Evaluation of zootecnic indexes at the maternity stage of a swine commercial farm using air sterilizer

This experiment evaluated the zootecnic performance and its cost benefit relation for the maternity stage of a swine farm using air sterilizer. Two groups of 16 sows each were used: a treated one with air sterilizer and a control group without treatment. It was daily observed the occurrence of mortality in piglets, diarrhea, food consumption, sows and piglets' behavior and odor of the maternity room. Piglets' weight was taken individually and for each sow group at the moment of weaning. Growing of Gram negative and positive bacteria and fungi were measured using seed agar plates exposed to maternity environment. Electric power consumption of the equipments for treated group was evaluated using an electric meter in Kilowatthours. To analyze quantitative parameters between groups, a normality test was performed; for parameters with normal distribution it was used the t-test and for those with non-normal distribution the U test was used. For all analysis of zootecnic performance significance level was 5%. Control group mortality rate was 12.71% and for treated group it was 6.96%. Diarrhea occurred in 22 piglets from control group against six for piglets of treated group (P = 0.0001). Control group mean weigh at weaning was 5.97 Kg against 6.70 Kg for treated group (P < 0.0001). For control group total score for sows' behavior was 111 points, against 85 for treated sows (P < 0.0001). Considering piglets behavior, total score for control group was 84 points against 75 for treated group (P = 0.463). Control group points for the parameter odor of the room were 154 against 102 for treated group (P < 0.0001). Total food consumption for control group sows was 1912.5 Kg and for treated group sows it was 2038.2 Kg. No significant difference was observed in relation to bacteria growth in plates when compared treated and control groups. Electric power cost was US$ 0.238 each equipment. The use of the physical method for air sterilization at the maternity contributed to increase zootecnic performance of the animals at this stage.