ABSTRACT
Nearly 1 billion pigs are in inventory on farms around the world. About half the pigs are found in China alone. The other regions with significant number of pigs include South East Asia, Japan, Brazil, Mexico, the United States, Canada and most of Europe. Among these geographical locations, we find three general types of production models: (1) modern, industrialized production systems [Modern]; (2) small-scale low-input, often-backyard, family operations [Backyard]; and (3) natural, organic, antibiotic-free, GMO-free systems [Natural]. Modern industrialized systems have been called factory farms by those that wish to criticize keeping pigs in buildings and pens. However, pigs were moved from mud lots to buildings to improve their welfare and their health in particular. Today, we may find very low pre-weaning mortality and high health among pigs in many industrialized systems. Likewise, some presumably high-welfare systems have high pre-weaning piglet mortality and significant numbers of sows with scratches and wounds compared with modern US industrialized systems (McGlone, 2006). We have also reported good welfare among sows in both indoor and outdoor production systems that are well managed (Johnson et al., 2001). One cannot support the idea that industrialized production systems are inherently bad for pig welfare. Likewise, one cannot assume that because sows and piglets are in more natural settings that their welfare is automatically good. Good and poor welfare are found both on industrialized and more on natural production systems.
