Espejo-Beristain Guadalupe, Paredes-Ramos Pedro, Ahuja-Aguirre Concepción, Carrasco-García Apolo
Facultad de Medicina Veterinaria y Zootecnia, Universidad Veracruzana, Veracruz 91710, Mexico.
Animals (Basel). 2025 Apr 10;15(8):1099. doi: 10.3390/ani15081099.
Most intensive swine production systems use invasive practices that increase stress and compromise animal welfare. Apparently, the way in which animals respond to stress is sexually dimorphic. To cope with stress and improve the life of animals, environmental enrichment (EE) is used. The objective of the study was to evaluate how EE and weaning affect the behavior and cortisol levels of barrows and female piglets. Forty piglets were divided into two groups: (1) WEE: piglets that received EE from birth until 21 days of age and whose mothers received EE from week six of gestation until farrowing; (2) NEE: piglets for whom neither them nor their mothers received EE. Cortisol fecal metabolites and frequency, latency and duration of behaviors associated with stress were evaluated and compared before and after weaning. Before weaning, WEE barrows showed less inactive and ingestion behaviors and shorter duration of aggression ( < 0.05), while WEE females showed longer duration of aggression and higher frequency of ingestion behavior ( < 0.05). After weaning, WEE barrows and NEE females had higher cortisol levels, and NEE females showed longer duration of aggression ( < 0.05). In conclusion, piglets' response to EE and the way they learnt to cope with stress were sexually dimorphic.
大多数集约化养猪生产系统采用的侵入性做法会增加应激并损害动物福利。显然，动物对应激的反应方式存在性别差异。为了应对应激并改善动物的生活，采用了环境富集（EE）措施。本研究的目的是评估环境富集和断奶如何影响公猪和母猪仔猪的行为及皮质醇水平。40头仔猪被分为两组：（1）WEE组：从出生到21日龄接受环境富集的仔猪，其母亲从妊娠第6周直到分娩也接受环境富集；（2）NEE组：仔猪及其母亲均未接受环境富集的仔猪。在断奶前后评估并比较了粪便皮质醇代谢物以及与应激相关行为的频率、潜伏期和持续时间。断奶前，WEE组公猪表现出较少的静止和摄食行为以及较短的攻击持续时间（<0.05），而WEE组母猪表现出较长的攻击持续时间和较高的摄食行为频率（<0.05）。断奶后，WEE组公猪和NEE组母猪的皮质醇水平较高，且NEE组母猪表现出较长的攻击持续时间（<0.05）。总之，仔猪对环境富集的反应以及它们学习应对应激的方式存在性别差异。
