Nest-building behaviour and activity budgets of sows provided with different materials

• Published in: Applied animal behaviour science 2018-03, Vol.200, p.36-44
• Main Authors: Rosvold, Ellen Marie, Newberry, Ruth C., Framstad, Tore, Andersen, Inger-Lise
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animal behavior; Breeding of animals; Construction materials; Hogs; Houses; Intensive farming; Loose-housed sows; Maternal behaviour; Nest building; Nesting; Nesting behavior; Parity; Peat; Slurries; Sow; Stereotyped behavior; Straw; Studies
• ISSN: 0168-1591; 1872-9045
• DOI: 10.1016/j.applanim.2017.12.003

•Nest-building behaviour was studied in the 12h before farrowing in loose-housed sows.•Peat and straw were compared as nest-building materials to each other and to a control group without extra added material.•Straw stimulated the highest frequency of nest-building behaviour.•Straw stimulated the highest number of nest-building elements.•Straw resulted in the most lying and least stereotypic behaviour prior to farrowing. Domestic sows are still highly motivated to build a nest before farrowing. Many pig houses have slurry systems that do not allow use of long straw or other bulky materials that could block the drains, which provides an incentive to investigate the functionality of finer-grained materials for nest building. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of providing peat or straw on the overall amount of nest-building behaviour, number of different behavioural elements performed during nest building, and behavioural time budget of sows in the nesting period before farrowing. Fifty-four hybrid sows (Norwegian Landrace x Yorkshire) ranging in parity from 1 to 9 (mean±S.E., 2.9±2.0), of which 16 were gilts, were loose-housed in individual farrowing pens. From two days before expected farrowing until farrowing the sows received nest-building material, with refills if necessary: peat (4kg, 2kg refills, n=18), straw (2kg, 1kg refills, n=17), or served as controls (n=16). Behaviour in the last 12h before onset of farrowing was instantaneously scan sampled at 5-min intervals from video recordings of each sow. Sows provided with straw or peat engaged in nest-building behaviour in a higher proportion of scans compared to the sows in the control group (P