60,000 piglets a year at risk under draft code
If approved, a new draft welfare code for pigs could result in the death of 60,000 piglets a year, NZ Pork says.
The code is open for public consultation. It was sent for review last year when a High Court ruling found that processes around rule setting for the use of farrowing crates in the pig industry had not been followed. As a result, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor ordered the National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee (Nawac) to look at the use of farrowing crates.
The use of farrowing crates, where sows (female pigs) were kept before, during and after giving birth, was a burning issue between animal welfare groups and farmers last year.
Farmers and pork industry groups said the crates balanced the needs and welfare of the sow with those of her piglets, by preventing sows, which weighed up to 300 kilograms, from crushing piglets.
Animal welfare groups said farrowing crates should be banned. Crates gave sows access to food and water but stopped them from turning around.
Proposals for the draft code from Nawac not only suggested the possibility of completely disallowing farrowing crates for the industry but also recommended changes to the size of group housing for young pigs, restrictions on the use of mating stalls and requirements for objects in pig housing that encouraged normal playing behaviours in pigs. Nawacalso said piglets should not be weaned before they were 28 days old.
The time sows were restrained for mating should be decreased. Sows could currently be restrained for up to a week. Nawac proposed sows should not be restrained for more than three hours.
Brent Kleiss, chief executive of NZ Pork, said the proposed changes were not supported by animal welfare science and that welfare was supposed to be the purpose of the code.
The code proposed two options for the use of farrowing crates. One was to stop its use completely and the other limited its use.
NZ Pork believed there was a place for some confinement during the farrowing period and was necessary to prevent piglets from being crushed under their mothers. Crates also allowed farmworkers to manage sows without compromising their health and safety, Kleiss said.
Sows spent a maximum of four weeks in farrowing crates. After that sows were either outdoors or in housing with other pigs, he said.
Nawac proposed housing that would allow sows to display natural behaviour and give piglets safe areas, with sows not being confined for longer than 72 hours.
Farrowing crates acted as a maternity ward for sows and were designed to reduce piglet starvation, hypothermia and accidental crushing by the sow, Kleiss said.
Piglet deaths did occur but NZ Pork calculated that by not restricting sow movement up to 60,000 additional piglets would die every year. This depended on which of the two farrowing options proposed in the code was adopted, he said.
There were about 90 commercial pig farms in New Zealand producing about 637,000 pigs a year, he said.
‘‘No country has completely banned the use of farrowing crates in recognition that enabling a period of temporary confinement is still necessary during the highly vulnerable stage of newborn piglets’ lives,’’ he said.
Nawac also proposed the size for group housing of young pigs be increased by over 100%. Current criteria for group pig areas were in line with international standards, Kleiss said.
Nawac chairperson Dr Gwyneth Verkerk said to meet welfare standards the size of housing facilities would need to increase by about 50%.
‘‘For an indoor pig to manage growing litter she needs space,’’ Verkerk said. In countries that adopted freer movement space was a big determinant of success, she said. The changes would challenge the way pig farmers thought. If the industry wanted to survive it needed to conform to what people would want in the future, Verkerk said.
These changes meant most local pig farmers would have to rebuild their housing facilities. Costs would amount to multiple millions of dollars per farm. Local pig farms would become unviable and force consumers to rely on imported pork, Kleiss said.