Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T10:22:12.815Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Reducing stress in piglets as a means of increasing production after weaning: administration of amperozide or co-mingling of piglets during lactation?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2010

J. R. Pluske  and
I. H. Williams
J. R. Pluske
Affiliation:
Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Western Australia, Nedlands WA 6009, Australia
I. H. Williams
Affiliation:
Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Western Australia, Nedlands WA 6009, Australia
Get access

Extract

The aim of this experiment was to reduce piglet stress and improve performance following moving and mixing at weaning by use of the anti-aggressive drug amperozide and the practice of co-mingling piglets during lactation. Thirty-six piglets weaned at 29 days of age were allocated to a 2 × 2 factorial arrangement of treatments as follows: (1) injection of 1 ml amperozide or placebo (0.9% saline) at the time of weaning, and (2) co-mingling or no comingling of piglets from day 10 of lactation to weaning. At weaning all piglets were injected with pliytohaemagglutinin or saline, their change in skin-fold thickness was measured 24 h later and behaviour was recorded every 5 min for the first 120 min after weaning. At 4 and 24 h after weaning the depth and extent of injuries were recorded. Daily live-weight gain, apparent voluntary food intake and food conversion ratio were not improved (P > 0.05) by administration of amperozide or co-mingling of piglets during lactation. Cell-mediated immunity, as evidenced by a 0.17 proportional decrease (P <; 0.001) in skin-fold thickness following the injection of phytohaemagglutinin, was decreased in piglets not given amperozide at weaning. Injection of amperozide caused a 0.26 proportional increase (P < 0.001) in the amount of time piglets spent lying and caused piglets to display no interest in the feeder (P < 0.001) in the first 2 h after weaning. Consequently piglets not given amperozide were more active, spent more time at the feeder and participated in more aggressive encounters (P < 0.01). A significant interaction occurred between co-mingling and amperozide for mean injury score at both 4 (P < 0.01) and 24 h (P < 0.05) after weaning. When measured 4 h after weaning, co-mingling of piglets during suckling reduced mean injury score regardless of whether piglets were given amperozide or not at weaning. When piglets were not allowed to co-mingle during lactation, amperozide reduced mean injury score proportionately by around 0-44 (P < 0.01) compared with piglets administered with saline. Despite the administration of amperozide and the practice of comingling causing a reduction in stress and an improvement in welfare in this experiment, there was no beneficial effect on performance in the first 2 weeks after weaning.

