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Lucas ME, Hemsworth LM, Butler KL, Morrison RS, Tilbrook AJ, Marchant JN, Rault JL, Galea RY, Hemsworth PH. Early human contact and housing for pigs - part 1: responses to humans, novelty and isolation. Animal 2024; 18:101164. [PMID: 38761440 DOI: 10.1016/j.animal.2024.101164] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/06/2023] [Revised: 03/25/2024] [Accepted: 03/29/2024] [Indexed: 05/20/2024] Open
Abstract
The development of fear and stress responses in animals can be influenced by early life experiences, including interactions with humans, maternal care, and the physical surroundings. This paper is the first of three reporting on a large experiment examining the effects of the early housing environment and early positive human contact on stress resilience in pigs. This first paper reports on the responses of pigs to humans, novelty, and social isolation. Using a 2 × 2 factorial design, 48 litters of pigs were reared in either a conventional farrowing crate (FC) where the sow was confined or a loose farrowing pen (LP; PigSAFE pen) which was larger, more physically complex and allowed the sow to move freely throughout the farrowing and lactation period. Piglets were provided with either routine contact from stockpeople (C), or routine contact plus regular opportunities for positive human contact (+HC) involving 5 min of scratching, patting and stroking imposed to the litter 5 days/week from 0-4 weeks of age. The positive handling treatment was highly effective in reducing piglets' fear of humans, based on +HC piglets showing greater approach and less avoidance of an unfamiliar person at 3 weeks of age. There was evidence that this reduction in fear of humans lasted well beyond when the treatment was applied (lactation), with +HC pigs showing greater approach and less avoidance of humans in tests at 6, 9 and 14 weeks of age. The +HC treatment also reduced piglets' fear of a novel object at 3 weeks of age, and for pigs in FC, the cortisol response after social isolation at 7 weeks of age. Rearing in FC compared to LP reduced piglets' fear of novelty at 3 weeks of age, as well as their vocalisations and cortisol response to isolation at 7 weeks of age. The FC pigs showed greater approach and less avoidance of humans compared to LP pigs at 3, 4 and 6 weeks of age, but not at 9 and 14 weeks of age. These results show that positive handling early in life can reduce pigs' fear of humans, fear of novelty and physiological stress response to social isolation. The LP pigs were reared in a more isolated environment with less overall contact with stockpeople and other pigs, which may have increased their fear responses to humans and novel situations, suggesting that different housing systems can modulate these pigs' responses.
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Affiliation(s)
- M E Lucas
- The Animal Welfare Science Centre, Faculty of Science, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3010, Australia.
| | - L M Hemsworth
- The Animal Welfare Science Centre, Faculty of Science, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3010, Australia
| | - K L Butler
- The Animal Welfare Science Centre, Faculty of Science, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3010, Australia
| | - R S Morrison
- Rivalea Australia Pty Ltd, Corowa, Victoria 2464, Australia
| | - A J Tilbrook
- Centre for Animal Science, Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation, The University of Queensland, St Lucia 4072, Australia; School of Veterinary Science, The University of Queensland, Gatton Campus, Gatton, Queensland 4343, Australia
| | - J N Marchant
- Organic Plus Trust, Alexandria, VA 22302, USA; A World of Good Initiative Inc., Dover, DE 19901, USA
| | - J-L Rault
- Institute of Animal Welfare Science, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna A-1210, Austria
| | - R Y Galea
- The Animal Welfare Science Centre, Faculty of Science, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3010, Australia
| | - P H Hemsworth
- The Animal Welfare Science Centre, Faculty of Science, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3010, Australia
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Briefer EF, Sypherd CCR, Linhart P, Leliveld LMC, Padilla de la Torre M, Read ER, Guérin C, Deiss V, Monestier C, Rasmussen JH, Špinka M, Düpjan S, Boissy A, Janczak AM, Hillmann E, Tallet C. Classification of pig calls produced from birth to slaughter according to their emotional valence and context of production. Sci Rep 2022; 12:3409. [PMID: 35256620 PMCID: PMC8901661 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-07174-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/27/2021] [Accepted: 02/09/2022] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Vocal expression of emotions has been observed across species and could provide a non-invasive and reliable means to assess animal emotions. We investigated if pig vocal indicators of emotions revealed in previous studies are valid across call types and contexts, and could potentially be used to develop an automated emotion monitoring tool. We performed an analysis of an extensive and unique dataset of low (LF) and high frequency (HF) calls emitted by pigs across numerous commercial contexts from birth to slaughter (7414 calls from 411 pigs). Our results revealed that the valence attributed to the contexts of production (positive versus negative) affected all investigated parameters in both LF and HF. Similarly, the context category affected all parameters. We then tested two different automated methods for call classification; a neural network revealed much higher classification accuracy compared to a permuted discriminant function analysis (pDFA), both for the valence (neural network: 91.5%; pDFA analysis weighted average across LF and HF (cross-classified): 61.7% with a chance level at 50.5%) and context (neural network: 81.5%; pDFA analysis weighted average across LF and HF (cross-classified): 19.4% with a chance level at 14.3%). These results suggest that an automated recognition system can be developed to monitor pig welfare on-farm.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elodie F Briefer
- Institute of Agricultural Sciences, ETH Zurich, Universitätsstrasse 2, 8092, Zürich, Switzerland.
