Nose ringing of outdoor sows is widely practiced to reduce pasture damage, but may have both short and longer term implications for animal welfare. This study was carried out to assess the effectiveness of different forms of nose ring and the extent of behavioural modification which they caused.

Six groups of 5 sows were allocated between three treatments: unrung (U), rung with three traditional boss-rings through the upper rim of the nasal disc (TR) or rung with a single bull-ring through the nasal septum (BR). Groups were placed in adjacent paddocks on undamaged grass leys at a stocking rate of 38 sows/ha. Pasture damage was assessed weekly by measuring proportions of grass, bare earth and overturned earth in 20 half-metre square quadrats per paddock on a fixed sampling pattern.

Outdoor sows are subject to a variable climatic environment and to competition within the group for food. High fibre diets, with greater bulk and heat increment, might be beneficial in pregnancy whilst the converse properties might favour high oil diets during lactation.

A 2x2 factorial design compared 2 pregnancy diets, cereal based [C] (122 g/kg NDF, 38 g/kg AEE, 13.0 MJ/kg DE, 157 g/kg CP) or high fibre [F] (222 g/kg NDF, 11.5 MJ/kg DE, 138 g/kg CP), and 2 lactation diets, diet C (as in pregnancy) or high oil [O] (72 g/kg AEE, 14.5 MJ/kg DE, 174 g/kg CP). 231 reproductive cycles of Camborough 12 sows were studied over an 18 month period. Pregnancy diets were fed to paddocks of 8-13 sows at a treatment level providing the same daily intake of DE and protein, adjusted to maintain body condition as appropriate to the time of year.

Community lactating systems offer a number of potential welfare benefits to the sow and her litter. However, giving the sow greater freedom of movement and choice of environments also has potential risks. With less restriction, the maternal qualities of the sow will have a greater influence on the survival and growth of her litter. The objectives of this experiment were to determine what behaviours of the sow influenced piglet mortality in an open communal farrowing system

In commercial practice, almost all pregnant sows are fed on restricted feeding regimes. Operant conditioning studies suggest that this results in the animals being food motivated for most of the day (Lawrence et at., 1988), a behavioural state which, in relatively barren environments, has been associated with the development of abnormal stereotypic behaviour (Spoolder et al., 1995). Straw provision reduces the development of stereotypies, possibly reflecting reduced (physiological) stress levels. In addition, it may result in lower nutritional requirements (Simmins et al., 1994).

Public concern with intensive farming systems, particularly in the pig industry, has lead to legislation banning sow stalls and tethers and closer examination of the welfare aspects of confining the sow in a crate at parturition. In general, alternative systems have resulted in higher piglet mortality than farrowing crates. In any farrowing system, many different factors affect piglet mortality and in order for specific problems within the alternative systems to be identified and addressed, the exact causes and timings of piglet deaths need to be assessed. The objectives of this study were to determine which physical and performance characteristics of the sow and her litter influenced piglet mortality in a communal farrowing system during early lactation.

Lyons et al (1995) compared Straw-Flow(R) with other systems for growing pigs. The present study examined its suitability for the early-weaned pig. Welfare of early-weaned pigs was compared in Straw-Flow, deep straw and flatdeck pens using various indicators, including productivity, foot injuries and adventitious bursitis of the hock. These systems were chosen to represent the variety of housing in use on farms.

The results presented here represent part of a large study designed to investigate the effects of commercial weaning practice on immune function and susceptibility to post-weaning diarrhoea in piglets weaned at 3-4 weeks of age. For the purposes of this experiment, it was considered that weaning, mixing and a short-term cold stress (10°C for 48 hours only) were likely to be the most important stressors commonly encountered at weaning. It has been known for many years that stress can play an important role in the aetiology of disease in man and animals (Kelley, 1980) but little information is available on the effects of these stressors on post-weaning diarrhoea.

Grouping lactating sows and piglets leads to problems of cross-suckling and increased numbers of piglets at the udder during suckling. These alter suckling behaviour and affect the performance of the piglets. The aim of the study was to investigate how suckling behaviour was influenced by grouping piglets and changing sow location under controlled conditions.

In lactating sows and piglets grouped during the suckling period, performance problems have been identified and associated with disruption of suckling (Wattanakul, 1995). Cross-suckling and an increase in number of piglets at the udder have been recognized (Hatet, 1994). The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of these factors on the suckling patterns by manipulating cross-suckling and addition of piglets in individually housed sows.

Enriching the environment of growing pigs increase substrate directed behaviour and reduces harmful social behaviour directed at penmates (Horrell, 1992). The object of this study was to find out if a simple enrichment method using substrate which allowed rooting behaviour in an intensive housing system would be sufficient to maintain patterns of behaviour observed when pens were enriched more fully (Beattie, Walker and Sneddon, 1995).

In a comparative study which examined the effect of having access to mushroom compost in an otherwise barren environment there were three treatments and six replicates. The three treatments were (1) control barren pen, (2) empty horizontal rack 1800 mm x 600 mm with 30 mm2 grid size suspended above pigs' heads and (3) mushroom compost on rack as in treatment 2. Pigs released particles of compost by nosing the metal grid from below while standing or sitting. All pens had a 2500 mm x 1250 mm fibre cement board on slats under rack or in equivalent position in treatment 1.

Various types of computerised feed intake recording systems are used by research centres and breeding companies to monitor the individual food intake of pigs kept in groups. Most are single-spaced, allowing only one animal to feed at any one time, and they differ mainly in the design of the entrance and the level of protection offered to the feeding pig. The aim of the present experiment was to investigate the effect of single-space feeder entrance design on the performance and feeding behaviour of growing pigs by using designs offering three levels of protection.

