猪床单元宽度及群体位次对妊娠母猪行为的影响. (Chinese)

Free expression of pig behavior is considered to be an important index of animal welfare. The free beds developed by China Agricultural University, where the sows are freely access to, can act as partitions to reduce the aggression behavior due to feeding competing on one hand, and on other hand provide a better lying environment for the sows. Effects of the free beds on improving the thermal comfort of the sows were confirmed, while the design on the bed width is not specified yet. The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of unit width of swine bed and social hierarchy on behavior of pregnant sows to provide fundamental information of the bed design. In total, eighteen sows at about four weeks after breeding were randomly allocated into three special stimulation pens, and each pen was assigned with six pregnant sows. Every pen was equipped with six units of water-cooled cover, and the unit widths were 600 mm, 700 mm and 800 mm, respectively. Based on the results of wins and defeats of each sow during the first 48 h after mixing, they were individually labeled as dominant, subordinate, or submissive. The sows ranked 1st to 2nd places were defined as dominant, 3rd to 4th as subordinate and 5th to 6th as submissive. The results showed that lying and feeding behavior of group-housed sows was greatly affected by unit width of the bed and their social hierarchy. Generally, the sows spent more time lying inside the beds as the width increasing, and total lying time of each sow spent in the 600 mm width unit was significantly less compared with the 800 mm unit (P<0.05). The average duration of each lying behavior for subordinate sows in the swine bed were remarkably less than that of submissive sows (P<0.05). No significant difference was found on the duration of lateral lying that the dominant and subordinate sows spent in the 700 mm unit (P>0.05). However, it was significant less than that of submissive sows (P<0.05). Frequency of aggression behavior happened in the 600 mm width unit were significantly less than those of the 700 or 800 mm width unit (P<0.05). The frequency of replacement behavior during feeding increased progressively with increasing the unit width, and significant difference among different width units was observed (P<0.01). Compared with submissive sows, the frequency of attack and replacement behavior initiated by dominant and subordinate sows were significant higher (P<0.05). The occupying percentage of the first feeding unit by dominant sows was 62.5%, 50.0% and 100.0% in the three pens, respectively. The findings suggest that 800 mm unit widths of the bed is helpful for the sows to perform lying behavior but go against the feeding behavior, and the favorable resources of lying and feeding were typically occupied by dominant sows. Based on the finding of this study, it is suggested to appropriately increase the free beds width for better lying behavior of the sows, and meanwhile to design a locking component attaching on the ending part of the bed to reduce the aggressive behavior between the sows during feeding in the future work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

猪能自由表达行为被认为是福利养殖的一个蚩要方面9为探讨自由进出猪床的单元宽度及群体位次对妊娠母猪 行为的影响，试验选用18头己配种4周左右的母猪，随机分到3阁栏，每圈栏6头。圈栏内设有6个可自由进出的猪床 单元，其长度均为1500mm.宽度分别设600、700、800mm3种规格各2单元9每圈栏内相同宽度猪床单元相邻排列， 不同圈栏内不同宽度猪床单元交叉排列。基于每圈拦猪浞群48h内的争胜行为结采计箨出每头猪的位次指数，沾群中群 体位次排名1〜2的猪被定义为高位次猪，排名3〜4的猪为中位次的猪，排名5〜6的猪为低位次的猪。结果表明：母猪 在600 mm宽的猪床单元内的躺卧时间明显少于在800 mm单元内的（P<0.05)。中位次的母猪在猪床单元内的躺卧持续 时间W片低于低位次的（P<0.05)9高位次与中位次的猪在700mm单元内侧卧持续时间无W片性(办0.05)，但二者 侧卧持续时间砧界少于低位次的猪（P<0.05),母猪采食时所发生的攻击频次在600mm宽度猪床单元内显著低于其他两 种（P<0.05),母猪在600、700和800mm文度猪床单元内采食时所发生的取代步： 元宽嗖的增加而增加，并 且两两之间均有极显著性差异（P<0.01夂W位次和中位次猪在单元内采食所发生的攻击和取代频次均W.苫高于低位次猪 (P<0.05)，而被攻击和被取代次数均W/界低于低位次猪的（P<0.05)9 3个圈栏中高位次的母猪占据最先投食的猪床单元 百分比分别为位.5%、50%和100%。可见，800 mm宽度的诘床有利于猪的躺卧，而不利于猪的采食。高位次的猪占据 采食和躺卧的有利资源。 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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