Keywords

amperozidegroup housingpigletsstressweaning
Type
Research Article
Information
Animal Science , Volume 62 , Issue 1 , February 1996 , pp. 121 - 130
Copyright
Copyright © British Society of Animal Science 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Albinsson, A. R.-M. and Andersson, G. K. A. 1990. Subclinical characteristics of the wasting pig syndrome. Research in Veterinary Science 49: 71–76.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Andersson, G. and Albinsson, A. 1985. The effect of amperozide on the regulation of the activity in the pituitary-adrenal axis. Proceedings of the fifteenth Ada Endocrinologica congress, Helsinki, p. 108.Google Scholar
Andersson, G., Olsson, N.-G. and Albinsson, A. 1987. The effects of amperozide on social stress in pigs. Proceedings of the twenty-third world veterinary congress, Montreal, Canada, p. 299.Google Scholar
Baranyiová, E. 1991. Effect of serotonin on food intake by piglets during the early postnatal period. Acta Veterinaria, Brno 60:127–136.Google Scholar
Barnett, J. L. 1994. A drug that reduces aggression in pigs — a welfare dilemma. In Manipulating pig production IV (ed. Batterham, E. S.), p. 131. Australasian Pig Science Association, Werribee, Victoria.Google Scholar
Barnett, J. L., Cronin, G. M., McCallum, T. H. and Newman, E. A. 1993. Effects of ‘chemical intervention’ techniques on aggression and injuries when grouping unfamiliar adult pigs. Applied Animal Behavioural Science 36: 135–148.Google Scholar
Barnett, J. L., Hemsworth, P. H., Cronin, G. M., Newman, E. A., McCallum, T. H. and Chilton, D. 1992. Effects of pen size, partial stalls and method of feeding on welfare-related behavioural and physiological responses of group-housed pigs. Applied Animal Behavioural Science 34: 207–220.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barnett, J. L., Hemsworth, P. H. and Hand, A. M. 1983. Effects of chronic stress on some blood parameters in the pig. Applied Animal Ethology 9: 273–277.Google Scholar
Barnett, J. L. and Hutson, G. D. 1987. Objective assessment of welfare in the pig: contributions from physiology and behaviour. In Manipulating pig production (ed. Barnett, J. L., Batterham, E. S., Cronin, G. M., Hansen, C., Hemsworth, P. H., Hennessy, D. P., Hughes, P. E., Johnston, N. E. and King, R. H.), pp. 1–22. Australasian Pig Science Association, Werribee, Victoria.Google Scholar
Baxter, M. R. 1991. The design of the feeding environment for pigs. In Manipulating pig production III (ed. Batterham, E. S.), pp. 150–158. Australasian Pig Science Association, Werribee, Victoria.Google Scholar
Björk, A. K. K. 1989. Is social stress in pigs a detrimental factor to health and growth that can be avoided by amperozide treatment? Applied Animal Behavioural Science 23: 39–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Björk, A. K. K., Olsson, N. G., Christensson, E., Martinsson, K. and Olsson, O. 1988. Effects of amperozide on biting behavior and performance in restricted-fed pigs following regrouping. Journal of Animal Science 66: 669–675.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Björk, A. K. K., Olsson, N.-G. E., Martinsson, K. B. and Goransson, L. A. T. 1987. A note on the role of behaviour in pig production and the effect of amperozide on growth performance. Animal Production 45: 523–526.Google Scholar
Blackshaw, J. K. 1981a. The effect of pen design and the tranquilising drug, azaperone, on the growth and behaviour of weaned pigs. Australian Veterinary journal 57: 272–276.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Blackshaw, J. K. 1981b. Some behavioural deviations in weaned domestic pigs: persistent inguinal nose thrusting, and tail and ear biting. Animal Production 33: 325–332.Google Scholar
Blackshaw, J. K., Bodero, D. A. V. and Blackshaw, A. W. 1987. The effect of group composition on behaviour and performance of weaned pigs. Applied Animal Behavioural Science 19: 73–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blecha, F. and Pollmann, D. S. 1984. Phytohemagglutinin skin-test responses in pigs: What measurements are necessary? Journal of Animal Science 59: suppl. 1, p. 319.Google Scholar
Blecha, F., Pollmann, D. S. and Nichols, D. A. 1983. Weaning pigs at an early age decreases cellular immunity. Journal of Animal Science 56: 396–400.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Blecha, F., Pollmann, D. S. and Nichols, D. A. 1985. Immunologic reactions of pigs regrouped at or near weaning. American Journal of Veterinary Research 46: 1934–1937.Google ScholarPubMed
Blundell, J. E. 1984. Serotonin and appetite. Neuropharmacology 23: 1537–1551.Google Scholar
Christensson, E. and Gustafsson, B. 1985. Amperozide, a novel psychotropic compound with specific effect on limbic brain areas. Acta Physiologica Scandinavica 124: suppl. 542, p. 281.Google Scholar
Cronin, G. M. and Smith, J. A. 1992. Effects of accommodation type and straw bedding around parturition and during lactation on the behaviour of primiparous sows and survival and growth of piglets to weaning. Applied Animal Behavioural Science 33:191–208.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dantzer, R. 1977. New aspects of the use of tranquillizers in animal husbandry, with particular reference to pigs. Veterinary Science Communications 1:161–169.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dantzer, R. and Mormède, P. 1983. Stress in farm animals: a need for reevaluation. Journal of Animal Science 57: 6–18.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dybkjaer, L. 1992. The identification of behavioural indicators of ‘stress’ in early weaned piglets. Applied Animal Behavioural Science 35:135–147.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fitko, R., Kowalski, A. and Zielinski, H. 1992. The level of stress hormones in piglets of different hierarchic rank in the group. Medycyna Weterynaryjna 48: 66–68.Google Scholar
