Variability in growth and backfat of finisher pigs grown in superior and poor environments

Abstract

Environmental stressors (ES) such as heat or social stress lead to inferior growth performance (Hyun et al., 1998) and increased fatness in some studies (Black et al., 2001). However, whether ES also affect variability of performance is less well understood. Individual effects of stressors are additive and mean performance of a group of pigs can be used to define superior and poor environments. This study aimed to establish whether variation in growth and backfat of pigs differed between superior and poor environments.