Floor cooling for fattening pigs

Pigs' welfare and behaviour are affected of the thermal comfort which in turn may affect how pigs choose to use different areas in the pens. During the warm season, providing pigs sufficient chill by increased air flow can be challenging. Pigs may therefore adversely lay on the cooler slatted floor, instead of the solid floor, to loose heat. This behaviour results in poorer pen hygiene, disturbance of the pigs’ resting behaviour, increased agonistic behaviours as well as increased workload for the farmers. Pen fouling also has negative impact on the gaseous indoor environment. 

At high ambient temperatures, pigs risk to suffer from heat stress. Pigs have limited physiological abilities to loose heat due to thick subcutaneous tissues and a limited number of functional sweat glands. Heat stress negatively impact the health and welfare of the pigs. 

The project will be carried out as a research study in fattening pig barns by;

• Investigate the effect of floor cooling on the thermal environment, the behavior of the fattening pigs, cooling effect / eventually heat stress
• Investigate the effect of floor cooling on pigs' health, welfare and production
• Investigate the effect of floor cooling on air quality (ammonia, airborne bacteria and respirable particles)

In addition, improved indoor gaseous environment reduce negative impact on the surroundings by reduction of pollutants, benefitting several sustainability goals.