Fraser, D. 1978. Observations on the behavioural development of suckling and early-weaned piglets during the first six weeks after birth. Animal Behaviour 26: 22–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friend, T. H., Knabe, D. A. and Tanksley, T. D. 1983. Behaviour and performance of pigs regrouped by three different methods at weaning. Journal of Animal Science 57:1406–1411.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Funderburke, D. W. and Seerley, R. W. 1990. The effects of postweaning stressors on pig weight change, blood, liver and digestive tract characteristics. Journal of Animal Science 68: 155–162.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gonyou, H. W., Rohde, K. A. and Echeverri, A. C. 1986. Effects of sorting pigs by weight on behavior and productivity after mixing. Journal of Animal Science 63: suppl. 1, pp. 163–164.Google Scholar
Gonyou, H. W., Rohde Parfet, K. A., Anderson, D. B. and Olson, R. D. 1988. Effects of amperozide and azaperone on aggression and productivity of growing-finishing pigs. Journal of Animal Science 66: 2856–2864.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gustafsson, B. and Christensson, E. 1990. Amperozide and emotional behaviour. Pharmacology and Toxicology 66: suppl. 1, pp. 34–39.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Huhman, K. L., Moore, T. O., Ferris, C. F., Mougey, E. H. and Meyerhoff, J. L. 1991. Acute and repeated exposure to social conflict in male golden hamsters: increases in plasma POMC-peptides and cortisol and decreases in plasma testosterone. Hormones and Behaviour 25: 206–216.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Johnson, E. O., Kamilaris, T. C., Chrousos, G. P. and Gold, P. W. 1992. Mechanisms of stress: a dynamic overview of hormonal and behavioural homeostasis. Neuroscience and Biobehavioural Reviews 16: 115–130.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kyriakis, S. C. 1989. New aspects of the prevention and/or treatment of the major stress induced diseases of the early weaned piglet. Pig News and Information 10:177–181.Google Scholar
Kyriakis, S. C. and Andersson, G. 1989. Wasting pig syndrome (WPS) in weaners — treatment with amperozide. Journal of Veterinary Pharmacology and Therapeutics 12: 232–236.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Leibowitz, S. F. 1986. Brain monoamines and peptides: role in the control of eating behaviour. Federation Proceedings 45: 1396–1403.Google Scholar
McConnell, J. C., Eargle, J. C. and Waldorf, R. C. 1987. Effects of weaning weight, co-mingling, group size and room temperature on pig performance. Journal of Animal Science 65:1201–1206.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McCracken, K. J. and Kelly, D. 1993. Development of digestive function and nutrition/disease interactions in the weaned pig. In Recent advances in animal nutrition in Australia 1993 (ed. Farrell, D. J.), pp. 182–192. Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Nutrition, University of New England, Armidale, NSW.Google Scholar
McGlone, J. J. 1986 Influence of resources on pig aggression and dominance. Behavioural Processes 12: 135–144.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McGlone, J. J. and Curtis, S. E. 1985. Behavior and performance of weanling pigs in pens equipped with hide areas. Journal of Animal Science 60: 20–24.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McGlone, J. J., Kelley, K. W. and Gaskins, C. T. 1981. Lithium and porcine aggression. Journal of Animal Science 51: 447–455.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGlone, J. J., Stansbury, W. F. and Tribble, L. F. 1987. Effects of heat and social stressors and within-pen variation on young pig performance and agonistic behaviour. Journal of Animal Science 65: 456–462.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maindonald, J. H. 1992. Statistical design, analysis, and presentation issues. New Zealand Journal of Agricultural Research 35:121–141.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Munck, A., Guyre, P. M. and Holbrook, N. J. 1984. Physiological functions of glucocorticoids in stress and their relation to pharmacological actions. Endocrine Reviews 5: 25–44.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Peterson, H. V., Vestergaard, K. and Jensen, P. 1989. Integration of piglets into social groups of free-ranging domestic pigs. Applied Animal Behavioural Science 23: 223–236.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Petherick, J. C. and Blackshaw, J. K. 1987. A review of the factors influencing the aggressive and agonistic behaviour of the domestic pig. Australian journal of Experimental Agriculture 27: 605–611.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pluske, J. R. and Williams, I. H. 1996. The influence of feeder type and the method of group allocation at weaning on voluntary food intake and growth in piglets. Animal Science 62: 115–120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rundgren, M. and Löfquist, I. 1989. Effects on performance and behaviour of mixing 20-kg pigs fed individually. Animal Production 49: 311–315.Google Scholar
Snedecor, G. W. and Cochran, W. G. 1980. Statistical methods. 7th ed. Iowa State University Press, Ames, Ia.Google Scholar
Stanton, H. C. and Mueller, B. A. 1976. Sympathoadrenal neurochemistry and early weaning of swine. American Journal of Veterinary Research 37: 779–783.Google ScholarPubMed
Symoens, J. and Van Den Brande, M. 1969. Prevention and cure of aggressiveness in pigs using the sedative azaperone. Veterinary Record 85: 64–67.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Van Putten, G. and Dammers, J. 1976. A comparative study of the well-being of piglets reared conventionally and in cages. Applied Animal Ethology 2: 339–356.Google Scholar
Westly, H. J. and Kelley, K. W. 1984. Physiologic concentrations of cortisol suppress cell-mediated immune events in the domestic pig. Proceedings of the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine 177:156–164.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wilkinson, L. 1990. SYSTAT: the system for statistics. Systat Inc., Evanston, Il.Google Scholar