- Behavioural Ecology Group, Section for Ecology and Evolution, Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, 2100, Copenhagen, Denmark.
| | - Ciara C-R Sypherd
- Behavioural Ecology Group, Section for Ecology and Evolution, Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, 2100, Copenhagen, Denmark
- School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Pavel Linhart
- Department of Ethology, Institute of Animal Science, 104 01, Prague, Czechia
- Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, 370 05, Č. Budějovice, Czechia
| | - Lisette M C Leliveld
- Institute of Behavioural Physiology, Research Institute for Farm Animal Biology (FBN), 18196, Dummerstorf, Germany
- Department of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Università Degli Studi Di Milano, Milano, Italy
| | - Monica Padilla de la Torre
- Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Universitetstunet 3, 1433, Ås, Norway
| | - Eva R Read
- PEGASE, INRAE, Institut Agro, 35590, Saint Gilles, France
| | - Carole Guérin
- PEGASE, INRAE, Institut Agro, 35590, Saint Gilles, France
| | - Véronique Deiss
- University of Clermont Auvergne, INRAE, VetAgro Sup, UMR Herbivores, 63122, Saint-Genès Champanelle, France
| | | | - Jeppe H Rasmussen
- Institute of Behavioural Physiology, Research Institute for Farm Animal Biology (FBN), 18196, Dummerstorf, Germany
- Center for Coastal Research, University of Agder, 4604, Kristiansand, Norway
- Center for Artificial Intelligence Research, University of Agder, 4604, Kristiansand, Norway
| | - Marek Špinka
- Department of Ethology, Institute of Animal Science, 104 01, Prague, Czechia
- Faculty of Agrobiology, Food and Natural Resources, Czech University of Life Sciences, 165 21, Prague, Czechia
| | - Sandra Düpjan
- Institute of Behavioural Physiology, Research Institute for Farm Animal Biology (FBN), 18196, Dummerstorf, Germany
| | - Alain Boissy
- University of Clermont Auvergne, INRAE, VetAgro Sup, UMR Herbivores, 63122, Saint-Genès Champanelle, France
| | - Andrew M Janczak
- Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Universitetstunet 3, 1433, Ås, Norway
| | - Edna Hillmann
- Institute of Agricultural Sciences, ETH Zurich, Universitätsstrasse 2, 8092, Zürich, Switzerland
- Animal Husbandry and Ethology, Albrecht Daniel Thaer-Institut, Faculty of Life Sciences, Humboldt-Universität Zu Berlin, Philippstrasse 13, 10115, Berlin, Germany
| | - Céline Tallet
- PEGASE, INRAE, Institut Agro, 35590, Saint Gilles, France
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Bhujel A, Arulmozhi E, Moon BE, Kim HT. Deep-Learning-Based Automatic Monitoring of Pigs' Physico-Temporal Activities at Different Greenhouse Gas Concentrations. Animals (Basel) 2021; 11:3089. [PMID: 34827821 PMCID: PMC8614322 DOI: 10.3390/ani11113089] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/13/2021] [Revised: 10/27/2021] [Accepted: 10/28/2021] [Indexed: 12/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Pig behavior is an integral part of health and welfare management, as pigs usually reflect their inner emotions through behavior change. The livestock environment plays a key role in pigs' health and wellbeing. A poor farm environment increases the toxic GHGs, which might deteriorate pigs' health and welfare. In this study a computer-vision-based automatic monitoring and tracking model was proposed to detect pigs' short-term physical activities in the compromised environment. The ventilators of the livestock barn were closed for an hour, three times in a day (07:00-08:00, 13:00-14:00, and 20:00-21:00) to create a compromised environment, which increases the GHGs level significantly. The corresponding pig activities were observed before, during, and after an hour of the treatment. Two widely used object detection models (YOLOv4 and Faster R-CNN) were trained and compared their performances in terms of pig localization and posture detection. The YOLOv4, which outperformed the Faster R-CNN model, was coupled with a Deep-SORT tracking algorithm to detect and track the pig activities. The results revealed that the pigs became more inactive with the increase in GHG concentration, reducing their standing and walking activities. Moreover, the pigs shortened their sternal-lying posture, increasing the lateral lying posture duration at higher GHG concentration. The high detection accuracy (mAP: 98.67%) and tracking accuracy (MOTA: 93.86% and MOTP: 82.41%) signify the models' efficacy in the monitoring and tracking of pigs' physical activities non-invasively.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anil Bhujel
