Reconciling productivity and welfare in intensive pig husbandry: a challenge for the year 2000

In the first part of this paper, the authors discuss the growing concern of consumers for farm animal welfare, and the attitude adopted by veterinarians to cope with this new and more humanitarian concept of intensive husbandry. The effects of intensification of pig production on the ability of pigs to adapt, and the behavioural, husbandry and health consequences of the principal stress factors in pig rearing are reviewed and illustrated by examples from recent research. In conclusion, the authors discuss the importance of constructive integration of welfare into pig production, in training courses and in actual application.