Drs. Ventura and Zhitnitskiy, faculty members in the College of Food, Agricultural, and Natural Resources and the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Minnesota recently published a new article regarding the influence of point-source enrichment on the behavior of gestating sows housed in groups. The article is available in open-access on the Frontiers in Animal Science website.
Key Points
Most common observed behaviors were sows being inactive (73%), followed by sham-chewing (16%). Enrichment use made up only 1% of observations.
Number of observed interactions with enrichment decreased sharply on the second day.
Low-parity sows, moderately-lame sows, and sham-chewing sows interacted more with the enrichment.
No increase in adverse effects (agonistic behaviors, sham-chewing) was observed.
An article from our colleagues in the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences, and published in the National Hog Farmer explores how much space the sows really need. It is critical to find the right balance between the welfare of the animals and the productivity of the farm.
This is our Friday rubric: every week a new Science Page from the Bob Morrison’s Swine Health Monitoring Project. The previous editions of the science page are available on our website.
Pollutant levels increased as ventilation rates decreased during the cold months.
Pen housing lead to higher levels of NH3, respirable dust, and endotoxin when compared to stalls.
Objective
Evolving production practices in the swine industry may alter the working environment. This research project characterized the influence of stall versus pen gestation housing on air contaminant concentrations.
Methods
Eight-hour time-weighted ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, respirable dust, respirable endotoxin, and carbon dioxide concentrations and temperature were measured
regularly at stationary locations throughout a year in a facility with parallel gestation stall and open pen housing. Hazard indices were calculated using ammonia,
hydrogen sulfide, and endotoxin concentrations and relevant occupational exposure limits.
Results
Due to reductions in ventilation rates as outdoor temperatures decreased, season affected pollutant levels more than other factors. Concentrations were greater during the
winter than summer (Figure 1). Ammonia, dust, and endotoxin were 25%, 43%, and 67% higher, respectively, on average, in the room with gestation pens than in the room with stalls. While individual contaminant concentrations were generally below regulatory limits, hazard index calculations suggest that the effects of combined exposures on respiratory health may pose a risk to farm workers. Additionally, elevated levels of respirable endotoxin and hydrogen sulfide were detected during power washing.
Conclusions
Ventilation changes in response to seasonal requirements influenced air contaminant concentrations more than production practices, especially housing type.
Sows housed in groups at the UMN facility in Morris
The University of Minnesota – Morris owns a swine research facility which provides an excellent set up to study the behavior of sows housed in groups. In the past few years, swine producers have committed to change the conditions in which the sows are housed in farms and to keep them in groups where they can interact with each other instead of housing them individually. Putting sows in group reminded us that pigs need a hierarchy and that they will compete and fight to establish it. Because space allowance can impact sows behavior we wondered what the optimum floor space is.
Determining floor space allowance for gestating sows can be controversial because more floor space allowance means low output per square footage of the barn and will potentially reduce profitability for producers. On the other hand, floor space allowance less than sow requirement can compromise sow welfare and performance. To answer the question in the title of this article, we conducted a two-year project (titled ‘Determining the Minimal Floor Space Allowance for Gestating Sows Kept in Pens with Electronic Sow Feeders’). The project was partially sponsored by the National Pork Board, and the research team includes Yuzhi Li and Lee Johnston from the WCROC in Morris, and Sam Baidoo from the SCROC (Southern Research and Outreach Center) in Waseca.[…]