- Department of Biosystems Engineering, Institute of Smart Farm, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju 52828, Korea; (A.B.); (E.A.)
- Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, Singha Durbar, Kathmandu 44600, Nepal
| | - Elanchezhian Arulmozhi
- Department of Biosystems Engineering, Institute of Smart Farm, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju 52828, Korea; (A.B.); (E.A.)
| | - Byeong-Eun Moon
- Smart Farm Research Center, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju 52828, Korea;
| | - Hyeon-Tae Kim
- Department of Biosystems Engineering, Institute of Smart Farm, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju 52828, Korea; (A.B.); (E.A.)
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Positive Human Contact and Housing Systems Impact the Responses of Piglets to Various Stressors. Animals (Basel) 2021; 11:ani11061619. [PMID: 34070802 PMCID: PMC8227335 DOI: 10.3390/ani11061619] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/28/2021] [Revised: 05/27/2021] [Accepted: 05/28/2021] [Indexed: 12/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Simple Summary Early life experiences such as contact with humans, maternal care and the physical environment can play a substantial role in shaping behavioural and physiological responses to stress. This experiment studied the effects of lactation housing systems and human interaction on stress in young pigs. We hypothesised that piglets handled in a positive manner and reared in loose farrowing and lactation pens with increased opportunity for interaction with their dam, greater space and more complexity in their physical environment have improved stress resilience than piglets reared in traditional farrowing crates with routine contact from stockpeople. In both housing systems, providing regular opportunities for positive human interaction reduced piglets’ fear of humans and routine husbandry procedures imposed by humans, and reduced the number of injuries obtained after weaning. However, contrary to the expected findings, piglets from loose farrowing and lactation pens were more reactive to capture by a stockperson, more fearful of novel and human stimuli, had more injuries during the lactation period and were more likely to perform behaviours which may be indicative of reduced coping after weaning. Whether these effects are specific to the loose farrowing and lactation system studied in this experiment or are reflective of other loose systems requires further research. Abstract This experiment studied the effects of lactation housing systems and human interaction on piglets’ responses to routine stressors. Forty litters of piglets were reared in either a standard farrowing crate (FC) or a loose farrowing and lactation pen (LP; PigSAFE pen) and received either routine contact with humans (C) or regular opportunities for positive human contact (+HC; 3 min of patting, stroking and scratching 5 times/week). Behavioural and physiological responses to routine husbandry procedures, weaning, novelty and humans were studied in addition to effects on piglet growth, injuries and survival. Compared to C piglets, +HC piglets vocalised for shorter durations (p = 0.018) during husbandry procedures and showed a lower intensity of escape behaviour during iron injection (p = 0.042) and oral vaccination (p = 0.026) at 3 d of age, capture at 2 wk of age (p < 0.001), and intramuscular vaccination (p = 0.005) at 3 wk of age. +HC piglets at 2 wk of age were faster than C piglets to approach (p = 0.048) and interact (p = 0.042) with a stationary unfamiliar human. Compared to LP piglets, FC piglets showed a lower intensity of escape behaviour during capture and iron administration by a stockperson at 3 d of age (p = 0.043). FC piglets at 2 wk of age were faster than LP piglets to approach (p = 0.005) and interact (p = 0.027) with a novel object and approach (p = 0.009) and interact (p = 0.008) with an unfamiliar human. FC piglets had fewer injuries than LP piglets at 2 wk of age (p = 0.004). +HC pigs had fewer injuries than C pigs after weaning (p = 0.003). After weaning there were more pigs from LP than FC observed to be upright (both stationary, p = 0.002 and walking, p = 0.024), vocalizing (p = 0.004), nosing another pig (p = 0.035) and nosing the pen floor (p = 0.038). There were no