| With the advancements of science and technology,the research on animal welfare has not only focused on the way of raising animals but also the affective disorders of the animal.Crates are widely used for breeding sows in the modern swine industry,which have greatly affected the physiological function,reproductive period,and elimination rate of sows.Long-term maladaptation would also cause chronic stress and damaged welfare in sows.Furthermore,many normal behaviors that have been restricted would lead to a psychological setback in sows for physical restriction and barren environment.As a result,sows often perform severe behaviour stereotypies and psychological disorder.As the parity increases,the behavior and psychology of sows would vary to some degree,which mainly perform in the increase of frequency of stereotypical behaviors.Long-term depression emotion would lead to the changes of concentration of neurotransmitters in the brain,and the intestinal microbes also change with parity.Therefore,the research of the behavior changes and the intestinal microbes changes in sows,which could monitor the physiological state of sows and assess the welfare of sows.This study would provide a basis for the improvement of global sow welfare and lay a foundation for the depression research in sow.It is an important evidence of the concept of welfare breeding sows.In total,36 Yorkshire×Landrace healthy sows among different parities(1st,3rd and 6th)were selected,and the change of behavioral indicators among sows with different parities have been observed.Some gilts have been selected as the control group,the changes of intestinal microbes among sows with different parities have been detected,which could explore the effects of parities on the sow's emotions and microbe-gut-brain axis under the confinement conditions.After that,the behavior tracking,novel object test,emotional state evaluation test,blood physicochemical index and intestinal microbes detect have been carried out in each group including the 1st parity,3rd parity,and 6th parity limited sows,which could explore the differences in emotional state of sows among different parities,and to clarify the effect of parity on the intestinal microbes.The results showed that:(1)With the increase of parity,the percentage of ventral lying in 3rd and 6th parities sows was significantly higher than 1st parity sows(P<0.05).The frequency of sitting,lateral lying and standing behaviors of 3rd and 6th parity sows was remarkably lower than 1st parity sows(P<0.05).The sucrose preference score,duration and frequency of continuous contact with novel object decreased evidently with the increase in parity(P<0.05).The quinine preference score of6 th parity sows was significantly higher than 1st and 3rd parity sows(P<0.05).Seconds to react to novel object and vacuum-chewing behavior increased observably with parity(P<0.05).(2)The concentration of COR and 5-HT in 6th parity sows was significantly higher than that in 1st and 3rd parity sows(P<0.05).The concentration of DA in 6th parity sows was significantly higher than that in 1st and 3rd parity sows(P<0.05).(3)There was no significant difference in the overall Alpha diversity index of the gut microbes in each group(P>0.05),PCo A analysis shows that the samples of each group have obvious aggregation phenomenon.The weighted unifrac between the control group and the test group was similar,while the unifrac distance between the 1st and the 6th was larger than that between the 1st and the 3rd.There are multiple differences in genus level about microbial composition.Bacteroidetes and Fimicutes are the dominant phyla,Prevotella,and Lactobacillus,Oscillospira,Treponema are the main dominant genera for the gut microbes of sows.At the phylum level,the abundance of Spirochaetes and Lentisphaerae in the intestine of 6th parity sows was significantly higher than that of gilts,and the abundance of Spirochaetes increased with parity.The abundance of Planctomycetes,Synergistetes and Euryarchaeota in the intestines of gilts is significantly higher than that of 6th parity sows.At the genus level,the abundance of Treponema in the intestine of 6th parity sows was significantly higher than that of gilts,and the abundance increased with the increase of parity;Lactobacillus had the highest proportion in the3 rd parity.Conclusion:(1)Sows would be transferred to crates after inseminated,the vacuum chewing and the ventral behavior increases with the parity,while sitting,lateral lying and standing decreased.(2)The sucrose preference score,duration and frequency of contact with novel object decreased with parity;the response delay for novel object and quinine preference score increased with parity.The concentration of COR,DA,5-HT in serum would increase with parity.(3)There are obviously differences in the abundance of intestinal flora among sows with different parity.The composition,structure and stability of intestinal flora would affect by parity,and the beneficial bacteria in the intestinal tract of sows would reduce in high parity. |
PDF Full Text Request