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Behaviour and health of entire male pigs in a semi-natural habitat

Zobrist, H.; Früh, B.; Garcia, M. and Holinger, M. (2024) Behaviour and health of entire male pigs in a semi-natural habitat. In: Book of Abstracts of the 75th Annual Meeting of the European Federation of Animal Science. Florence, Italy. 1-5 September 2024, EAAP, Rome, Book of Abstracts, no. 34, p. 242.

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Summary in the original language of the document

Entire male pigs in commercial housing systems are known for their increased agonistic and sexual behaviour. In wild boars, young males remain with the family group for about a year, then live in bachelor groups for approximately another year. The behaviour of domestic entire male pigs in family groups under semi-natural conditions has not been described to date. We therefore observed the behaviour of young pigs (Swiss Large White) in a 1.9 ha enclosure including pasture and forest. The social group consisted of three sows and their 41 piglets. Three months after birth, the group of piglets was reduced to 12. Pigs were observed once per week during four hours from an age of one month until slaughter at about 5.5 months. Our protocol included scan and continuous sampling through direct observations. We observed a higher frequency of head knocks between males or between males and females compared to between females. Fights were mostly observed between males, and rarely involved females. Mounting behaviour was performed nearly exclusively by males, with an observed drift in preference of the recipient: While in the beginning the recipients were similarly males and females, males mounted females significantly more than other males after three months of age. The prevalence of skin lesions was low and similar between males and females. In total 3 female and 3 male pigs were assessed as lame at least once. No penile injuries were observed at slaughter. These observations made under semi-natural conditions are in accordance with the described behaviour of entire males in housing systems.


EPrint Type:Conference paper, poster, etc.
Type of presentation:Paper
Keywords:behaviour, animal welfare, pigs, Abacus, FiBL60084, SchweinErleben
Agrovoc keywords:
Language
Value
URI
English
behaviour
http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_868
English
pigs -> swine
http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_7555
English
animal health
http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_431
English
habitats
http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_3456
Subjects: Animal husbandry > Health and welfare
Animal husbandry > Production systems > Pigs
Research affiliation: Switzerland > FiBL - Research Institute of Organic Agriculture Switzerland > Animal > Animal welfare & housing > Animal husbandry
Switzerland > FiBL - Research Institute of Organic Agriculture Switzerland > Animal > Animal welfare & housing > Animal welfare
Switzerland > FiBL - Research Institute of Organic Agriculture Switzerland > Animal > Pigs
ISBN:979-12-210-6769-9
Related Links:https://www.fibl.org/en/themes/projectdatabase/projectitem/project/2152
Deposited By: Forschungsinstitut für biologischen Landbau, FiBL
ID Code:55177
Deposited On:19 Mar 2025 08:25
Last Modified:19 Mar 2025 08:25
Document Language:English
Status:Published
Refereed:Peer-reviewed and accepted

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