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Abstract

Early life experiences can affect social behaviour in later life, but opportunities for socio-behavioural development are often overlooked in current husbandry practices. This experiment investigated the effects of rearing piglets in two-stage group lactation (GL) system from 7 or 14 days of age on piglet aggression at weaning. Three lactation housing treatments were applied to a total of 198 piglets from 30 litters of multiparous sows. All dams farrowed in standard farrowing crates (FCs). Group lactation litters were transferred with their dam at 7 (GL7) or 14 days (GL14) postpartum to GL pens (one pen of five sows at 8.4 m2/sow and one pen of seven sows at 8.1 m2/sow, per GL treatment). Farrowing crate litters remained with their dam in a single litter until weaning. At weaning, 10 to 14 piglets from two unfamiliar litters from the same housing treatment were mixed into pens (n = 5 pens/treatment) and their behaviour was continuously recorded for 3.5 h. For each pen, the frequency of aggressive bouts (reciprocal and non-reciprocal aggression lasting 7 and GL14 piglets, respectively (40.5, 16.7 and 9.9 bouts/pig, respectively; P P P 7 or GL14 piglets. Bullying did not differ between housing treatments (P > 0.05). GL7 and GL14 piglets engaged in a similar number of fights with unfamiliar as familiar piglets, but FC piglets had almost three times as many fights with unfamiliar than with familiar piglets (P postpartum has implications for other indicators of animal welfare and productivity in a two-stage GL housing system.

Item Type:	Article
Authors/Creators:	Verdon, M and Morrison, RS and Rault, JL
Keywords:	animal welfare, behavioural development, early life, ontogeny, socialisation
Journal or Publication Title:	Animal
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
ISSN:	1751-7311
DOI / ID Number:	https://doi.org/10.1017/S1751731119000478
Copyright Information:	Copyright 2019 The Animal Consortium
Related URLs:	Google Scholar: Verdon, M UTAS Profile: Verdon, M
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