Abby Tillotson – It’s well-known that environmental enrichment gives a number of advantages to intensively raised pigs, equivalent to lowering tail biting, rising play, and enhancing illness resiliency. Regardless of the significance of offering enrichment throughout the early stage of life, it might be equally essential to offer enrichment for pigs all through the rising and ending levels, too. This analysis challenge aimed to quantify the consequences of offering enrichment throughout early (0-8 weeks) and/or late (9-21 weeks) life, and in addition aimed to judge the usage of loosely crumpled newsprint with added Phytozen as a periodic enrichment for rising pigs of all ages. This work is vital to higher help producers of their efforts to enhance their pig’s bodily atmosphere with out compromising the safety of regular barn operations.
The outcomes of this examine confirmed that whereas offering enrichment throughout formative years is essential to regular pig growth, it’s equally vital to keep up this all through life. Moreover, pigs who solely acquired enrichment throughout late life had higher physique and tail lesions in comparison with pigs who had enrichment all through life, demonstrating the tangible proof to point out that the formative years atmosphere can’t be uncared for – it’s critical to offer retailers for species particular behaviours in all rearing environments all through life.
