Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-xm8r8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-24T01:09:12.007Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Relationship between the behaviour of sows at 6 months old and the behaviour and performance at farrowing

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2009

B. J. Lensink ,
H. Leruste ,
T. Le Roux  and
D. Bizeray-Filoche
B. J. Lensink*
Affiliation:
ISA (institut Supérieur d’Agriculture), CASE, 48 Boulevard Vauban, 59046 Lille Cedex, France
H. Leruste
Affiliation:
ISA (institut Supérieur d’Agriculture), CASE, 48 Boulevard Vauban, 59046 Lille Cedex, France
T. Le Roux
Affiliation:
Pen Ar Lan, route de Bovel, 35380 Maxent, France
D. Bizeray-Filoche
Affiliation:
Institut Polytechnique LaSalle Beauvais, CASE, rue Pierre Waguet, 60026 Beauvais Cedex, France
*
E-mail: j.lensink@isa-lille.fr
Get access

Abstract

Piglet crushing remains a major problem in pig production. Reduced crushing might be obtained through genetic selection on sow behavioural traits. The aim of the study was to assess the relationship between behavioural responses at 6 months of age, around farrowing, and sows’ reproductive performance including crushing levels. At 6 months of age, behavioural responses of 75 nulliparous sows were observed both during behavioural tests to human presence and to the presence of a novel object in their home pen, and their responses when placed in a weighing device. At first farrowing, nervousness of the sows was observed when placed in the farrowing crate 1 week before and the day of farrowing, as well as their fear responses when approached by a human from behind or at the front of the farrowing crate. At 6 months of age, escape from a human tended to be correlated with the reactivity in the weighing device (rs = 0.21, P = 0.09). Around first farrowing, the withdrawal reaction when a human approached at the front was correlated with the fear response when approached from behind and the nervousness of the sow in the crate (rs = 0.29, P < 0.05; rs = 0.37, P < 0.01). The fear response when approached from behind was correlated with nervousness in the crate and around farrowing (rs = 0.70, P < 0.001; rs = 0.25, P < 0.05), and nervousness in the crate was significantly correlated with the nervousness around farrowing (rs = 0.34, P < 0.01). The escape from a human at 6 months was correlated with withdrawal when approached from the front before farrowing (rs = 0.38, P < 0.01) and with nervousness of the sow in the crate (rs = 0.24, P < 0.05). The number of piglets crushed at first farrowing was correlated with the latency to approach a novel object at 6 months and nervousness around farrowing (rs = −0.27, P < 0.05; rs = 0.28, P < 0.05), and tended to be correlated with the escape behaviour from human at 6 months and withdrawal away from human presence before farrowing (rs = 0.21, P = 0.09; rs = 0.22, P = 0.08). These results suggest that behavioural responses to humans and during management practices of nulliparous sows at 6 months of age are, to some extent, related with their behaviour around farrowing and crushing levels of piglets at farrowing.

Keywords

human–animal interactionspiglet crushingpiglet mortalitysows
Type
Full Paper
Information
animal , Volume 3 , Issue 1 , January 2009 , pp. 128 - 134
Copyright
Copyright © The Animal Consortium 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Andersen, IL, Berg, S, Bøe, KE, Edwards, S 2006. Positive handling in late pregnancy and the consequences for maternal behaviour and production in sows. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 99, 64–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boissy, A 1995. Fear and fearfulness in animals. The Quarterly Review in Biology 70, 165–191.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cronin, GM, Smith, JA 1992. Effects of accommodation type and straw bedding around parturition and during lactation on the behaviour of primiparous sows and survival and growth of piglets to weaning. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 33, 191–208.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cronin, GM, Dunsmore, B, Leeson, E 1998. The effects of farrowing nest size and width on sow and piglet behaviour and piglet survival. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 60, 331–345.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Edwards, SA 2002. Perinatal mortality in the pig: environmental or physiological solutions? Livestock Production Science 78, 3–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Edwards, SA, Malkin, SJ, Spechter, HH 1986. An analysis of piglet mortality with behavioural observations. Animal Production 42, 470.Google Scholar
Grandinson, K, Rydhmer, L, Strandberg, E, Thodberg, K 2003. Genetic analysis of on-farm tests of maternal behaviour of sows. Livestock Production Science 83, 141–151.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hemsworth, PH, Coleman, GJ 1998. Human–livestock interactions: the stockperson and the productivity and welfare of intensively farmed animals. CAB International, Wallingford, UK.Google Scholar
Hemsworth, PH, Brand, A, Willems, P 1981. The behavioural response of sows to the presence of human beings and its relation to productivity. Livestock Production Science 8, 67–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hemsworth, PH, Barnett, JL, Treacy, D, Madgwick, P 1990. The heritability of the trait fear of humans and the association between this trait and subsequent reproductive performance of gilts. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 25, 85–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hemsworth, PH, Pedersen, V, Cox, M, Cronin, GM, Coleman, GJ 1999. A note on the relationship between the behavioural response of lactating sows to humans and the survival of their piglets. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 65, 43–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Janczak, AM, Pedersen, LJ, Rydhmer, L, Bakken, M 2003. Relation between early fear- and anxiety-related behaviour and maternal ability in sows. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 82, 121–135.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jarvis, S, McLean, KA, Calvert, SK, Deans, LA, Chirnside, J, Lawrence, AB 1999. The responsiveness of sows to their piglets in relations to the length of parturition and the involvement of endogenous opioids. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 63, 195–207.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lensink, BJ, Boivin, X, Pradel, P, Le Neindre, P, Veissier, I 2000. Reducing veal calves’ reactivity to people by providing additional human contact. Journal of Animal Science 78, 1213–1218.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Roehe, R, Kalm, E 2000. Estimation of genetic and environmental risk factors associated with pre-weaning mortality in piglets using generalized linear mixed models. Animal Science 70, 227–240.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tanida, H, Miura, A, Tanaka, T, Yoshimoto, T 1995. Behavioural response to humans in individually handled weanling pigs. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 42, 249–259.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thodberg, K, Jensen, KH, Herskin, MS 2002. Nest building and farrowing in sows: relation to the reaction pattern during stress, farrowing environment and experience. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 77, 21–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Valros, A, Rundgren, M, Spinka, M, Saloniemi, H, Algers, B 2003. Sow activity level, frequency of standing-to-lying posture changes and anti-crushing behaviour – within sow-repeatability and interactions with nursing behaviour and piglet performance. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 83, 29–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weary, DM, Pajor, EA, Fraser, D, Honkanen, AM 1996a. Sow body movements that crush piglets: a comparison between two types of farrowing accommodation. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 49, 149–158.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weary, DM, Pajor, EA, Thompson, BK, Fraser, D 1996b. The relationship between piglet body condition and proximity to the sow: a trade-off between feeding and the risk of mortality by maternal crushing. Animal Behaviour 51, 619–624.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wechsler, B, Hegglin, D 1997. Individual differences in the behaviour of sows at the nest-site and the crushing of piglets. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 51, 39–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar