Planimetric Determination of the Static Space of Cull Sows as the First Step towards a Recommendation of Loading Densities for Cull Sows during Road Transportation in the European Union

Heidi Arndt, Birgit Spindler, Stephanie Hohmeier, Jörg Hartung and Nicole Kemper
Additional contact information
Heidi Arndt: Institute for Animal Hygiene, Animal Welfare and Farm Animal Behaviour (ITTN), University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Foundation, Bischofsholer Damm 15 (Building 116), 30173 Hanover, Germany
Birgit Spindler: Institute for Animal Hygiene, Animal Welfare and Farm Animal Behaviour (ITTN), University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Foundation, Bischofsholer Damm 15 (Building 116), 30173 Hanover, Germany
Stephanie Hohmeier: Institute for Animal Hygiene, Animal Welfare and Farm Animal Behaviour (ITTN), University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Foundation, Bischofsholer Damm 15 (Building 116), 30173 Hanover, Germany
Jörg Hartung: Institute for Animal Hygiene, Animal Welfare and Farm Animal Behaviour (ITTN), University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Foundation, Bischofsholer Damm 15 (Building 116), 30173 Hanover, Germany
Nicole Kemper: Institute for Animal Hygiene, Animal Welfare and Farm Animal Behaviour (ITTN), University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Foundation, Bischofsholer Damm 15 (Building 116), 30173 Hanover, Germany

Agriculture, 2020, vol. 11, issue 1, 1-15

Abstract: The available floor space is an important welfare factor for cull sows during transportation. Sows of modern genetics reach a size and weight far exceeding those of fattening pigs. In most countries, there are no binding, consistent regulations for the maximum loading densities, especially for sows during road transportation. As a first step towards such recommendations, the physical floor space requirement (static space) of 100 sows of a current breed, while standing and lying down, were determined using contrast-based planimetry. An average sow covered about 0.42–0.47 m 2 (standing postures) up to 0.53–0.63 m 2 (lying postures). The largest measured area was 0.72 m 2 for a sow lying in the belly-chest position. We detected a significant dependency of the covered floor area and the live weight, which supports the common practice to derive space requirements and recommendations based on live weight. Also, our results suggest that especially heavy sows, under currently usual loading densities, are at risk of having insufficient floor space requirements during transport. The results cannot be used to define the space required by a sow to carry out movements or sustain the individual need for distance (social/dynamic space) but provide data on the static space covered by sows of current breeds.

Keywords: animal transportation; animal welfare; planimetry; space requirements; static space; stocking density (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:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/11/1/20/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/11/1/20/ (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:11:y:2020:i:1:p:20-:d:472795

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 ().