Conte S, Bergeron R, Grégoire J, Gète M, D'Allaire S, Meunier-Salaün M-C, Devillers N
1Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada,Dairy and Swine R & D Centre,Sherbrooke,Canada.
2Alfred Campus,University of Guelph,Alfred,Canada.
Animal. 2014 Jul;8(7):1153-61. doi: 10.1017/S1751731114000949. Epub 2014 Apr 24.
The objectives were to evaluate quantitative animal-based measures of sow welfare (lameness, oral stereotypies and reactivity to humans) under commercial farm conditions, and to estimate the influence of housing, sow parity and stage of gestation on the outcome of these measures. Across 10 farms, 311 sows were used. Farms differed in terms of housing design (pen v. stall), space allowance, floor type in stalls (partially v. fully slatted), and feeding system in pens (floor v. trough). Lameness was assessed in terms of gait score, walking speed, stride length, stepping behaviour, response to a stand-up test and latency to lie down after feeding. The presence of oral stereotypies and saliva foam were recorded. Reactivity to humans was assessed by approach (attempt to touch the sow between the ears) and handling tests (exit of the stall for stall-housed sows, or isolation of the animal for pen-housed sows). Only stride length and walking speed were associated with lameness in stall-housed sows (P<0.05 and P<0.01). In stalls, the probability that a sow was lame when it presented a short stride length (<83 cm) or a low speed (<1 m/s) was high (69% and 72%, respectively), suggesting that these variables were good indicators of lameness, but were not sufficient to detect every lame sow in a herd (sensitivity of 0.39 and 0.71, respectively). The stage of gestation and parity also influenced measures of stride length and walking speed (P<0.05). Saliva foam around the mouth was associated with the presence of sham chewing and fixture biting (P<0.05). The probability that a sow presents sham chewing behaviour when saliva foam around her mouth was observed was moderate (63%) but was not sufficient to detect all sows with stereotypies (41%). A high discrimination index was obtained for behavioural measures (aggressions, escapes) and vocalisations during the approach test (stalls: 78.0 and 64.0; pens: 71.9 and 75.0, respectively), the number of interventions needed to make the sow exit the stall during the handling test for stall-housed sows (74.9), and attempts to escape during the handling test for pen-housed sows (96.9). These results suggest that these measures have a good power to discriminate between sows with low and high reactivity to humans. Finally, the outcome of several measures of lameness, stereotypies and reactivity to humans were influenced by the housing characteristics, sow parity and stage of gestation. Therefore, these factors should be considered to avoid misinterpretations of these measures in terms of welfare.
研究目的是评估商业农场条件下母猪福利基于动物的定量指标（跛足、口腔刻板行为和对人的反应性），并估计圈舍、母猪胎次和妊娠阶段对这些指标结果的影响。在10个农场中，共使用了311头母猪。各农场在圈舍设计（围栏式与限位栏式）、空间占有率、限位栏地面类型（部分漏缝与全漏缝）以及围栏式圈舍的饲喂系统（地面饲喂与槽式饲喂）方面存在差异。通过步态评分、行走速度、步幅长度、迈步行为、对站立测试的反应以及采食后躺卧潜伏期来评估跛足情况。记录口腔刻板行为和唾液泡沫的存在情况。通过接近测试（尝试触摸母猪双耳之间）和处理测试（限位栏饲养的母猪出圈，或围栏式饲养的母猪隔离）评估对人的反应性。在限位栏饲养的母猪中，只有步幅长度和行走速度与跛足有关（P<0.05和P<0.01）。在限位栏中，当母猪步幅较短（<83厘米）或速度较慢（<1米/秒）时跛足的概率较高（分别为69%和72%），这表明这些变量是跛足的良好指标，但不足以检测出猪群中的每一头跛足母猪（敏感性分别为0.39和0.71）。妊娠阶段和胎次也影响步幅长度和行走速度的指标（P<0.05）。嘴边的唾液泡沫与假咀嚼和咬固定物行为有关（P<0.05）。观察到母猪嘴边有唾液泡沫时出现假咀嚼行为的概率适中（63%），但不足以检测出所有有刻板行为的母猪（41%）。在接近测试期间，行为指标（攻击、逃脱）和发声获得了较高的判别指数（限位栏：分别为78.0和64.0；围栏式圈舍：分别为71.9和75.0），限位栏饲养的母猪在处理测试期间使母猪出圈所需的干预次数（74.9），以及围栏式饲养的母猪在处理测试期间的逃脱尝试次数（96.9）。这些结果表明，这些指标具有很好的能力来区分对人反应性低和高的母猪。最后，跛足、刻板行为和对人反应性的几个指标结果受到圈舍特征、母猪胎次和妊娠阶段的影响。因此，应考虑这些因素，以避免在福利方面对这些指标产生误解。
