A general reaction pattern across situations in prepubertal gilts

In order to elucidate whether consistency exists in the reactions of gilts to various challenging situations, 56 prepubertal crossbred Landrace/Yorkshire gilts were subjected to a Food Competition Test, an Open Field Test, a Human Test and a Social Test. The undisturbed behaviour was video recorded in the home pen before the tests were performed. Factor analysis on open field data revealed five factors, selected by the criterium of the eigenvalue being bigger than one: (1) immobility, (2) exploratory locomotion, (3) non-exploratory locomotion, (4) object exploration, and (5) central position in the test arena. Factor analysis on Human Test data resulted in five factors: (1) exploration, (2) inactivity, (3) vocalisation, (4) immobility, and (5) escape. Significant correlations were found between the Open Field Test and the Human Test, between the Human Test and the Social Test and between the Food Competition Test and the Human Test. Only a tendency to a correlation was found between the Open Field Test and the Social Test. In conclusion in this investigation the gilts showed a general reactivity which was consistent across non-social situations and also tended to be so in a social situation with an unknown pig. Future investigations of relations between social and non-social situation, should focus on social contexts where the individuality of the animal can be tested, to prevent interference form group dynamics, and compare this measure with reactivity in non-social situations.