The Bahavioural Characteristics Of Fattening Pigs Reared In The Deep-litter System And The Concrete Floor System With Outdoor Runs

The concept of"animal welfare" is becoming more and more popular,the research of livestock welfare and the extension of animal friendly rearing systems are imperative.Architecture is space management.The behavior fitness to the spaee environment ean determine the state of animal welfare,and have benefit for the livestock producers choosing a proper feeding system.The deep-litter rearing system that can in situ ferment excretion,resulting in sewage "zero discharge",has been treated as an environmental friendly rearing system.The substrate in the deep-litter rearing system provides the pigs a proper place to express their nature behaviors,and making the deep-litter system an environmental enrichment rearing system.Compared the closed indoor rearing system,the concrete floor pen connected with the outdoor runs,can increase the activity of pigs and enjoy them the outdoor environmental factors,which has a benefit for the animal welfare of pigs,while the ground of the pen has been covered with cement nowadays,reducing the environmental enrichment condition.However,these kinds of pens are very popular at present.The purpose of this study was to explore the behavioral time budget as well as the behavioral rhythm in fattening pigs reared in the deep-litter rearing system and the concrete floor rearing system with outdoor runs;mainly analyzed the characteristics of dog-sitting behavior in fattening pigs reared in deep-litter system;at the same time,analyzed the elimination behavioral characteristics of fattening pigs reared in the two kinds of feeding modes,discussing the feasibility of the building of toilet in the outdoor runs,and the management issues of the deep-litter,in order to providing theoretical supports to the promotion and using of the two rearing systems.1.The behavioral time budget and the behavioral rhythm research of fattening pigs reared in the deep-litter systemTwenty crossbred barrows(DurocxMeishan)with the initial weight of 20.10±0.69kg were randomly assigned to the four pens by weight and each pen contained five pigs.They were rearing in deep-litter system during the period of 101 days time.During the experiment period,the temperature indoor and outside were collected every ten days.The cameras and video recorders were used to record the scene of the pens.The video of 13 consecutive days(20 October-November 1)were choose to analysis the behavioral time budget and the behavioral rhythm of fattening pigs,especially the exploring and biting behavioral characteristics were studied focused.The result showed:pigs reared in the deep-litter system lay in the most of time(86.51%);exploring,walking and dog-sitting were the most active behavior.The exploring orientation was mostly the floor,the time percentage of floor exploring was significantly more than the wall exploring(P<0.01);the floor exploring mainly oriented to the concrete floor near the feed trough,secondly oriented to the deep-litter area;the time percentage of barrier exploring is more than the solid wall exploring(P<0.01);standing and lying exploration were the mainly exploring posture(61.90±2.93%),the moving exploring was less.The biting behavior was dominated by ear biting(3.82±0.50s/head*h),and the tail biting behavior was less(1.54±0.22s/head*h).The time of the fighting behavior was significantly lower than that of the biting behavior(2.12±0.31s/h vs.6.50±0.71s/h,P<0.01);head to head impact was the main way of fighting.There was a positive correlation between the diurnal rhythm of tactile communication behavior and biting behavior(R2=0.875,P<0.001),and the peak of the two behaviors occurred before the feeding time,and decreased significantly after feeding.The research results showed that in the deep-litter rearing system,fattening pigs explored in a relatively fixed position and the exploring type was mostly the appetitive exploring;the expressing time of tactile communication can be used to infer the occurrence of biting behavior.2.The dog-sitting behavioral characteristics research of pigs reared in the deep-litter systemThe animals and management were same as the first part.The cameras and video recorders were used to record the scene of the pens.The video of 13 consecutive days(20 October-November 1)were choose to analysis the behavioral time budget,the behavioral rhythm and behavior sequence of dog-sitting behavior in fattening pigs,the behavioral characteristics of pigs expressed different dog-sitting time had been studied here.The results showed that,88.10±2.25%of the sitting time occurred during the daytime,the sitting time peak occurred during the same period with standing and walking peak time;the most common sitting behavior sequence were:lying-dog sitting--moving,accounting for 