Drinking behaviour in sows kept outdoors during the winter months

Publication Type:
Journal Article
Year of Publication:
2014
Authors:
Heidi Mai-Lis Andersen, Lene Juul Pedersen
Publication/Journal:
Applied Animal Behaviour Science
Keywords:
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ISBN:
0168-1591
Abstract:

In the light of the EU regulation, “pigs must have permanent access to a sufficient quantity of fresh water” and the practical problems it provides farmers during winter to keep water free of ice, the aim of this study was to investigate the influence of periods with frost on the diurnal pattern of water intake in sows kept outdoors with free access to water. The study was performed on an organic pig herd with outdoor sows. Twenty-four Danish Landrace × Yorkshire sows of different parity (mean: 4.5 ± 2.8) housed in individual farrowing paddocks with free access to water provided by a frost-proof drinking bowl were used. The individual sow’s water intake from the drinking bowl was measured continuously from six days before farrowing until weaning at seven weeks after farrowing. Temperature of supplied water to each drinking bowl, air temperature and rainfall was measured continuously. Numbers of born alive, stillborn and weaned piglets were recorded. The recording period was divided into two temperature categories; control days (CD) with daily average air temperature at or above 0 °C and frosty days (FD) with daily average air temperature below 0 °C. The FD included data from 22 days representing 11 sows, while the remaining observations were defined as CD. Average water uptake from six days before farrowing until four weeks after farrowing was higher on FD than CD (28.9 ± 0.8 vs. 23.1 ± 1.8 l/day, P < 0.001). Across periods, a clear circadian rhythm was found with 70–75% of the water intake taking place between 8.00 and 20.00 h. The extra water uptake on FD compared to CD was recorded between 8.00 and 16.00 h (P < 0.05). Water intake did not differ at night in the period from 20.00 to 8.00 h (6.42 l vs. 6.44 l, respectively for FD and CD). There was no difference between FD and CD in number of visits to the drinking bowl during night (2.1 ± 0.56 and 1.9 ± 0.24 visits/night for FD and CD, respectively). We found higher water intake during frosty days and no difference in water consumption at night between days of frosty and normal weather, which indicates that pigs are motivated to drink even when the weather is cold. However, many farms may not have frost-proof water dispensers, and ice formation could prevent pigs from drinking at night. Thus further work is needed to investigate if sows, during the day, are able to compensate for a lack of uptake of water at night in case of a frozen water resource.

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