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The rearing environment of pigs can cause a high level of stress due to the lack of stimuli and the impossibility of carrying out natural behaviors. Music therapy is a way to enrich the environment and promote stress relief. Few studies in swine using environmental enrichers focus on functional benefits, such as stress resilience, improved biological functions, or mental status. The effect of environmental enrichment on neurobiological processes is particularly poorly understood in farm animals. Thus, our study sought to elucidate the influence of music in piglets exposed to music therapy in the intrauterine and extrauterine phase on neuroplasticity, evaluating the levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). Behavioural responses were also evaluated using fear tests related to stress resilience. The productive performance of these piglets was analysed to relate the possible reduction in stress levels to greater productivity gains. Forty-eight sows were used at 90 days of gestation until the weaning of their piglets. In the gestation phase, the sows were divided into two treatments: control (without music therapy) and music (with music therapy). In the farrowing/lactation phase, the sows were separated into four treatments: control-control (no music in any phase); control-music (music only in farrowing/lactation); music-control (music only during pregnancy); and music-music (music in both reproductive phases). Music therapy did not cause a difference in the BDNF levels of piglets at birth. However, piglets born from sows of the music-music treatment did not show a reduction in BDNF between birth and weaning, unlike the other treatments. Exposure to music in the last 1/3 of pregnancy and farrowing/lactation improved the weight of piglets at birth and at weaning. Musical enrichment during pregnancy and lactation was able to cause changes in the piglets’ neuroplasticity and improve their productive performances.

Na evolução da avicultura, diversas mudanças no manejo, nutrição, genética e ambiente puderam ser observadas ao longo dos anos. O perfil do consumidor de produtos avícolas mudou e estão cada vez mais estão conscientes da necessidade da adoção das práticas de bem-estar na produção de aves. Assim, objetiva-se com esta revisão bibliográfica evidenciar o atual cenário dos principais países produtores avícolas, destacando legislações e recomendações para criação que recaem sobre o bem-estar. Os modelos intensivos de produção causam alterações nos comportamentos inerentes à espécie. Essa situação ocorre devido à vivência em um ambiente estressante, com alta taxa de lotação ao se tratar de aves de corte ou alojamento em gaiolas durante todo o período produtivo das aves de postura. Sob ponto de vista prático, o bem-estar positivo pode ser obtido através da disposição dos animais em um ambiente adequado para sua criação, permitindo expressar o máximo de comportamentos e aspectos naturais. A percepção por parte dos consumidores da senciência dos animais, impulsionou o mercado a realizar mudanças no sistema produtivo, além disso, a obrigatoriedade de atender as legislações internacionais e nacionais foram funda-mentais para melhora no bem-estar na avicultura, já que determinam padrões essenciais para a melhora da qualidade de vida destes animais em confinamento.

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The evolution of scientific knowledge regarding animal sentience, together with the growing concerns of consumers regarding current production models, has brought with it the responsibility of reviewing many practices carried out in industrial swine farming, with the purpose of improving the life quality of animals throughout the entire production cycle. In this sense, many initiatives have been taken by European Union, OIE and other countries to abolish questionable practices from an animal welfare point of view, being signed through legislation or normative instructions, which guide governments and companies on the best practices to be adopted. Among the main changes that have taken place in swine farming are the ban or reduction in the use of cages for sows, restrictions on the age at weaning, ban on painful procedures such as surgical castration, tail and teeth clipping, as routine procedures or without the use of anesthesia/analgesia. In addition, these acts also prescribe practices that must be adopted in order to respect the natural behavior of animals, such as the use of environmental enrichment. This review aims to address the main advances made over the last few years in the protection of swine, as well as Brazilian initiatives in this regard.