Welfare and health of gestating sows and growing pigs

Abstract

The European PROHEALTH project focused on production diseases in pigs and poultry. For the pig species, INRAE has brought new knowledge to validate the role of husbandry practices in production diseases, to propose how farming conditions could be improved to preserve the health of pigs and to understand the biological mechanisms influencing the expression of these diseases. Enrichment of the housing environment of sows during gestation improved their welfare, and reduced neonatal mortality of piglets. The response over time to the stress of weaning and the prevalence of digestive problems were modulated by the feed sequence. In growing pigs, increasing the living space could be beneficial for the prevention of locomotion disorders according to the pig genetic predisposition to increase their physical activity. Also, in growing pigs, ensuring of good hygiene of housing conditions improved health and growth performance by preventing systemic inflammation and respiratory disorders. We used a model of lines divergently selected on Residual Feed Intake (RFI), a measure of feed efficiency, to show that the genetic background affected the susceptibility of pigs to diseases such as post-weaning digestive disorders, osteochondrosis and the inflammation caused by the poor hygiene of housing conditions.