Table 1.

Experiment 1. Effects of sprinkling ¹ on pig measures ² in market weight pigs in WARM ³ and HOT ⁴ weather.

	Sprinkling treatment
WARM weather, measure	Control	Pigs only	Bedding only	Bedding and pigs	p-value	R2
	n = 24	n = 13	n = 7	n = 7
Surface temperature, ° C	32.2 ± 0.5	32.7 ± 0.4	33.1 ± 0.6	32.3 ± 0.6	0.18	0.41
Vocalizations, % of pigs counted	2.4 ± 1.8	2.6 ± 1.8	2.7 ± 1.9	3.4 ± 1.9	0.65	0.04
Slips and falls, % of pigs counted	0.7 ± 0.2	0.5 ± 0.2	0.5 ± 0.3	0.2 ± 0.3	0.61	0.10
Stress signs, % of pigs counted	0.6 ± 0.4 a	0.5 ± 0.4 a,b	1.5 ± 0.6 a,b	2.6 ± 0.6 b	0.03	0.03
HOT weather	n = 0	n = 41	n = 18	n = 27
Surface temperature, ° C	.	35.3 ± 0.3	34.8 ± 0.3	34.9 ± 0.3	0.19	0.37
Vocalizations, % of pigs counted	.	1.7 ± 1.2	1.7 ± 1.2	2.0 ± 1.2	0.63	0.01
Slips and falls, % of pigs counted	.	0.6 ± 0.4	0.9 ± 0.4	0.6 ± 0.4	0.51	0.05
Stress signs, % of pigs counted	.	7.2 ± 1.4	6.0 ± 1.6	5.7 ± 1.4	0.35	0.31

¹ Sprinkling methods, applied by researchers were: bedding only (bedding already being damp or being watered down by the researcher for 4–6 min before the start of loading), pigs only (pigs being watered after loading completed for 6–8 min when the bedding on the trailer was dry before loading started), pigs and bedding (both pigs and bedding being watered).

² Pig measures were: surface temperature (measured laterally near the midline with a dual laser infrared thermometer on 10 pigs/load), vocalizations (an extended sound of high amplitude and frequency produced with an open mouth [2], slips (a knee or hock touching the ground) and falls (a pig’s body touching the ground [14]) and stress signs (open mouth breathing, muscle tremors, and red-blotchy skin [15]).

³ Warm weather was defined as the temperature < 26.7 °C; based on 51 loads.

⁴ Hot weather was defined as the temperature ≥ 26.7 °C; based on 86 loads.

^a,b,c Values within the same row without common superscripts differed (p ≤ 0.05).