Experience of moderate bedding affects behaviour of growing pigs

Munsterhjelm, Camilla; Peltoniemi, Olli; Heinonen, Mari; Hälli, Outi; Karhapää, Maija; Valros, Anna

doi:10.1016/j.applanim.2009.01.007

Cited by 71 publications

(82 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…Behavioural observations and body lesions Collection of behavioural and body lesion measures is described in detail in Munsterhjelm et al (2009). Animals were videotaped in N5, N9, F10, F14 and F21.…”

Section: Animalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Separate models for both sampling ages (N9 and F21) were built by manual backward elimination starting with average weight at birth for the animals in the pen, average weight for the pen at sampling and treatment as fixed effects. Weaning age and days of post-weaning diarrhoea were included as well, as these factors differed significantly between treatments (for details see Munsterhjelm et al, 2009). To count for the repeated nature of the data a dichotomous variable describing the occurrence of a circadian cortisol secretion pattern at N9 was included.…”

Section: Animalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Behaviours investigated were those thought to reflect stress: agonistic behaviours pooled, tail biting and exploration. The number of body lesions (skin, ear and tail separately; see Munsterhjelm et al, 2009) were analysed per growing stage.…”

Section: Animalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Groups with a cortisol rhythm at N9 performed less agonistic behaviours recorded during 30 min of the most active part of the day (see Munsterhjelm et al, 2009) Cortisol rhythmicity was not associated with tail-biting behaviour at any age. However, in the fattening unit (weeks F10 to F21), tail lesions occurred in fewer groups where the focal animal had a cortisol rhythm at F21 than non-rhythmic groups (in 6.9% of rhythmic and 27.8% of non-rhythmic groups; P 5 0.05).…”

Section: Rhythmicity Of Salivary Cortisolmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Litters varied between 8 and 12 siblings. Housing conditions, husbandry and feeding will be described only briefly, as details are given elsewhere (Munsterhjelm et al, 2009). The animals were subjected to standard commercial interventions and housed in spacious partly slatted pens at all times.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Environmental enrichment in early life affects cortisol patterns in growing pigs

Munsterhjelm

Valros

Heinonen

et al. 2010

Animal

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Effects of environmental enrichment at different stages of life on stress physiology of pigs were investigated in a trial with 63 groups, each of four siblings. In each of the three growing phases (suckling 0 to 4 weeks of age, nursery 5 to 9 weeks, fattening 10 to 24 weeks) pens either were (5E) or were not (50) enriched. Accordingly, the treatments were (i) 000, (ii) E00, (iii) EE0, (iv) 00E, (v) 0EE and (vi) EEE. The enrichment material, renewed twice daily to leave a thin layer, consisted of wood shavings and chopped straw. Salivary cortisol was sampled hourly from 0700 to 1900 h at the age of 9 and 21 weeks. The presence of a circadian secretion rhythm was evaluated by an intra-assay coefficient of variation-based method. An adrenocorticotropic hormone test was performed at 21 weeks. Treatment effects on the odds of a physiological cortisol rhythm were assessed by logistic regression, and effects on cortisol concentrations with a repeated measures GLM. Substrateenrichment from 0 to 9 weeks of age increased the odds of a rhythm as compared to barren housing (odds ratio (OR) 5 30.0, P , 0.01). A flat cortisol secretion pattern may indicate chronic stress and/or delayed maturation of the rhythm. Barren as compared to enriched rearing (0 to 4 weeks of age) seemed to cause a blunted secretion rhythm at 21 weeks of age. Although behavioural and tail lesion observations provided support to the assumption that a blunted rhythm indicates chronic stress, the biological significance of these cortisol results needs confirmation in future studies.Keywords: pig, cortisol, environmental enrichment, early enrichment ImplicationsThe welfare of intensively housed pigs is a matter of public concern. A crowded and barren environment is known to cause signs of stress. This research was designed to investigate effects on stress physiology of a very moderate amount of bedding provided at different stages of the life of pigs raised for slaughter. The quality (wood shavings and chopped straw) and amount was chosen to be compatible with partly slatted pen floors and slurry manure systems. The results indicate that a small amount of bedding in early life (0 to 4 weeks of age) will prevent physiological signs of stress at a later age. Due to use of unestablished methods the biological significance of these results needs more evidence to be disclosed.

