Dyadic affiliative preferences in a stable group of domestic pigs

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00027014%3A_____%2F20%3AN0000115" target="_blank" >RIV/00027014:_____/20:N0000115 - isvavai.cz</a>

Alternative codes found

RIV/60460709:41210/20:81747

Result on the web

<a href="https://vuzv.cz/_privat/20112.pdf" target="_blank" >https://vuzv.cz/_privat/20112.pdf</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2020.105045" target="_blank" >10.1016/j.applanim.2020.105045</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Dyadic affiliative preferences in a stable group of domestic pigs

Original language description

Social preferences in pigs have received little attention despite the welfare implication of providing an adequate social environment for farm animals. We investigated the extent to which domestic pigs show affiliative preferences in three behavioural contexts—rest, exploration, social nosing—and whether these preferences wereinfluenced by sex, relatedness and social dominance. We recorded the frequency at which pigs were associated inclose spatial proximity during rest (≤30 cm) and exploration (≤1 m), and engaged in social nosing interactions (snout- snout and snout-body contacts) from age 23–29 weeks. The group consisted of 24 pigs from three mixedsex litters of the same age, housed in an indoor pen and having free access to a large pasture area. To test fordyadic social preferences, we calculated associations in close proximity and social nosing interaction rates,classified them by strength and tested their significance with permutation methods. We then used the MultipleRegression Quadratic Assignment Procedure to test whether individual traits (sex, litter, dominance) and othersocial interactions (agonistic interactions, active lying down) explained the preferred partners. Preferences were overall relatively weak but found across all behavioural contexts—of all observed pairs, 44 % were preferred pairs when resting, 20 % when exploring, and 30 % when social nosing (snout-body contact). Snout-body contacts were weakly and negatively correlated with sex and dominance, whereas close proximity associations during rest and social nosing interactions were positively correlated with active lying down behaviour. Our results indicate that domestic pigs can develop preferred social relationships, and that such social preferences are weakly driven by individual attributes (sex and dominance) but influenced by the behavioural context. By shedding light on underexplored aspects of the social structure of pigs, our study strengthens the importance of accounting for the multiple drivers of social relationships to provide an adequate environment that improves management and welfare of pigs.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

—

OECD FORD branch

40201 - Animal and dairy science; (Animal biotechnology to be 4.4)

Project

—

Continuities

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2020

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Applied Animal Behaviour Science

ISSN

0168-1591

e-ISSN

—

Volume of the periodical

230

Issue of the periodical within the volume

September

Country of publishing house

NL - THE KINGDOM OF THE NETHERLANDS

Number of pages

9

Pages from-to

105045

UT code for WoS article

000571225500005

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-85086462569