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Effects of early environment on the subsequent behaviour of the pig

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 November 2017

V.E. Beattie ,
N. Walker  and
I.A. Sneddon
V.E. Beattie
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, The Queen's University of Belfast, Northern Ireland BT7 INN
N. Walker
Affiliation:
Agricultural Research Institute of Northern Ireland, Hillsborough, Co. Down BT26 6DR
I.A. Sneddon
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, The Queen's University of Belfast, Northern Ireland BT7 INN
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Extract

Seitz (1954) claimed the infant animal is more susceptible to the long-range effects of experience than the adult animal. The effects of infantile experience has been observed in the pig. Wood-Gush and Beilharz (1983) found that pigs reared in a bare environment did not use substrate, that was provided in later life, to the same extent as pigs which always had access to it. Schouten (1991) found that pigs which had spent the first few weeks of life in a barren environment were more restless in the growing and fattening periods than pigs which had spent their early life in enriched environments.

This study investigated the effects of the housing environment in the first six weeks of life on the behaviour of pigs in the growing and fattening stages.

In a cross-over study, which examined the effect of change of environment at weaning, 96 piglets in 16 groups each of six littermates were allocated to a 2 x 2 factorial experiment. There were two environments (barren and enriched) and two growth periods, birth to weaning at six weeks and weaning to slaughter at 20 weeks. Intensive husbandry conditions were defined as barren environments. The enriched environment changed at weaning.

Type
Pig Housing and Welfare
Information
Proceedings of the British Society of Animal Production (1972) , Volume 1994 , March 1994 , pp. 194
Copyright
Copyright © The British Society of Animal Production 1994

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References

Schouten, W.G.P. (1991). Effect of rearing on subsequent performance in pigs. Pig News and Information 12, 245–247.Google Scholar
Seitz, P.F.D. (1954). The effects of infantile experience on adult behaviour in animal subjects. American Journal of Psychiatry 110, 916–927.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wood-Gush, D.G.M. and Beilharz, R.G. (1983). The enrichment of a bare environment for animals in confined conditions. Applied Animal Ethology 10, 209–217.Google Scholar