The influence of age on the use of potential enrichment objects and synchronisation of behaviour of pigs

Docking, C. M.; Weerd, Heleen van de; Day, J. M.; Edwards, Sandra A.

doi:10.1016/j.applanim.2007.05.004

Cited by 93 publications

(58 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…27 Also, the individual housing of the piglets is most probably another influencing factor that explains the low oral fluid collection rate because animals held in a group are more motivated to perform exploratory behavior together. 5 The fact that no clinical signs were observed on infection with the PRRSV Lelystad strain and that no differences in willingness to chew on the ropes were found between PRRSV-infected and control animals indicates that infection does not influence the number of collected samples at particular time points. However, this finding could be different for infections with more virulent strains (e.g., the type 1 subtype 3 Lena strain, 11 known to induce high fever, anorexia, depression, and even mortality).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Diagnosis of the Lelystad strain of Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus infection in individually housed pigs: comparison between serum and oral fluid samples for viral nucleic acid and antibody detection

et al. 2014

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Abstract. There has been a developing interest in the use of oral fluid for the diagnosis of different pathogens such as Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV). PRRSV and PRRSV-specific antibodies have been shown to be present in oral fluid samples, but the correlation between diagnostic results in oral fluid and serum samples has been insufficiently addressed. Studies investigating this correlation focused on boars older than 6 months and type 2 strains, but it is known that the outcome of a PRRSV infection is age and strain dependent. To address this gap, the current study reports on the detection of PRRSV and PRRSV-specific antibodies in serum and oral fluid samples collected over a 6-week period after an experimental infection of 8-week-old individually housed pigs with Lelystad virus, the type 1 prototype strain. Quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction analysis showed that significantly more serum samples were PRRSV RNApositive than oral fluid until 5 days postinfection (dpi). Between 7 and 21 dpi, PRRSV RNA detection was similar in both samples but higher detection rates in oral fluid were found from 28 dpi. Compared with existing literature, this highlights that detection rates at particular time points postinfection might vary in function of strain virulence and animal age and provides useful information for the interpretation of pen-based oral fluid results. An excellent agreement between the oral fluid and serum enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay results was observed at every time point, further supporting the usefulness of oral fluid as a diagnostic sample for antibody detection.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Blood and oral fluid samples were taken in the morning on days 0, 3,5,7,10,14,21,28,35, and 42 postinfection (dpi) for evaluation by qRT-PCR and ELISA. Oral fluid sampling was conducted before blood sampling to reduce the chance that animals would refuse to bite on the ropes after physical manipulation.…”

Section: Animals Inoculation and Sample Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diagnosis of the Lelystad strain of Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus infection in individually housed pigs: comparison between serum and oral fluid samples for viral nucleic acid and antibody detection

et al. 2014

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“…Initiation of feeding by capuchin monkeys encourages the commencement of feeding in nearby conspecifics (Galloway et al, 2005). Indeed, hens in battery cages synchronize their behaviour (Webster and Hurnik, 1994), pigs synchronize their use of environmental enrichment objects (Docking et al, 2008), ewes synchronize their grazing activities (Rook and Penning, 1991) and cows synchronize their feeding and resting (Bouissou et al, 2001;Š á rová et al, 2007). The environment can affect the level of behavioural synchronization.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A note on overdispersion as an index of behavioural synchrony: a pilot study in dairy cows

