Does the presence of a human affect the preference of enrichment items in young, isolated pigs?

DeBoer, S.P.; Garner, Joseph P.; Lay, D. C.; Eicher, S.D.; Lucas, Jeffrey R.; Marchant‐Forde, Jeremy N.

doi:10.1016/j.applanim.2012.10.007

Cited by 12 publications

(6 citation statements)

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“…Although piglets maintained their performance in discriminating cues, they spent less time inside the apparatus and in contact with the trough when the human observer was present. It was originally shown that in absence of humans, isolated young pigs which have received minimal interactions with humans prefer access to sight and relative proximity with conspecifics as well as comfortable lying surface instead of a mirror [ 35 ]. However when a human is present, their preferences for comfort switch for social enrichments including mirror or conspecifics.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Way Humans Behave Modulates the Emotional State of Piglets

et al. 2015

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The emotional state can influence decision-making under ambiguity. Cognitive bias tests (CBT) proved to be a promising indicator of the affective valence of animals in a context of farm animal welfare. Although it is well-known that humans can influence the intensity of fear and reactions of animals, research on cognitive bias often focusses on housing and management conditions and neglects the role of humans on emotional states of animals. The present study aimed at investigating whether humans can modulate the emotional state of weaned piglets. Fifty-four piglets received a chronic experience with humans: gentle (GEN), rough (ROU) or minimal contact (MIN). Simultaneously, they were individually trained on a go/no-go task to discriminate a positive auditory cue, associated with food reward in a trough, from a negative one, associated with punishments (e.g. water spray). Independently of the treatment (P = 0.82), 59% of piglets completed the training. Successfully trained piglets were then subjected to CBT, including ambiguous cues in presence or absence of a human observer. As hypothesized, GEN piglets showed a positive judgement bias, as shown by their higher percentage of go responses following an ambiguous cue compared to ROU (P = 0.03) and MIN (P = 0.02) piglets, whereas ROU and MIN piglets did not differ (P > 0.10). The presence of an observer during CBT did not modulate the percentage of go responses following an ambiguous cue (P > 0.10). However, regardless of the treatment, piglets spent less time in contact with the trough following positive cues during CBT in which the observer was present than absent (P < 0.0001). This study originally demonstrates that the nature of a chronic experience with humans can induce a judgement bias indicating that the emotional state of farm animals such as piglets can be affected by the way humans interact with them.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Way Humans Behave Modulates the Emotional State of Piglets

et al. 2015

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“…Each session took place in the rearing pen and the order of the pen was balanced across days. The handling procedure, using gentle tactile contacts is described in the supplementary material and was similar to Tallet et al 21 .…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the farming context, pigs may experience various kinds of pseudo-social events. Pigs are social animals and the presence of familiar conspecifics has a highly positive valence 21 . Pigs also experience interactions with humans and have been shown to develop a positive relationship with them after a period of positively reinforcing interactions, such as brushing and calmly speaking, compared to control animals 22 – 24 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Piglets vocally express the anticipation of pseudo-social contexts in their grunts

Villain

Hazard

Danglot

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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Emotions not only arise in reaction to an event but also while anticipating it, making this context a means of accessing the emotional value of events. Before now, anticipatory studies have rarely considered whether vocalisations carry information about emotional states. We studied both the grunts of piglets and their spatial behaviour as they anticipated two (pseudo)social events known to elicit positive emotions of different intensity: arrival of familiar conspecifics and arrival of a familiar human. Piglets spatially anticipated both pseudo-social contexts, and the spectro temporal features of grunts differed according to the emotional context. Piglets produced low-frequency grunts at a higher rate when anticipating conspecifics compared to anticipating a human. Spectral noise increased when piglets expected conspecifics, whereas the duration and frequency range increased when expecting a human. When the arrival of conspecifics was delayed, the grunt duration increased, whereas when the arrival of the human was delayed, the spectral parameters were comparable to those during isolation. This shows that vocal expressions in piglets during anticipation are specific to the expected reward. Vocal expressions—both their temporal and spectral features- are thus a good way to explore the emotional state of piglets during the anticipation of challenging events.

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“…Testes de preferência são realizados buscando estabelecer a capacidade e eficiência do enriquecimento para a espécie específica a ser beneficiada perante os diferentes tipos de enriquecimento disponíveis (24)(25)(26) . (27) .…”

Section: Resultsunclassified

EFEITO DE DIFERENTES TÉCNICAS DE ENRIQUECIMENTO AMBIENTAL EM CATIVEIRO DE ONÇAS SUÇUARANAS (Puma concolor)

Ricci

Branco²,

Sousa

et al. 2018

Ciênc. anim. bras.

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Resumo Objetivou-se avaliar os efeitos da implementação de diferentes técnicas de enriquecimento ambiental sobre a atividade comportamental de onças suçuaranas (Puma concolor) mantidas em cativeiro. Para este estudo, foram utilizadas cinco onças suçuaranas, quatro machos e uma fêmea, pertencentes ao Zoológico Municipal de Ribeirão Preto-SP. Para fins de enriquecimento ambiental, nos recintos dos felinos foram introduzidas bolas confeccionadas com cipó e sisal e, também, caixas de papelão com carne bovina ou erva cidreira e canela. Os dados de comportamento foram submetidos à análise descritiva. Mesmo em cativeiro, os animais apresentaram comportamento de demarcação territorial, como urinar e rugir em alguns momentos em que se sentiam ameaçados. Ademais, foi verificado um maior interesse das onças pelas caixas de papelão com carne bovina em detrimento daquelas que continham erva cidreira e canela. Foi observado também um entretenimento das onças com as bolas de cipó e sisal. Esses achados sugerem êxito nas estratégias de enriquecimento ambiental estudadas, o que foi evidenciado pelo interesse dos felinos nos diferentes materiais avaliados. Além disso, os enriquecimentos utilizados neste estudo são estratégias simples e de baixo custo que contribuem para o bem-estar de onças suçuaranas (Puma concolor), podendo ser aplicadas em outras instituições que abrigam esses animais.

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Does the presence of a human affect the preference of enrichment items in young, isolated pigs?

Cited by 12 publications

References 50 publications

The Way Humans Behave Modulates the Emotional State of Piglets

The Way Humans Behave Modulates the Emotional State of Piglets

Piglets vocally express the anticipation of pseudo-social contexts in their grunts

EFEITO DE DIFERENTES TÉCNICAS DE ENRIQUECIMENTO AMBIENTAL EM CATIVEIRO DE ONÇAS SUÇUARANAS (Puma concolor)

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