N. Krebs, and J. J. McGlone. Maternal pheromone application before and(or) after weaning: effects on pig behavior and
performance. Pork Industry
Institute.
Weaning is a stressful event for piglets. A synthetic maternal pheromone was studied to determine its effects on behavior and performance of groups of weaned piglets when applied either before and(or) after weaning. Ninety-six 4-wk-old piglets from 30 litters were randomly assigned to 4 treatments arranged factorially with pheromone (PH) treatment (1 mL per pig Suilence; Ceva Sante Animale) or control (CO) in the pre-weaning farrowing environment and PH treatment (1 mL) or CO in the nursery. Each block contained 32 pigs (1 castrated male and 1 female from 4 litters per treatment). Observers recorded live pig behavior pre-weaning using a 10-min scan sample for 40 min before treatment and 80-min after treatment. Prior to weaning, Suilence was applied on sows’ teats (or not), to test the hypothesis that the maternal pheromone may increase teat-contact behavior and post weaning feeding behavior. Pigs were weaned into pens that contained either nothing or the maternal pheromone while being video taped in time lapse for 48 h. Pigs were weighed at weaning and each week for 4 wk. Feed disappearance was recorded and feed efficiency was calculated. The maternal pheromone applied in farrowing environment decreased piglet-teat contact behavior (16.2 vs. 8.5 %, SE = 1.91, P = 0.047, for CO and PH, respectively). The farrowing treatment by period effect was significant (P = 0.03) for post-weaning agonistic behavior; CO pigs had higher % time engaged in agonistic behavior than PH pigs during the first 8 h and 20 to 24 h after weaning. Pigs given PH in the nursery environment had a higher (P = 0.02) % of observations standing close to the feeder than CO piglets. There were no significant differences among treatments in pig weaning weights, post-weaning gain or feed intake. In conclusion, the application of PH on the sows’ teats before weaning did not increase piglet-teat contact but PH reduced post-weaning agonistic behaviors and increased piglet time spent near the feeder.
Keywords : Pigs, Pheromone, Behavior
N. Krebs, and J. J. McGlone. Pig behavioral responses to biologically
relevant and non-relevant odors. Pork
Industry Institute.
Pigs use olfaction to detect biologically-relevant odors including pheromones. The objective of this study was to quantify pig behavioral responses to biologically-relevant and non-relevant odors. Pigs were evaluated for their behavioral type. High responder pigs (HR) showed 3 or more escapes in a back test; low responder (LR) piglets showed 2 or less escape attempts in a back test; medium responders (MR) were not consistently LR or HR. Sixty 14-d old piglets (30 castrated males and 30 females) were assigned to randomly experience one odor treatment (isopropyl alcohol [ISO], n-butanol [NB], amyl acetate [AA], maternal feces [MF], synthetic maternal pheromone [MP] and the boar pheromone androstenone [AN]) with the odor applied once in liquid and once in aerosol form. The aerosol was out of reach of the pigs’ touch. Piglets displayed the same behaviors regardless of the form of the odors (liquid or aerosol). Piglets oriented their snout away from AA compared to ISO (P = 0.04). There was a treatment by back test effect (P < 0.01) for lying behavior (indicator of general activity), parallel-facing the fan (PFF; P < 0.01) and parallel orienting away from the odor source (PAF; P < 0.01). MR pigs spent more time lying down when experiencing MP than all other treatments. LR pigs did not differ in lying time among odor treatments. HR piglets exposed to AA, NB or MF had decreased lying time compared with ISO. MR pigs spent more time PFF (interested in the odor) when exposed to MF or NB compared with ISO. LR pigs showed similar PFF when exposed to each odor. HR piglets showed more PFF when exposed to MF than ISO. MR piglets showed more PAF (avoided the odor) when exposed to MP and AA than ISO-exposed piglets. LR and HR did not differ in their PAF behaviors among odors. These experiments demonstrated that pig behavioral type interacted with piglet behavioral responses to relevant and non-relevant biological odors.
Keywords : Pigs, Odor, Back test