Farmscape for December 27, 2021

A Research Scientist with the Prairie Swine Center says the costs associated with enriching the environment of pigs can be offset and more by reducing the losses associated with negative behavior such as tail biting.
As part of research conducted on behalf of Swine Innovation Porc, a multi-disciplinary team of scientists has been evaluating the potential benefits of enriching the environment of pigs.
"Appropriate Enrichment for Sows and Growing Pigs" was discussed last month as part of Saskatchewan Pork Industry Symposium 2021.
Dr. Jennifer Brown, a Research Scientist Ethology with the Prairie Swine Centre, says enrichment can be provided at any stage of growth and includes anything that improves the biological function of the pigs.

Clip-Dr. Jennifer Brown-Prairie Swine Center:
Certainly, if you can reduce the amount of animals that are damaged through tail biting, that is a common recurring problem that we see in finisher pigs, often triggered by random things, maybe a feed outage.
It's hard to predict when it's going to occur.
If, through enrichment, you can avoid even some of those problems, then it certainly can pay for itself.
The cost is quite low and they're quite easy to implement.
There are some commercial toys that you can purchase.
They might be fairly expensive but, I think, as producers get more and more familiar with the concept of enrichment there's a lot of things that producers can do on their own that are quite low cost and are really going to have a benefit.
We'll continue working on that angle and trying to get some clear costings on that.
But, if you can reduce some of the tail biting and those sorts of things, it can certainly pay for itself and more.

Dr. Brown says we know that enrichment can provide benefits in terms of both the physical health of the animals and reducing stress in animals.
She notes there is a wealth of information available on the value of enrichment on the internet, including YouTube videos and information posted to the Prairie Swine Center web site.
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Bruce Cochrane.

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