Environmental enrichment is not commonly implemented However, despite the animal welfare advantages for providing additional improvements to the environment, environmental enrichment has not been commonly implemented on farms in many countries, including the United States. Many barriers to implementing environmental enrichment have been addressed, including economic challenges, with a limited perceived return on investment, as well as biosecurity risk for disease introduction associated with materials entering farms. Implementing environmental enrichment on large commercial farms also raises challenges on true efficacy long-term, given the novelty of such items often wane, resulting in pigs no longer interacting with such enrichment devices or farms requiring additional investment in time and material to maintain such novelty and interest. Wanted: sustainable solutions For large commercial farms, the challenge remains how to effectively implement an enrichment protocol that can be financially, environmentally and labour sustainable. Solutions to these challenges must be addressed quickly. Not only does a barren environment have negative impacts on pig welfare, but updated policies from retailers and legislative changes on the state and national level will soon require producers to provide effective enrichment across production systems. For example, the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Supply (MAPA) in Brazil established guidelines (Normative Instruction No. 113) in 2020 regulating good management and animal welfare practices on commercial swine farms. Within this document, Brazilian swine producers must provide physical enrichment, such as hay, straw, ropes, chains wood or plastic to allow pigs the opportunity to perform species-appropriate rooting behavior. These requirements have motivated producers and scientists to identify material that can be used to improve welfare while taking into account costs, environmental impact and labour needs. Biodegradable and water-soluble enrichment Scientists from the University of São Paulo in Brazil developed a biodegradable and water-soluble enrichment material to be used for nest building behavior in sows before farrowing. Results from the study not only demonstrated that sows used the material to perform important nest building behavior, but those that had the nesting material also had showed a reduced farrowing duration. Although this enrichment object is in the preliminary stages of development, it demonstrates the time sensitive need to find practical solutions for environmental enrichment on commercial farms while validating such items for having a true positive impact on pig welfare using science-based research. Original article posted on PigProgress.net farrowingsustainable solutionspig healthComments are closed.
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