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Acth. --- Bedding. --- Food. --- Level. --- Performance. --- Pig. --- Pregnancy. --- Response. --- Responses. --- Sow. --- Straw bedding. --- Straw.

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The effects of straw on the behaviour of young growing pigs were studied in two experiments. In Experiment 1, groups of three pigs, aged about 7 weeks, were housed in raised decks with or without straw bedding. Time-lapse video recording showed no major differences between treatments in the amount or daily pattern of overall activity and feeding. Detailed observations showed that bedding reduced the incidence of rooting and chewing on pen-mates, but had little effect on other social activities such as mounting and aggressive biting. Experiment 2 compared groups of eight growing pigs aged about 10 weeks, housed in floor pens with or without a small amount of straw provided daily in a rack. Pigs with straw concentrated more of their daily activity into the period when straw was fresh, but the total amount of overall activity and time spent feeding were not affected. Rooting and chewing of pen-mates were the only social activities reduced by the provision of fresh straw. In these studies, where straw was not required to compensate for deficiencies such as low temperatures or hunger, the one major function of straw was to provide a stimulus and outlet for rooting and chewing, with a resulting reduction in such activities directed at pen-mates

Activity. --- Aggressive. --- Bedding. --- Behavior. --- Behaviour. --- Boxes. --- Experiment. --- Experiments. --- Feeding. --- Floor. --- Function. --- Group. --- Growing pigs. --- Growing-pigs. --- Hunger. --- Observation. --- Pattern. --- Pen. --- Pig. --- Piglets. --- Pigs. --- Provision. --- Reduction. --- Social. --- Stimulus. --- Straw bedding. --- Straw. --- Temperature. --- Time. --- Treatment. --- Video. --- Young.

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Hierarchy positions in groups of sows are settled relatively quickly, though long term stability can be affected by several factors including method of feeding. Fighting is less intense between pigs of unequal sizes, may be reduced by previous exposure but is less affected by the presence of a boar. Larger groups have more hierarchy positions to resolve and therefore more fighting. Greater space allowance appears to have little effect on fighting at mixing but can reduce aggression in the longer term. Barriers can limit aggression by allowing losers to escape more easily. Provision of ad libitum feed has been shown to reduce aggression over the short term. Straw bedding has no effect on fighting. Chemical intervention techniques would appear to delay rather than reduce fighting. Newly mixed sows should be supervised to reduce fighting. The fighting which occurs during mixing results in physiological stress responses which can have detrimental effects on reproductive parameters. However, the short-term nature of this response means that detrimental effects can be avoided by careful timing of regrouping. It is therefore possible to achieve equally good reproductive performance in group-housing systems as in systems with individual housing, provided that good management is practised

Ad-libitum. --- Aggression. --- Bedding. --- Boar. --- Consequences. --- Escape. --- Exposure. --- Feeding. --- Fighting. --- Group housing. --- Group. --- Hierarchy. --- Housing. --- Individual housing. --- Long-term. --- Management. --- Method. --- Mixing. --- Parameters. --- Performance. --- Physiological. --- Pig. --- Pigs. --- Position. --- Positions. --- Production. --- Provision. --- Regrouping. --- Response. --- Responses. --- Sow. --- Sows. --- Space allowance. --- Space. --- Straw bedding. --- Straw. --- Stress response. --- Stress-response. --- Stress. --- System. --- Systems. --- Welfare.

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Several studies suggest that classification of piglets early in life based on the degree of resistance they display in a so-called Backtest may be indicative of their coping style at a later age. In the present study behavioural flexibility was investigated in pigs diverging for Backtest response and housing environment during rearing. Pigs were housed either without a rooting substrate (barren housing, 13) or in identical pens enriched with deep straw bedding (enriched housing, E) from birth. During the suckling period piglets were subjected to the Backtest. Each piglet was restrained on its back for I min and the resistance (i.e. number of escape attempts) was scored. Pigs classified as 'high-resisting' (HR) or as 'low-resisting' (LR) were subjected to a simple (left/right) spatial discrimination (T-maze) task at 8 weeks of age. The effect of a single, subtle intramaze change was determined after acquisition of the task. In addition, pigs were subjected to reversal learning to assess their ability to modulate established behaviour patterns. Housing and its interaction with Backtest classification influenced the behavioural response to the intramaze change: E pigs were considerably more distracted than B pigs. Housing condition affected LR pigs more than HR pigs, as indicated by the interaction effects on various recorded behaviours. These interactions indicate that behavioural responding of pigs with diverging coping characteristics cannot simply be generalised across rearing conditions. Furthermore, FIR pigs were less successful in reversal learning than LR pigs, suggesting that they have a higher propensity to develop inflexible behavioural routines. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Ability. --- Acquisition. --- Age. --- Apomorphine. --- Backtest. --- Basal ganglia. --- Bedding. --- Behaviour. --- Behavioural flexibility. --- Birth. --- Breeding gilts. --- Classification. --- Coping characteristics. --- Coping strategy. --- Coping style. --- Coping. --- Discrimination. --- Enriched. --- Environment. --- Environmental enrichment. --- Escape. --- Exploration. --- Fish. --- Flexibility. --- Growing-pigs. --- Housing. --- Human. --- Interaction. --- Interactions. --- Learning. --- Life. --- Male great tits. --- Memory-systems. --- Pattern. --- Patterns. --- Pen. --- Personality. --- Physiological-responses. --- Pig. --- Piglets. --- Pigs. --- Rat. --- Rearing. --- Resistance. --- Response. --- Reversal learning. --- Routine-like behaviour. --- Spatial discrimination learning. --- Spatial. --- Straw bedding. --- Straw. --- T-maze. --- Task.