Effect of Individual, Group Or ESF Housing in Pregnancy and Individual Or Group Housing in Lactation on the Performance of Sows and Their Piglets (Report‪)‬

INTRODUCTION Sow stalls are still a very popular form of gestation housing in Asia area, although they are being phased out in Europe as a result of concerns about sow welfare (SVC, 1997). Prior to the adoption of gestation stalls by family based farmers in the 1970s, following trends in Europe, most farmers had group-housing systems of various kinds. However, before considering a return to group systems, it is important to know the consequences for sow reproductive performance of different types of system. Bates et al. (2003) found that gestation sows kept in electronic sow feed house had either similar or improved performance compared to sows kept in stall house. The present experiment was therefore designed to compare the stall system with a traditional group-housing system and a more modern development of electronic sow feeding (ESF) during pregnancy. There is particular interest in the possible interactions between different forms of pregnancy and lactation housing, since it has been suggested that sows which have been group-housed in pregnancy may experience greater stress when confined for the first time immediately prior to farrowing, and that this might have adverse consequences for performance (Vestergaard and Hansen, 1984). The study therefore included different combinations of gestation and farrowing accommodation which might be adopted by Taiwanese farmers.