DEVELOPMENT OF A PORTABLE MICROPROCESSOR FOR MEASURING SELECTED STRESS RESPONSES OF GROWING PIGS

The development of a non-restrictive method for measuring selected stress responses of growing pigs in their environment is important to assess the acceptability of an environment for the pig. Blood pressure, body temperature, and animal activity are three measurements that can relate to stress of an environment. A portable microprocessor-controlled data logger was developed to measure these three parameters every 16 min over several days. These measurements were found to be accurate when obtained from the data logger strapped to a pig. Surgical techniques were developed to obtain blood pressure and body temperature. Specific data collected from this study showed that typical blood pressure for a growing pig (35 kg) is 80+/-5 mm Hg, blood temperature varied between 39-degrees-C (thermoneutral) and 42-degrees-C (surgical recovery) and the pig was active 26% of the time.