Protocol for on-farm health assessment of growing-finishing pigs

This document contains the protocol used in the ‘Enlighted pigs’ project to perform health observations in growing-finishing pigs. This protocol was created based on the Welfare Quality® protocol (Welfare Quality®, 2009), the smartphone application FitForPigs (FitForPigs, 2020), the protocol developed by Bus et al. (2023) and was supplemented with literature if necessary. This protocol includes six multilevel and eight binary health scores to be performed at the individual level. Each health score includes a description of the health issue, the scale of scores to be attributed, a brief explanation of the differences between each score and pictures to illustrate them. In our studies, the health scores were given live by a single observer standing in the pen. A complete pen containing 7 pigs was assessed in 20 to 30 minutes and pigs were touched or moved for better visibility during the assessment. Each animal was identified using its ear tag. Pigs within a pen were assessed in a random order.