The cotton swab method: an accurate and less invasive way to assess fecal consistency in weaned pigs

BMC Veterinary Research

Table 1 Thresholds for fecal dry-matter percentage defining four previously described fecal consistencies

Fecal consistency: Qualitative description	Current study	Pedersen et al. [5]	Eriksen et al. [6, 13]	Total (mean)
Firm	> 23.6^a	> 19.5	> 22.7	21.9
Soft and shaped	≤ 23.6^a	≤ 19.5	≤ 22.7	≤ 21.9
Loose (diarrhea)	≤ 16.8	≤ 18.0	≤ 15.0	≤ 16.6
Watery (diarrhea)	≤ 10.4	≤ 11.3	≤ 9.0	≤ 10.3

Thresholds were established based on data from the scale validation phase of the current study compared to previously published thresholds, and a compromise (the crude mean) was suggested. The consistencies were first defined by Pedersen et al. [5, 9]
^a24.2% and 23.0% were equally good thresholds, so a compromise of 23.6% was selected

ISSN: 1746-6148