Facilitating ‘learning from mom how to eat like a pig’ to improve welfare of piglets around weaning

Behaviour and Skin Injuries of Piglets Originating from a Novel Group Farrowing System Before and After Weaning

“…Confining the sow to crates leads to a restriction of her natural behaviour since, for instance, nest-building behaviour or leaving the nest for eliminative and foraging behaviour are strongly affected [1,2]. Additionally, the piglets' natural behaviour can be impaired, since opportunities to interact with the sow are restricted [3]. Under semi-natural conditions, piglets follow the sow on foraging excursions from their second week of life [4,5], investigating the environment [4] and learning how to forage and to eat, from the sow [3].…”

“…Immediately after the piglets had left the pens in the GH, the piglets preferred proximity to the sow, compared to the pens where they were born. The GH system enabled social enrichment, offered increased space for activity and led to fewer skin lesions, after weaning; thus, potentially increasing animal welfare.the frequency of diarrhoea [3,[7][8][9]. Under semi-natural conditions, weaning is a gradual process and is completed between 14 weeks and 17 weeks [10,11].…”

“…the frequency of diarrhoea [3,[7][8][9]. Under semi-natural conditions, weaning is a gradual process and is completed between 14 weeks and 17 weeks [10,11].…”

Conditioning Methods for Animals in Agriculture: A Review

“…Furthermore, another study exposed piglets to a situation in which they could either observe or participate with a sow while she was eating. Compared to the controlled piglets, those given an opportunity to learn through either watching or feeding with the sow were able to learn to eat faster from a feeder, suggesting that the social cues are important for feeding (60,63,64) , which can potentially influence the management and housing conditions for pigs. This is important since pigs retain memories of performance tasks which can influence future performances and learning (65) .…”

Development of pigs raised in a group housing system for lactating sows and their litters

“…The more enriched environment in the multi-suckling system may also have facilitated early eating behaviour, as more chewing material was available. Substrates, like straw, can stimulate the development of foragingrelated behaviours (reviewed by Oostindjer et al, 2014). The frequency of eating behaviour mainly seemed to differ in the first part of lactation, suggesting that ML piglets started to eat earlier than SL piglets.…”