Feeder Use Patterns in Group-Housed Pregnant Sows Fed With an Unprotected Electronic Sow Feeder (Fitmix)

Chapinal, N.; Ruiz-de-la-Torre, J.L.; Cerisuelo, A.; Baucells, M. D.; Gasa, J.; Manteca, Xavier

doi:10.1080/10888700802329939

Cited by 24 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…Feed order ranking of ESF systems has previously been shown to be fairly stable and correlated to social dominance; with more aggressive and older sows eating earlier than other sows (Hunter et al, 1988;Chapinal et al, 2008). The positive correlation between feed rank at 2 to 4 weeks of gestation and aggressive/dominant scores indicates that sows which displaced others more often, and initiated more aggressive behaviors, also ate their daily feed earlier than other sows.…”

Section: Personality Traits In Gestating Sowsmentioning

confidence: 83%

“…Typically a small number of sows (6 to 10) are waiting at the feeder entrance and competing for access the feed station. Given that feed order is relatively stable (Hunter et al, 1988;Chapinal et al, 2008) sows are familiar with their waiting partners and likely have an implicit hierarchy in place. Once inside the electronic feeder the sows eat alone and thus this feeding system is characterized as noncompetitive feeding (Bench et al, 2013).…”

Section: Personality Traits In Gestating Sowsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Temporal stability of personality traits in group-housed gestating sows

Horback

Parsons

2016

Animal

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The movement of sows (Sus scrofa domesticus) out of individual gestation stalls and into group housing can introduce new sources of stress due to the enhanced environmental and social complexity. Some sows may have the behavioral capacity to adapt to these changes better than others. However, little is known about individual differences in behavioral responses, or personality traits, in gestating sows and how they impact the animal's ability to cope with group housing. The temporal consistency in the assessment of an animal's behavior is a prerequisite to the establishment of personality traits and was addressed at an interval of approximately five months during two consecutive gestation periods in the present study. Forty-six group-housed sows from a commercially available genetic line were assessed for aggressive and social behaviors at mixing into a group, reaction to human approach, ease of handling, exploration of an open field, and reaction to a novel object. Principal component analysis revealed the presence of three traits accounting for over 60% of the variance in behaviors: aggressive/dominant, avoidant of humans and active/exploratory. Individual component scores were significantly correlated between pregnancies demonstrating temporal stability of trait assessment. Significant relationships were found between aggressive/dominant component scores and individual feed rank at electronic sow feeding stations and skin lesion scores, as well as between avoidant of humans component scores and average number of stillbirths per litter. These findings provide evidence for the temporal stability of distinct behaviors contributing to personality traits within a group of genetically similar sows and demonstrate how these traits may be useful in identifying individuals likely to succeed in group housing.Keywords: sow, group-housed, gestation, behavior, personality ImplicationsDue to both legislative and market driven initiatives, swine farmers have been asked to transition their sows from individual gestation stalls to group pens. These housing systems introduce increased complexity of environmental and social stimuli. A better understanding of the variation in individual behavior of gestating sows and its consequences can inform pork producers on how best to manage sows at an individual level in group housing. IntroductionDetermining differences in personality traits for livestock may help to identify certain individuals which possess an increased ability to cope with environmental and/or social stressors (Gosling, 2001;Bolhuis et al., 2003). For example, personality differences have been shown to be significantly related to immunity function and stress response (Segerstrom, 2000;Koolhaas, 2008). Therefore, personality assessment of gestating sows may help in identifying individuals better able to cope with the enhanced environmental and social complexities associated with the transition from stall to group housing. Both legislative initiatives (EU Council Directive 2008/120/EC) and market forces (Matthews and Hem...

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Section: Personality Traits In Gestating Sowsmentioning

confidence: 83%

Section: Personality Traits In Gestating Sowsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Temporal stability of personality traits in group-housed gestating sows

Horback

Parsons

2016

Animal

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“…Feeding rates and other behavior information may be valuable tools in pig production. According to the literature, feederuse patterns in grouphoused pigs may be affected by several factors, such as photope riodicity, group size, social interaction, management, feed allowance, equipment design, and the type of en vironment in which feeder use is observed (Nielsen, 1999;Chapinal et al, 2008). Some feedback systems related to nutrient intake and based on internal meta bolic balances may also influence feeding behavior, es pecially in terms of shortterm regulation.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A better understanding of pig feeding behav ior could provide critical information for improving feeding strategies, productivity, and animal wellbe ing. Electronic feeders may be an important tool in this research area, as this equipment allows recording detailed and quantitative information on feeding be havior (such as time, size, and duration of each meal), overcoming the lack of control over individual behav ior intrinsic to other grouphousing systems (Nielsen, 1999;Chapinal et al, 2008). The aim of the present study was therefore to conduct an exploratory study of the feeding behavior of group-housed growing-finish ing pigs reared under precision feeding strategies.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Feeding behavior of growing–finishing pigs reared under precision feeding strategies1

