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Behavioural diversity within groups of juvenile pigs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2017

S.M. Hayne  and
H.W. Gonyou
S.M. Hayne
Affiliation:
Prairie Swine Centre, Inc., P.O. Box 21057, 2105-8, thStreet East, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, S7H 5N9, Canada Department of Animal and Poultry Science, University of Saskatchewan
H.W. Gonyou
Affiliation:
Prairie Swine Centre, Inc., P.O. Box 21057, 2105-8, thStreet East, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, S7H 5N9, Canada
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Extract

Understanding behavioural diversity is important for commercial production, animal behaviour and welfare. One interpretation of individual differences in behaviour is that these represent different strategies for coping with a changing environment. For example, Hessing et al. (1994) categorized pigs as active/resistant or passive/non-resistant, based on each pig’s reaction to restraint. However, these conclusions have been criticized. For example, Jensen et al. (1995) argued that for two such categories to exist, there must be a bimodal distribution of the scores from a population, which Hessing et al. (1994) failed to demonstrate. Determining individual behavioural characteristics and any relationship they may have with performance has been the focus of recent research. The objective of this experiment was to determine the primary characteristics that distinguish individual pigs.

Type
Open Communications Session
Information
Proceedings of the British Society of Animal Science , Volume 2001 , 2001 , pp. OC6
Copyright
Copyright © The British Society of Animal Science 2001

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References

Hemsworth, P.H., Gonyou, H.W. and Dziuk, P.J. 1986. Human communication with pigs: The behavioural response of pigs to specific human signals. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 15: 45–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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