CHALLENGES IN PIG PRODUCTION

摘要

Recent years have been challenging for the pig industry in the EU. Sow numbers have decreased by more than 3.8 million animals (23.5 percent) in the last 10 years because of competition and costly regulations related to environment and animal welfare(Corty, 2014). The new animal welfare regulations for sows which came in in January 2013, combined with high feed prices, have forced more farmers to stop production. However, the picture is not totally bleak since total meat production in the EU has not been affected from this fall in sows' numbers, and, again, the average number of sows per farm increased in almost every country. Clearly improvements to increase the efficiency of pig production have continuously been made.