Main Welfare Concerns in Pig Farming: How to Meet Society’s and Farmer’s Request
A special issue of Animals (ISSN 2076-2615). This special issue belongs to the section "Pigs".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 March 2022) | Viewed by 8159
Special Issue Editors
Interests: animal nutrition; pig welfare; oxidative stress; feed additives; botanicals; meat quality
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Legislation on animal welfare and the concerns of civil society require addressing welfare problems related to the housing environment and the management system, commonly associated with intensive pig farming.
As a consequence of those housing and management systems, the behavioral needs of the pigs may not be met, leading to damaging behaviors, such as tail biting, or impaired natural behavior, such as maternal abilities.
To reduce the incidence of tail-biting behavior, tail docking has been used in the pig industry. However, it is a painful procedure which is not allowed to be performed routinely. Tail biting has a multifactorial origin generated from simultaneous environmental, nutritional, and management-based risk factors still to be investigated.
Confinement in a cage is a welfare issue as it reduces exercise and restricts important natural behaviors. The legal requirement for keeping gestating sows in groups four weeks after service seems to expose animals to prolonged physical and emotional limitation, bearing in mind that the majority of sows are still tethered in the farrowing sector.
High piglet mortality represents, as well as an important economic loss for the farmer, a welfare and ethical problem. Genetic selection, which previously aimed to increase litter size, should now be focused on breeding for better survival and more robust sows in order to reduce the mortality.
The surgical castration of male pigs is a common practice among producers with the main aim of improving meat quality by preventing boar taint. Options for pain mitigation or transitioning away from surgical castration should be explored, such as dietary integration in males able to reduce the concentration of the main compounds responsible for boar taint, immune castration, or sex-sorted semen.
Our challenge is to provide scientific evidence regarding the adoption of effective, practicable, and ethically and economically viable strategies for farmed pig. Contributions on any related topics, including, nutrition, management, technical and legislative aspects, in the form of original research papers and literature reviews are welcome in this Special Issue.
Prof. Dr. Grazia Pastorelli
Prof. Dr. Sara Barbieri
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 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
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
- castration
- tail docking
- loose housing system
- dietary strategies
- additives
- piglet mortality
- hyperprolific sow
- sow
- welfare legislation
- health
- meat quality
Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue
- Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
- Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
- Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
- External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
- Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.
Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.
