A critical reflection on intensive pork production with an emphasis on animal health and welfare.

Abstract

The majority of livestock in high-income countries is raised in intensive production systems, with pigs being one of the most important food-producing animals. Worldwide, pork accounts for approximately 35% of all meat production. Intensive pig production is characterized by a high biological and economic productivity with a simultaneously low input of labor, resources and space per animal. This results in bigger herds, specialization, and standardized management procedures within a farm. Intensive pig production offers many advantages in terms of animal health, food safety, hygiene and biosecurity and some welfare outcomes when compared to extensive production. Critical issues for pig health are endemic infections, the risk for introduction of epidemic diseases, production diseases and the frequent use of antimicrobials. The main welfare issues relate to space limitations and behavioral restrictions for the animals (e.g. housing sows in crates), poor piglet viability and widely-used surgical procedures on piglets. Comparative studies with extensive production systems are scarce. Expression of natural animal behavior is more possible in extensive systems, but specific diseases and lesions, biosecurity, pork safety, and poor efficiency counter this benefit. There is a large variation in pig health and welfare between individual herds, implying plenty of room to improve in both production systems. Measures to optimize health mainly relate to management and biosecurity, vaccination, and nutrition. Improvement of animal welfare can be accomplished by focusing on enriched housing conditions, providing more space for the animals, genetic selection with greater emphasis on piglet survival, disease tolerance or resistance and/or suitability for the different raising conditions, reducing or banning painful interventions, and better monitoring of the animals. Skilled stockmanship remains the key to success. To enhance public confidence, more transparency should be provided about the production process. Besides the health and welfare issues, other factors related to environmental impact and food security to feed a growing world population are also of public concern and must be considered in system and management choices.