Research conducted by the University of Saskatchewan and the Prairie Swine Center will help producers prepare for new requirements due to come into effect in 2024 for gestating sows housed in stalls.
As of 2024, as part of the Canadian Code of Practice for the Care and Handling of Pigs, new requirements will come into effect for pork producers who continue to house gestating sows in stalls.
Research showed scientists that stall-housed sows given 10 minutes of exercise per week appeared to be more comfortable, stereotypic behaviour decreased, and, among older parity sows, the number of stillborn piglets also decreased.
Dr. Yolande Seddon, with the Western College of Veterinary Medicine, said information gathered through this work is vital in the Code of Practice decision-making process. The team used the information from this research project as part of the Code of Practice review when making decisions as to the Code requirements for sow exercise.
Dr. Seddon said the goal of this research was to determine the benefits of giving sows regular, periodic exercise throughout gestation. The researchers looked at three groups of sows over gestation, in group housing, and housed in stalls throughout gestation. Then animals housed in stalls throughout gestation that also received 10 minutes of weekly exercise. The reason for ten minutes once per week is to have a lower level of exercise easily achievable.
Dr. Seddon said the research focused on the gestating sow immediately post insemination moved into their treatment groups. The researchers put these sows per farrowing batch or breeding batch into groups separated to go into group housing or to remain in stalls or put alternatively in stalls throughout gestation with weekly exercise.

She said the exercise group received ten minutes of exercise once per week, walking the sow around the gestation room. The other treatments remained the same. The team collected regular productivity measures on the animals, analyzed hair cortisol as a long-term measure of stress, collected piglet measures to determine any prenatal stress effects on the piglet, and collected piglet viability to determine whether the increased movement could have an influence.
Dr. Seddon said productivity-wise, they found no effect of the gestation treatments on young parity sows. But for the older parity sows about 25 per cent of the gestation group, they found an impact of the exercise and being in group housing.
This trial provides information about how the gestation environment influences the sow, certainly in the posture stereotypes and some of the productivity measures, also, how that freedom of movement and choice for the sow might play in sow wellbeing in these environments.
She said it is vital to propose this information as a part of the Code as an add-on or an alternative.
“If you weren’t able to convert the groups by 2024, existing stall bonds could remain, providing periodic access to greater freedom of movement,” said Seddon.
In that sense, it is essential to understand how it affects the sow. If there is no benefit to the sow, it will lead to questions as to why precisely this recommendation is in place because potentially there could be alternative approaches to improve or enhance the welfare of the sow remaining in a stall.
She said there is value in this research as part of the greater discussion about different housing systems while it compares the confinement housing system and how it influences the sow.
Dr. Seddon said information gathered through this research is now ready for distribution and planning to share the results of the work. •
— By Harry Siemens