28.90±2.32%of all the sequence analysis;lying-dog sitting-exploring,accounting for 23.51±2.03%of all the sequence analysis.The Proportion of tactile communication in the 10s before the dog-sitting behavior was 55.71±9.38%,Fattening pigs expressed more dog-sitting tend to sit on the concrete floor area(62.42±6.26%),and in the sitting behavior sequence the number of exploring behavior occurrences was less,and the number proportion of the tactile communication behavior was more than the less dog-sitting time group;Fattening pigs expressed biting behavior during the dog-sitting behavioral sequence;while fattening pigs expressed less dog-sitting tend to sit in the deep-litter area(76.81 ±2.79%),and there was no biting behavior observed during the dog-sitting behavior sequence.Fattening pigs expressed more dog-sitting had been found expressed more biting behavior than pigs expressed less dog-sitting,but the difference was not significant.The results indicated that,dog sitting behavior was mainly as the transitional behavior when pigs changed from lying to the active condition,the increasing of dog-sitting time indicate the pigs become more active;the dog-sitting posture will increase the bitten risk;tactile communication behavior is the main induced mechanism of dog-sitting behavior.3.The elimination behavioral characteristics research of fattening pigs reared in the deep-litter rearing systemThe animals and management were same as the first part.Understanding eliminative behavior in pigs is very important to maintain individual and pen cleanliness,as well as the deep-litter management.The cameras and video recorders were used to record the scene of the pens.The video of 8 days(10 October-November 7,two consecutive days every week)were choosing to analysis the eliminative behavior of fattening pigs.The results showed that the eliminative positions was more dispersed in the deep-litter system,the eliminative area is 2.70±0.83m;the number proportion of elimination in the comer area was only 16.50±1.03%,more than 80%of the eliminative events occurred in the region around the comer.There was no significant difference of the moving and exploring time between the eliminative area and other area.The eliminative position of fattening pigs was different between the daytime and nighttime.During the daytime,there was 20.80±3.22%of the eliminative events occurred in the corner,and 79.22±5.21%of the eliminative events occurred nearby the comer;while during the nighttime,there was only 8.61±1.98%of the eliminative events occurred in the comer,and 91.40±6.83%of the eliminative events occurred nearby the comer,the eliminative position during the nighttime was closer to the lying area and feeding area.In the eliminative behavioral sequence,the proportion of barrier exploring before elimination was 24.90±0.88%,and the proportion of deep-litter exploring before elimination was 55.10±1.69%,more than 80%of the eliminative behavior occurred after the exploring behavior;pigs left the eliminative area mostly after elimination,while there was about 32%of the elimination followed by exploring behavior,and there was no significant difference of the barrier exploring proportion between before and after elimination,while the proportion of deep-litter exploring before elimination was more than that of after elimination.The results indicated that pigs reared in the deep-litter system expressed more exploring behavior especially deep-litter exploring before elimination,associated with the difficult confirmation of eliminative area because of the deep-litter management and rooting behavior of pigs;but there are still fixed eliminative position,as a result,it was also required to flip the litter to keep the aerobic fermentation.4.The behavioral time budget and the behavioral rhythm research of fattening pigs reared in the concrete floor system with outdoor runsTwenty crossbred barrows(DurocxMeishan)with the initial weight of 20.0±0.28kg were randomly assigned to the four pens by weight and each pen contained five pigs.They were rearing in deep-litter system during the period of 101 days time.During the experiment period,the temperature indoor and outside were collected every ten days.The cameras and video recorders were used to record the scene of the pens.The video of 13 consecutive days(20 October-November 1)were choose to analysis the behavioral time budget and the behavioral rhythm of fattening pigs,especially the exploring,and biting behavioral characteristics were studied focused.The result showed:pigs reared in the concrete floor system with outdoor runs lay in the most of time(86.5%);exploring,tactile communication and standing were the most active behavior.The exploring time increased after feeding time in the afternoon;the exploring orientation was mostly the floor,the time percentage of floor exploring was significantly