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Prairie Swine Centre is an affiliate of the University of Saskatchewan
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Developing effective enrichments for group-housed sows – V. Kyeiwaa, J.Brown, Y.Seddon and L.Connor 2017
Posted in: Pork Insight Articles, Prairie Swine Centre, Production, Welfare by admin on May 1, 2017
The overall aim of these studies is to develop suitable enrichments for sows by identifying simple, safe and cost-effective enrichments that can be added to group sow housing systems, and form part of their routine husbandry practices.
Four different enrichment treatments were provided to sows in group housing. Each enrichment object had properties known to be attractive to pigs. Time spent interacting with different enrichments was compared to the daily activity patterns of sows in order to identify the most effective enrichment for sows.
The four treatments consisted of: 1) constant provision of wood on chains, 2) rotation of three objects rope, straw, wood on chain, 3) rotation of three objects with an associative stimulus bell or whistle, and 4) control (no objects: Control).
It was found that regardless of the treatment provided, on average 15 per cent of sows were out of their free-access stalls and present in the loafing area of the pen throughout the day. Provision of enrichment to group-housed sows can help increase the use of pen space, and that rotating enrichments can increase sows’ interactions with the enrichment while mainting the same constant enrichment will result in habituation and disinterest over time. The straw enrichment produced the greatest response resulting in the largest number of sows interacting with the enrichment 24 percent of sows were present in the enrichment area when straw was provided, compared to 12 per cent when no enrichment was provided (Control).