THE INFLUENCE OF FLOOR TYPES ON SKIN LESION SCORE OF CROSSBRED WEANED PIGS

Abstract

An eight weeks experiment was carried out to investigate the skin lesion score of eighteen (18) weaned pigs separated into three treatments with three replicates each in a completely randomized design. The treatments include three different floors of concrete, slatted and straw. The concrete floors were constructed using cement, gravel, sand and water; the slatted floor were made of wooden plank while the straw floor were made of maize stalk The result for skin lesion for the different parts observed revealed that pigs kept on straw floors recorded the highest occurrence of parasitic infection and raised bristle (150.00%, 99.00%) respectively. For bruises pigs sustained on concrete and slatted floors recorded the same value (1.33%) while pigs on straw floor had no occurrence of bruises as a result of succulent nature of maize stalk used as bedding. It can be concluded that raising pigs on slatted floor as alternative bedding materials for pigs is beneficial as it reduces the occurrence of parasitic infection and other skin lesion on the skin which may reduce the quality of the skin and carcass quality of pigs.