Effects of environmental enrichment on performance and carcass traits of finishing pigs

In order to investigate the relationships of housing system environment enrichment on performance and carcass traits of pork pigs, eight different combinations of environmental enrichment were placed in the growing-finishing pig pen with three kinds of welfare establishments: iron chain, toy ball and concrete box with cobbles. A total of 320 Darlland synthetic line pigs(from 70 d to 150 d in day-age) were used to evaluate the influences of the eight combinations environment enrichment on growth performance and carcass characteristics. The results showed that the growth performance and carcass characteristics of pork pigs could be affected by the environment enrichment. Among the seven pens, the highest growth performance and the best carcass characteristics of pigs were showed in the seventh pen which enriched with iron chain, toy ball, and concrete box together. The average finishing weight of the seventh experimental group was 5.49 kg and average daily weight gain(ADG) was 10.84% higher than that of control group(p＜0.05). And the feed conversion ratio(FCR) significantly decreased by 13.83% at the experiment stage. The results of slaughting trial showed that the average thickness of backfat, carcass yield, eye muscle area, carcass length, and the hinder leg weight ratio were better than those of the control group. The seventh group was also the best among the experimental groups.