Quality of Life Handbook – The use of environmental enrichment

Feb 10, 2025

The aim of this handbook is to provide suggestions on how to improve the quality of life of pigs in commercial farms in such a way that it won’t require large renovations to the barns. This includes things such as positive human interaction, socializing pigs pre-weaning with other litters, increased space allowance, and different types of environmental enrichment. This handbook gives an extensive overview of physical enrichment options, as well as social, nutritional, occupational and sensory enrichments. The last section of the handbook provides an overview of enrichments for each phase of production, including what kinds of effects were seen in research trials in specific production phases.

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Video: Screening Nursery Ingredients - Kynna Crawford

In this episode of The Swine Nutrition Blackbelt Podcast, Kynna Crawford, Graduate Research Assistant at South Dakota State University, discusses how Plackett-Burman designs can help screen nursery diet ingredients for early post-weaning feed intake. She explains why low intake after weaning contributes to stress and mortality, how screening trials can evaluate multiple ingredients in a single study, and how the approach can support both research and commercial nursery nutrition decisions. Listen now on all major platforms!

Click here to read the full research article: https://academic.oup.com/jas/article/...

"A single screening trial can help identify which nursery ingredients deserve deeper research for early post-weaning feed intake."

Meet the guest: Kynna Crawford / kynna-crawford-a2610a3aa is a Master's student in Animal Sciences at South Dakota State University, where her work focuses on swine nutrition and nursery pig management. Her research examines strategies to alleviate weaning stress, including dietary approaches and screening tools to identify ingredients that may promote early feed intake. Learn more from Kynna Crawford on The Swine Nutrition Blackbelt Podcast, available on all major platforms.