Comportamento de poedeiras criadas a diferentes densidades e tamanhos de grupo em ambiente enriquecido

O objetivo deste trabalho foi determinar diferenças comportamentais entre poedeiras criadas sob diferentes densidades e tamanhos de grupo, em condições de ambiente enriquecido. Foram utilizadas poedeiras Isa Brown com idade entre 30 e 32 semanas alojadas em galpões de escala reduzida e distorcida. As aves foram criadas durante 28 dias, em baias com cama de maravalha, poleiro e ninho. Foram avaliados dois tamanhos de grupos (6 e 12 aves) e duas densidades de criação (774 e 1.440 cm² por ave), em arranjo fatorial com três repetições. Em amostras de vídeo de 15 min, foram registrados as frequências e os tempos de expressão dos comportamentos: arrumar penas, banho de areia, bater asas, beber água, bicar, coçar a cabeça, ciscar, comer, empoleirar, esticar perna, perseguir, sentar e visitar o ninho. Foram observados efeitos significativos dos tratamentos e da interação entre eles. O grupo de seis aves manifestou aumento da frequência de comportamentos que indicam maior frustração das aves, independentemente da densidade. O tamanho de grupo é o fator mais importante para o bem-estar das aves

Social recognition of flockmates in laying hens

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:D195429 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Variation in behavioural style during an attack latency test: a potential source of additional information about aggressiveness in young pigs

Aggression seen on mixing of young pigs is a major welfare concern in modern farming. One solution may be to reduce the likelihood of aggression within a group by using combinations of individuals that facilitate rapid integration. This idea has been investigated by Mendl and Erhard (1997) using pigs with various levels of aggressiveness. An attack latency test was used to measure individual aggressiveness. Experimental pigs were placed in a familiar pen with an unfamiliar pig and the time taken to attack (i.e. attempt to fight) the intruder measured. In a substantial number of tests (e.g. 61% in the present study) no attack occurs in the time allowed (5 minutes) These pigs vary in their interactions with the intruder, ranging from no interest at all to persistent interest with isolated aggressive acts but no escalation to fighting (personal observation). The aim of this study was to investigate social behaviour throughout the test, thereby allowing a more detailed analysis of aggressiveness to be made.</jats:p

Breeding may simultaneously reduce pig aggressiveness at regrouping and in stable social groups, but management may not

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Behaviour of piglets before and after tooth clipping, grinding or sham-grinding in the absence of social influences

Behaviour of piglets before and after tooth clipping, grinding or sham-grinding in the absence of social influences. 53. International congress of the International Society for Applied Ethology (ISAE

Re-designing selection objectives to improve animal welfare

National audienceSelective breeding poses both threats and opportunities to animal welfare. Modern breeding methods may accelerate the rate of desirable or undesirable genetic change in correlated traits whilst re-focussed selection objectives to meet economic, food security and environmental concerns will likely demand heightened selection pressure on some existing traits and selection on novel traits. Animal welfare remains a consumer priority despite competing concerns. Improving welfare can often contribute to improved economic and environmental sustainability. Predicted impacts on animal welfare should therefore proactively inform selection decisions aimed at meeting the needs of current and future livestock production. Many major welfare issues are long-standing and are likely to persist as management solutions are uneconomical to implement. Breeding presents opportunities to break this deadlock and benefit welfare. Specific examples will illustrate that selection on a range of welfare traits from neonatal survival to social behaviour is technically achievable. Behavioural traits are at the basis of several persistent welfare issues and particular challenges exist in understanding how context-dependent the response to selection will be, and how selection might affect animal experiences and other behavioural traits. Progress in understanding these issues will be illustrated using harmful social behaviours in pigs and chickens as examples. Phenotyping costs remain a barrier to selection on complex welfare traits, even using genomic selection. Efficient but information-rich phenotyping, potentially with the aid of automation, may minimise these costs whilst evidence will be presented that methods such as kin, group or multi-level section on indirect genetic effects is showing promise for benefiting welfare traits without the need for additional phenotyping

Identification of genes involved in the genetic control of aggressiveness, stress responsiveness, pork quality and their interactions.

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