Associations between animal and herd management factors, serological response to three respiratory pathogens and pluck lesions in finisher pigs on a farrow-to-finish farm

Table 1 Univariable associations (P values) between predictor variables and sample-ratio-values at slaughter for Actinobacillus pleuropneumonia (App), Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae (Mhyo) and swine influenza virus (SIV) in finisher pigs, born within one week from a single farrowing batch and followed from birth to slaughter on an Irish farrow-to-finish commercial farm

Predictor variables	Value	App	Mhyo	SIV
*Early life predictor variables*
Sow parity, mean ± SD	3.4 ± 1.33	0.015	0.325	0.718
Number of piglets born alive, mean ± SD	13.2 ± 2.34	0.282	0.393	0.745
Birth weight, kg, mean ± SD	1.2 ± 0.27	0.538	0.976	0.871
Litter size, mean ± SD	14.6 ± 1.99	0.551	0.270	0.919
Weaning body weight, kg, mean ± SD	6.5 ± 1.55	0.797	0.125	0.341
Cross-fostering, %	32.7	0.138	0.806	0.586
*Production flow, n*	223	< 0.001	0.271	0.002
*Pluck lesions*
Pericarditis^a, %	16.1	0.441	0.373	0.583
Heart condemnations^a, %	11.6	0.600	0.119	0.190
Pleurisy^b, %	25.6	0.489	0.580	0.797
Enzootic pneumonia-like lesions^c, %	42.1	0.179	0.006	0.740

^aScored at slaughter as present or absent
^bScored using the Slaugherhouse Pleuritis Evaluation System developed by Dottori et al. [29], from 0 = absence of lesions to 4 = severely extended bilateral lesions and re-classified as present or absent
^cEnzootic pneumonia-like lesions were ranked according to the BPEX Pig Health Scheme [28] and re-classified as present or absent

ISSN: 2055-5660