Effect of rearing environment and environmental enrichment on behavior and neural development in young pigs

here is increasing concern about the welfare of farm animals. In two trials, forty-eight 7.97 and 10.78 kg Hampshire-sired crossbred pigs were housed in either a complex environment (CE) or a simple environment (SE) for 9.5 weeks. The SE consisted of two pigs, in 1.22 x 1.22-m pens in a closed building. The CE consisted of 12 pigs in an outdoor pen with straw bedding, daily petting by people and a variety of objects such as cloth strips, chains, balls, boards, and newspapers. The objects were changed daily. In half the animals the somatosensory cortex was Golgi-Cox impregnated. SE pigs had greater dendritic branching and larger somas than CE pigs. Total ring intersections were 55.70...