Desempenho produtivo e mortalidade de suínos terminados em baias de piso compacto com sistema de aspersão ou com lâmina d’água

Pig farming has emerged as an important activity for the food economy and stands out for its practice in several regions of Brazil. The objective was to evaluate the productive performance and mortality of pigs finished in compact floor pens with a sprinkler system or water depth. This work was developed on two commercial farms, in Paranoá/DF, with data collection from October 2023 to January 2024, comprising the growth and finishing phase of the pigs, with 13 thousand animals from both farms, males castrated and females, of commercial F1 lineage, resulting from the crossing of breeds (L200xLw400), with an average age of 70 days and an initial average live weight of 30kg. The animals were housed with a population density of 50 animals per pen and a spacing of 1.03 m² per animal throughout the period, reaching a final live weight of 130kg. Daily weight gain, feed conversion and mortality rate of pigs finished in compact floor pens with a sprinkler system or water depth were evaluated. No significant difference was observed infeed conversion between treatments (p = 0.289). The sprinkler system resulted in a lower daily weight gain, with 0.911 kg, compared to the water slide system, which had 0.991 kg. Furthermore, the mortality rate was higher with the sprinkler system, reaching 4,260% and 2,690% in the water depth system. The data obtained showed that water slides are more efficient than sprinklers in terms of daily weight gain and reducing pig mortality.