Environmentally enriched housing conditions affect pig welafre, immune system and gut microbiota in early life
Conventional pig housing and management conditions are associated with gastrointestinal pathophysiology and disease susceptibility in early life. Developing new strategies to reduce both therapeutic and prophylactic antibiotic use is urgent for the sustainable swine production globally. To this end, housing methodology providing effective environmental enrichment could be a promising alternative approach to reduce antibiotic usage, as it can positively influence pig welfare and immune status and reducing susceptibility to infections. It is, however, poorly understood how this enriched housing affects systemic and local pulmonary immune status and gut microbiota colonization during early life. In the present study, we compared the effects of two housing conditions, i.e. conventional housing: (CH) versus enriched housing (EH), on pig welfare, immune status and gut microbiota from birth until 61 days of age.