Science of Ethology, Volume 1, Issue 7<\/p>\n
Several scientific studies and reviews have compared the welfare benefits of stall versus group housing for gestating sows (1, 2, 3). \u00a0The conclusions of these studies vary because welfare assessment involves a variety of measures, and the conclusions reached will\u00a0vary depending on the emphasis placed on different measures. The key measures and results of studies comparing sow welfare\u00a0in stalls and groups are summarised below under the headings: sow health and performance, stress physiology, sow behaviour,\u00a0and sow aggression. Evaluation of the welfare of sows must\u00a0consider all and not just some of these factors, and the\u00a0results show that there are advantages and disadvantages\u00a0to both stall and group housing systems.<\/p>\n
For example, a 1997 EU report on sow housing (4) indicated\u00a0that managing sows in stalls has some welfare advantages,\u00a0\u201csince pigs are not mixed, fighting with associated injuries\u00a0is prevented, each sow receives the full ration of food\u00a0available to her, sows can all feed at the same time, caretaking\u00a0is made easier and signs of morbidity, such as feed\u00a0refusals or vulval discharge, are easy to detect.\u201d However,\u00a0the report goes on to list several disadvantages to sow\u00a0stalls, including high levels of stereotypies, unresolved\u00a0aggression and inactivity, weaker bones and muscles,\u00a0and reduced cardiovascular fi tness. The report goes on\u00a0to state that, \u201cSome serious welfare problems for sows\u00a0persist even in the best stall-housing system.\u201d On the other\u00a0hand, the report lists advantages related to group housing,\u00a0including increased exercise, greater control over the\u00a0environment, opportunity for normal social interactions\u00a0and opportunities to root or manipulate materials (4). As a consequence, group-housed sows show less abnormal bone and\u00a0muscle development, less abnormal behaviour, fewer health problems associated with inactivity, and better cardiovascular fitness. \u00a0However, it is widely recognized that the main disadvantage of group housing is that injuries can occur due to fighting and\/or slipping on the floor. Fighting or injury can lead to embryo loss in extreme cases, and detection of health problems is more\u00a0difficult in groups. The report concludes that, \u201can enhanced emphasis on good stockmanship and good group housing system\u00a0design is necessary to prevent these adverse affects.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Science of Ethology, Volume 1, Issue 7 Several scientific studies and reviews have compared the welfare benefits of stall versus group housing for gestating sows (1, 2, 3). \u00a0The conclusions of these studies vary because welfare assessment involves a variety of measures, and the conclusions reached will\u00a0vary depending on the emphasis placed on different measures. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,928],"tags":[25511,27247,27133,7159,27200,27114,27234],"class_list":["post-15284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pork-insight-articles","category-welfare","tag-groups-or-stalls","tag-list","tag-nedap-esf","tag-nest-building","tag-space-reguirement-for-a-individual-sow","tag-study-on-water-extract-of-sewage-sludge-composts","tag-the-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-group-sow-housing-with-reference-to-the-conventional-sow-housing-system"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/prairieswine.com\/rsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/prairieswine.com\/rsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/prairieswine.com\/rsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prairieswine.com\/rsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prairieswine.com\/rsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15284"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/prairieswine.com\/rsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15284\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15286,"href":"http:\/\/prairieswine.com\/rsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15284\/revisions\/15286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/prairieswine.com\/rsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prairieswine.com\/rsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prairieswine.com\/rsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}