temperature, loading density, time in transit and other factors. Death losses during transport of pigs can vary from a low of 0.06% under good conditions to a high of 6.8% under very hot...

A brief overview on the origin and domestication of the pig is given in this chapter. The different pig breeds, their origins and characteristics are presented. Handling and restraint, housing, health planning, waste management, welfare monitoring, feeding, notifiable diseases and abnormal...

This chapter describes the spacing behaviour in terms of home range, territory, individual spacing, space requirements and overcrowding in dogs, cats, cattle, horses, sheep, pigs, poultry and fishes.

A simulation model that predicts the performance of a population of growing pigs when raised under given dietary, physical and social environmental conditions has been constructed. The aim was to investigate through the model the impact of between-animal variation on the response of a population to ...

This chapter describes the quantification of the effects of social stressors on the performance of growing pigs. It is shown how these relationships, including variation between genotypes in their ability to cope (AB), can be incorporated into a more general pig growth model. The consequences of...