Plush K J, Hewitt R J, D'Souza D N, van Barneveld R J
SunPork Group, Eagle Farm, QLD 4009, Australia.
SunPork Group, Eagle Farm, QLD 4009, Australia.
Animal. 2023 Oct 5:101002. doi: 10.1016/j.animal.2023.101002.
The individual housing of sows and boars within stalls is still frequent in commercial pork production, especially when the risk for impaired reproduction or welfare is high. Whilst many countries have either removed stall housing in gestation or are working towards this through the successful adoption of group housing, stalls are still used around weaning and mating and in farrowing crates for sows. In this review, we describe the stages in which stall use still occurs and why this is so, with the aim of determining whether stall-free pork production can realistically be achieved through successful industry adoption. Group housing during the period around weaning, oestrus and mating will present several issues such as sow aggression, riding and mounting. This will result in injuries and reduced reproductive performance for the animals, and an unsafe work environment for stock people if not adequately addressed. The second, most obvious stage of the reproductive cycle where stalls are used and removal would result in substantial detriment is in the farrowing crate, where associated high preweaning mortalities still plague both experimental and commercial outcomes. The use of temporary confinement has received renewed interest recently to reduce this mortality, but still involves the strategic use of a stall when piglets are at greatest risk of crushing. To transition towards complete removal of stalls around farrowing, we suggest that space allowance, in combination with animal and staff experience, are areas of opportunity. If the concerns identified during these two final reproductive stages can be addressed to limit poor animal welfare and productivity impacts, the use of stalls could be completely removed from pork production.
在商业猪肉生产中，母猪和公猪在限位栏内单独饲养的情况仍然很常见，尤其是在繁殖或福利受损风险较高时。虽然许多国家已经取消了妊娠期间的限位栏饲养，或者正通过成功采用群体饲养朝着这一目标努力，但限位栏仍用于母猪断奶和配种前后以及产仔栏。在这篇综述中，我们描述了限位栏仍在使用的阶段及其原因，目的是确定通过行业成功采用是否能够切实实现无限位栏的猪肉生产。断奶、发情和配种期间的群体饲养会带来一些问题，如母猪攻击、骑跨和爬跨行为。如果处理不当，这将导致动物受伤和繁殖性能下降，以及饲养人员的工作环境不安全。繁殖周期的第二个也是最明显的阶段，即使用限位栏且取消限位栏会导致严重不利影响的阶段，是产仔栏，在产仔栏中，断奶前的高死亡率仍然困扰着实验和商业生产结果。最近，使用临时限制措施以降低这种死亡率受到了新的关注，但在仔猪面临最大挤压风险时仍需要策略性地使用限位栏。为了向完全取消产仔前后的限位栏过渡，我们建议结合动物和工作人员的经验，考虑空间允许量。如果能够解决这两个最后的繁殖阶段中发现的问题，以限制对动物福利和生产力的不良影响，那么猪肉生产中限位栏的使用就可以完全消除。