Andretta

Pomar

Kipper

et al. 2016

Journal of Animal Science

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The feeding behavior of growing-finishing pigs reared under precision feeding strategies was studied in 35 barrows and 35 females (average initial BW of 30.4 ± 2.2 kg) over 84 d. Five different feeding programs were evaluated, namely a conventional 3-phase program in which pigs were fed with a constant blend of diet A (high nutrient density) and diet B (low nutrient density) and 4 daily phase-feeding programs in which pigs were fed daily with a blend meeting 110, 100, 90, or 80% of the individual Lys requirements. Electronic feeder systems automatically recorded the visits to the feeder, the time of the meals, and the amount of feed consumed per meal. The trial lasted 84 d and the database contained 59,701 feeder visits. The recorded database was used to calculate the number of meals per day, feeding time per meal (min), intervals between meals (min), feed intake per meal (g), and feed consumption rate (feed intake divided by feeding time per meal, expressed in g/min) of each animal. The feeding pattern was predominantly diurnal (73% of the feeder visits). Number of meals, duration of meals, time between meals, feed consumed per meal, and feed consumption rate were not affected by the feeding programs. The females ingested 19% less feed per meal and had a 6% lower feed consumption rate in comparison with the barrows ( < 0.05). Pig feeding behavior was not correlated with diet composition. However, feed efficiency was negatively correlated with amount of feed consumed per meal ( = -0.38, < 0.05) and feed consumption rate ( = -0.44, < 0.05). Feed consumption rate was also negatively correlated with protein efficiency ( = -0.44, < 0.05). Multivariate analysis indicated that feed consumption rate and number of meals per day are the variables related most closely to pig production performance results. Current results indicate that using precision feeding as an approach to reduce Lys intake does not interfere with the feeding behavior of growing-finishing pigs.

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“…Each study included combinations of parameters of feed intake, feeding time, feeding interval, number of feeds per day, total time spent on eating and feeding speed. The researchers found that feed intake and feeding behavior was impacted by environmental temperature (Eigenberg et al, 2000), diet (Fuller et al, 1995;Abijaoudé et al, 2000), social communication (Goetsch et al, 2010), dominance ranking (Chapinal et al, 2008;Val-Laillet et al, 2008;Walker et al, 2008;Soł-tysiak and Nogalski, 2010), number of individuals in a feeder (Korthals, 2000) and health status (Griffin, 2001). However, most of these data were recorded from small groups or individually housed animals.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A multi-population survey on swine feeding behavior with electronic feeding devices

Xin

Zhang

et al. 2016

Arch. Anim. Breed.

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Abstract. In this study, we used electronic feeding station observations of pigs to investigate their growth performance and feeding behavior. These pigs were raised in Xinda Livestock Company Ltd. in Henan, China, and followed the Chinese directive for the protection of farm animals. Electronic feeding stations are often used in pig breeding and for identifying loci associated with feed consumption. Moreover, they can also provide much valuable information on pig behavior that could be directly used to improve production efficiency. This study involves three different pig population feeding-intake data from 383 Yorkshire, 243 Landrace and 197 Duroc breeds to investigate their growth performance and feeding behavior. Similar patterns of growth performance (slow-fast-slow) were observed in the three breeds, while the Duroc have a slightly faster average growth rate throughout the whole test period. Study of the number of visits to the feeding station over 24 h detected two peaks of feeding intake activity at 08:00-09:00 and 14:00-15:00. During these two peak feeding times, lower feed intake and less occupation time were observed, implicating fiercer competition at these time periods. The effective intake time for Duroc, Landrace and Yorkshire populations was 19, 16 and 19 min, respectively, suggesting that the ultimate feed intake time for each individual can be set up to 20 min for each visit. Studies on the ADFI (average daily feed intake) showed a significant difference (P value = 0.000009) between seasons and consistent patterns for these three breeds. The present study provides a detailed survey on pig feed intake behaviors across different populations and feeding seasons.

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Feeder Use Patterns in Group-Housed Pregnant Sows Fed With an Unprotected Electronic Sow Feeder (Fitmix)

Cited by 24 publications

References 19 publications

Temporal stability of personality traits in group-housed gestating sows

Temporal stability of personality traits in group-housed gestating sows

Feeding behavior of growing–finishing pigs reared under precision feeding strategies1

A multi-population survey on swine feeding behavior with electronic feeding devices

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