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Stonechewing in pigs is influenced by feed level and by previous stonechewing experience

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2017

R.I. Horrell  and
P.J. A’Ness
R.I. Horrell*
Affiliation:
Seale-Hayne Department of Agriculture and Food Science, Plymouth University, Newton Abbot, Devon, TQ12 6NQ, U.K.
P.J. A’Ness
Affiliation:
Seale-Hayne Department of Agriculture and Food Science, Plymouth University, Newton Abbot, Devon, TQ12 6NQ, U.K.
*
E.mail:IanHorrell@Tiscali.co.uk
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Extract

Adult pigs maintained outdoors spend a very high proportion of their time chewing stones. The activity is persistent, taking up 30-50% of the 6 h after feeding, and highly repetitive in its pattern of component activities; it is reminiscent of the stereotypies (bar-biting, vacuum chewing, rooting at floors and foot-scraping) in stall- and cubicle-housed sows indoors. Consistent with this hypothetical parallel, the amount of stonechewing in outdoor sows in different environments increased systematically with impoverishment in the habitat (Horrell and A’Ness, 1999). Two factors that influence the incidence of oral stereotypies are feed restriction (Appleby and Lawrence, 1987) and a past history of stereotypical behaviour (Lawrence et al., 1991). This project aimed to determine whether these factors have an impact on the incidence of stonechewing.

Type
ISAE/BSAS
Information
Proceedings of the British Society of Animal Science , Volume 2003 , 2003 , pp. 36
Copyright
Copyright © The British Society of Animal Science 2003

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References

Lawrence, A.B. and Terlouw, E.M.C. 1993. A review of behavioral factors involved in the development and continued performance of stereotypic behavior in pigs. J. Animal Science 71: 2815–2825.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Horrell, I and A’Ness, P 1999. Stonechewing in outdoor pigs. Proc. of the 33rd Congress of the Int. Soc. for Applied Ethology p.100. Ed.: Boe, K.E., Bakken, M. and Braastad, B.O. (Agricultural University of Norway, As)Google Scholar