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Section: Animalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Animalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Animalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Rhythmicity Of Salivary Cortisolmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Environmental enrichment in early life affects cortisol patterns in growing pigs

Munsterhjelm

Valros

Heinonen

et al. 2010

Animal

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Post-weaning social and cognitive performance of piglets raised pre-weaning either in a complex multi-suckling group housing system or in a conventional system with a crated sow

et al. 2017

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We studied the social and cognitive performance of piglets raised pre-weaning either in a conventional system with a sow in a farrowing crate (FC) or in a multi-suckling (MS) system in which 5 sows and their piglets could interact in a more physically enriched and spacious environment. After weaning at 4 weeks of age, 8 groups of 4 litter-mates per pre-weaning housing treatment were studied under equal and enriched post-weaning housing conditions. From each pen, one pair consisting of a dominant and a submissive pig was selected, based on a feed competition test (FCT) 2 weeks post-weaning. This pair was used in an informed forager test (IFT) which measured aspects of spatial learning and foraging strategies in a competitive context. During individual training, submissive (informed) pigs learned to remember a bait location in a testing arena with 8 buckets (the same bucket was baited in a search visit and a subsequent relocation visit), whereas dominant (non-informed) pigs always found the bait in a random bucket (search visits only). After learning their task, the informed pigs’ individual search visit was followed by a pairwise relocation visit in which they were accompanied by the non-informed pig. Effects of pre-weaning housing treatment were not distinctly present regarding the occurrence of aggression in the FCT and the learning performance during individual training in the IFT. During paired visits, informed and non-informed pigs changed their behaviour in response to being tested pairwise instead of individually, but MS and FC pigs showed few distinct behavioural differences.

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Effects of early and later life environmental enrichment and personality on attention bias in pigs (Sus scrofa domesticus)

et al. 2019

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We investigated effects of early and later life housing on attention bias, as an indicator of affective state, in pigs differing in coping style [reactive (LR) vs. proactive (HR)]. Pigs (n = 128) in barren or enriched housing from birth (B1 vs. E1) that experienced either a switch in housing at 7 weeks of age or not (creating B1B2, B1E2, E1E2, and E1B2 treatments), were studied in a 180-s attention bias test at 11 weeks. Pigs exposed to a 10-s-auditory-and-sudden-motion threat in the test arena paid more attention to the location of the threat, were more vigilant, showed less eating, more walking and were more likely to utter high-pitched vocalisations than non-threat pigs. During threat presence, HR pigs from post-switch enriched housing (E2-HR, i.e., B1E2 + E1E2) showed more vigilance but less exploration than others. After threat removal, no effects were found on time spent paying attention to the threat, vigilance, and eating, but E2-HR pigs paid attention to the threat more frequently, were more likely to utter high-pitched vocalisations and walked more compared to (part of) other groups, suggesting the most negative affective state in these animals. E2 pigs grunted more than B2 pigs. Thus, current housing, but not early life housing, affected behaviour in a personality-dependent manner in this attention bias test. Housing effects were opposite to expectation, possibly due to the short-term effect of the relative contrast between the home pens of the pigs and the test room. This potentially overruled putative long-term effects of environmental conditions on attention bias.

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Experience of moderate bedding affects behaviour of growing pigs

Cited by 71 publications

References 35 publications

Environmental enrichment in early life affects cortisol patterns in growing pigs

Environmental enrichment in early life affects cortisol patterns in growing pigs

Post-weaning social and cognitive performance of piglets raised pre-weaning either in a complex multi-suckling group housing system or in a conventional system with a crated sow

Effects of early and later life environmental enrichment and personality on attention bias in pigs (Sus scrofa domesticus)

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