The behaviour and welfare of sows and piglets in farrowing crates or lactation pens

Abstract

Temporary confinement during parturition and early postpartum may provide an intermediary step preceding loose housing that offers improvement in sow and piglet welfare. Three experiments were conducted to investigate the implications of replacing farrowing crates (FCs) with an alternative housing system from 3 days postpartum until weaning. In each experiment sows farrowed in FCs and were randomly allocated at day 3 of lactation to either a FC or a pen with increased floor space (lactation pen (LP)) until weaning. In experiment 1, piglet growth and sow and piglet skin injuries were recorded for 32 sows and 128 focal piglets in these litters. Behaviour around nursing and piglet behavioural time budgets were also recorded for 24 of these litters (96 focal piglets for time budgets). In experiment 2, measures of skin injury and behavioural time budgets were conducted on 28 sows and 112 focal piglets. The behavioural response of sows to piglet vocalisation (maternal responsiveness test (MRT)) was also assessed. In experiment 3, piglet mortality from day 3 of lactation until weaning was recorded in 672 litters over 12 months. While housing did not affect piglet weight gain in experiment 1, or piglet skin injuries in experiments 1 or 2, sows in both experiments sustained more injuries in LP than FC (experiment 1, 2.9 v. 1.4; experiment 2, 2.5 v. 0.8 lesions/sow; P0.05). Thus, housing sows and litters in LP from day 3 of lactation minimises piglet mortality while improving maternal behaviour in sows and social behaviour in piglets.

Effects of Different Farrowing Environments on the Behavior of Sows and Piglets

“…The numerically higher piglet total mortality in the free farrowing pens compared with the farrowing crate pens indicating a potential big financial loss in the industry [20]. However, Singh et al [21] found no difference in piglet mortality between traditional farrowing crate pens and free farrowing pens from day 3 of lactation until weaning based on the recording of 672 litters in total. With the banning of the farrowing crate in several countries, more information was collected in practice with a promising result of similar total piglet mortality between non-confined and crate farrowing systems (in Switzerland, loose = 17.2% from 18824 litters and crates = 18.1% from 44837 litters) [2,22].…”

Dynamics of Sows’ Activity Housed in Farrowing Pens with Possibility of Temporary Crating might Indicate the Time When Sows Should be Confined in a Crate before the Onset of Farrowing

“…The main reason for this practice is to improve piglet survival rate by protecting newborn piglets from fatal or injurious crushing by the mother sow [1]. However, the confinement of sows in crates has a negative impact on the sows' welfare, such as limited freedom of movement, limited social interactions with newborn piglets [2,3], and diminished health [4,5]. Confinement also prevents much of the prenatal nest-building behaviour, an essential part of the behavioural repertoire in sows, which starts approximately 24 h before parturition, is most intense 6 to 12 h before parturition, and then, decreases as parturition begins [6,7].…”

Play and optimal welfare: Does play indicate the presence of positive affective states?

“…Duve et al, 2012;Held an Jensen et al, 1998;marmosetcare.com, 2017;Miguel-Pacheco et al, 2015); positive emotions or positive affective states (e.g. Clegg and Butterworth, 2017;Green and Mellor, 2011;Lampe et al, 2017;Mellor, 2012;Minero et al, 2016;Rushen and de Passillé, 2012;Singh et al, 2017); a -(e.g. Lawrence, 1987); or that animals are (Wemelsfelder and Farish, 2004).…”