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Finding Effective Enrichments for Group Housed Sows

WShannon
Ethology
November 24, 2020

Group housing is a socially enriched environment, but aggression is still a risk due to competition for resources like territory and food. Providing enrichment can reduce aggression and stereotypic behaviours. The Canadian Code of Practice for the Care and Handling of Pigs requires that barns have multiple forms of enrichment but how it should be provided and what form it should be in is unclear. Different types of enrichment were observed in a slatted floor system. Straw, rope and wood suspended from a chain can be used as enrichments. Straw on the pen floor had the greatest response. Interaction increased when enrichments were rotated, showing that novelty is important. Sows in the electronic feeding system barn interacted much more than those in the free-access stall barn. When enrichments are more sparse with higher perceived value, such as a small amount of straw, competition for the resource increases and dominant sows have greater access.

Finding Effective Enrichments for Group Housed Sows (full article)

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Research Areas
EngineeringEthologyManagementMediaNutritionOntario PorkProductionSwine Innovation Porc

Engineering

  • Optimizing temperature requirements of pigs to reduce energy use in swine production
  • Investment cost and payback period of a modified prototype livestock trailer
  • Alternative energy and heating sources

Nutrition

  • Transepithelial ion transport in the stomach of pigs exposed to gastric ulcer conditions
  • Developing an Indigestible Protein Index to Investigate the Effects of Dietary Protein in Pigs
  • Impact of fibre on performance and intestinal health of pigs fed a high indigestible protein level

Ethology

  • The influence of straw enrichment on hair hormone concentrations, behaviour, and productivity of growing pigs
  • Rearing pigs with play opportunities: The effects on disease resilience in pigs experimentally inoculated with PRRSV
  • Promoting play behaviour in grow-finish pigs

Management

  • Quality of Life Handbook – The use of environmental enrichment
  • Seek and you shall find; The value of postmortem, in pigs?
  • P1 development strategies for peak performance

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