General
Husbandry
- Housing for animals shall be designed to allow the animal to
behave naturally.
- Housing shall be sufficiently spacious to allow all animals
to lie down in full lateral recumbency at one time and to move
freely.
- Pigs are active, social animals by nature, and close confinement
in crates is prohibited unless briefly required for vaccination,
feeding, marking or veterinary procedures or in the rare event
that a sow may savagely attack her piglets, and then only temporarily
until the sow is calm.
- Pigs shall have continuous access to pens bedded with straw
or chopped corn stover, or pasture or dirt yards in which they
can root, explore, play or build nests. Substitutes for straw
and corn stover may be used only with the approval of the Animal
Welfare Institute. Straw is the preferred bedding for farrowing
sows and their nursing piglets.
- Even when bedding is not needed for warmth, straw or other approved
material shall be provided to hogs that do not have continuous
access to pasture or dirt. The bedding shall be provided in quantities
sufficient to give the hogs material in which to play, explore
and root.
- Pigs housed outdoors shall have continuous access to shelters
that protect them from the heat, wind, cold or rain. Adequate
straw shall be provided to keep pigs comfortable in cold weather.
In the case of pigs loose-housed in groups in deep-bedded systems,
there shall be sufficient amount of litter to create a deep litter
bed in which composting can start and be sustained to provide
warmth and destroy pathogens.
Type of Farm
- Each farm shall be a family farm, that is, a farm on which an
individual or family member (a) owns the hogs; (b) depends upon
the farm for its livelihood; (c) participates in the daily physical
labor to manage the hogs and the farm operation. This shall not
prohibit networking among family farmers as long as all criteria
listed herein are adhered to by every member of the network.
Practical Prohibitions
and Requirements
- New buildings shall be constructed with windows or openings
that let in daylight.
- The equipment and fittings in buildings and other premises that
house pigs shall be so designed that they do not inflict injuries
or entail risks to the health of the animals. The fittings and
other equipment shall not prevent the animals from behaving naturally,
nor unwarrantably limit their freedom of movement or otherwise
cause them distress.
- Persons who transport live animals shall attend to the animals
and take the necessary steps to ensure that the animals are not
injured or caused to suffer during loading, transport and unloading.
- Hot prods or electric shocks shall not be used on the animals.
“Boar bashing” shall be prohibited.
- The animals’ living quarters shall be cleaned by procedures
that ensure satisfactory hygiene. The surfaces of deep litter
beds shall be kept dry and be of good hygienic quality.
- Pigs shall be given sufficient space to keep dunging and lying
areas separate from eating areas.
- The routine use of subtherapeutic antibiotics, hormones or sulfas
to control or mask disease or promote growth is not permitted.
The feeding of animal products to pigs is not allowed.
- Animals shall have a feeding plan that will guarantee a sufficient,
varied and well-balanced diet. Animals shall have access to their
feed as long as is necessary for them to satisfy their feed requirements.
Animals shall have free access to water.
- In the event a pig suffers accidental injury on the farm, that
animal shall receive individual treatment designed to minimize
its pain and suffering. Ill or injured animals shall not be transported
in the same compartment with healthy or uninjured animals.
- If the injury is serious enough for the animal to be slaughtered
it shall be euthanized on the farm.
Breeding animals
- Skip-a-day feeding shall not be used in this program. All pigs
shall be fed daily and the housing and distribution of feed shall
be designed to minimize competition for food.
- If nose-rings are used for pasture sows, the sows shall be supplied
with straw or similar material which sows can easily manipulate
to build nests. Only one nose-ring may be used per sow. Nose-ringing
is only permitted if, by this practice, sows gain the freedom
of living on pasture.
Weaning
- On each farm weaning shall take place at a piglet weight or
age that considers the health and welfare of both piglets and
their mothers. This age/weight may vary, depending on the breed
of the sow or gilt and level of milk production, her age and health,
and the health of the individual piglets. The recommended weaning
age is at least 6 weeks, but an earlier weaning date may be necessary,
for example, if the mother is a gilt of a breed with high milk
production and nursing a large litter. Minimum age of pigs at
weaning shall be 5 weeks.
Growing & Finishing
Pigs
- Pigs are highly intelligent animals with a strong instinct to
root and explore. Their environment shall provide appropriate
materials with which to fulfill these instinctive behaviors. A
behaviorally appropriate and comfortable environment should eliminate
the need for routine tail-docking and piglets shall not be tail
docked. If tail-biting problems do arise, farmers shall make every
effort to identify and eliminate the cause rather than resort
to routine tail-docking.
Castration
- If piglets are to be castrated, it must be done by the age of
2 weeks by a person proficient in the procedure.
Space Requirements
Space requirements for animals that are not free-ranging on pasture
may vary according to the design of the indoor or indoor-outdoor
housing system. The following minimum space requirements are based
on Swedish experience, particularly experience with housing boars,
pregnant sows and sows with litters in the Swedish Thorstensson
and Ljungstrom versions of deep-straw-bedded pig housing. Farmers
wanting to provide less space than that specified below must consult
with the Animal Welfare Institute for review of housing design before
deviations will be granted to farmers using the Animal Welfare Institute
name in conjunction with their husbandry.
- Boars: 64 square feet per individual (74 square feet if no separate
dunging area is provided)
- Sow and litter in pens:
-- pens with manure gutter - 54 square feet exclusive of gutter
per sow and litter
-- pens without manure gutter - 64 square feet per sow and litter
- Sow and litter in boxes:
-- 48 square feet per sow and litter
- Sow and litter in group lactation housing:
-- 81 square feet per sow and litter
- Gestating Sows (Individual housing in crates is prohibited;
following requirements are for group housed sows.):
-- gestation and mating - 27 square feet per sow (exclusive of
feeding area)
- Weaned, Growing and Finishing Pigs: Space shall be provided
to allow all pigs to lie down in full lateral recumbency at the
same time. This minimum does not take account of other needs to
move about and socialize and this minimum may need to be increased
if new information warrants an increase.
General Principles
- The Animal Welfare Institute will provide advice from veterinarians
and experts in pig behavior when needed or requested.
- Farmers in this program will be distinguished by a humane and
conscientious attitude toward the animals in their care as well
as by housing and husbandry standards which meet Animal Welfare
Institute criteria. Recognizing that slight variations in the
methods used to fulfill the above husbandry standards will exist,
it is the goal of the Animal Welfare Institute that the highest
level of husbandry is maintained at all times, with the possible
exception of temporary deviations when unexpected circumstances
arise that are not under the control of the farmer. A farmer’s
extended deviation from Animal Welfare Institute criteria shall
be cause for withdrawal of permission to use the Animal Welfare
Institute name in conjunction with that farmer’s product.
(All information on this page is copyrighted by AWI. Nothing
may be used in any form without the express written permission of
AWI.) |
