Jämförelse av agonistiska beteenden i två olika stallsystem för grisar : En beteendestudie på dräktiga suggor i en konventionell suggpool

Pig production is a major industry around the world ​​and there are many opinions about how to best ensure their welfare. Sweden has stringent animal welfare standards, but there are continual efforts to improve animal husbandry. The sows used for breeding are often maintained longer than a production animal, and are often kept in different types of stable systems. There are many different ways of keeping sows and there are previous studies that examine, for example, the connection between aggression and the stall system. The hypothesis in this study is: Sows in transponder (electronic feeding) systems show more agonistic behaviors that indicate / or can lead to stress than sows fed a single daily regular ration in a free range system with feeding stalls. This has been examined using an ethogram to register the sow behavior. Fifty sows in each stable system were investigated for 3 minutes per pig, and the number of bites and escapes were recorded. The results show that there is a significant difference between the different stables. The number of pigs biting another pig in the transponder stable was 17 and the number of pigs biting another pig in the stable with feeding stalls was 6. My results suggest that transponder stables are more stressful for the sows to live in than the stable with feeding stall