A new supporting tool for pig handling in the breeding-slaughterhouse production chain.

This paper focuses on a research concerning the operational management of the pig-handling phase, during the period of breeding and before slaughtering. Given the behaviour of these animals during transfers, a particular tool has been designed to manage them in this phase. A total number of 48 animals, divided in 4 groups, were moved without use of the tool (control groups) and by using the tool described in this article. The time required by the control groups to leave the pen ranges from 21 to 125 seconds; while, when the proposed tool was used, the time for the movement of the animals ranged between 10 and 17 seconds. In particular, in the groups where the tool was deployed the 'waiting phase' (before the first animal goes out) lasted less than half of the time of the 'waiting phase' of the control group, thus showing a minimization of the effects of the 'panic phenomenon' among the animals. Thus, the studied device can be considered as valid guide technique, both for the quick exit of the first animal and for those that follow. Once the row has been formed, the animals continue neatly to leave the box. This study also shows that this solution can also be considered appropriate for reducing the identified critical issues in the traditional handling. The need of only 1 worker to move the group of pigs is important to achieve economic saving. The deployment of this tool, thus, make possible to consider the movement of animals no longer a 'critical stage', but as a routine step of the production cycle of pork's meat.