Swine

Euthanasia perspectives of Spanish-speaking TN-visa swine caretakers on a commercial sow farm

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Abstract

Caretaker turnover rates and labor shortages plague the United States (U.S.) swine industry. In order to meet labor needs, producers may seek out qualified migrant workers through visas. Therefore, the objective was to investigate Spanish-speaking TN-visa caretaker demographics and swine euthanasia attitudes on a commercial sow farm. An online Qualtrics Spanish survey was delivered and completed by 28 caretakers. Results will be presented descriptively. The majority of respondents were male and 30 yr old or under. All caretakers were from Mexico and held a master’s or professional degree. Average residency in the U.S. was ~2 years. The majority of caretakers indicated comfort in performing euthanasia. Additionally, caretakers did not have trouble deciding to when to euthanize diseased pigs or piglets and did not delay euthanizing pigs and piglets. Finally, most caretakers did not feel badly about conducting euthanasia, but many indicated dissociating from the pig or piglet feelings prior to euthanasia. Overall, it was encouraging that Mexican caretakers on a TN visa did not differentiate between making euthanasia decisions between adult pigs and piglets. Hence, all pigs should receive timely euthanasia to alleviate suffering on-farm.

Keywords: attitudes; caretaker perceptions; caretaker welfare; euthanasia; swine; TN visa

How to Cite:

Yarian, J., Johnson, A. K., Ross, J. W., Skaar, B., Stalder, K. J., Millman, S. T., Pairis-Garcia, M. D., Robles, I., Arruda, A. & Jass, C., (2022) “Euthanasia perspectives of Spanish-speaking TN-visa swine caretakers on a commercial sow farm”, Iowa State University Animal Industry Report 18(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.31274/air.13317