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Animals
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Effects of Housing Conditions and Management Practices on Pig Production...
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Effects of Housing Conditions and Management Practices on Pig Production and Welfare

A special issue of Animals (ISSN 2076-2615). This special issue belongs to the section "Pigs".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 13 September 2026 | Viewed by 2503

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Fabiana Ribeiro Caldara

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, Federal University of Grande Dourados (UFGD), Dourados 79804-970, Brazil
Interests: behavior; environmental enrichment; pig farming; welfare; meat quality; ambiance
Prof. Dr. Leandro Batista Costa

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
MonoHub—Research Group for Monogastric Animals, Graduate Program in Animal Science, School of Medicine and Life Sciences, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Paraná, Curitiba 80215-901, Brazil
Interests: animal nutrition; gut health; alternatives to antimicrobials
Prof. Dr. Luan Sousa Dos Santos

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science, Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul (FAMEZ-UFMS), Seropedica 79070-900, Brazil
Interests: animal nutrition; pig farming; welfare; precision livestock farming; ambiance

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to invite you to contribute to this Special Issue, entitled “Effects of Housing Conditions and Management Practices on Pig Production and Welfare”, for the journal Animals. Pig production systems are under increasing pressure to improve not only productivity, but also animal welfare and sustainability. Housing conditions and management practices are key factors that directly influence animal behaviour, health, growth performance, and overall welfare. Advances in precision livestock farming, environmental enrichment, nutrition, and health management are essential to meet societal expectations, improve animal quality of life, and optimise production efficiency. Therefore, high-quality research in this area is of great importance to the future of sustainable animal agriculture.

This Special Issue aims to explore how different housing systems and management strategies affect pig welfare, health, behaviour, and performance, contributing directly to the journal’s scope, which focuses on all aspects of animal science and welfare. Our goal is to provide evidence-based solutions that promote sustainable, efficient, and welfare-friendly pig production systems.

In this Special Issue, original research articles, reviews, and meta-analyses are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

  • Effects of thermal environment, ventilation, flooring, lighting, and space allowance on pig welfare and performance;
  • Impact of environmental enrichment and human–animal interactions;
  • Influence of nutritional strategies or precision feeding on health and welfare;
  • Application of precision livestock farming technologies for welfare monitoring;
  • Use of alternatives to antimicrobial growth promoters on welfare;
  • Behavioural studies and welfare assessment methodologies in different production stages;
  • Sustainable management practices that balance productivity and animal welfare.

We look forward to receiving your valuable contributions.

Prof. Dr. Fabiana Ribeiro Caldara
Prof. Dr. Leandro Batista Costa
Prof. Dr. Luan Sousa Dos Santos
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Animals is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • pig welfare
  • housing systems
  • management practices
  • environmental enrichment
  • precision livestock farming
  • behav-iour
  • health
  • performance
  • sustainable production

