The discussions about sow confinement continues to evolve at different speeds across the globe. Countries such as Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, Austria and Germany have already banned or severely restricted the use of farrowing crates. Other countries such as United Kingdom and New Zealand have initiated a phasing out process. There are trade-offs between sow and piglet welfare in farrowing pens vs farrowing crates. Typically the perception is that the increased behavioural freedom of sows results in an unacceptable level of piglet mortality. Many of the loose housing farrowing designs have a floor “footprint” that is often 50% greater than a standard farrowing crate / pen footprint. This larger footprint continues to be one of the impediments to the adoption of confinement-free farrowing. The Maternity Ring (MR), is a farrowing system with a similar footprint to a conventional farrowing crate and pen. The Maternity Ring is in use in Australia but its performance, particularly with regard to piglet survival, has not yet been studied in a controlled experiment. This sort of study is an essential part of evaluating commercial viability and acceptability in terms of piglet welfare. These Australian researchers wanted to determine whether piglet mortality differed between farrowing crates and Maternity Rings. First-parity sows were recruited over 12 months and randomly allocated to one of the two treatments: farrowing crate (FC; n = 184) and Maternity Ring (MR; n = 205). Litter size and piglet mortality (number, age, and cause of death), as well as piglet fostering movements and medical interventions for sows and litters, were recorded.
The researchers found the following:
- There was no difference in total pigs born, pigs born alive, or the number of pigs weaned between the two treatments.
- There was a tendency for a 0.3-pig-per-litter increase in pre-foster mortality in MR sows (p = 0.065), but pigs born dead, post-foster deaths, liveborn mortality, and total deaths were similar to FC sows.
- Piglet removal for ill thrift was 0.3 pigs per litter lower in MR sows (p = 0.05)
- The incidence of medications in litters was reduced from 62% to 50% (p < 0.05).
- The incidence of medications in sows was lower in Maternity Ring (MR) (6%) than in Farrowing Crate (FC) (15%, p < 0.05). MR housing achieved comparable liveborn piglet mortality to FC in first-parity sows. Future studies should test whether this performance is repeatable as sows are managed across multiple parities.
Take Home Messages:
- The number of piglets born and weaned was comparable between FC and MR treatments
- There was a tendency for higher piglet mortality in MR usually within the first 24 hours prior to fostering. This disadvantage was partially offset by the reduction in piglet medication and late fostering removal of ill-thrift piglets from MR sows.
- It is important to note that the MR was installed in the same amount of floor space as the conventional farrowing crate and should provide a commercially viable, close-confinement-free option to replace the traditional farrowing crate. This study examined only first parity sows and would need to be repeated in older parities.
Reference: Kate J Plush, Kirsty L Chidgey , Nigel Young , Darryl N D’Souza , Robert J van Barneveld First lactation performance of sows in Maternity Ring housing is comparable to that in farrowing crates Front Vet Sci . 2026 Feb 4:12:1717512. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2025.1717512. eCollection 2025.
Source : Swine Web