Can increased dietary fibre level and a single enrichment device reduce the risk of tail biting in undocked growing-finishing pigs in fully slatted systems?

Abstract

This study evaluated the effectiveness of combined dietary and enrichment strategies to manage tail biting in pigs with intact tails in a conventional fully-slatted floor housing system. A 2 × 2 × 2 factorial design was used. Pigs had either a high fibre (weaner 5.3% and finisher 11.6% of crude fibre) or standard fibre diet (weaner 3.7% and finisher 5.9% of crude fibre). In the weaner stage, pigs had either a spruce wooden post (supplied in a wall-mounted dispenser) or a rubber floor toy as a enrichment device, and in the finisher stage, they had either the same or alternate enrichment item. Six hundred and seventy-two pigs were assigned to 48 pens of 14 pigs and followed from weaning until slaughter. Individual tail lesion scores and pen level behaviours were directly recorded every 2 weeks. Twenty-six pens had tail biting outbreaks and 161 injured pigs needed removal for treatment. Pigs fed with the high fibre diet performed more tail biting (p < 0.05) and tended to have a worse tail damage scores than those fed the standard fibre diet (p = 0.08). Pigs which had the floor toy as weaners and wood as finishers tended to have fewer tail lesions in the finisher stage than their counterparts (p = 0.06). Pigs receiving the floor toy as enrichment interacted with the enrichment more frequently overall (p < 0.001) and performed fewer harmful behaviours in the weaner stage (p < 0.05). Overall, higher fibre in the diet in a relatively barren environment did not help reduce tail biting or tail lesions. Altering the fibre level in the pigs’ diet and providing a single enrichment device to undocked pigs on fully slatted floors resulted in a high level of tail biting and a large proportion of pigs with partial tail amputation.

Short-Term Impact of Point-Source Enrichment on the Behavior of Gestating Sows Housed in Groups

“…Additionally, provision of these enrichment objects decreased the frequency of harmful behaviors including tail and ear biting in nursery pigs compared to spruce posts (Chou et al, 2020a), though that protective effect was not seen when the FIGURE 5 | Back transformed means and 90% CIs comparing sows in low and moderate lameness score groups for outcomes of (A) total duration of enrichment interaction during the 1-h observation interval and (B) frequency of enrichment interaction bouts during the 1-h observation interval. * Means within a day are different at p ≤ 0.05. enrichment objects were provided to older pigs (Chou et al, 2020b). In contrast, while our results suggest that the Lunas did not introduce new behavioral problems in our population of gestating sows (i.e., no differences in agonistic or sham chewing behaviors between treatments), interest seemed to decline among most of the sows after the first day of provision.…”

The Evidence for a Causal Link Between Disease and Damaging Behavior in Pigs

“…However, they found a lower percentage of grower-finisher pigs with tail damage and with reduced tail length, and a lower number of animals removed to the hospital area on this dietary treatment. It is not surprising that minor increases in dietary fiber level (from 4.2 to 6.6% crude fiber) with minimal enrichment provision did not control tail-biting in undocked finisher pigs on slatted floors ( 192 ). Some studies indicate a direct link between ingested fiber and gastric ulcers, e.g., ( 193 ).…”

A trait or a state - how consistent are tail biting phenotypes in pigs?

“…Animals (N = 120) for the current study were a subset of those included in a larger study as stated above. In the aforementioned study, 672 pigs (Landrace × Large White) were used to investigate the effect of increased dietary fibre and a single enrichment device on tail biting (Chou et al, 2020). This larger study employed a 2 × 2 × 2 factorial design with two types of enrichment device in the weaner stage (a wooden post or a rubber floor toy), two types of enrichment device in the finisher stage (the same device as in the weaner stage or the alternative), and two levels of dietary fibre (standard: weaner 3.7% and finisher 5.9% of crude fibre or high: weaner 5.3% and finisher 11.6% of crude fibre).…”