Impact of Body Weight Variability in the Swine Industry: A Holistic Approach
A special issue of Animals (ISSN 2076-2615). This special issue belongs to the section "Pigs".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2021) | Viewed by 18674
Special Issue Editors
Interests: swine nutrition; pig performance; efficiency and herd profitability mainly in gestating and lactating sows and weanling pigs but taking into account feed manufacturing; feed mill technology; feeding management and feeding strategies; herd production management; optimize profitability
Interests: pig production; nutrition and welfare; nutrition and management of gestating and lactating sows; growing finishing pigs and replacement gilts; sow’s productivity and tissue mobilization; use of farm data to help decisions making; reduce the pig’s live weight variability at the slaughterhouse
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Body weight (BW) variability is the main factor responsible for the lack of efficiency and the major cause of shadow cost in the swine industry and, thus, exerts a severe negative impact on profitability. Although management and nutritional measures applied along the swine productive cycle may contribute to reduce BW variability of pigs at the slaughterhouse, a holistic and multidisciplinary approach is required to understand all the critical steps through which BW variability affects efficiency. Therefore, basic and applied research should be carried out to understand the entire production system, making it more efficient, sustainable, and economically competitive. Moreover, the integration of different factors affecting BW variability and, thus, interacting with swine industry efficiency (from crop production to meat processing and pork products preparation) is strongly required. This is the main reason why we decided to launch this Special Issue, whose key concern is, therefore, to understand how we deal with BW variability.
Original manuscripts and reviews on the above-mentioned aspects directly related to BW variability affecting the swine industry are invited. Topics of special interest and sections to be covered in the present Special Issue are: 1) appropriate mathematical and statistical methods to study BW variability in the swine industry, 2) impact of genetic improvement and prolificity, 3) impact of sow reproduction physiology and metabolism on BW variability at birth, 4) impact of the facilities and equipment and role played by smart farming, 5) contribution of management and welfare, 6) impact of health and infectious diseases on BW variability, 7) impact of crop production, raw materials, and feed processing, 8) role of nutrition and feeding strategies, 9) impact of BW variability on carcass processing and meat quality after slaughter, and finally, 10) BW variability effects on farm occupation, logistics, and production costs.
Guest Editors: Dr. David Solà-Oriol and Dr. Josep Gasa
Dr. David Solà-Oriol
Dr. Josep Gasa
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- body weight variability
- efficiency
- feed processing
- feed ingredients
- health status
- infectious diseases
- management
- meat quality
- nutrition and feeding
- sustainability
- swine production costs
- welfare