Fattening results and biosecurity level on pig farms with different capacity

The profitable pig production, which includes animal welfare, is achieved by the breeding and production of healthy, highly productive animals. Since biosecurity presents one of the basic principles of pork production improvement, along with the improvement of animal production characteristics, management practices, nutrition, the precise and reasonable usage of preventive measures and antimicrobial usage, in this paper we presented and compared the production parameters and biosecurity levels on pig fattening farms according to their capacity. In one group were farms with 335 or less fattening pigs per turn (<1000 pigs annually), while other group comprised farms with more than 335 fattening pigs per turn (>1000 pigs per year). The survey was performed on 42 fattening farms in the northeast Croatia and central Serbia. The production data included: the duration of the fattening period, the average pig weight at the beginning/end of the fattening period, the total and average daily gain and conversion. The analysis of biosecurity level on farms was performed using the risk-based scoring system Biocheck.UGent. In addition to overall biosecurity level scoring, the main parameters of external and internal biosecurity of the farms are presented separately. Collected data were analyzed using Statistica v.13.2 reference program. There were no significant differences between fattening results on small / large farms, except for pigs’ body weight at the beginning of the fattening period (lighter piglets were distributed to the small family farms, P<0.05). The biosecurity level was something lower on smallholder pig farms, but those differences were not significant, except for biosecurity measures conducted in fattening units (45.53% vs 82.33%, P<0.05). On the contrary, some indicators, such as the purchasing of animals were higher on small farms (100.00% vs 88.00%, P<0.05). Although each production system pays more attention to particular biosecurity measures, the main principles should be present at minimal level on all farms.