What physical enrichment for pigs can be used by North American farmers?What physical enrichment for pigs can be used by North American farmers?
Researchers examine the welfare effects when using a rope, balls, burlap bags and toys compared to pigs with no enrichment.
October 17, 2024

By Katarína Bučková and Anna Johnson, Iowa State University
Pigs are highly motivated to root, explore and forage, but these are limited or redirected with the predominant housing systems widely used in North America. Redirection of these behaviors may result in tail or ear biting. Successful physical enrichment should decrease the incidence of tail or eat biting and increase desirable behaviors such as exploring or foraging.
There have been promising welfare results when PE is provided for pigs. The most optimal PE for pigs is straw. However, straw is challenging to implement into the predominant North American housing systems that have partial or fully slatted flooring (Fraser et al., 1991; Van de Weerd and Day, 2009; Bučková et al., 2022). Therefore, the objective of this review is to summarize the welfare effects when using a rope, balls, burlap bags and toys compared to pigs with no enrichment.
Things to consider when implementing enrichment:
Safe for the pig
Is interesting for the pig
Easy for the caretaker
Maintains biosecurity
Can work with a partial or slatted flooring system
Cost appropriate
Ropes made of various materials can be used. They should be hung to avoid soiling and replaced when thoroughly destroyed to maintain attractivity and efficiency. Seddon et al. (2016) investigated whether pre-weaning creep consumption could be increased through provision of cotton ropes. Results indicated that piglets provided with the rope interacted with it in 5% of observations, but the rope did not improve creep consumption. However, Travers et al. (2021) documented that a sisal rope in finisher pigs increased activity and reduced oral manipulation of pen mates as well as aggression. Furthermore, the team determined that the rope improved finisher bone biomechanics (Travers et al., 2023a), but not thermoregulation, skin lesions, lameness, carcass traits and meat quality (Travers et al, 2023b).
There are several types of commercially available balls (Figure 1A). They can be hung or placed onto the floor. Hanging reduces soiling and saves pig space, but placing a ball on the floor provides the pig with a different interaction experience. Gračner et al. (2013) found that for weaned pigs their weight gain from day 0 to day 60 was higher in pigs provided with either the hanging or floor ball.

Figure 1. Physical enrichment for piglets at the Allen E. Christian Swine Teaching Farm, Iowa State University included a ball (1A), burlap bag (1B) and EASYFIX Luna 50 (1B). Photo: Katarína Bučková.
Provision of burlap bags (Figure 1B) is one of the cheapest options. One burlap bag per litter usually lasts until weaning, but older pigs destroy the bags more quickly. The bags should be hung, so they do not get soiled. Ursinus et al. (2014) found that piglets provided burlap bags had reduced tail and ear damage at weaning, and substantially reduced frequencies of biting pen mates. The bags were bitten around 10 times per pig during 80 minutes of observations. Sows whose litters had access to the bags, tended to have better tail damage scores at weaning but the proportion of sows with a tail wound did not differ between treatments. The bags did not improve mammary gland, nor vulva damage.
EASYFIX Luna is a toy for piglets (Figure 1A), weaners, finishers and sows and is a natural high-quality rubber. Zhitniskiy et al. (2021) tested the EASYFIX Luna 142 (1 toy: 9 sows) on grouped housed gestating sow behavior over four days. When the toy was removed it did not increase agonistic behavior or sham chewing and while 85% of sows interacted with the toy at least once, their interest declined sharply after the first day. Moreover, sows interacted with the toy only 1% of their time. Interestingly, low-parity sows, moderately lame sows, and the sows observed sham chewing displayed more consistent toy use.
Smith and Pierdon (2024) compared EASYFIX Luna, AllBite, Bite-rite and the Porcichew. AllBite is a molasses-based block. Bite-rite is a plastic toy with four chew sticks that is hung. Porcichew is a flavored toy constructed from a biodegradable malleable material. In this work a Green Apple Porcichew and Yellow Vanilla Porcichew were used. Wean to finish pens were given one of these enrichment devices. All were attached to the pen front (≈ 27 pigs per pen). EASYFIX Luna pigs had fewer skin lesions on days 14 and 28. AllBite pigs had fewer lesions on days 7, 14 21 and 35. Pigs with Bite-rite had fewer lesions on days 14 and 21. The pigs with a Green Porcichew had lower lesion counts on days seven, 14 and 21. Yellow Porcichew reduced lesion counts only on days 14 and 28. These devices did not reduce fighting, belly/floor nosing, bites, prolong play or change pig activity. In addition, there was no difference to pigs visiting the feeder.
Take home message
These enrichments improved at least one welfare parameter and are practical for on-farm use (Table 1).
Acknowledgement
Bučková’s salary was supported by Iowa Farm Bureau Federation .Partial funding of Johnson’s salary was supported by the Department of Animal Science, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Iowa State University, and the USDA.
Literature source
The cited literature sources will be provided upon request.
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