Abstracts Category : Other

Timely On-Farm Euthanasia of Pigs: Exploring CaretakerDecision-Making and Training Methods

by Caitlyn R Mullins

Though 115 million pigs are marketed and slaughteredannually in the United States (U.S.), pre-slaughter swine mortalitystill reaches the scale of millions, especially for piglets.On-farm swine mortality consists of both natural death and deathcaused by the administration of euthanasia by the pig caretaker.Euthanasia, derived from two Greek terms meaning `good and`death, enables pig caretakers to humanely end the life of a pigwhen recovery from injury or illness is impossible or afterattempts to treat the pig have failed. Administering euthanasiademonstrates compassion for the life of the animal and helps reducethe incidence of poor welfare outcomes for compromised pigs.As awelfare tool, the U.S. Common Swine Industry Audit (CSIA) serves asan assurance for swine industry stakeholders of the standard of pigcare, and it details specific timely euthanasia requirements.Despite these and other industry guidelines, anecdotal evidencesuggests that timeliness of euthanasia on swine farms remains achallenge for the industry. Therefore, ensuring timely euthanasiarequires the technical skills to understand euthanasia guidelinesand make decisions to perform euthanasia when needed.To assessswine industry leaders understanding of current CSIA guidelines, asurvey was conducted with 37 members of the U.S. National PorkBoard. `Euthanasia scores, a set of proxy numbers developed forthis study, were assigned by participants to indicate their beliefsabout proper euthanasia time frames for 26 clinical conditions.Results demonstrate that disagreement exists between industryleaders and CSIA guidelines. This was especially apparent whenevaluating `non-ambulatory, `uterine prolapses, and `perforatedhernias, where only 61.3, 74.2, and 86.7% of respondents,respectively, assigned score 1 (Euthanize immediately) despite thefact that these clinical signs warrant immediate euthanasia underthe CSIA. Furthermore, two focus groups (n=18) were conducted withmembers of the U.S. National Pork Board to evaluate barriers totimely euthanasia and factors which influence the decision-makingprocess. In addition to logisticale.g., availability of suitableequipmentand economic barriers, participants suggested that anunsupportive farm culture and lack of caretaker accountability arekey determinants in permitting untimely euthanasia.Equipping swinecaretakers with euthanasia skills is predominantly conducted as`on-the-job training. However, evidence from other studiessuggests that interactive multimedia-based learning that caters toadult learners unique needs offers advantages related toinformation retention, satisfaction, clinical decision-making, andperceived credibility. Therefore, a computer- and case study-basedtraining program [On-Farm Swine Euthanasia: Making TimelyDecisions] was developed as a means to improve the timeliness ofeuthanasia decision-making in the U.S. By providing feedback tousers as they make management decisions for compromised pigs, theprogram aims to improve caretakersAdvisors/Committee Members: Pairis-Garcia, Monique (Advisor).