Table 2.
List of clinical measures recorded from 522 cull sows before and after transportation to the slaughter plant, where no significant changes were found between the two clinical examinations.
| Clinical measure | Descriptiona | Unit or category | Farm | Slaughter plant | Statistics |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| General condition (% sows) | Deviance from the normal condition (e.g., apathy, abnormal movement, excitement, coughing) was scored as “bad,” else “good” | Good | 97.3 | 87.9 | P = 0.13b |
| Bad | 1.0 | 0 | |||
| NA | 1.7 | 12.1 | |||
| Body temperature (°C) | Mean ± SD | 37.9 ± 0.7 | 37.9 ± 0.8 | P = 0.55 | |
| NA | 1.9 | 5.6 | |||
| Skin color (% sows) | The general color of the sow's skin | Normal | 97.9 | 95.8 | P = 0.18 |
| Pale | 0.8 | 0.2 | |||
| Red | 0.4 | 0.2 | |||
| NA | 1.0 | 3.8 | |||
| Color of mucosa (% sows) | Note: Bluish mucosa was an option but was never observed | Normal | 95.4 | 92.0 | P = 0.10 |
| Pink | 1.7 | 1.5 | |||
| Pale | 1.9 | 4.0 | |||
| Very red | 0.4 | 0.2 | |||
| NA | 0.6 | 2.1 | |||
| Vaginal mucosa pressure test (seconds) | The mucosa was pressed against the surface of another finger for 5 s, and the time until the color was regained was measured | Median | 3 | 3 | P = 0.46 |
| IQR | [3, 3] | [3, 3] | |||
| Range | (0–6) | (0–5) | |||
| NA | 1.0 | 2.7 | |||
| Udder soreness (% sows) | Udder soreness was recorded if the sow responded with vocalization or withdrawal to the udder being touched | No soreness | 97.7 | 93.9 | P = 0.65 |
| Soreness | 1.3 | 1.0 | |||
| NA | 1.0 | 5.2 | |||
| Acute udder inflammation (% sows) | Inflammation defined as swelling/reddening of one or more glands | 0 | 95.4 | 52.9 | P = 0.13 |
| 1 | 4.0 | 1.0 | |||
| NA | 0.6 | 46.2 | |||
| Abnormal shape/volume of belly (% sows) | Abnormality in belly shape and volume, including a tucked up belly | Normal | 99.0 | 94.8 | P = 1.00 |
| Abnormal | 0.2 | 0 | |||
| NA | 0.8 | 5.2 | |||
| Abnormalities in the head (% sows) | Head with or without asymmetry or swellings in the head | Normal | 99.2 | 94.4 | P = 0.56 |
| Asym./swel. | 0.4 | 0.2 | |||
| NA | 0.4 | 3.5 | |||
| Wounds on the coronary band (% sows) | See definitions of lesions in Table 3. | None | 98.7 | 96.0 | P = 1.0000b |
| 1 or more | 0.2 | 0.2 | |||
| NA | 1.2 | 3.8 |
Missing data (data not available, NA) are presented as percentage of sows. IQR, Interquartile range.
a
For more details, see Fogsgaard et al. (11).
b
Analyzed with Signed Rank Test, but shown as percentage of sows. Farm: median = 0; IQR: [0, 0]; range: (0–2), Slaughter plant: median = 0; IQR: [0, 0]; range: (0–3).