The relationship between the level of pig welfare and their health status

Multifactorial factors of the conditions of keeping productive animals are associated with indicators of health status and demonstrate a complex cause-and-effect relationship with the level of ensuring their well-being, which is based on the implementation of the principles of the “Five Freedoms”. The aim of the work was to assess and scientifically analyze the relationship between the level of ensuring the well-being of pigs under intensive technology of their cultivation and the dynamics of their morphological, biochemical, and immunological blood parameters, in particular of sows of different physiological periods. In the “Meat Resources” farm, which practices three-phase keeping, a number of studies were conducted indicating the relationship and influence of the conditions of keeping sows grown in this farm and used to replenish the main breeding stock, on indicators of homeostasis and their compliance with physiological norms. It was found that the number of erythrocytes in the blood of sows was within the physiological norm, except for the group of sows of the second half of gestation, during this period a sharp decrease in the number of these cells was observed, which is explained by the physiological load – 4.34 T/l, which is 1.66 less than the lower limit of the physiological norm (P < 0.001). A low hematocrit value was found, which in fact in all physiological periods exceeded the lower limit of the physiological norm and was 2.25–6.39 % less than it. Only in sows of the second half of gestation was this indicator closer to the upper limit of the physiological norm, and was 41.5 % (P < 0.001). Such data are most likely evidence of the development of anemia, a deficiency of nutrients such as iron, vitamin B12, or folic acid, which can lead to hypotrophy or premature birth of the offspring. As a result of the analysis of protein metabolism of sows of different physiological periods, a clearly pronounced hypoalbuminemia was established, which is diagnosed with the development of thyrotoxicosis, which occurs due to an excess of thyroid hormones in the blood due to various disorders in the thyroid gland, caused by stress, infections or hereditary predisposition. According to the results of the studies, it can be concluded that the technological features of intensive pig farming, due to the influence and sometimes inconsistency with the biological, ethological, or physiological needs of pigs, have a mostly negative effect on the animal organism. Therefore, it is worth considering that a key aspect of the EU Directive setting minimum standards for the protection of pigs is that it prohibits the fixed (tethered) confinement of sows and the use of machines for them, these methods are considered to be some of the most inhumane in the industrial production of livestock products.