No abstract

In recent years, with animal welfare in China gaining more clout, people are paying more attention to animal welfare. In order to know the level of cognition about animal welfare in Chinese college students and whether their life backgrounds affect the cognition, a nationwide random survey was conducted to evaluate and analyze the status of animal welfare cognition through means of WeChat questionnaires. The results show that college students have a certain degree of awareness of animal welfare, but there were significant differences among students with different life backgrounds. There were different valuations for laboratory animals, companion animals, farm animals, wild animals, and animals used for entertainment. Overall, the college students from or studying in China's developed regions had a more accurate cognition about animal welfare than those from developing regions or underdeveloped regions. The valuation of college students from urban areas was higher than that from rural areas, and the valuation of college students who had experience keeping a pet was higher than that of those who had never had a pet. Interaction was only shown between the growth environment and the growth regions on opinions towards stray dogs. More students from urban areas support killing stray dogs, but a significant difference was only shown in developed regions (P<0.05). In conclusion, socioeconomic background affects Chinese college students' cognition about animal welfare.

The stall-housing system is commonly used in the modern swine industry in many countries; however, long-term space restrictions can cause affective and physiological abnormalities in sows. The pupil light reflex (PLR) can reflect the psychological and neurological changes in animals, and confined sows show higher pupillary rigidity. However, the PLR differs between same-parity sows, suggesting differences in behaviors and affective states between parity groups. We subjected confined Yorkshire × Landrace sows of parity 0, 2, and 5 to a PLR test and accordingly assigned them to the weak PLR (WR) group (n = 20) or the strong PLR (SR) group (n = 22). We then observed the sows’ behaviors and performed a sucrose/quinine response test and novel object test (NOT) to assess the differences in their affective states. The standing and lateral lying behaviors of the sows were less frequent in WR than in SR (p < 0.05), whereas ventral lying and sitting behaviors was more frequent in WR than in SR (p < 0.05). No changes in chewing behaviors and sucrose/quinine responses were observed (p > 0.05); however, the numbers and duration of novel object contact were lower and the novel object response latency time was longer in WR than in SR (p < 0.05). Regarding parity, standing and lateral lying behaviors were less frequent and ventral lying and sitting behaviors were more frequent at parity 5 than at parity 0 (p < 0.05). Bar-biting, rooting, trough-biting, and sucrose response score were lower at parity 5 than at parity 0 (p < 0.05), and vacuum chewing behavior and quinine response score were higher in sows of parity 5 than in those of parity 0 (p < 0.05). NOT showed that the number of contacts and contact duration in sows decreased with increasing parity (p < 0.05), and the response latency time was longer in sows of parity 5 than in those of lower parity (p < 0.05). In conclusion, the behavioral expression and responses of confined sows to novel objects differed between PLRs. The evaluation of the affective state of sows also revealed marked differences with increasing parity. Thus, confined sows with WR and high parity apparently suffer from more severe psychological problems, and PLR may be a potent indicator for evaluating the affective state of confined sows.

Environment can affect sows behavioral pattern by creating their physiology and psychology imbalances, and postpartum behavioral pattern of sows is related closely with piglet mortality. However, few studies have focused on effects of pregnancy and lactation environments on Postures of primiparous sows during lactation. This study has investigated the postures of lactating primiparous sows raised in the crates or free pens during pregnancy and lactation. Total 12 gilts were reared in three types of environments randomly during pregnancy and lactation, including gestation pens and farrowing crates (PC), gestation pens and farrowing pens (PP), or gestation crates and farrowing crates (CC). Postures of sows were recorded by monitoring equipment on the 1st to 3rd day of 1-4 week after farrowing, the duration of postures was analyzed, including lateral lying, ventral lying, sitting, and standing. Gestation crates can encourage sow's sitting behaviour during the first week of postpartum (P=0.032), farrowing crates could increase sow's lateral lying during 1-4 weeks of postpartum (P=0.001), while the sows reared in farrowing pens performed more ventral lying and standing than farrowing crates (P=0.002; P=0.001, respectively). The restricted pregnancy environments could increase sitting and standing of lactating sows. The restricted lactating environments could prolong the lateral lying and sitting, and decrease the ventral lying and standing of lactating sows.

This study investigated the proteomic characteristics of colostrum for sows housed under different conditions. Among 12 gilts, four were housed in a gestation-crate and farrowing-crate combined housing system (CC) as controls, four were housed in a gestation-pen and farrowing-pen combined housing system (PP), and four were housed in a gestation-pen and farrowing-crate combined housing system (PC). Differentially expressed proteins in the colostrum (PP versus CC, and PC versus CC) were screened by proteomics technology, and bioinformatics analysis was then performed. Results showed that 93 proteins were differentially expressed in PP versus CC, and that 126 proteins were differentially expressed in PC versus CC. The differentially expressed proteins in the PP versus CC comparison were mainly enriched in interleukin (IL)-17, transforming growth factor-β, and nuclear factor-κ B signaling pathways, and in metabolic pathways, including glutathione metabolism, peroxisome, and carbon metabolism. In contrast, differentially expressed proteins in the PC versus CC comparison were enriched in the IL-17 signaling pathway, cholesterol metabolism, and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor signaling pathway. In conclusion, the housing environment appeared to affect the colostrum composition of sows by acting on their immune system and metabolic processes, particularly fat metabolism.