Cerdas hiperprolíficas y bienestar animal, ¿son compatibles?

Abstract

The output of commercial pig farming has significantly increased in the last decades by the selection of hyperprolific sows. These animals are capable of giving birth, on average, to more than 15 piglets per litter. Profits have risen due to the intensification of the porcine productive system by controlling all the environmental factors and maximizing the density of animals in housing. However, this intensification has led to a significant decline on animal welfare and survival, meat quality, and system sustainability. Consumers´concern about these issues has progressively grown in the last years, making them more willing to assume the additional costs of a more sustainable system. For a change in animal husbandry, many aspects of the physiology of pregnancy, parturition, and lactation of the sow need to be considered. The animal housing should be restructured to allow normal biological development of the animal, and the environmental impact of the productive system should be reduced, as it is already being carried out in some European countries.