Morris J R, Hurnik J F, Friendship R M, Buhr M M, Allen O B
Animal and Poultry Science Section, Ridgetown College of Agricultural Technology, Ontario, Canada.
J Anim Sci. 1993 Dec;71(12):3280-4. doi: 10.2527/1993.71123280x.
A group housing system for sows, the Hurnik-Morris (HM) system, was developed to address several of the perceived animal welfare limitations of existing housing methods. The HM system permits socially coordinated eating and resting, controlled and socially undisturbed feed intake, physical exercise, and regular exposure to boars. The HM system effectively uses and reinforces the behavioral phenomenon of the social synchronization of feeding and provides a less restrictive housing environment. The system provides housing for sows in small groups and an individual, non-competitive feeding environment using electronic feeding compartments. Gilts reared during gestation in the HM system were observed to spend less time lying in sternal recumbency (31 vs 21%; P = .004) and performing stereotypies (.10 vs .56%; P = .034) and to spend more time participating in social activities (1.4 vs .19%; P = .0007) than similar gilts kept in gestation crates (GC). The HM sows revealed a significantly longer latent period to postprandial lying than did GC gilts (64 vs 32 min; P = .0001). The order of gilt entry into the feeding compartments tended to be more consistent than the sequence of feeding compartments being entered (W = .57 vs .41; P = .06). This indicates that social factors seemed to be more important than spatial ones in determining the order of entry into the feeder compartments.
一种用于母猪的群居饲养系统，即赫尼克 - 莫里斯（HM）系统，是为解决现有饲养方法中一些被认为存在的动物福利限制而开发的。HM系统允许母猪进行社会协调的进食和休息、控制进食且不受社会干扰、进行体育锻炼以及定期接触公猪。HM系统有效地利用并强化了进食社会同步化的行为现象，并提供了一个限制较少的饲养环境。该系统使用电子饲喂隔栏为小群母猪提供饲养空间以及个体非竞争性的饲喂环境。观察发现，与饲养在妊娠限位栏（GC）中的类似后备母猪相比，在HM系统中妊娠饲养的后备母猪仰卧躺卧的时间较少（31%对21%；P = 0.004），表现出刻板行为的时间较少（0.10%对0.56%；P = 0.034），而参与社交活动的时间较多（1.4%对0.19%；P = 0.0007）。HM系统中的母猪餐后躺卧的潜伏期明显长于GC系统中的后备母猪（64分钟对32分钟；P = 0.0001）。后备母猪进入饲喂隔栏的顺序往往比进入的饲喂隔栏序列更一致（W = 0.57对0.41；P = 0.06）。这表明在确定进入饲喂隔栏的顺序时，社会因素似乎比空间因素更重要。