In the U.K., an increasing number of farmers are housing growing-finishing pigs in large straw-bedded courts. While this method of housing is cost effective and has positive welfare perceptions there may be increased competition for the basic necessities such as food and water. This study was conducted to determine the effect of drinking trough space allowance on a number of performance and behavioural parameters when pigs are housed in large groups on straw.

Choice tests, which measure animals' preferences for resources, are increasingly used to aid the design of new husbandry systems. However, under farm conditions, these systems are not always used as desired. A possible explanation for this is that laboratory testing and on-farm conditions induce different states of stress or disturbance in animals which, in turn, affect processes underlying their choice behaviour. One important process which underlies choice behaviour is spatial memory. To choose accurately, animals need to learn and remember the location of different resources. Studies of deer and cattle, which involve animals learning the location of different stimuli, have shown that some individuals are unable to learn to avoid apparently aversive restraining crushes (Pollard et al., 1994; Grandin et al., 1994), and that calmer individuals may make more accurate choices (Grandin et al., 1994).

Pigs are usually transported during the course of their life and various behavioural and physiological effects of the transportation process have been reported (e.g. Bradshaw et al., 1995)., Most research has been directed to examining the effects of the physical environment (e.g. Randall, 1993), simple behavioural time budgets (e.g. Bradshaw et al., 1995) and levels of 'stress' hormones in the blood before and after a journey (e.g. Geers et al., 1994). Two situations are described in this paper. The first investigated behavioural and salivary Cortisol responses of pigs to road transport when loaded in small familiar social groups or when loaded and mixed with other unfamiliar pigs. The second used catheterised animals to examine the hormonal response (Cortisol, beta-endorphin and lysine vasopressin) of pigs sampled during a long distance (8 h) road journey.

Conditions at die abattoir are such that pigs are exposed to social stress (mixing with unfamiliar pigs) and non-social stress (rough handling). Individual differences in behavioural responses to stress in pigs have been well documented (Hessing et al., 1994; Jensen, 1994; Mendl et al., 1992) and can result in considerable variation in their ability to cope. In this experiment, we studied whether individual differences in behaviour and physiology in home pen conditions are related to subsequent reactions during periods of transport, driving and mixing.

Most measurements of digestibility are earned out with sheep rather than cattle because of the smaller amounts of feed and faeces involved. Yet the results are most often used with cattle. It is widely believed that digestibility in sheep is poorer than cattle with low digestibility feedstuffs and better with high digestibility feedstuffs, but that the magnitude of the differences is small. However, this belief is largely based on work with forages and there have been few direct comparisons between cattle and sheep fed concentrate ingredients. The objective of this experiment was to compare the digestibility by cattle and sheep of five samples of concentrate ingredients: citrus pulp, molassed beet pulp, corn gluten feed, barley and grain screenings.

Some studies have shown that fish meal (FM) supplementation could result in an increased digestion in the rumen, with different levels of response with different FM (McAllan, 1991). The aim of the experiment was to study the effects of supplementation with two FM, having the same nitrogen content (113 g N/kg DM) but different N rumen degradability, on fermentation and duodenal flow of nutrients.

The study was carried out using six mature sheep fitted with rumen cannulae and single duodenal cannulae. Animals were fed 1 kg/d of a 60:40 hay:concentrate diet having a N content of 22 g/kg DM, either alone (Control; C) or supplemented with 40 g FM/d (FMl and FM2). The experiment was carried out over four periods of 14 days and in each period two sheep received each of the diets.

Rumen fluid and cellulase based techniques are widely used to predict the digestibility of compound feeds and their ingredients. Recently gammanase enzymes have been added to some cellulase based techniques (Dowman, 1993; De Boever et al., 1994). Few comparisons of these techniques have involved by-product concentrate ingredients. The objective of this experiment was to compare the ability of three techniques, in vitro rumen fluid (RF), pepsin cellulase gammanase (PCG), and neutral detergent cellulase gammanase (NCDG), to predict the in vivo organic matter digestibility (OMD) of concentrate ingredients.

Urea-ammonia treatment of straws in the tropics involves mixing 1.0 kg of air dry straw with 1.0 kg of a 40 g/kg urea solution and storing under plastic for at least 4 weeks (Schiere and Ibrahim, 1989). The economics of treatment is dependent on the cost of urea. Treatment cost would reduce, if on-farm-produced urine, e.g. cow urine, could be used as a source of urea. However cow urine is dilute and may contain only 10 g/kg urea or less (Owen, 1993). The present study therefore investigated varying concentrations of urea solution for treating wheat straw at a tropical temperature.

Rusitec (Czerkawski and Breckenndge, 1977) lias been widely used to study factors which affect rumen fermentation such as monensin, monensin-propionate, abierixin, calcimycin and Aspergillus oryzae (Bogaert et al., 1990; Newbold et al., 1993). Monensin is a grain-positive ionophore which modifies rumen fermentation. The objective of the current study was to determine the effect of monensin on molar proportions of volatile fatty acid (VFA) produced from diets which varied in foragexoncentrate ratio.

Four Rusitec vessels (800 ml) were used in an extended Latin Square design with 2 blocks, 2 treatments and 3 periods, each lasting 14 days. To initiate each period, inocula was recovered from the same lactating Holstein-Friesian cow (∽650 kg). All vessels received 15 g DM/day of a complete diet which contained maize silage, grass silage, NaOH treated wheat grain and a protein supplement in three foragexoncentrate ratios; 25:75 (L), 50:50 (M) and 75:25 (H).