Lifetime consequences of the early physical and social environment of piglets

Telkänranta, Helena; Edwards, Sandra

doi:10.1016/b978-0-08-101012-9.00013-7

Cited by 12 publications

(10 citation statements)

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“…Such piglets might be better prepared for social and non-social challenges at weaning [29]. Furthermore, the housing conditions during the first weeks of life have important long-lasting effects on the piglets' welfare, since behaviour, cognitive and social skills, as well as stress regulation in future life are affected by early life experiences [30].In previous studies, the point in time when piglets were first allowed to co-mingle with non-littermates, was fixed; partitions and barriers were removed or piglet doors were opened at various time-points, ranging from 5 days post-partum [25] to 16 days post-partum [22], while most studies practised co-mingling at 10-11 days post-partum [15][16][17][18]21,23,26].Although positive effects of pre-weaning group housing on aggressive interactions and weight gain after weaning have already been found in earlier studies, there are hardly any commercially available systems for group housing of sows and their piglets in agricultural practice. In the present study, data were obtained from a novel group housing system for five lactating sows, which was designed to be easily installed on commercial farms.…”

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Behaviour and Skin Injuries of Piglets Originating from a Novel Group Farrowing System Before and After Weaning

Schrey

Kemper

2019

Agriculture

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The aim of this study was to analyse a novel group farrowing system (GH) concerning piglets’ behaviour, skin injuries and body weight gain, to test its animal friendliness. Skin injuries and weight gain were compared to piglets originating from conventional individual housing (IH) before and after weaning. The GH system had five farrowing pens without crates, a common area and an area only available for piglets. In total, 34 litters were studied. Four days after the GH-piglets had left the pens during lactation, the lesion score of piglets in GH was higher than in IH. However, piglets from the GH sustained fewer injuries after mixing at weaning, compared to the piglets from IH and had higher daily weight gains, during the early nursery phase. The common area in GH was intensively used for active behaviour, since standing/walking and playing were observed there, most frequently, whereas lying occurred most frequently inside the pens. Immediately after the piglets had left the pens in the GH, the piglets preferred proximity to the sow, compared to the pens where they were born. The GH system enabled social enrichment, offered increased space for activity and led to fewer skin lesions, after weaning; thus, potentially increasing animal welfare.

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Behaviour and Skin Injuries of Piglets Originating from a Novel Group Farrowing System Before and After Weaning

Schrey

Kemper

2019

Agriculture

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“…For example, isolation in early life decreases the motivation for social contact and sucrose-drinking in later life in rats (Van den Berg et al 1999). Also in pigs, long-lasting effects of early life experiences have been found (Telkänranta and Edwards 2017). Importantly, pigs that changed from enriched housing in early life to barren housing later on show as much signs of decreased welfare as pigs kept in a barren environment throughout life, or even more (Bolhuis et al 2004;Munsterhjelm et al 2009), which suggests that a loss of enrichment in later life could be even more detrimental than barren housing throughout.…”

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confidence: 99%

Effects of early life and current housing on sensitivity to reward loss in a successive negative contrast test in pigs

et al. 2019

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Animals in a negative affective state seem to be more sensitive to reward loss, i.e. an unexpected decrease in reward size. The aim of this study was to investigate whether early-life and current enriched vs. barren housing conditions affect the sensitivity to reward loss in pigs using a successive negative contrast test. Pigs (n = 64 from 32 pens) were housed in barren or enriched conditions from birth onwards, and at 7 weeks of age experienced either a switch in housing conditions (from barren to enriched or vice versa) or not. Allotting pigs to the different treatments was balanced for coping style (proactive vs. reactive). One pig per pen was trained to run for a large reward and one for a small reward. Reward loss was introduced for pigs receiving the large reward after 11 days (reward downshift), i.e. from then onwards, they received the small reward. Pigs housed in barren conditions throughout life generally had a lower probability and higher latency to get the reward than other pigs. Proactive pigs ran overall slower than reactive pigs. After the reward downshift, all pigs ran slower. Nevertheless, reward downshift increased the latency and reduced the probability to get to the reward, but only in pigs exposed to barren conditions in early life, which thus were more sensitive to reward loss than pigs from enriched early life housing. In conclusion, barren housed pigs seemed overall less motivated for the reward, and early life housing conditions had long-term effects on the sensitivity to reward loss.

