Welfare concerns from Gestation crates
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During one hour of observation, 92.6% of confined pigs exhibited stereotypies.
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Sham chewing is one stereotypic behavior that occupies 50-75% of their waking hours.
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The lack of mobility causes them to suffer from constipation, rectal prolapse, muscle wasting, painful pressure sores, and urinary tract infections.
Food safety concerns:
- Stress hormones, which are elevated in pigs confined to gestation crates, increase their susceptibility to infections and the virulence of pathogens such as salmonella, campylobacter, and staphylococcus aureus.
- Piglets from crated mothers are more susceptible to infection than piglets from group-housed mothers.
- Piglets from group-housed mothers have better resistance and are exposed to fewer pathogens.
- Pork is the largest perpetrator of food-borne illnesses, with 787,000 infections per year.
- Salmonella from pork consumption alone costs Americans $1.9 billion per year.
- 60 percent of mother pigs test positive for salmonella, and 10 percent are resistant to multiple drugs.
- 27.1 percent of all antibiotics sold in the U.S. go to pork production.
- Roughly 700,000 deaths annually can be connected to diseases that have become hard to combat due to antibiotic resistance—the number could surge to 10,000,000 by 2050.