Merlot Elodie, Meunier-Salaün Marie-Christine, Peuteman Benoît, Père Marie-Christine, Louveau Isabelle, Perruchot Marie-Hélène, Prunier Armelle, Gardan-Salmon Delphine, Gondret Florence, Quesnel Hélène
PEGASE, INRAE, Institut Agro, 35590, Saint Gilles, France.
PEGASE, INRAE, Institut Agro, 35590, Saint Gilles, France.
Physiol Behav. 2022 May 15;249:113751. doi: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2022.113751. Epub 2022 Feb 23.
Improving the housing of pregnant sows by giving them more space and access to deep straw had positive effects on their welfare, influenced their maternal behavior and improved the survival of their offspring. The present study aimed at determining whether these effects were actually due to environmental enrichment and whether the provision of straw pellets and wood can partly mimic the effects of straw bedding during gestation. Three graded levels of enrichment were used, that were, collective conventional pens on slatted floor (C, n = 26), the same pens with manipulable wood materials and distribution of straw pellets after the meals (CE, n = 30), and larger pens on deep straw litter (E, n = 27). Sows were then housed in identical farrowing crates from 105 days of gestation until weaning. Decreased stereotypies, blood neutrophils, and salivary cortisol, and increased behavioral investigation indicated that health and welfare of sows during gestation were improved in the E environment compared with the C environment. The CE sows responded as C or E sows depending on the trait. Piglet mortality rate in the first 12 h after birth was lower in E and CE litters than in C litters, but enrichment level during gestation had only small effects on lactating sow behavior and milk composition postpartum. On days 2 and 3 of lactation, E sows interrupted less often their nursing sequences than C and CE sows. On day 2, milk from both E and CE sows contained more minerals than that from C sows. In one-day-old piglets, the expression levels of genes encoding toll-like receptors (TLR2, TLR4) and cytokines (interleukin-1, -6 and -10) in whole blood after 20-h culture, were greater in E piglets than in CE or C piglets. In conclusion, housing sows in an enriched environment during gestation improved early neonatal survival, probably via moderate and cumulative positive effects on sow behavior, milk composition, and offspring innate immune response. The gradation in the effects observed in C, CE and E housing environment reinforced the hypothesis of a causal relationship between maternal environmental enrichment, sow welfare and postnatal piglet traits.
通过给予怀孕母猪更多空间并让其能接触到厚厚的稻草来改善其居住环境，对它们的福利产生了积极影响，影响了它们的母性行为，并提高了其后代的存活率。本研究旨在确定这些影响是否真的归因于环境丰富化，以及提供秸秆颗粒和木材是否能在一定程度上模拟妊娠期稻草垫料的效果。使用了三个等级的丰富化水平，即：板条地板上的集体传统猪舍（C组，n = 26）、相同猪舍但配备可操控木材且在喂食后分发秸秆颗粒（CE组，n = 30），以及厚厚的稻草垫料上的较大猪舍（E组，n = 27）。然后，母猪从妊娠105天起被安置在相同的分娩栏中直至断奶。刻板行为、血液中性粒细胞和唾液皮质醇减少，行为探究增加，这表明与C环境相比，E环境中妊娠母猪的健康和福利得到了改善。CE组母猪的反应根据性状与C组或E组母猪相同。出生后前12小时内，E组和CE组仔猪窝的死亡率低于C组仔猪窝，但妊娠期的丰富化水平对产后泌乳母猪的行为和乳汁成分影响较小。在泌乳第2天和第3天，E组母猪中断哺乳序列的频率低于C组和CE组母猪。在第2天，E组和CE组母猪的乳汁中矿物质含量均高于C组母猪。在1日龄仔猪中，培养20小时后全血中编码Toll样受体（TLR2、TLR4）和细胞因子（白细胞介素-1、-6和-10）的基因表达水平，E组仔猪高于CE组或C组仔猪。总之，妊娠期将母猪饲养在丰富化环境中可提高早期新生儿存活率，这可能是通过对母猪行为、乳汁成分和后代先天免疫反应产生适度且累积的积极影响实现的。在C、CE和E居住环境中观察到的效果梯度强化了母体环境丰富化、母猪福利和产后仔猪性状之间存在因果关系的假设。
