AVMA Shifts Policy on Housing of Mother Pigs

As reported in the fall 2024 AWI Quarterly, AWI submitted comments to the Animal Welfare Committee of the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) regarding its policy on pregnant sow housing. Dr. Gwendy Reyes-Illg, veterinary medicine consultant for AWI’s Farmed Animal Program, provided an extremely detailed, comprehensively researched rationale for why pregnant sows should be socially housed in appropriately designed and managed group settings, rather than confined to gestation crates (metal enclosures that typically measure only 2 x 7 feet). This summer, the AVMA approved a new policy, which features several notable improvements.

Although the new policy does not explicitly condemn confining pregnant pigs to gestation crates, it no longer contains language explicitly defending the practice. Moreover, for the first time, the policy states that sow housing and management should “allow sows and piglets to express highly motivated behaviors while avoiding or minimizing expression of abnormal repetitive behaviors and aggression.” Since gestation crates prevent the 500- to 800-pound sows from expressing virtually all highly motivated natural behaviors (e.g., walking, exploring, grooming, using separate areas for lying and defecating), their use appears to conflict with the AVMA’s new policy.

The policy’s scope was also expanded to include other life phases besides pregnancy. Farrowing crates, which are used to confine nursing mothers for three to four weeks during birth and nursing, are similarly restrictive and prevent most highly motivated prepartum and maternal behaviors, such as nest building, initiating contact with piglets, and establishing a separate area for elimination. Therefore, their use may also run counter to the new policy.

The policy’s accompanying resolution states that “the AVMA encourages current movement within the swine industry toward group housing, while also acknowledging the challenges and benefits that are associated with this change.” This appears to represent a major shift in policy, as the AVMA has previously opposed measures that encouraged or required group housing systems for pregnant pigs.

See more AWI Quarterly articles about: Animals on Factory Farms, Farmed Animals

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