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Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 2286 KB  
Article
Welfare and Performance of Finishing Pigs Kept at Two Group Sizes on Ad Libitum vs. Restricted Feeding
by Inger Lise Andersen, Oda Braar Wæge, Marko Ocepek, Signe Lovise Thingnes, Kristine Hov Martinsen, Anne Stine Ekker and Ruth C. Newberry
Animals 2026, 16(9), 1342; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani16091342 - 28 Apr 2026
Viewed by 185
Abstract
This 2 × 2 factorial study examined the welfare and performance of finishing pigs at two group sizes (9 or 18 pigs) over 12 weeks. For each set of groups of either 9 or 18 pigs, half of the pigs in each group [...] Read more.
This 2 × 2 factorial study examined the welfare and performance of finishing pigs at two group sizes (9 or 18 pigs) over 12 weeks. For each set of groups of either 9 or 18 pigs, half of the pigs in each group size were fed ad libitum, while the others received a mildly restricted ration. Treatments were assigned to 16 partially slatted floor pens in a randomized block design, with a floor space of 1.15 m2/pig. Except in Week 1, there were proportionally fewer pigs with ear (p = 0.020) and tail (p < 0.0001) bite marks in groups of 18 than in groups of 9. Ear bite marks declined over time in both group sizes (p < 0.0001). There was also a significant interaction between group size and week regarding severe bite marks on the ears (p < 0.0002). Tail bite mark prevalence increased over time in the smaller groups but decreased in the larger groups (interaction: p < 0.001). A higher proportion of pigs in smaller groups sought human contact in Weeks 1 and 6, but this measurement equalized by Week 10 (interaction: p = 0.008). There were proportionally more pigs with tucked tails in the smaller groups in Week 1 but not in later weeks (interaction: p < 0.0001). Group size did not influence pig cleanliness or locomotion disorders. Ad libitum (vs. restricted) feeding increased average daily gain (p < 0.001), feed intake (p = 0.002), and slaughter weight (p = 0.030). Results suggest better welfare in the larger than in the smaller groups. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Effects of Housing Conditions and Management Practices on Pig Production and Welfare)
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27 pages, 1880 KB  
Article
Hierarchical Acoustic Encoding Distress in Pigs: Disentangling Individual, Developmental, and Emotional Effects with Subject-Wise Validation
by Irenilza de Alencar Nääs, Danilo Florentino Pereira, Alexandra Ferreira da Silva Cordeiro and Nilsa Duarte da Silva Lima
Animals 2026, 16(8), 1148; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani16081148 - 9 Apr 2026
Viewed by 292
Abstract
Automated pig-welfare monitoring needs scalable, non-invasive signals that work across ages and individuals. A key methodological contribution of this study is the use of subject-wise validation, which ensures generalization to unseen animals and prevents inflated accuracy caused by growth-related and individual ‘voice’ differences. [...] Read more.
Automated pig-welfare monitoring needs scalable, non-invasive signals that work across ages and individuals. A key methodological contribution of this study is the use of subject-wise validation, which ensures generalization to unseen animals and prevents inflated accuracy caused by growth-related and individual ‘voice’ differences. Vocalizations can help, but growth and individual “voice” differences can confound distress patterns and overstate accuracy without subject-wise validation. In our study, we explicitly accounted for individual variability by including animal identity as a random effect in mixed models and by using grouped cross-validation, where models were tested only on pigs not seen during training. This approach ensures that the reported accuracy reflects generalization across different individuals rather than memorization of specific vocal signatures. We analyzed 2221 vocal samples from 40 pigs (20 males, 20 females) recorded across four growth phases (farrowing, nursery, growing, finishing) under six conditions (pain, hunger, thirst, cold stress, heat stress, normal). Acoustic features extracted in Praat included energy, duration, intensity, pitch, and formants (F1–F4). Using blockwise variance decomposition, we quantified contributions of distress exposure, growth phase, and sex, and estimated the additional variance explained by animal identity. Distress exposure dominated intensity and spectral traits, particularly Formant 2, whereas the growth phase produced systematic shifts in duration and pitch. Animal identity added a modest but consistent increment in explained variance (~+0.02–0.03 R2 beyond sex, phase, and distress). For prediction, we used 5-fold cross-validation grouped by animal. A Random Forest achieved a modest balanced accuracy of 0.609 and macro-F1 of 0.597; pain was most separable (recall 0.825), while other states showed moderate recall, indicating overlap. These results support hierarchical acoustic encoding of distress and establish a benchmark for precision welfare monitoring. Furthermore, they highlight that resolving complex physiological overlaps, such as heat stress and resource competition, requires a shift from unimodal acoustic models to multimodal Precision Livestock Farming (PLF) systems that integrate bioacoustics with continuous environmental and behavioral data streams. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Effects of Housing Conditions and Management Practices on Pig Production and Welfare)
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11 pages, 763 KB  
Article
Effects of Outdoor Rearing System on the Growth Performance and Blood Parameters of Duroc Pigs
by Kaliyah Hayes, Andrea Gentry-Apple, Lin Yang, Julisa Cruz, Joseline Mora-Obrajero, Daisha Peele-Kendrick, Shilei Zhang, Derrick Coble and Yongjie Wang
Animals 2026, 16(7), 1040; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani16071040 - 28 Mar 2026
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Abstract
The objective of this study was to evaluate the physiological mechanisms and health resilience of Duroc pigs reared in an outdoor system compared to a conventional indoor system. A total of 24 Duroc pigs (approximately 3 months of age) were randomly assigned to [...] Read more.
The objective of this study was to evaluate the physiological mechanisms and health resilience of Duroc pigs reared in an outdoor system compared to a conventional indoor system. A total of 24 Duroc pigs (approximately 3 months of age) were randomly assigned to either an indoor (IN, n = 12) or an outdoor (OUT, n = 12) rearing system for a 45-day trial. Growth performance (body weight and ADG) and spleen organ index were not significantly different between the two rearing systems (p > 0.05). Hematological profiles, including leukocyte and erythrocyte indices, showed no significant differences (p > 0.05), although plateletcrit tended to decrease in the OUT group (p = 0.08). For serum biochemical parameters, pigs in the OUT group exhibited significantly higher concentrations of total protein, triglycerides, calcium, and sodium compared to those in the IN group (p < 0.05). Additionally, serum albumin and glucose levels tended to be higher in the OUT group (p < 0.01). No significant differences were observed in liver and muscle enzyme activities (AST, ALP, GGT, CK) between the treatments (p > 0.05). In conclusion, outdoor rearing did not compromise growth performance or induce chronic physiological stress or tissue damage in Duroc pigs. Instead, it promoted active energy and lipid mobilization, enhanced protein metabolism, and improved mineral homeostasis, demonstrating the robust physiological adaptability of the Duroc breed to outdoor environments. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Effects of Housing Conditions and Management Practices on Pig Production and Welfare)
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17 pages, 983 KB  
Article
Mixed Management in Growing and Finishing Pigs: Impacts on Social Behavior and Judgment Bias
by Angela Cristina da Fonseca de Oliveira, Leandro Batista Costa, Saulo Henrique Weber and Antoni Dalmau
Animals 2025, 15(19), 2893; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani15192893 - 3 Oct 2025
Viewed by 756
Abstract
Intensive pig production practices may shape cognition and behavior. We evaluated whether repeated regrouping (mixing) and gender (gilts vs. barrows) affect social interactions, fear-related responses, and affective state. A total of 96 growing pigs were separated into two treatments: control—pigs that were mixed [...] Read more.
Intensive pig production practices may shape cognition and behavior. We evaluated whether repeated regrouping (mixing) and gender (gilts vs. barrows) affect social interactions, fear-related responses, and affective state. A total of 96 growing pigs were separated into two treatments: control—pigs that were mixed once during the growing–finishing period; and social stress—pigs that were mixed thrice during the growing–finishing period. Social and non-social behaviors were directly noted, and four behavioral tests were conducted: open field, novel object, couples, and judgment bias tests. The statistical analysis compared gender and treatment, and p-values ≤ 0.05 were considered significant. Females stayed longer in the test pen entrance area during the novel object test and barrows spent more time at the feeder and defecated more during the couples’ test. With regard to the judgment bias test, females took longer to be considered trained in the discriminatory learning task and presented a “pessimistic judgment” during the ambiguous cue. Our results suggest that gender influences judgment bias in pigs and can influence social and non-social behavior, which may reflect a negative affective state with implications for their welfare and management. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Effects of Housing Conditions and Management Practices on Pig Production and Welfare)
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