Despite growing interest in promoting positive welfare, rather than just alleviating poor welfare, potential measures of good welfare, and means to provide it, have remained elusive. In humans social support improves stress-coping abilities, health, and...
Pigs may affect each other's health, welfare and productivity through their behaviour. The effect of a pig on the growth rate of its pen mates is partly heritable and is referred to as its social...
Cognitive enrichment, a special form of environmental enrichment, addresses the cognitive abilities of animals in captivity. Through cognitive interaction with the environment, the animals regain a certain control over their environment, and essential resources, such...
Raising entire males is already common in a few European countries. It has the advantage of avoiding the pain of castration. Entire males have also a better food conversion. However, they would be more aggressive...
This study investigated the implementation of walk-in/lock-in stalls (free access stalls) for group housed sows. The objectives were to compare two different pen configurations (‘I-pen’ vs. ‘T-pen’) by determining the proportion and type (size/parity) of...
This study aimed to identify differences in stress measures in pigs (Sus scrofa) with different roles during a tail-biting outbreak. Quartets (n = 16) of age- and gender-matched fattening pigs including a tail biter (TB...
This study analyses the preferences, as well as the lying behaviour, of sows with various types of mat in a group housing system lying area. The sows in the trial could choose between six bays...
Social or pair-housing is our main form of swine enrichment. The minipigs are group-housed in stalls that have sliding divider doors/panel which allow separation of animals for feeding and study procedures, as needed. Ideally, enrichment...
The frozen Veggie Bite ice cube treat is hung inside the swine chain-link type enclosure with a Carabineer hook. ... Because swine avoid objects that are contaminated with feces, suspending this enrichment treat encourages more...
Pigs may be housed individually in both production and research settings. Gregarious by nature, pigs kept in isolation may show behavioural and physiological signs of stress. In this study we investigated the preference of individually...