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Preferential associations between group-housed growing pigs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2017

J. L. Durrell ,
I. A. Sneddon ,
N. E. O’Connell  and
V. E. Beattie
J. L. Durrell*
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, Queen’s UniversityBelfast, Belfast, Northern Ireland, BT7 1NN.
I. A. Sneddon
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, Queen’s UniversityBelfast, Belfast, Northern Ireland, BT7 1NN.
N. E. O’Connell
Affiliation:
Agricultural Research Institute of Northern Ireland, Hillsborough, Co. Down, Northern Ireland, BT26 6DR.
V. E. Beattie
Affiliation:
Agricultural Research Institute of Northern Ireland, Hillsborough, Co. Down, Northern Ireland, BT26 6DR.
*
*Corresponding author’s e-mail:[email protected]
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Extract

Evidence suggests that pigs prefer to associate with their mother and littermates over other group members (e.g. Newberry & Wood-Gush, 1986) and with pigs introduced with them into an established group over resident pigs (Durrell et al., 2000). Few studies, however, have examined whether long-term preferential associations or ‘friendships’ are formed between pairs of pigs within a group. Those studies that have been carried out have either involved observations carried out over extremely limited time periods (e.g. Stookey & Gonyou, 1998) or have simply identified pairs that spend the most time together instead of examining statistically whether some pairs associate significantly more than others (Newberry & Wood-Gush, 1986). The aim of this investigation was to determine whether pairs of pigs form preferential associations, based on statistical analyses of long-term lying partner preferences.

Type
ISAE/BSAS
Information
Proceedings of the British Society of Animal Science , Volume 2003 , 2003 , pp. 35
Copyright
Copyright © The British Society of Animal Science 2003

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References

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