Cognitive Enrichment in Piglet Rearing: An Approach to Enhance Animal Welfare and to Reduce Aggressive Behaviour

Abstract

It is known that pigs raised in enriched environments express less aggressive behaviour. For this reason, a new method of cognitive environmental enrichment was experimented at the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Germany. In the first phase, 78 suckling piglets were trained to learn the link between a sound given by an electronic feeder and a feed reward in the form of chocolate candies during a period of 8 days. In the second phase, the same piglets were used in resident-intruder tests to verify the potential of the feeding system to interrupt aggressive behaviour. The analysis of all training rounds revealed that piglets learned the commands during 8 days of training and the interest of the piglets increased within training days (P < 0.05). In the resident-intruder test, 79.5% of aggressive interactions were broken by feeder activation. In interactions where either the aggressor or the receiver reacted, a high number of fights were stopped (96.7% versus 93.1%) indicating that it was not relevant if the aggressor or the receiver responded to the feeder activation. We conclude that the electronic feeding system has the potential to be used as cognitive enrichment for piglets, being suitable for reducing aggressive behaviour in resident-intruder situations.

The translation of animal welfare research into practice: The case of mixing aggression between pigs

“…No (Rauterberg et al, 2013;Sonoda et al, 2013;Ismayilova et al, 2014) Solid visual barriers, escape areas or pop-holes to hide head and neck Allows subordinates to avoid aggression Inconsistent evidence of efficacy, costs of installation, greater labour costs for inspection and cleaning Yes Limited (McGlone and Curtis, 1985;Edwards et al, 1993;Olesen et al, 1996;Bulens et al, 2017) Tranquiliser (azaperone) Initial reduction in mixing aggression Aggression is only delayed rather than reduced No Yes (Blackshaw, 1981;Gonyou et al, 1988;Tan and Shackleton, 1990) Boar presence Possible minor reduction in sow aggression No clear effect, increased sow stress, impractical on farm…”

Influence of temperature on prevalence of health and welfare conditions in pigs: time-series analysis of pig abattoir inspection data in England and Wales

“…Respiratory conditions and tail biting cause poor health and welfare states and have been associated with poor performance, increased production costs [17] and economic loss [18]. Respiratory conditions can reduce pig growth, increase feed conversion ratios [19] and may result in additional medication costs.…”

A Perspective on Strategic Enrichment for Brain Development: Is This the Key to Animal Happiness?

“…In humans, the degree of curiosity can also be highly correlated with the degree of emotional intelligence ( 89 , 90 ), thus highlighting the potential interdependence between enrichment provision to stimulate neural development and future engagement with enrichments. Livestock will also actively engage with cognitive enrichments [e.g., pigs: ( 91 ); laying hens: ( 92 ); dwarf goats: ( 93 )], and show motivation to learn ( 94 ) as well as physiological evidence of learning processes being rewarding ( 95 – 97 ). This evidence of a natural desire for enrichment engagement supports the negative impacts that the absence of such stimulation would have.…”