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Bulletin No. 26 - Fall 2006
MiscelleanousWelfare
RHODES RT, APPLEBY MC, CHINN K, DOUGLAS L, FIRKINS LD, HOUPT KA, IRWIN C, MCGLONE JJ, SUNDBERG P, TOKACH L, WILLS RW
A comprehensive review of housing for pregnant sows.
Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, 2005, Volume 227, Nº10, 1580-1590
This report, written by the members of a Task Force, provides recommendations on the housing of pregnant sows on the basis of recently published peer-reviewed literature on the subject. Group and stall housing systems are compared considering four parameters, namely physiology, behavior, health and production. From an overall point of view, no clear difference in the level of sow welfare emerges between the two systems provided they are used in an appropriate way. In both cases the welfare of sows highly depends on the skills of caretakers. Both have advantages and drawbacks: the social interaction allowed by group systems is associated with the risk of aggression and competition for feed between sows while the individual management of each sow allowed by stall systems is associated with restricted freedom of movement and the absence of social interaction. Regardless of the housing system, an ideal management of pregnant sows should consider several key points that ensure sows a suitable environment with minimized aggression and competition situations, appropriate environment conditions (temperature), minimized exposure to hazards that results in injuries, pain or disease, adapted amounts and types of food and water, thorough observation of organic functions (appetite, respiration, urination, defecation, reproduction status) by caretakers, and expression of most normal pattern of behavior.