significant effects on neutrophil:lymphocyte ratios or plasma cortisol concentrations 1.5 h after weaning. However, 25 h after weaning +HC pigs had higher haptoglobin concentrations than C pigs (p = 0.002), and C/LP pigs had higher cortisol concentrations than +HC/LP and C/FC pigs (p = 0.012). There were no significant effects on piglet growth, the number of piglets born alive or the number stillborn, however there were more piglets weaned from FC than LP (p = 0.035). The results from this experiment raise questions that require further research on the ability of pigs reared in loose pens to cope with stressors such as exposure to humans, novelty, husbandry procedures and weaning. This experiment also provides evidence that regular positive human interaction reduces pigs’ fear of humans and husbandry procedures imposed by stockpeople. More research is required to determine if any of these effects are sustained long-term.
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Rault JL, Waiblinger S, Boivin X, Hemsworth P. The Power of a Positive Human-Animal Relationship for Animal Welfare. Front Vet Sci 2020; 7:590867. [PMID: 33240961 PMCID: PMC7680732 DOI: 10.3389/fvets.2020.590867] [Citation(s) in RCA: 49] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/03/2020] [Accepted: 09/29/2020] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Domestic animals often seek and enjoy interacting with humans. Positive human-animal relationships can elicit positive emotions and other positive welfare outcomes. Nevertheless, our understanding of the underlying processes that govern the positive perception of humans by animals is incomplete. We cover the potential mechanisms involved in the development and maintenance of positive human-animal relationships from the perspective of the animal. This encompasses habituation, associative learning, and possibly attachment or bonding based on communication and social cognition. We review the indicators from the literature to assess a positive human-animal relationship. We operationally define this positive relationship as the animal showing voluntary approach and spatial proximity (seeking) and signs of anticipation, pleasure, relaxation, or other indicators of a rewarding experience from interacting with the human. For research, we recommend accounting for the baseline human-animal relationship in the animal's everyday life, and incorporating a control treatment rather than only comparing positive to negative interaction treatments. Furthermore, animal characteristics, such as previous experience, genetics, and individual predisposition, as well as contextual characteristics related to the social and physical environment, may modulate the perception of humans by animals. The human-animal relationship is also influenced by human characteristics, such as the person's familiarity to the animal, attitudes, skills, and knowledge. We highlight implications for current practices and suggest simple solutions, such as paying attention to the animal's behavioral response to humans and providing choice and control to the animal in terms of when and how to interact with humans. Practical applications to achieve a positive perception of humans could be better utilized, such as by incorporating training principles, while keeping in mind trust and safety of both partners. Overall, there is growing evidence in the scientific literature that a positive human-animal relationship can bring intrinsic rewards to the animals and thereby benefit animal welfare. Further research is needed on the underlying processes to establish an effective positive human-animal relationship, especially in regard to the type, frequency, and length of human interaction necessary. In particular, the importance of providing animals with a sense of agency over their interactions with humans remains poorly understood.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jean-Loup Rault
- Institute of Animal Welfare Science, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Austria
| | - Susanne Waiblinger
- Institute of Animal Welfare Science, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Austria
| | - Xavier Boivin
- Unité Mixte de Recherche sur les Herbivores, Université Clermont Auvergne, INRA, VetAgro Sup, UMR Herbivores, Saint-Genès-Champanelle, France
| | - Paul Hemsworth
- Animal Welfare Science Centre, Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia
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