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“…In addition to the impact of weaning stress on feed intake, intestinal functioning and piglet health, weaning also adversely affects piglet behaviour, involving an increase in vocalisations and damaging behaviour directed at their pen mates, including belly nosing (reviewed by Widowski et al, 2008), ear and tail biting (Van Nieuwamerongen et al, 2017). Weaning not only induces transient effects on growth, intestinal development and behaviour, but there is also some evidence that weaning can induce long-lasting changes in the epithelial, immune and enteric nervous system functions of the gastrointestinal tract (reviewed by Moeser et al, 2017) and in penmate-directed behaviour and activity of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal cortex axis (reviewed by Telkänranta and Edwards, 2018).…”

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“…As summarized in Table 1, the rearing environment of pigs in intensive commercial systems differs substantially from that of pigs in a (semi-)natural environment. This may disrupt normal developmental processes and impair pig welfare (reviewed by Telkänranta and Edwards, 2018). An approach to improve adaptation of piglets to the commercial rearing environment is to implement features and processes from the (semi-)natural environment in the commercial environment, of which some have been studied (Table 1).…”

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Foraging in the farrowing room to stimulate feeding : getting piglets to eat is bittersweet

Middelkoop¹

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In common pig production systems, weaning happens early and abruptly, which contrasts the gradual transition from sow's milk to solid feed in nature. A significant proportion of commercially reared piglets is therefore poorly familiarised with the ingestion of solid feed before weaning, which together with concurrent changes in social structure and environment, result in a low feed intake and multiple health and welfare problems initially after weaning. The first aim of this thesis was to investigate the effects of solid feed provision during lactation (creep feed) on piglet development during the weaning transition. Piglets provided with creep feed (including fermentable fibres) during lactation increased their growth towards weaning, tended to be heavier at weaning, and were heavier and more uniform in body weight at two weeks after weaning compared to piglets reared on sow's milk only. This may partly be explained by a more developed gastrointestinal tract and more mature gut microbiota population at weaning of creep feed eaters within litters given creep feed. The second aim of this thesis was to explore whether piglets that were offered more opportunities to forage early in life increased their intake of creep feed before weaning and thereby improved their ability to deal with the weaning transition. Four strategies that could stimulate foraging in the farrowing room were tested: 1) enriching the pen with foraging materials on the floor and extra space, and by alternating chew objects, 2) presenting creep feed in a 'play-feeder' with foraging and playing materials attached, 3) providing diverse feeds in the feeder and 4) hiding feed in the feeder in sand. Enrichment with foraging materials on the floor, more space and alternating chew objects positively influenced feed intake of piglets before and after weaning until the end of the study at 2.5 weeks postweaning. Presenting the creep feed in a play-feeder stimulated feeder exploration and attracted more piglets than presenting the feed in a conventional feeder. Although the play-feeder did not enhance pre-weaning feed intake, post-weaning feed intake and growth were substantially improved and the incidence of diarrhoea, body lesions and damage were lower. Simultaneous provision of diverse feeds to suckling piglets resulted in more feed exploration and solid feed intake, and in a higher number of good eaters. Hiding feed in sand stimulated the number of good creep feed eaters within the litter, but did not increase exploration towards the feed. With the exception of the first feeding strategy, treatments were not reinforced after weaning and piglets thus experienced loss of these resources, which may have had a negative effect on post-weaning adaptation. This may explain the limited effects of dietary diversity on post-weaning adaption and the negative effects of hiding feed in sand on post-weaning feed intake, growth, manipulation and aggression. Lastly, it was shown that creep feed intake is not only driven by exploration, but also by a low energy intake fr...

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Lifetime consequences of the early physical and social environment of piglets

Cited by 12 publications

References 132 publications

Behaviour and Skin Injuries of Piglets Originating from a Novel Group Farrowing System Before and After Weaning

Behaviour and Skin Injuries of Piglets Originating from a Novel Group Farrowing System Before and After Weaning

Effects of early life and current housing on sensitivity to reward loss in a successive negative contrast test in pigs

Foraging in the farrowing room to stimulate feeding : getting piglets to eat is bittersweet

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