The effect of forage on piglets’ behavior in connection with weaning
Abstract: Pigs’ (Sus scrofa) behaviors are affected by the environment they are housed in, where an enriched environment offers pigs to perform more diverse behaviors. Pigs reared in barren environments perform more oral manipulation toward their pen mates, compared to pigs reared in enriched environments. In conventional pig production, straw is the most common bedding material in enriched system. Roughage have a beneficial use in animal production. For example, providing pigs with silage, in addition to straw, increases their opportunities to perform foraging and exploratory behaviors, and may also contribute to nutrient supply and promote gastric health. Weaning in conventional pig production usually means an abrupt feed-change. Problems associated with weaning are e.g., diarrhea and behavioral problems, like belly nosing, mounting and fighting due to regrouping after weaning. Pre-weaning enrichment may improve the welfare of the piglets by expanding the piglets’ behavioral repertoire, stimulating foraging and feed-intake around weaning, and decreasing aggression and stress response post-weaning. Pigs have a strong motivation to perform foraging and exploratory behaviors, where environmental enrichment is used to provide pigs an environment suitable to perform these species-specific behaviors and to prevent damaging and undesirable behaviors. Silage have a positive impact on the pigs’ welfare when given as an additional rooting substrate. Silage increases the time pigs spend on manipulating and exploring the substrate, e.g., in combination with straw, as well as it could serve as an additional nutritive feed source. The aim of this study was to investigate piglets’ behavior, pre- and post-weaning, when having access to silage, in addition to straw, compared to no access to silage. In this study, 105 piglets (YxH), divided in two batches, were. Four different treatments were tested: no silage (C, n = 22), silage only pre-weaning (Spre, n = 28), silage only post-weaning (Spost, n = 26), and silage both pre- and post-weaning (Spp, n = 29). Piglets were weighed at three occasions and behavioral data was collected performing direct observation, using instantaneous (scan) sampling and continuous (focal) sampling. Minitab 18 was used to perform statistical analyses, and behavioral differences was tested using general linear model (ANOVA). Effects of silage were found on piglets’ body weight (BW) (P < 0.001), where Spost and Spp had the highest growth rates. Pre-weaning, suckling was the highest in Spre and Spp (P < 0.001). Further, nosing objects was most common in Spost (P < 0.01). Spp performed the most ear and tail biting (P < 0.05). This study found no differences in behavior between piglets that were provided with silage pre-weaning, compared with those that only received silage post-weaning. In general, foraging and exploring behaviors increased if the piglets received silage in addition to straw. No effect of silage on social interactions and unwanted behaviors among the piglets was confirmed. However, silage may be a good enrichment and have potential to promote pigs’ gastric health, due to its scent and nutrient composition.
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