Abstract
Sustainable animal production should take animal welfare into account. How animal welfare is
incorporated into farming practices will, however, largely depend on the farmer’s choices. These
choices may depend on the farmer’s perception of animal welfare and the willingness to change the
current situation. Aggression between group housed pigs is a longstanding welfare issue and research
efforts have resulted in little to no change in practice. Our objective was to gain insight into farmers’
perception of aggression between growing pigs and their opinion about a method shown by research
to reduce the expression of this behaviour. Pig farmers in the UK were asked about their management
and perception regarding aggression through a postal survey. Respondents (n=167) had a breeder-tofinisher
farm (n=114; 585±123 sows; range 0-7000), breeder-weaner farm (n=10; 718±433 sows;
range 15-45000), or grower/finisher farm (n=32; 1291±187 grower/finishers; range 24-5000). The
majority of the respondents did not consider aggression at mixing as a problem which needed to be
addressed (73% at weaning). For mixing at the finisher stage, 43% did consider aggression a problem
and indicated they would consider a solution if available. Farmers who considered aggression at the
grower/finisher facilities a problem were on average younger (55±12 years) than farmers who did not
consider it a problem (61±12 years; P=0.02). When respondents ranked welfare issues on what they
found most important to reduce at the grower/finisher phase, they ranked tail/ear/flank biting as more
important than mounting and lameness, but not different from aggression. Currently, 27% of the pig
breeders (respondents keeping sows) applied co-mingling of piglets (i.e. ‘socialization’), in which
piglets are pre-weaning introduced to piglets of other litters to reduce aggression later on, and 22%
3
had worked with such a strategy in the past. Farmers applying co-mingling did not differ in their
perception of aggression compared to farmers who did not co-mingle. Respondents expressed
concerns about co-mingling with regard to practical management (48%), aggression of the sow
towards piglets (33%), reduced piglet growth rate (24%), fights between piglets (22%), cross-suckling
(20%), missed suckling bouts (16%), and stress for the animals (16%). Half of the breeders were in
favour of co-mingling (51%) whereas the other half was against (49%). As part of a sustainable
approach integrating all stakeholders, knowledge of farmers’ perception of aggression may help align
research questions in this area with the concerns of the stakeholders.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 42 - 47 |
Number of pages | 6 |
Journal | Applied Animal Behaviour Science |
Volume | 192 |
Early online date | 19 Nov 2016 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | First published - 19 Nov 2016 |
Bibliographical note
1026554Keywords
- Aggression
- Farmers
- Perception
- Pig
- Survey