Bienestar de las cerdas y sus lechones en parideras con confinamiento temporal

Resumen

Farrowing housing system influences the way a sow and her piglets interact with each other. In farrowing crates, sows' movement and mother-young interactions are restricted, which compromises the welfare of the lactating sows and the piglets. Temporary-crating systems are designed to restrict sows' movement only for a very short period around farrowing, when the new-born piglets are the most vulnerable. Outside of this crating period, these systems can facilitate the expression of maternal behaviour before and alter farrowing, and can improve the physical comfort of the sows. The study assessed the effect of three farrowing systems on the welfare of the sows and the piglets in a closed cycle farm in Riudellots de la Selva (Girona). The farrowing systems included one conventional farrowing crate, and two farrowing pens, which allowed temporary confinement of the sows. Our study suggested that temporary-crating systems facilitated mother-young interactions, compared to the conventional farrowing crate. Although a higher crushing rate was found in one batch of the temporary-crating systems, it could be due to several reasons such as incorrect management of the temperature of the nest in the summer, frequent change of new untrained staff, and poor mothering style in some sows. Temporary confinement of the sows during the peripartum period (up to 2 days postpartum) was not associated with an increase in the salivary biomarkers of the stress response. Moreover, results in the level of salivary stress biomarkers collected around weaning, suggested a better adaptation of sows and piglets to weaning.