Abstract
Simple SummaryRecently, South Korea amended the respective laws and will be enforcing that sows must be kept in group housing after 6 weeks from insemination by the year 2030. Accordingly, the comparison of productivity of sows in individual stalls and group housing systems was investigated in order to provide information on group housing systems for sows to pig farms. Primiparous sows were divided into four groups and housed in equal number in pen stalls, in short stalls with non-gated feeding stalls, in free access stalls, or with access to electronic sow feeders after 8 weeks from artificial insemination. Sows were transferred to farrowing crates at 110 days of gestation. No differences were found in sow productive performance, reproductive performance, and colostrum composition among housing types. Therefore, it was concluded that group housing systems could be used to replace individual stalls in commercial sow units.This study was conducted to provide commercial pig farms with information about group housing systems for sows in accordance with the amendment of the prohibition law for individual stalls for sows in South Korea. Therefore, this experiment was performed to compare the effects of individual stalls (IS) and group housing systems (GS) on the productivity of sows to investigate the feasibility of replacing individual stalls with group housing systems in commercial sow units. Forty primiparous sows (Landrace × Yorkshire; 210.67 ± 2.22 kg average initial body weight) were randomly assigned to four treatments with restricted feeding after 8 weeks from artificial insemination. The four treatments were (i) individual stalls (IS; housed in pen stalls), (ii) short stalls (SS; sows housed in pens with non-gated feeding stalls), (iii) free access stalls (FAS; a non-competitive housing system), and (iv) electronic sow feeders (ESF; used with radio frequency identification technology to allow individual sow management without individual confinement). All sows were transferred to farrowing crates at 110 days of gestation. There were no differences in sow productive performance, reproductive performance, and colostrum composition between IS and GS and among GS. The considered GS did not negatively affect any productivity parameters of primiparous sows compared with IS; the GS could replace IS in commercial sow units.
Highlights
There has been a transition from individual stalls (IS) to group housing (GS) in the swine industry owing to increased consumer pressure and animal welfare regulations and policies [1,2]
No significant differences were found on gestation length, farrowing duration, and weaning-to-estrus interval (WEI) of sows between IS and group housing systems (GS) (Table 3)
The comparison of productivity of sows in individual stalls and group housing systems was investigated in order to provide information on group housing systems for sows to pig farms
Summary
There has been a transition from individual stalls (IS) to group housing (GS) in the swine industry owing to increased consumer pressure and animal welfare regulations and policies [1,2]. The European Union in 2013 banned the use of IS for breeding sows, except for the first four weeks of pregnancy and the week before giving birth [5]. South Korea has amended the respective laws, enforcing that sows must be kept in group housing after six weeks from insemination by the year 2030 [6]. The Korea pig industry is gradually moving towards large-scale farming; there are still several active small-scale farms, which makes it difficult to obtain adequate information about the management of new facilities [7]. Research about the farm animal welfare as well as group housing systems of sows was started only 10 years ago and information is still insufficient in South Korea
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