Behaviour of pre-parturient sows housed in intensive outdoor or indoor systems

Abstract

This work compared the behaviour of pre-parturient sows housed in intensive confined and outdoor systems, during the morning and afternoon prior to delivery. Eight sows were kept individually in farrowing crates or in paddocks with access to fresh pasture from 8 to 10 days before expected parturition. All outdoor sows built a nest within 24 hours before farrowing. On the morning and afternoon before farrowing they spent 6.5% of the time collecting grass and 7.5% of the time organizing the nest. Outdoor sows were observed more often than confined sows rooting (4.60% vs. 0.25%), feeding (10.2% vs. 3.0%), standing (51% vs. 13%) and walking (8% vs. 0%). Indoor sows redirected the nesting behaviour to other behaviours like attempts to dig the ground, nosing, biting and rooting parts of the crate, feeder or drinker, during 4.7% of the time. They also spent more time than outdoor sows inactive (85% vs. 60%), lying (72% vs. 41%), drinking (2.1% vs. 0.5%) and vacuum chewing (3.7% vs. 0.1%). The pre-parturient behaviour of sows was considerably affected by the husbandry system. The outdoor system appears to be more appropriate for the sows' welfare than the conventional confinement.

The suitability of infrared temperature measurements for continuous temperature monitoring in gilts

“…In our study, the arithmetic mean value of the drinking duration of the gilts was 0.6 % (approximately 8 min) of the day. This is less time in comparison to that spent by the confined sows that were examined by Hötzel et al (2005). One reason why our results differ from the results of other authors could possibly be a different water flow rate (50 ml/s in our trials).…”

“…Confined sows and outdoor sows spend only 2.1 % (approximately 0.5 h) and 0.5 % (approximately 7 min) of the day drinking, respectively (Hötzel et al 2005). In our study, the arithmetic mean value of the drinking duration of the gilts was 0.6 % (approximately 8 min) of the day.…”

Nest-building behaviour in sows and consequences for pig husbandry

“…Denying sows space and material at the time of strong nest-building motivation is associated with negative consequences like reduced piglet survival or savaging of piglets (Hötzel et al, 2005) and results in physiological stress in the sow (Lawrence et al, 1994). With the implementation of the EU Directive 2001/88/EC, this stress might even have increased because all sows have to be loose-housed during the majority of gestation and the subsequent confinement can be a radical change (Boyle et al, 2000).…”

“…McGlone et al (1996) found that sows housed in farrowing crates with access to a cloth tassel that could be manipulated during the pre-farrowing period, tend to have a reduced incidence of stillbirth. Hötzel et al (2005) noticed that providing confined sows with enough space and material decreased some of the negative effects of confinement, but did not eliminate them completely.…”

Phenotypic connection of the main body parts of rabbits and layers

“…It is one of the main characteristics of sow behaviour started by an individual 24h or 15h prior parturition at the latest (Damm et al, 2003), and is the result of increased secretion of prostoglandin F 2alfa (Burne at al., 2001). Enclosed housing systems hinder this need what is frustrating to sows, especially in the phase when pregnant sows are being removed into buildings in which they are kept individually in impacted boxes (Vučinić and Hristov, 2002;Hötzel et al, 2005). In order to avoid these stress situations, a week prior parturition it is necessary to supply sow with suitable material for nest building-up (Stanković et al, 2007).…”