INVESTIGATION ON FREE LOCOMOTION AND OCCU PATION OF SOWS IN THE POSTWEANING PERIOD

In pig production two outstanding animal welfare problems are obvious. Breeding sows have very restricted opportunities for free locomotion and little environmental stimulation. In the present paper three commo n management systems are compared to evaluate the reaction of sows to various housing systems. The following results for behavioural observa tions on dry sows were obtained: 1. Experimental design and analysis B efore the animals are alloted to different treatment groups their beha viour and endogenous influences on it have to be registered. All behav ioural indicators can be treated as quantitative traits in the analysi s of variance if they are distributed normally and mean values per ani mal per day are applied. Due to the animal welfare law each individual animal has to be protected. Therefore the data relevant to animal wel fare have to be analysed on the basis of individual animals. 2. Behavi our The periods of activity were registered within 12 hours during 5:0 0 to 17:00 quite accurately. The repeatability between the 14th and 28 th day is very high for almost all traits when sows are kept in groups . Endogenous factors as physical condition and age influence the trait s of activity and rest, as well as well-being and stress situations. T he length of time that sows are kept in groups has a minimal effect, v ariance between animals is large. 3. Management systems Differences we re found between the management systems for almost all traits.In the s ystems the ethological requirements are fulfilled to different extents . No successful therapy can be expected when sows are kept in groups f or only four weeks. The sows were occupied with straw much longer than 1 hour in the management systems involved in this experiment. A signi ficant improvement in the psychological and physiological status of th e sows by free locomotion depends on duration and condition of this op portunity.