Jeju Convention Center Hosts First Farm Animal Welfare Forum
Pregnant sows in South Korea are currently confined to gestation stalls that will face nationwide use restrictions from 2030 under a revision to the Enforcement Decree of the Livestock Act. Yet farrowing crates—restrictive enclosures used during birth—remain entirely unregulated, prompting veterinarians and animal welfare researchers to call for industry reforms.
The issue took center stage on December 2 at the Korean Veterinary Medical Association’s fall academic conference held at the Jeju Convention Center in Seogwipo, Jeju, where the organization hosted its first-ever forum dedicated to farm animal welfare. During the event, Yun Jin-hyun, a professor in the Department of Animal Resources at Chonnam National University, detailed how confinement suppresses vital maternal instincts. Free sows typically leave herds before birth to dig the earth, gather soil with their snouts, and build nests from straw. Inside unyielding farrowing crates, sows repeatedly scrape the floor with their feet and snouts in a futile nesting ritual driven by the same suppressed biology.
Maternal Stress and High-Density Breeding Amplify Piglet Mortality
Confined sows suffer intense stress that suppresses the hormones required for successful labor and lactation, according to Yun. Many livestock producers defend farrowing crates as a necessary safeguard to prevent mothers from crushing piglets or harming litters out of stress. However, Yun argues that piglet mortality stems directly from maternal stress rather than facility layouts. Deprived of a nesting space, sows repeatedly stand and sit during labor, unable to settle because they lack room to lie down.
The crisis is compounded by hyper-prolific breeding lines. While traditional sows averaged roughly 11 piglets per litter, Danish-bred hyper-prolific sows frequently birth up to 20. Farrowing durations have consequently stretched from 90 minutes to as long as six or seven hours. Late-born piglets frequently suffer from oxygen deprivation, leading to stillbirths or accidental crushing by mothers. Conversely, research published by Yun’s team in 2024 revealed that providing sows with palm mats and rollers rolled with their snouts during late gestation and lactation significantly shortened farrowing times and lowered stress hormone indicators.
Poultry Housing Systems and Dairy Cow Comfort Define Modern Livestock Management
Beyond swine production, clinical veterinarians at the forum addressed welfare standards across poultry and dairy sectors. While birds raised on standard flat floors exhibited a 30% misplacement rate for eggs—dropping them on the floor rather than in designated boxes—flocks raised in multi-tier housing systems showed a misplacement rate of just 2% to 3%. Ko explained that birds must learn to climb early in life to utilize perches and nesting boxes effectively, noting that current legal standards mandate perches and nesting boxes without verifying whether chickens actually use them. In the dairy sector, Ha Hyun-je, director of Goryeo Animal Hospital and a 15-year dairy farmer in Anseong, modeled cow management around natural behavioral rhythms. Cows spend three to five hours eating, seven to ten hours or more ruminating, and ten to fourteen hours resting daily. Ha replaced damp sawdust with natural organic peat moss as bedding six years ago, resulting in cows lying down for over ten hours a day with minimal veterinary intervention. The farm also utilizes ingestible rumen sensors to track body temperature, drinking frequency, and rumination times, relying on artificial intelligence to detect early signs of illness.
Lee Urges Shared Financial Responsibility for Animal Welfare
Closing the forum, Lee Hyung-joo, director of the Aware Animal Welfare Issues Research Institute, commended the shift toward animal welfare within veterinary medicine, which has historically prioritized biosecurity, disease management, and production metrics. Lee called for targeted government policies to translate research into tangible farming improvements, urging that the financial costs of animal welfare be shared collaboratively among governments, distribution networks, and consumers.
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