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Udgivelsesdato: Marts 2010 The experiment aimed to investigate the effect of type of rooting material and space allowance on explorative and abnormal behaviour in growing pigs. Thirty-six pens with partly slatted concrete floor were allocated to one of four treatments: (1) low space allowance and maize silage as rooting material, (2) high space allowance and maize silage as rooting material, (3) low space allowance and straw as rooting material, and (4) high space allowance and straw as rooting material. Pens with low space allowance had 17 pigs (0.64m2/pig), while pens with high space allowance had 11 pigs (1.0m2/pig). Behaviour was recorded by instantaneous sampling during 1 h before and 1 h after the daily allocation of rooting material at 10.00 h, as well as during 1 h in the afternoon starting at 13.00 h. Observations were conducted at 13 and 20 weeks of age. Pigs offered maize silage manipulated rooting material more (23% vs. 19% of the pigs; P < 0.001) and manipulated pen components less (3.3% vs. 4.5% of pigs; P < 0.01) than pigs offered straw. Pigs housed at a high space allowance manipulated rooting material more (22% vs. 19% of pigs; P < 0.05) than pigs at a low space allowance. At 13 weeks of age, pigs manipulated rooting material more (23% vs. 18% of pigs; P < 0.001), pen components more (4.8% vs. 3.1% of pigs; P < 0.01) and pen mates less (2.2% vs. 3.0% of the pigs; P < 0.05) than at 20 weeks of age. Manipulation of rooting material was lower before the daily allocation of rooting material than after (15%, 40% and 7% of pigs at 09.00, 10.00 and 13.00 h, respectively; P < 0.001), while manipulation of pen components (6.4%, 3.5% and 1.9% of pigs at 09.00, 10.00 and 13.00 h, respectively; P < 0.001) and pen mates (4.1%, 2.1% and 1.5% of the pigs at 09.00, 10.00 and 13.00 h, respectively; P < 0.001) were higher before allocation of rooting material than after. In conclusion, pigs manipulated maize silage more than chopped straw and the level of explorative behaviour redirected towards pen components was lower when maize silage was offered as a rooting material. Pigs with a high space allowance manipulated the rooting material more. Finally, increased manipulation of pen mates and pen components just before allocation of new rooting material suggest that the amount available just before the next allocation was insufficient to maintain material manipulation.

The aim of this experiment was to investigate pigs’ preferences for rooting materials. Eighteen materials were allocated to six categories each of which consisted of three similar materials based on characteristics such as structure, size of particles, complexity, destructibility and digestibility. Twelve pairs of pigs chose among the three materials of each of the six categories in a balanced design. Within each category each pair was given four instantaneous choices among the three materials in a three-armed maze. ‘No choice’ was scored if the pigs did not enter one of the maze-arms within 90 s. Thus there were four options in each choice situation. The results were analysed using a random utility model incorporating random intercepts to account for the repeated testing of the same animals. The pigs expressed clear preferences within the category EARTH, where compost and peat were preferred to wood-shavings and no choice. In the category CHIP the most probable rank-order was spruce chip, willow chip, fir chip and no choice, while in the category ROUGH the most probable rank-order was maize-silage, grass silage, sugar beets and no choice. However, in these two categories none of the probabilities were sufficiently large to signify a preference for any of the three materials although the probabilities of the ‘no choice’ option were low. The pigs expressed no preferences among any of the four options including ‘no choice’ in the categories TOY (sisal robe, Bite-Rite, wooden beam), HAY (alfalfa hay mixed with straw, seed grass hay, barley straw with under-seed), and STRAW (long straw, chopped straw and straw pellets).

Rooting behaviour appears to be an important part of the behavioural repertoire in pigs. It is suggested that it is in fact a behavioural need. The present study investigated whether nose-ringed gilts, which are unable to root, can satisfactorily substitute rooting with other exploratory activities. The behaviour of 24 gilts in groups of three, half of them nose-ringed, was studied on undisturbed days as well as on days of exposure to four different tests: (1) delayed feeding; (2) double feeding; (3) removal to an unknown area; (4) removal to an unknown area supplied with a trough with stones. The gilts’ posture and their behaviour were recorded by 1-min scan samplings, whereas pawing, aggression, and comfort behaviour were recorded by all occurrence sampling. Observations took place for 2.5 h in the morning and 2.5 h in the afternoon. On undisturbed days no significant differences were found between ringed and unringed gilts as regards the percentage of scans in which the gilts were active and foraging or exploring. However, the unringed gilts rooted significantly more than the ringed gilts ( P

Influence of timidity (timid when approached by an unknown human vs. control) and social environment during lactation (single vs. group farrowing paddock) on maternal reactivity of outdoor sows was examined in a 2 × 2 factorial experiment with nine replicates of four sows. Selection for timidity was carried out by a human approach test in the gestation paddock three weeks prepartum. During week 1 postpartum the maternal reactivity was tested once in each of three different setups mimicking potential situations of danger to the piglets: the play back of a piglet distress call (SP), disturbance of nursing (DN) and introduction of a human dummy (DT). Generally, timid sows were more reactive than controls; they had a higher first reaction type in DT (P < 0.05) and DN (P

The study investigated whether reduced accessibility to the sow and the presence of other litters could be a causal factor behind poor milk supply to the piglets. Thirty-five sows were distributed to one of three housing treatments: GS: 12 sows in groups of four in a `get-away system' where the sows could leave the piglets at their own will and where the litters were not able to compete for milk at foreign sows' udders; GG: 12 sows housed as GS sows but where the litters could compete for milk from foreign sows; IL: 11 sows housed individually with their litter in large pens. Observations of nursing frequency, duration of time spent in the farrowing pen and number of sows weaning their litter were made of all sows using 24-h video recordings day 8, 10, 14 and 21. Observation of teat fidelity, cross suckling, fights during milk letdown and number of piglets missing more than 20% of the nursings were made of the individual piglets using 12-h video recordings day 8, 14 and 21. The results showed a significant faster decrease over time in nursing frequency ( p p p p p p

Outdoor sows may be provided with a nose ring in order to prevent them from uprooting the grass. Under semi-natural conditions, sows spend 10–20% of their active time rooting. The welfare consequences of this rooting deprivation depend on the motivation of the behaviour. This experiment examines the motivation to root in gilts, in order to assess the welfare consequences of nose ringing. Sixteen gilts were housed in pairs in pens supplied with peat as rooting material, and moved to a neighbouring concrete pen thereby depriving them from rooting for 0, 0.5, 1, 2, 5, 8, 24.5, 26 and 32 h. Deprivation was followed by 24 h in the earth pen, where the behaviour of the gilts was video recorded. Three measures, considered to indicate rooting motivation were calculated from the recorded behaviour: time with snout to floor, latency to first snout contact to floor and lengths of rooting bouts. Gilts deprived from rooting for longer than 24 h spent more time with snout to the floor (4.2 min/h) during the light hours of the first 24 h after returning to the earth pen, than pigs deprived less than 24 h (2.0 min/h), P