Effect of age on the behavioral and physiological responses of piglets to tail docking and ear notching1

Abstract

Neonatal piglets are often subject to potentially painful processing procedures such as tail docking and ear notching during the first few days after birth. However, these procedures may influence the development of suckling behavior and passive transfer of immunoglobulins, especially if done within the first day postpartum. The objective of this experiment was to compare the effects of processing piglets during the first 24 h versus at 3 d of age on suckling and pain-related behavior, the passive transfer of immunoglobulins, and growth. Six piglets per litter from 20 litters (n = 120 piglets) were used in a 3 x 2 complete block design. Piglets were weighed at birth and assigned to 1 of 3 treatments (balanced by birth weight): control (unmanipulated), sham processed (manually manipulated), and processed (tail docked and ear notched) at 1 of 2 ages (1 or 3 d of age). Vocalizations were recorded during the procedures, and piglets were observed after the procedures for pain-related behavior. Suckling behavior was observed for 6 h on each of d 1 to 4. Colostrum samples were collected after the birth of all piglets (before first suck), and blood samples were collected on d 5 to examine concentrations of immunoglobulins (IgA and IgG) and IGF-I. Body weights were measured at birth and on d 5 and 14. During the procedures, processed piglets, regardless of age, vocalized at a greater frequency (P < 0.001) and produced more high frequency calls (P = 0.016) than sham-processed piglets. All piglets on d 1 produced more high frequency calls than all piglets on d 3 (P = 0.047). Immediately after the procedures, sham-processed and processed piglets spent less time lying and more time standing than control piglets (P < 0.001), whereas processed piglets jammed their tail between their legs more than sham-processed or control piglets (P < 0.001). Lying, standing and tail posture were not influenced by age, nor were there age by treatment interactions. Piglets on d 1 trembled more than piglets on d 3 (P < 0.001), and this tended to be exacerbated by processing (P = 0.076). There was no effect of treatment or age of treatment on suckling behavior. Processed piglets had decreased IgG serum concentrations compared with sham-processed and control piglets (P = 0.029), although there was no interaction between treatment and age of treatment (P = 0.67). Whereas tail docking and ear notching do appear to result in short-term pain and modulated immune status, processing on d 1 appears neither better nor worse than processing on d 3.

Pain behaviour after castration of piglets; effect of pain relief with lidocaine and/or meloxicam

“…Behaviour of piglets after castration Pain-related behaviours in our study decreased over time, independently of treatment, mostly because of a decrease of huddled-up behaviour. An age effect in behaviours was also described by Torrey et al (2009); they found that 1-day-old piglets trembled more compared with 3-day-old piglets. This underlines the importance of including control treatments in a study design.…”

Ear tagging in piglets: the cortisol response with and without analgesia in comparison with castration and tail docking

“…By sampling blood before every procedure, we established an individual baseline cortisol value for each piglet. Only male piglets were included in the study, considering that there is no interaction between sex and tail docking or ear notching (Torrey et al, 2009) and castration is obviously only possible with male piglets. According to Mellor and Stafford (2004) the magnitude of a response should be assessed, that is both duration and maximum height.…”

“…As welfare topics become increasingly important, the scrutinising of these procedures must not be neglected. Several studies have evaluated castration and tail docking and the impact that these procedures have on the welfare of the piglets (Von Borell et al, 2009;Sutherland and Tucker, 2011), their physiological and behavioural responses (Zöls et al, 2006;Llamas Moya et al, 2008;Torrey et al, 2009), the economic consequences and alternative methods (Carroll et al, 2006;Kilchling, 2010;Sutherland et al, 2012). However, very few studies have evaluated the impact of ear tagging on pig welfare and none have compared the relative distress caused by ear tagging with other painful husbandry procedures (castration and tail docking) or examined the effect of analgesia.…”

Identifying and monitoring pain in farm animals: a review

“…An example is the latency to the occurrence of a withdrawal or kicking movement when a limited area of the leg, shoulder or rump is subjected to a painful stimulus, for instance, by heating the skin locally with a laser beam (pigs: Jarvis et al, 1997;calves: Veissier et al, 2000;cows: Herskin et al, 2003). Avoidance and defensive behaviours, including leg and body movements as if animals were trying to avoid or escape the painful stimuli, were observed during castration (Marx et al, 2003), teeth resection and tail docking in young piglets (Noonan et al, 1994;Torrey et al, 2009). Similarly, dairy cows or growing calves jumped or kicked when subjected to hot-iron or liquid-nitrogen branding (Lay et al, 1992a;SchwartzkopfGenswein et al, 1998).…”

“…For example, less suckling or feeding behaviour, social isolation, behavioural desynchronisation with littermates and/or less social interactions with the dam were observed in pigs after surgical castration (McGlone and Hellman, 1988;Hay et al, 2003;Llamas Moya et al, 2008) or tail docking (Torrey et al, 2009). Similarly in calves, reduction in feed intake was observed after castration (Fisher et al, 1996).…”