Raussi

Jauhiainen

Saastamoinen

et al. 2011

Animal

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We developed a method for studying the synchrony of behaviour based on calculations of overdispersion of a binomial process. The lying behaviour of cows was investigated under two different housing units inside the same barn. The first unit housed 30 cows undergoing conventional milking and the second unit housed 27 cows undergoing automatic milking. The lying behaviour of the cows was observed over 3 weeks in 12 periods of 6 h each. Every 5 min, we counted the number of cows lying down in the cubicles. As external cues, like feeding and conventional milking, can promote synchrony in dairy cows, we expected that cows conventionally milked would show more behavioural synchrony than automatically milked cows. Cows lied down synchronously in both units (overdispersion 1.67, P , 0.01). Lying synchrony tended to be slightly bigger in automatically than in conventionally milked cows (overdispersion 1.76 v. 1.58, P 5 0.09), although the proportion of cows lying down was on average greater in conventionally than in automatically milked cows (60.7% v. 45.6%). This suggests that synchronized lying behaviour in cows is a constant phenomenon that depends on social facilitation rather than on external cues. The overdispersion index appears to be a useful tool for studying the synchrony of animal behaviour when observations are made at the group level.

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“…In addition, very low levels of aggressions were observed, possibly owing to the fact that pigs were familiar with each other and had established a hierarchy when recordings were conducted. As the aggression level did not elevate when pigs were provided with a small portion of straw (25 g/pig), it seems that the amount of straw and provision method was sufficient for all pigs to participate in straw-directed behaviour at once; causing no competitive aggression as seen in cases with point-source materials (Docking et al, 2008).…”

mentioning

confidence: 97%

Behaviour of liquid-fed growing pigs provided with straw in various amounts and frequencies

Oxholm

Steinmetz

Lahrmann

et al. 2014

Animal

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Straw possesses many characteristics that make it attractive to pigs and can therefore be effective in preventing negative penmate-directed behaviours. However, straw is difficult to handle in current vacuum slurry systems under most commercial conditions and can therefore only be used in limited amounts. To occupy pigs effectively, straw must remain attractive to pigs throughout the whole day; hence, have a certain degree of novelty. We investigated the penmate-directed behaviour of liquid-fed growing pigs in a production herd, assigned to five experimental treatments: 1 × 25, 1 × 50, 1 × 100, 2 × 50 and 4 × 25 g of chopped straw/pig per day, with 20 replicates of each treatment (pen was regarded as experimental unit). Behaviour was observed at two different growth stages;~40 and 80 kg live weight of the pigs. Activity and exploratory behaviour directed at penmates, straw, pen components and the slatted floor were registered continuously for 15 min of each hour during day time (0600 to 2200 h) by use of video observation of three focal pigs per pen. The pigs were active for about one-third of the day corresponding to~5 h/day. Of the active time, an average of 7% (35 min) was spent on penmate-directed behaviour. The pigs were more active and increased their straw-directed behaviour when provided with 100 g straw/pig per day compared with 25 and 50 g ( P < 0.001). However, penmate-directed behaviour was not reduced with an increased amount of straw ( P > 0.05), and there was no effect on pigs' behaviour when straw provision was increased per day ( P > 0.05). Pigs became less active and reduced their straw-directed activities when their weight increased from 40 to 80 kg live weight ( P < 0.001), but the amount of penmate-directed behaviour was similar ( P > 0.05). Further, the residual straw results indicated that perhaps a more frequent straw provision could help establish a more even level of fresh available straw during the day. However, the frequent straw provision did not occupy pigs more than one daily allocation did. In conclusion, there was no difference in penmate-directed behaviour of the pigs when given 25 or 50 g of straw/pig per day compared with 100 g of straw/pig per day, nor were there any difference when 100 g of straw/pig per day was provided more frequently.

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The influence of age on the use of potential enrichment objects and synchronisation of behaviour of pigs

Cited by 93 publications

References 18 publications

Diagnosis of the Lelystad strain of Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus infection in individually housed pigs: comparison between serum and oral fluid samples for viral nucleic acid and antibody detection

Diagnosis of the Lelystad strain of Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus infection in individually housed pigs: comparison between serum and oral fluid samples for viral nucleic acid and antibody detection

A note on overdispersion as an index of behavioural synchrony: a pilot study in dairy cows

Behaviour of liquid-fed growing pigs provided with straw in various amounts and frequencies

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