Effects of Pregnancy and Lactation Environments on Postures of Primiparous Sows During Lactation
Effects of Pregnancy and Lactation Environments on Postures of Primiparous Sows During Lactation
Guoan Yin1,2, Lei Wang1, Xiaoyu Zhao1, LangchaoYu1, Liwei Guan1 and
Dapeng Huang1,2*
ABSTRACT
Environment can affect sows behavioral pattern by creating their physiology and psychology imbalances, and postpartum behavioral pattern of sows is related closely with piglet mortality. However, few studies have focused on effects of pregnancy and lactation environments on Postures of primiparous sows during lactation. This study has investigated the postures of lactating primiparous sows raised in the crates or free pens during pregnancy and lactation. Total 12 gilts were reared in three types of environments randomly during pregnancy and lactation, including gestation pens and farrowing crates (PC), gestation pens and farrowing pens (PP), or gestation rates and farrowing crates (CC). Postures of sows were recorded by monitoring equipment on the 1st to 3rd day of 1-4 week after farrowing, the duration of postures was analyzed, including lateral lying, ventral lying, sitting, and standing. Gestation crates can encourage sow’s sitting behaviour during the first week of postpartum (P=0.032), farrowing crates could increase sow’s lateral lying during 1-4 weeks of postpartum (P=0.001), while the sows reared in farrowing pens performed more ventral lying and standing than farrowing crates (P=0.002; P=0.001, respectively). The restricted pregnancy environments could increase sitting and standing of lactating sows. The restricted lactating environments could prolong the lateral lying and sitting, and decrease the ventral lying and standing of lactating sows.
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June 2020
Vol. 52, Iss. 3, Pages 825-1224
