Sick and grumpy: Changes in social behaviour after a controlled immune stimulation in group-housed gilts

Munsterhjelm, Camilla; Nordgreen, Janicke; Aae, F.; Heinonen, Mari; Valros, Anna; Janczak, Andrew M.

doi:10.1016/j.physbeh.2018.09.018

Cited by 39 publications

(50 citation statements)

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“…A suboptimal development of the immune system during lactation, for example due to insufficient colostrum intake (Declerck et al, 2016;Devillers et al, 2011), has a long-term effect on health and growth. Furthermore, recent studies indicate that the current health status of pigs is linked to an increased risk for developing deleterious behaviours (Munsterhjelm et al, 2017(Munsterhjelm et al, , 2019. However, as far as we know, there is no direct evidence for a link between piglet health during the lactational period and behavioural problems in pigs at a later age.…”

Section: Consequences Of Neonatal Immune Development and Healthmentioning

confidence: 98%

8. Consequences of the lactational environment on behavioural problems of pigs after weaning

Prunier

Valros

Tallet

et al. 2020

The Suckling and Weaned Piglet

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An important part of pig brain development takes place after birth and depends upon internal and environmental inputs. Therefore, the environment of the piglets during the lactational period may influence their cognitive and behavioural development, hence their predisposition to fight and to perform other forms of deleterious behaviours such as sustained belly nosing or tail biting. Such behaviours are of great concern to the pig industry for animal welfare and economic reasons. This chapter focusses specifically on predisposing factors during the postnatal period until weaning for the expression of fighting and other deleterious behaviours later in life. During that suckling period, the piglet acquires essential elements to develop a good immune status, proper gut microbiota, and high disease resilience for its future life. Health problems are a major risk factor for the occurrence of tail biting so that ensuring good colostrum intake and proper hygiene in the farrowing room might reduce deleterious behaviours in the long-term. Fighting behaviour is reduced by cross-fostering and socialisation before weaning whereas earlylife competition for limited resources appears to increase subsequent aggressiveness. Therefore, any means allowing piglets from different litters to interact from the second week of age onward should be encouraged. Social stress, due to competition and crossfostering, also stimulates the occurrence of other deleterious behaviours later in life and is highly dependent on litter size at birth. Therefore, the full consequences of large litters at birth should be evaluated in terms of health, welfare and performance over the whole life of pigs. Enriching the environment during lactation has diverse effects on fighting behaviour with no effect in most situations and a reduction, or even an increase, in some others. Similarly, it has diverse effects on tail biting and on manipulatory behaviours suggesting that the nature of the enrichment, the age, and the timing at which it is presented might greatly influence its impact on such deleterious behaviours. This chapter emphasizes that even though the environment in which post-weaned pigs are raised is of major importance for the expression of nefarious behaviours, the pre-weaning environment should also be optimized to reduce their likelihood.

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Section: Consequences Of Neonatal Immune Development and Healthmentioning

confidence: 98%

8. Consequences of the lactational environment on behavioural problems of pigs after weaning

Prunier

Valros

Tallet

et al. 2020

The Suckling and Weaned Piglet

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“…Accelerometers are considered to be most efficient in assessing activity in pigs. Increased activity is indicative of stress in pigs, while reduced activity has been associated with disease [ 75 ] or changes in the environmental conditions of a barn [ 76 ].…”

Section: Assessing Adaptation Physiology Parametersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transforming the Adaptation Physiology of Farm Animals through Sensors

Neethirajan¹

2020

Animals

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Despite recent scientific advancements, there is a gap in the use of technology to measure signals, behaviors, and processes of adaptation physiology of farm animals. Sensors present exciting opportunities for sustained, real-time, non-intrusive measurement of farm animal behavioral, mental, and physiological parameters with the integration of nanotechnology and instrumentation. This paper critically reviews the sensing technology and sensor data-based models used to explore biological systems such as animal behavior, energy metabolism, epidemiology, immunity, health, and animal reproduction. The use of sensor technology to assess physiological parameters can provide tremendous benefits and tools to overcome and minimize production losses while making positive contributions to animal welfare. Of course, sensor technology is not free from challenges; these devices are at times highly sensitive and prone to damage from dirt, dust, sunlight, color, fur, feathers, and environmental forces. Rural farmers unfamiliar with the technologies must be convinced and taught to use sensor-based technologies in farming and livestock management. While there is no doubt that demand will grow for non-invasive sensor-based technologies that require minimum contact with animals and can provide remote access to data, their true success lies in the acceptance of these technologies by the livestock industry.

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“…A high number of housing and management-related risk factors for tail biting in pigs have been identified, illustrated e.g., by the diversity in the on-farm tail biting husbandry advisory tool HAT, which includes 83 risk factors ( 16 ). Some of the most commonly mentioned risk factors include feeding-related problems ( 72 , 73 ), poor environmental conditions, such as suboptimal temperature, draft, and poor air quality ( 72 – 74 ), lack of enrichment ( 72 , 75 ), suboptimal diet composition ( 76 , 77 ), high animal density, ( 74 , 78 ), slatted flooring ( 79 , 80 ), and reduced health status ( 79 – 82 ). Stress induced by the above listed risk factors might be one of the explanations for the suggested effects on damaging behavior, as increased stress levels are connected to an increased risk of tail biting ( 83 , 84 ).…”

Section: Risk Factors For Tail Biting In Pigs and Their Relationship mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Another important direction for future research is to design studies that test for causal relationships. In an experiment using LPS as immune-stimulating agent, pigs that were injected with LPS showed a shift in social motivation and performed more tail- and ear- directed behavior than saline-injected pigs at 2 days after injection ( 82 ), indicating that the inflammatory response caused the change in phenotype. However, one disadvantage of LPS is that it lacks the slower onset characteristic of some naturally occurring diseases as well as environmental risk factors and might not give us a complete picture of how the immune system influences behavior, even though it has been important in identifying candidate mechanisms and biomarkers.…”

Section: Synthesismentioning

confidence: 99%

A Proposed Role for Pro-Inflammatory Cytokines in Damaging Behavior in Pigs

et al. 2020

Self Cite

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Sickness can change our mood for the worse, leaving us sad, lethargic, grumpy and less socially inclined. This mood change is part of a set of behavioral symptoms called sickness behavior and has features in common with core symptoms of depression. Therefore, the physiological changes induced by immune activation, for example following infection, are in the spotlight for explaining mechanisms behind mental health challenges such as depression. While humans may take a day off and isolate themselves until they feel better, farm animals housed in groups have only limited possibilities for social withdrawal. We suggest that immune activation could be a major factor influencing social interactions in pigs, with outbreaks of damaging behavior such as tail biting as a possible result. The hypothesis presented here is that the effects of several known risk factors for tail biting are mediated by pro-inflammatory cytokines, proteins produced by the immune system, and their effect on neurotransmitter systems. We describe the background for and implications of this hypothesis.

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Sick and grumpy: Changes in social behaviour after a controlled immune stimulation in group-housed gilts

Cited by 39 publications

References 50 publications

8. Consequences of the lactational environment on behavioural problems of pigs after weaning

8. Consequences of the lactational environment on behavioural problems of pigs after weaning

Transforming the Adaptation Physiology of Farm Animals through Sensors

A Proposed Role for Pro-Inflammatory Cytokines in Damaging Behavior in Pigs

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