Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), Max-Dohrn-Str. 8-10, D-10589 Berlin, Germany; Institute for Theoretical Biology, Humboldt-University of Berlin, Philippstr. 13, D-10115 Berlin, Germany.
Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), Max-Dohrn-Str. 8-10, D-10589 Berlin, Germany.
Prev Vet Med. 2021 Mar;188:105260. doi: 10.1016/j.prevetmed.2021.105260. Epub 2021 Jan 6.
The social structure of animal groups is considered to have an impact on their health and welfare. This could also be true for animals under commercial conditions, but research in this area has been limited. Pigs for example are known to be very social animals, but information about their grouping behavior is mostly derived from wild boars and a limited number of studies in seminatural and commercial conditions. Specifically under commercial conditions it is still unclear to what extent pig herds organize themselves in subgroups and how such group patterns emerge. To answer these questions, we tracked the positions of about 200 sows inside a barn during ongoing production over a period of five weeks and used these data to construct and analyze the animal contact networks. Our analysis showed a very high contact density and only little variation in the number of other animals that a specific animal is in contact with. Nevertheless, in each week we consistently detected three subgroups inside the barn, which also showed a clear spatial separation. Our results show that even in the high density environment of a commercial pig farm, the behavior of pigs to form differentiated groups is consistent with their behavior under seminatural conditions. Furthermore, our findings also imply that the barn layout could play an important role in the formation of the grouping pattern. These insights could be used to monitor and understand the spread of infectious diseases inside the barn better. In addition, our insights could potentially be used to improve the welfare of pigs.
动物群体的社会结构被认为会对其健康和福利产生影响。这对于商业条件下的动物来说也可能是正确的，但该领域的研究一直很有限。例如，猪是非常社交的动物，但关于它们分组行为的信息主要来自野猪和少数在半自然和商业条件下的研究。特别是在商业条件下，仍然不清楚猪群在多大程度上自行组织成小组，以及这种群体模式是如何出现的。为了回答这些问题，我们在一个猪圈里对大约 200 头母猪进行了 5 周的持续生产跟踪，并使用这些数据构建和分析动物接触网络。我们的分析显示接触密度非常高，特定动物与之接触的其他动物数量变化很小。尽管如此，我们在每个星期都一致检测到猪圈里有三个小群体，这些小群体也显示出明显的空间分离。我们的研究结果表明，即使在商业养猪场的高密度环境中，猪形成差异化群体的行为也与其在半自然条件下的行为一致。此外，我们的研究结果还表明，猪圈的布局可能在群体模式的形成中发挥重要作用。这些见解可以用于更好地监测和了解猪圈内部传染病的传播。此外，我们的研究结果可能还有助于提高猪的福利。
