Tail-Biting in Pigs: A Scoping Review

Henry, Maggie; Jansen, Hannah; Amezcua, Maria del Rocio; O’Sullivan, Terri L.; Niel, Lee; Shoveller, Anna K.; Friendship, Robert

doi:10.3390/ani11072002

Cited by 19 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 118 publications

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“…In all cases, tail biting is connected with poor welfare of pigs because of the pain and stress (Munsterhjelm et al, 2013). Tail biting is multifactorial (Taylor et al, 2010) and has been proven difficult to predict and control (Henry et al, 2021). The risk of tail biting is increased in the conditions of poor management and housing practices that do not meet the basic requirements of pigs, thereby causing stress.…”

Section: 7mentioning

confidence: 99%

Welfare of pigs on farm

Nielsen¹,

Álvarez²,

Bicout³

et al. 2022

EFS2

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This scientific opinion focuses on the welfare of pigs on farm, and is based on literature and expert opinion. All pig categories were assessed: gilts and dry sows, farrowing and lactating sows, suckling piglets, weaners, rearing pigs and boars. The most relevant husbandry systems used in Europe are described. For each system, highly relevant welfare consequences were identified, as well as related animal-based measures (ABMs), and hazards leading to the welfare consequences. Moreover, measures to prevent or correct the hazards and/or mitigate the welfare consequences are recommended. Recommendations are also provided on quantitative or qualitative criteria to answer specific questions on the welfare of pigs related to tail biting and related to the European Citizen's Initiative 'End the Cage Age'. For example, the AHAW Panel recommends how to mitigate group stress when dry sows and gilts are grouped immediately after weaning or in early pregnancy. Results of a comparative qualitative assessment suggested that long-stemmed or long-cut straw, hay or haylage is the most suitable material for nest-building. A period of time will be needed for staff and animals to adapt to housing lactating sows and their piglets in farrowing pens (as opposed to crates) before achieving stable welfare outcomes. The panel recommends a minimum available space to the lactating sow to ensure piglet welfare (measured by live-born piglet mortality). Among the main risk factors for tail biting are space allowance, types of flooring, air quality, health status and diet composition, while weaning age was not associated directly with tail biting in later life. The relationship between the availability of space and growth rate, lying behaviour and tail biting in rearing pigs is quantified and presented. Finally, the panel suggests a set of ABMs to use at slaughter for monitoring on-farm welfare of cull sows and rearing pigs.

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Section: 7mentioning

confidence: 99%

Welfare of pigs on farm

Nielsen¹,

Álvarez²,

Bicout³

et al. 2022

EFS2

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“…Despite decades of research, tail biting is still a major problem in intensive pig production. Tail biting has serious consequences for the animals involved because it leads to physical injury and pain as well as psychological stress 1 , 2 . Tail biting also has a negative impact on the economic performance of pig farms 3 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The gut microbiota and microbial metabolites are associated with tail biting in pigs

Verbeek

Keeling

Landberg

et al. 2021

Sci Rep

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Tail biting is an abnormal behaviour that causes stress, injury and pain. Given the critical role of the gut-microbiota in the development of behavioural problems in humans and animals, the aim of this study was to determine whether pigs that are biters, victims of tail biting or controls (nine matched sets of pigs) have a different microbiota composition, diversity and microbial metabolite profile. We collected faecal and blood samples from each individual for analysis. The gut microbiota composition was most different between the biter and the control pigs, with a higher relative abundance of Firmicutes in tail biter pigs than the controls. Furthermore, we detected differences in faecal and plasma short chain fatty acids (SCFA) profiles between the biter and victim pigs, suggesting physiological differences even though they are kept in the same pen. Thus, in addition to supporting an association between the gut microbiota and tail biting in pigs, this study also provides the first evidence of an association between tail biting and SCFA. Therefore, further research is needed to confirm these associations, to determine causality and to study how the SCFA profiles of an individual play a role in the development of tail biting behaviour.

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“…The pathogenesis and etiology of these five common pathological conditions, which cause important loses in porcine production, are diverse and multifactorial. It has been reported that tail-biting lesions are highly related to stressful housing conditions that produce excessive motivation for biting ( 43 ). However, tail-biting lesions are also suggested to be an indication of serious stress experienced by the victims ( 44 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Connection Between Stress and Immune Status in Pigs: A First Salivary Analytical Panel for Disease Differentiation

et al. 2022

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This paper analyzes the association between stress and immune response activations in different diseases, based on the salivary analytics. Moreover, a first attempt to discriminate between diseases was performed by principal component analysis. The salivary analytics consisted of the measurement of psychosocial stress (cortisol and salivary alpha-amylase) indicators, innate (acute phase proteins: C-reactive protein and haptoglobin), and adaptive immune (adenosine deaminase, Cu and Zn) markers and oxidative stress parameters (antioxidant capacity and oxidative status). A total of 107 commercial growing pigs in the field were divided into six groups according to the signs of disease after proper veterinary clinical examination, especially, healthy pigs, pigs with rectal prolapse, tail-biting lesions, diarrhea, lameness, or dyspnea. Associations between stress and immune markers were observed with different intensities. High associations (r = 0.61) were observed between oxidative stress markers and adaptive immune markers. On the other hand, moderate associations (r = 0.31–0.48) between psychosocial stress markers with both innate and adaptive immune markers were observed. All pathological conditions showed statistically significant differences in at least 4 out of the 11 salivary markers studied, with no individual marker dysregulated in all the diseases. Moreover, each disease condition showed differences in the degree of activation of the analyzed systems which could be used to create different salivary profiles. A total of two dimensions were selected through the principal component analysis to explain the 48.3% of the variance of our data. Lameness and rectal prolapse were the two pathological conditions most distant from the healthy condition followed by dyspnea. Tail-biting lesions and diarrhea were also far from the other diseases but near to healthy animals. There is still room for improvements, but these preliminary results displayed a great potential for disease detection and characterization using salivary biomarkers profiling in the near future.

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Tail-Biting in Pigs: A Scoping Review

Cited by 19 publications

References 118 publications

Welfare of pigs on farm

Welfare of pigs on farm

The gut microbiota and microbial metabolites are associated with tail biting in pigs

The Connection Between Stress and Immune Status in Pigs: A First Salivary Analytical Panel for Disease Differentiation

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