Providing enrichment in sow gestation housing improves welfare even in constrained systems. Understanding what works helps producers implement meaningful behavioral opportunities.
Sow welfare in gestation housing is significantly compromised by behavioral deprivation even in group systems that allow movement. The absence of rooting substrate denies sows one of their most strongly motivated behaviors, causing frustration that manifests as stereotypic behaviors and aggression. The scale of this deprivation - affecting millions of sows globally each gestation period - represents an enormous welfare burden that enrichment can meaningfully reduce. Even imperfect enrichment that provides partial behavioral satisfaction is better than none, and the low cost of many effective enrichment materials makes their provision difficult to justify omitting.