Loose housing of sows – is this good welfare?

In Denmark we have about 1.2 million sows that produce about 21 million pigs per year for slaughter or export. While the number of pigs produced for slaughter per sow year when Denmark entered the EU in 1972 was 11–12 it is now more than doubled [1]. Behind this development lie highly focussed efforts within breeding, housing and management. The goals have been achieved with particular attention to two factors – the reduction of space used per pig and increase in production per man hour [1]. To illustrate this, a gestating sow in tethers – a much used housing system in the 1980'ies, but now phased out due to legislative demands – took only 52 min per year to care for, i.e. an average of only 9 seconds per day [2]. The incentive of using as little space and as little time as possible, have lead to a number of welfare problems for sows, either directly or indirectly. One example is the use of mechanical slurry systems and extensive use of slatted floors that are difficult to combine with straw or other kinds of bedding and/or rooting materials, and that pigs do not like to walk or lie on. Through EU and national legislation it has been attempted to alleviate several of the welfare problems for pigs (e.g. [3,4]). But even within the framework of recent welfare regulations, many of the old problems continue to exist and a range of new challenges emerges, because the restraints of using as little space and as little time as possible prevail. The very limited use of time per animal also in loose housing gestation systems is illustrated by reports of time use ranging between 0.14 – 0.38 min per "sow space" on weekdays and 0.06–0.15 min on weekend days [2,5], i.e. a few seconds per animal per day. A large amount of scientific knowledge of sow behaviour and welfare exists now, but the restraints of using very little time and very little space make it very challenging to put the knowledge to good use. Many suggestions are bound to take a few seconds and utilise some cm2, which relatively speaking will increase use of space and time greatly. The explanation of the continued emphasis on using very little space and very little time per animal is of course the industry's desire to keep its high competition ability, which will become clear in other presentations at this meeting. The first example, I will present, where the incentive of using as little time and as little space as possible is demonstrated very clearly is the predominant farrowing accommodation for sows in Denmark and other EU countries. In intensive pig production the use of the farrowing crate is almost exclusive, and real alternatives with loose housing are very difficult to get established in practise. Secondly, I will briefly present two of the loose housing systems for gestating sows that are now among the predominant ones in Danish pig production. Using the two systems as a starting point, I will then discuss some variants of the systems where sow welfare is very poor. These examples demonstrate how even in the better loose housing systems, there is a constant challenge of securing sow welfare due to the forces pulling in the direction of using as little space and time per animal as possible.