Penn Vet's Swine Teaching and Research Center at New Bolton Center in Chester County, Pennsylvania, is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, according to an article from the University of Pennsylvania.
Over the past quarter century, the centre has influenced careers in veterinary medicine and agriculture while shaping swine welfare practices across the state and beyond.
Ethical treatment of food animals was a founding principle of the center. In Pennsylvania, about 80% of sows are now kept in open pen housing rather than confined gestation crates, according to Chris Herr, executive vice president of the PennAg Industries Association, which represents the state's hog and poultry farmers. Herr credited the shift to the influence of the Swine Center and its faculty.
Thomas Parsons, founder and director of the Swine Teaching and Research Center, comes from a family with 10 generations of farming history. Recruited from a research position in Germany, he set out to build a working hog barn reflecting animal welfare practices already established in Europe but not yet widely adopted in the US, a vision supported by then-Dean Alan M. Kelly. The center was designed as a living laboratory where students could learn in a forward-thinking environment.
While best known for advocating open pen housing and electronic feeding systems for gestating sows, the center has also produced other advances, including professor Gary Althouse's work on reproduction, toxicology, and disease control in swine health.
The center's work continues to evolve. In May, a ribbon-cutting was held at New Bolton Center to mark what Parsons called "the next chapter in the Swine Center's journey," the launch of DAT-AI-LAB, a new initiative using AI to better understand animal behavior and support farmers.
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