MAPPING THE SATISFACTION OF SOW MATERNITY WORKERS IN CARRYING OUT PROCEDURES AND ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH PIGLET MORTALITY

• Grant number: 23/18224-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: April 01, 2024
• End date: September 03, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Veterinary Medicine - Preventive Veterinary Medicine
• Principal Investigator: Adroaldo Jose Zanella
• Grantee: Giovanna Andrade Corrêa
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia (FMVZ). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Piglet mortality on some commercial pig farms can reach 20% of live births, representing a major bottleneck in global pig production. At the same time, it is known that one of the ways to get around this problem is to select sows with good maternal behavior who are assisted during delivery by attentive and well-trained staff. Although it is extremely necessary, there is little research into the satisfaction of workers in pig farming, especially those who work in the maternity barns, whose job it is to save lives. Our hypothesis is that the dissonance between the motivation to save lives and high piglet mortality may cause negative affective states in employees, resulting in compromised job satisfaction. Our aim is to study the satisfaction of workers in the sow maternity barns of pig farms with contrasting levels of piglet mortality from birth to weaning. In general, the literature already states that satisfaction in the workplace is closely related to greater productivity and dedication on the part of workers. Furthermore, there is a concrete concept that the science of animal welfare has already made great progress in terms of techniques and strategies to promote better living conditions for individuals. However, there is a need for the scientific community to address the challenges of implementing these techniques and strategies, which may be related to the workers who deal with the animals directly. In this way, questionnaires will be used to study workers in the sow maternity barns of full-cycle pig farms in order to assess their satisfaction with the activities carried out in the farm, and these data will be contrasted with the pre-weaning mortality rates obtained on each farm.