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Food competition tests between pigs: differences in heart rates of “winners” and “losers” prior to testing

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 November 2021

H.L. de Vries
Affiliation:
Dept. of Animal Husbandry, Wageningen Agricultural University, Wageningen, NL
H.A.M. Spoolder
Affiliation:
ADAS Terrington, Terrington St. Clement, King's Lynn, Norfolk, PE34 4PW, UK
J.N. Marchant
Affiliation:
ADAS Terrington, Terrington St. Clement, King's Lynn, Norfolk, PE34 4PW, UK Dept. of Clinical Veterinary Medicine, University of Cambridge, Madingley Road, Cambridge, CB3 0ES, UK
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Extract

Physiological parameters in rats have been shown to predict the outcome of a fight before the result is behaviourally apparent (Schuurman, 1980). In pigs, Marchant et al. (1995) have demonstrated that losing animals have higher heart rate values than winning ones during and just after agonistic interactions. The present study aimed to investigate at what stage differences in pig heart rate can be detected between animals which will lose and animals which will win an ensuing aggressive encounter.

Three groups of seven multiparious PIC Camborough sows were subjected to pair wise food competition tests, within groups. In each group all possible 21 pairs were tested. Sows had spent at least two weeks in their groups prior to testing and were normally fed in stalls.

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Copyright
Copyright © The British Society of Animal Science 1998

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References

Marchant, J.N., Mendl, M.T., Rudd, A.R., Broom, D.M. 1995. The effect of agonistic interactions on the heart rate of group-housed sows. Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci., 46: 4956.10.1016/0168-1591(95)00636-2CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schuurman, T. 1980. Hormonal correlates of agonistic behavior in adult male rats. Prog. Brain. Res., 53: 415420.10.1016/S0079-6123(08)60079-5CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed