Influence of Increased Light Intensity on the Acceptance of a Solid Lying Area and a Slatted Elimination Area in Fattening Pigs

Svenja Opderbeck, Barbara Keßler, William Gordillo, Hansjörg Schrade, Hans-Peter Piepho and Eva Gallmann
Additional contact information
Svenja Opderbeck: Institute of Agricultural Engineering, University of Hohenheim, Garbenstraße 9, 70599 Stuttgart, Germany
Barbara Keßler: Bildungs- und Wissenszentrum Boxberg, Seehöfer Str. 50, 97944 Boxberg-Windischbuch, Germany
William Gordillo: Bildungs- und Wissenszentrum Boxberg, Seehöfer Str. 50, 97944 Boxberg-Windischbuch, Germany
Hansjörg Schrade: Bildungs- und Wissenszentrum Boxberg, Seehöfer Str. 50, 97944 Boxberg-Windischbuch, Germany
Hans-Peter Piepho: Institute of Crop Science, University of Hohenheim, Fruwirthstr. 23, 70599 Stuttgart, Germany
Eva Gallmann: Institute of Agricultural Engineering, University of Hohenheim, Garbenstraße 9, 70599 Stuttgart, Germany

Agriculture, 2020, vol. 10, issue 3, 1-14

Abstract: Animal welfare labels have been introduced to improve housing conditions in conventional pig systems. Animal welfare should be increased by, e.g. offering a well-accepted and comfortable solid lying area. This study investigates the effect of bright light from an LED spotlight in the slatted area on lying and elimination behavior of fattening pigs. It was tested for two pen designs different in feeder and arrangement of the slatted area with 18 pigs per pen. The study took place in two different compartments (spatial repetition) with two pens of each pen design. The light intensity in the slatted area was increased by two spotlights within one pen of each design as case-control approach. A total of 648 fattening pigs were tested over four and five fattening periods respectively. The lying behavior was assessed by video scan sampling at three different weekdays at three times (morning, noon, evening) on each observation day. On average, the lying area was used by 60–63% of the pigs in the control pens and 67–69% in the spotlight pens. Additionally, a tendential effect of the deviation of the room temperature from the set temperature existed. The fouling of the animals and pen was not affected by the light intensity.

Keywords: lying behavior; pen fouling; fattening pigs; light intensity; solid lying area (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/10/3/56/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/10/3/56/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jagris:v:10:y:2020:i:3:p:56-:d:325691

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

More articles in Agriculture from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().