#08-276
CompleteCategory
Animal WelfareDate Full Report Received
12/22/2009Date Abstract Report Received
12/22/2009Funded By
National Pork BoardOver the past 10 years, animal scientists, veterinarians, producers, and animal rights groups have debated the welfare implications of either housing sows in gestation stalls or in groups. Recent examples of this in the United States can be seen in the prolificacy of editorial letters written by animal experts arguing their opinions on the best course of action with regard to gestation sow housing legislation and position statements (Baker, 1996; Forsythe, 2002; Davidson, 2003; Kornheiser, 2004; Hansen and Bowden, 2005; Koltveit et al., 2005), especially as they pertain to the American Veterinary Medicine Association’s (AVMA’s) task force report on the housing of pregnant sows (AVMA, 2005; Koltveit, 2006) and the sow confinement issue (Rollin, 2001).
In the United States, the general public is expressing their disapproval of gestation stalls by voting to ban them. Legislation to ban sow gestation stalls has occurred in the following states: Florida in 2002, Arizona in 2006, Oregon in 2007, Colorado in 2008, California in 2008 and Maine in 2009. Gestation stalls and tethers have already been banned in the United Kingdom since 1999. The rest of Europe is phasing out gestation stalls by 2013. On the surface, it may appear that this is a step forward towards improving gestating sow welfare; however, without sound science to help producers decide which group housing system will best meet the needs of their sows and themselves, the switch to group housing could initially result in poorer gestating sow welfare. However, decisions regarding sow housing can be made objectively if based on expert opinion. For example, experts have ordered the following housing systems according to sow welfare from low to high: tethers and stalls (lowest); indoor group housing (middle); group housing with outdoor and substrate access (highest) (Bracke et al., 2002).
• Feeding stalls (where sows are manually locked in for feeding)
• Electronic Sow Feeders (ESF; where sows are recognized by their ear transponder and are fully protected during feeding)
• Biofix or trickle-feeding system (sows can eat simultaneously as feed is delivered slowly and in small portions, but there is not much protection or control over individual feed intake)
• Walk-in/lock-in stalls (sows are free to exit the stall at any time by backing up, which pushes the back gate up; they are fully protected while in the stall)
• Fitmix (unprotected ESF; sows are recognized by an ear transponder, and feed is delivered through a nozzle into the pig’s mouth)
• In addition to the variety of feeder types available, there are many pen layouts, group sizes, group types, genetics, enrichments, and feeding regimes to choose from.