Environmental Enrichment of Pigs

Abstract

Emma Fàbrega i Romans (Ph.D) holds a degree in veterinarian sciences (1995), a master's degree (2000) and Ph.D. (2002) in animal production and a MSc degree in applied animal behaviour and animal welfare (Welfare 1997(Welfare -1998. Since 2011, she has been a diplomate of the European College of Animal Welfare and Behaviour Medicine. She has worked with the Animal Welfare group since 2003 and has been involved in EU projects (Welfare Quality R , Q-PorkChains, SABRE, Alcasde, IMPRO, ALL-SMART-PIGS, ECO-FCE, FEED-a-GENE and EU PIG). She has coordinated four nationally funded projects on animal welfare: one on alternatives to piglet castration, two on welfare implications of livestock precision farming and welfare implications of livestock precision farming and one on new strategies to improve welfare (free farrowing and environmental enrichment for pigs). Her research topics include assessment of animal welfare on farms, use of precision farming to improve animal welfare, animal welfare in sustainable production systems and alternatives to painful procedures. She is a member of IRTA's Ethical Committee and is the Mediterranean Secretary of the International Society of Applied Ethology (ISAE).vii Preface to "Environmental Enrichment of Pigs"The limitation to fulfil ethological and physiological needs can negatively affect animal welfare and cause the development of abnormal behaviour. Pigs have a strong motivation to perform exploratory and foraging behaviour from a very young age, even if they are provided with enough feed to satisfy their dietary needs. Tail-biting is a redirected behaviour said to be a response to insufficient stimulation and frustration in association with other negative environmental and management factors. Although the exact triggering mechanisms remain unclear, tail-biting has a multifactorial origin, and the scientific evidence has identified a wide range of environmental, dietary and husbandry risk factors. The lack of adequate enrichment material appears to be an initial risk factor that may trigger stress and has been considered a major cause for the most common type of tail biting, the so-called two-stage tail biting, which starts with gentle manipulation of another pig's tail and proceeds to more intensive manipulation with the teeth, causing bleeding and damage. Therefore, tail biting becomes not only an important welfare concern, but it also has serious economic consequences for pig producers, because it lowers weight gains and increases susceptibility to secondary infections, antibiotic use and carcass condemnations. Up to now, tail docking is the most widely preventive measure against tail biting adopted by farmers, although it is considered to cause acute pain, and it does not totally prevent tail biting, because it does not address the underlying causes. The EU legislation of pig welfare does not allow routine tail docking unless other measures such as environmental and management conditions have been tackled. Moreover, EU legislation specifically states that "pigs must have pe...