HABRI Central

The experiment aimed to investigate the effect of type of rooting material and space allowance on explorative and abnormal behaviour in growing pigs. Thirty-six pens with partly slatted concrete floor were allocated to one of four treatments: (1) low space allowance and maize silage as rooting material, (2) high space allowance and maize silage as rooting material, (3) low space allowance and straw as rooting material, and (4) high space allowance and straw as rooting material. Pens with low space allowance had 17 pigs (0.64 m2/pig), while pens with high space allowance had 11 pigs (1.0 m2/pig). Behaviour was recorded by instantaneous sampling during 1 h before and 1 h after the daily allocation of rooting material at 10.00 h, as well as during 1 h in the afternoon starting at 13.00 h. Observations were conducted at 13 and 20 weeks of age. Pigs offered maize silage manipulated rooting material more (23% vs. 19% of the pigs; P0.001) and manipulated pen components less (3.3% vs. 4.5% of pigs; P0.01) than pigs offered straw. Pigs housed at a high space allowance manipulated rooting material more (22% vs. 19% of pigs; P0.05) than pigs at a low space allowance. At 13 weeks of age, pigs manipulated rooting material more (23% vs. 18% of pigs; P0.001), pen components more (4.8% vs. 3.1% of pigs; P0.01) and pen mates less (2.2% vs. 3.0% of the pigs; P0.05) than at 20 weeks of age. Manipulation of rooting material was lower before the daily allocation of rooting material than after (15

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

1. Abnormal behavior
2. Abnormal development
3. Animal behavior
4. Animals
5. Animal welfare
6. Corn
7. Deviant behavior
8. Enrichment
9. Field crops
10. Grasses
11. Maize
12. Mammals
13. Meat animals
14. pens
15. Plants
16. Straw
17. Swine