Effects of rearing and housing environment on behaviour and performance of pigs with different coping characteristics
The availability of a rooting substrate may profoundly affect behaviour and welfare of pigs. Apart from their actual housing environment, also the conditions present in early life and individual characteristics may influence the behaviour of pigs. The present study investigated the relative importance of the housing environment during rearing and the actual housing environment on […]
Behavioural development of pigs with different coping characteristics in barren and substrate-enriched housing conditions
Characterization of piglets based on the degree of resistance they display in a so-called Backtest is, to a certain extent, predictive of their coping responses to several challenges in later life. It is unknown, however, whether these individual coping characteristics of pigs are also reflected in their behavioural development in different environments. The present study […]
Vocal response to pain in piglets
Three experiments were performed attempting to establish the validity of vocal measures as an indicator of the immediate response to pain in domestic piglets. Vocalisations were measured while piglets were subjected to the routine farm practice of castration without anaesthetic, or restrained identically but not castrated (i.e., sham-castrated). In Experiment 1 we measured how calling […]