more than the wall exploring(P<0.01);moving exploration were the mainly exploring posture(57.10±2.19%),the lying and standing exploring was less.The biting behavior was dominated by ear biting,the time of tail biting and body biting were less than the ear biting,and the neck biting was the least biting behavior.Head to head impact was the main way of fighting.The time of the fighting behavior was significantly lower than that of the biting behavior(P<0.01).There was a positive correlation between the diurnal rhythm of tactile communication behavior and biting behavior(R2=0.854,P<0.001),and the peak of the two behaviors occurred before the feeding time in the afternoon.The research results indicated that the environmental enrichment has a greater impact on the expressing of exploring behavior when the reasing density is less than 1.7m2 per pig;the set of outdoor runs will increase the exploring time after feeding at nightfall,thereby reducing the expressing time of tactile communication and biting behavior;pigs had more moving exploring when the environment enrichment is low;the expressing time of tactile communication also can be used to infer the occurrence of biting behavior in the concrete floor rearing system with outdoor runs.5.The stereotype behavioral characteristics research of pigs reared in the concrete floor system with outdoor runsThe animals and management were same as the forth part.The cameras and video recorders were used to record the scene of the pens.The video of 21 consecutive days(10 October-November 1)were choose to analysis the behavioral time budget,the behavioral rhythm and behavior sequence of stereotype behavior in fattening pigs,the behavioral characteristics of pigs expressed different stereotype behavior time had been studied here.The results showed that,57,32±7.58%of the stereotype behavior occurred during the daytime,the sitting time peak occurred during the same period with exploring peak time(13:00-14:00);the most common stereotype behavior sequence were:lying-stereotype behavior--moving,accounting for 23.50±6.59%of all the sequence analysis;lying-stereotype behavior-exploring,accounting for 18.50±3.12%of all the sequence analysis.Fattening pigs expressed less stereotype behavior tend to express more lying,exploring and tactile interaction before the stereotype behavior,and less dog-sitting,grooming behavior before the stereotype behavior.Fattening pigs expressed less stereotype behavior had more lying posture during the stereotype behavior and less sitting posture during the stereotype behavior.Fattening pigs expressed more stereotype behavior showed more agonistic behavior and more time been bitten and been attacted,less biting behaviour;fattening pigs expressed more stereotype behavior showed more first type reaction and less third type reaction when been bitten or attacted.The results indicated that,the stereotype behavior was associated with the biting behavior in the rearing system with ample space and barren environment;fattening pigs expressed more stereotype behavior were easier been bitten;fattening pigs expressed more stereotype behavior showed more negative reaction when been bitten or been attacted.6.The Eliminative behavior characteristics of fattening pigs readed in the concrete floor system with outdoor runsUnderstanding eliminative behavior in pigs is very important to maintain individual and pen cleanliness.In this study,twenty fattening pigs were housed in four concrete floor pens with a floor space of 3.25 m 2 per pig and free accessibility of outdoor runs.We studied the diurmal rhythm,location and behavioral sequences associated with eliminative behavior in these pigs by videoing them for two consecutive days per week over a total study period of four weeks.A total of 2859 eliminating events were recorded and only three events occurred indoors.These elimination events followed a daily periodical pattern with the peak duringl3:00-14:00.and the eliminative behavior and drinking behavior has a strong correlation.About 76.50±1.26%of the outdoor elimination events were located in the coners.In contrast,only 6.90±0.11%and 9.01±0.16%of outdoor movement and exploration respectively were observed in these comer dunging areas.Typical elimination sequences were exploring-elimination-moving and moving-elimination-moving.There was 68.10±0.69%of all the elimination events were observed following the exploring process,only 14.42±0.31%was immediately followed by the exploring.Pigs could maybe confirm the elimination location by exploring before elimination.Eliminating pigs received more tactile interactions after the elimination than before,and 55.60%of the interactions focused on the front body part of the eliminating pigs.We suggest that the provision of a suitable dunging area will contribute to good management and cleanliness of pens and pigs.