Straw vs. peat as nest-building material – The impact on farrowing duration and piglet mortality in loose-housed sows

Abstract

Provision of nest-building material pre-partum is required by farm animal legislation in Norway, but as some farmers have problems with straw in the slurry system, alternative and finer-grained substrates could be of interest. The aim of the present study was to examine the effects of providing different nestbuilding materials before farrowing (peat and long-stemmed straw) on farrowing duration and piglet mortality. Sows of Norsvin Landrace x Swedish Yorkshire were loose-housed in individual farrowing pens with their litter throughout the entire lactation period, and provided with peat (n=18), longstemmed straw (n=17), or controls (n=18), from two days before expected farrowing until farrowing.Parity ranged from 1 to 9 (mean ± SE: 2.9 ± 2.0), of which 16 were gilts. The farrowing was video recorded, and the farrowing duration registered from first to last piglet born. Dead piglets were subjected to a post mortem.Sows provided with long-stemmed straw pre-partum had shorter farrowing duration compared to sows provided with peat or controls (P < 0.001). The percentage of stillborn piglets was also lowest among sows in the straw group compared to the other two groups (P < 0.001). Sows of parity ≥4 had longer farrowing duration than gilts and sows of parity 2-3 (P < 0.001). Farrowing duration (P < 0.001) and the percentage of stillborn piglets increased (P < 0.001) with an increasing number of total born piglets.Moreover, increased litter size resulted in a higher pre-weaning mortality (P = 0.016).The present study shows that provision of nest-building material before farrowing is important for the birth process of the sow as it reduces farrowing duration and percentage of stillborn piglets compared to controls without relevant substrate. Although peat gave better results than the control treatment, our results suggest that long-stemmed straw is a more appropriate nest-building material.

Welfare of pigs on farm

“…To stimulate nest‐building behaviour, long‐cut straw or similar material may be provided on the floor or in a rack. The size of such pens typically ranges from 6.5 to 8.0 m 2 (Burri et al., 2009; Bøe et al., 2019; Nicolaisen et al., 2019; Portele et al., 2019; Rosvold and Andersen, 2019).…”

“…To stimulate nest-building behaviour, long-cut straw or similar material may be provided on the floor or in a rack. The size of such pens typically ranges from 6.5 to 8.0 m 2 (Burri et al, 2009;Bøe et al, 2019;Nicolaisen et al, 2019;Portele et al, 2019;Rosvold and Andersen, 2019). These systems are further analysed in the common ToRs (see Sections 3.4 and 5.6) and in the section on Specific ToRs 2 and 3 (Section 5.7).…”

Farrowing Pens for Individually Loose-Housed Sows: Results on the Development of the SowComfort Farrowing Pen

“…The SowComfort farrowing pen (SOWCOMF) was developed with the aim of satisfying basic behavioural needs of the sow, thereby stimulating good maternal behaviour and reducing the necessity of the farmer to interfere excessively around the time of farrowing. Key features to improve survival of piglets are access to nest-building material before farrowing [13][14][15][16], and the provision of sufficient space for the sow to turn around and orientate within her nest area, both when performing nest-building behaviour [4,10] and when nursing [5]. To encourage eliminating in the right place and that the sow is confident in her pen, it is important to have an open view in the slatted floor area that allows the sow the ability to see who enters the pen [10] and to enable some contact with neighbouring sows.…”

Early mother-young interactions in domestic sows – Nest-building material increases maternal investment

“…We have found that sows given long-stemmed straw showed more nest-building behaviour, a greater variety of nest-building elements, and fewer stereotypies pre-partum than control sows and sows given peat (Rosvold et al, 2018). They also had shorter farrowing duration and fewer stillborn piglets (Rosvold and Andersen, 2019) . The results on nest building in the peat group were intermediate, suggesting that, while straw is more effective in fulfilling the sow`s nest-building motivation, peat has some value as a nest-building material.…”