Physiological and economic benefits of abandoning invasive surgical procedures and enhancing animal welfare in swine production

摘要: Food-animal welfare is a major ethical and social concern. Pork the most consumed meat worldwide, with over billion pigs slaughtered annually. Most of these routinely undergo painful surgical procedures (surgical castration, tail docking, teeth clipping), which farmers often reluctant to avoid, claiming it would increase cost reduce production efficiency. Herein, this study indicates that compromise pigs’ health condition. Replacing castration immunocastration, avoiding docking clipping, providing environmental enrichment, resulted in significant weight gain, lowered risks for injuries death, reduced saliva hair cortisol, both biomarkers stress. Testosterone DHEA analyses confirmed immunocastration was an effective alternative castration. Economic models entire US swine market revealed following across-the-board acceptance management, pork price expected drop, while total annual (combined consumer producer surplus) by $US 1.48 1.92 billion. In conclusion, sustainable farming management can be beneficial animals farmers. Applying such welfare-friendly stress, enhance piglet/pig production, improve economics operations global agro-food system.