Field study on the link between respiratory diseases and social behaviour in pigs
Purpose: The aim of the study is to describe the link between respiratory diseases and social behaviour in pigs on farm
Expected distress: We will take one single blood sample from each pig. To do so we need to fixate the pigs by using a mouth snare. This is a commonly used procedure by farmers and veterinaries as pigs do not tolerate blood sampling voluntarily. We have experience with that procedure and the duration of fixation for each pig is approximately 1 min. For euthanasia we will need to fix the pigs shortly with a herding board for an intramuscular injection of anaesthesia. This procedure will take aproximately 10s.
Expected societal benefit: Tail biting is a very important animal welfare challenge in commercial pig
production. The frequency is on the increase, also in Norway. The increase in the national average incidence of tail biting damage recorded at slaughterhouses has increased from about 2.5% to about 7% during the last 6 years. Most swine producing countries tail dock their pigs as an attempt to inhibit the behaviour. We know that health is a risk factor for tail biting, and this experiment is part of a larger body of work in which we try to understand the mechanisms behind the link between health and tail biting. By getting that understanding we might be able to better chose and evaluate methods to reduce the risk of tail biting outbreaks, such as a targeted use of NSAIDs (anti-inflammatory drugs with several licensed for use in pigs) in the case of disease outbreaks.
Expected scientific benefit: The immune system and the brain communicates, and we are starting to
understand that immune activation can affect behaviour and emotions quite profoundly. This project will add knowledge of how brain and behaviour are influenced by an immune activation.
We will apply for blood sampling of 144 pigs in this experiment. On the basis of a clinical examination and C-reactive protein (CRP) measurements in the blood (an indicator of immune activation) we would like to decide which pigs will serve as healthy controls and which will be categorized as sick. A subset will be euthanized (max. 72) to investigate their brain physiology and be able to evaluate their lungs post mortem. The number will depend on the number of available farms and the number of sick & healthy pigs/farm
As this experiment is carried out mainly to increase our knowledge of tail biting in pigs, we cannot replace the pigs with non-animal models. The demands of a sufficient statistical power also prohibits the reduction of group sizes. However, we will refine the experiment by low-stress handling and by keeping the pigs in stable social groups on farm.
Expected distress: We will take one single blood sample from each pig. To do so we need to fixate the pigs by using a mouth snare. This is a commonly used procedure by farmers and veterinaries as pigs do not tolerate blood sampling voluntarily. We have experience with that procedure and the duration of fixation for each pig is approximately 1 min. For euthanasia we will need to fix the pigs shortly with a herding board for an intramuscular injection of anaesthesia. This procedure will take aproximately 10s.
Expected societal benefit: Tail biting is a very important animal welfare challenge in commercial pig
production. The frequency is on the increase, also in Norway. The increase in the national average incidence of tail biting damage recorded at slaughterhouses has increased from about 2.5% to about 7% during the last 6 years. Most swine producing countries tail dock their pigs as an attempt to inhibit the behaviour. We know that health is a risk factor for tail biting, and this experiment is part of a larger body of work in which we try to understand the mechanisms behind the link between health and tail biting. By getting that understanding we might be able to better chose and evaluate methods to reduce the risk of tail biting outbreaks, such as a targeted use of NSAIDs (anti-inflammatory drugs with several licensed for use in pigs) in the case of disease outbreaks.
Expected scientific benefit: The immune system and the brain communicates, and we are starting to
understand that immune activation can affect behaviour and emotions quite profoundly. This project will add knowledge of how brain and behaviour are influenced by an immune activation.
We will apply for blood sampling of 144 pigs in this experiment. On the basis of a clinical examination and C-reactive protein (CRP) measurements in the blood (an indicator of immune activation) we would like to decide which pigs will serve as healthy controls and which will be categorized as sick. A subset will be euthanized (max. 72) to investigate their brain physiology and be able to evaluate their lungs post mortem. The number will depend on the number of available farms and the number of sick & healthy pigs/farm
As this experiment is carried out mainly to increase our knowledge of tail biting in pigs, we cannot replace the pigs with non-animal models. The demands of a sufficient statistical power also prohibits the reduction of group sizes. However, we will refine the experiment by low-stress handling and by keeping the pigs in stable social groups on farm.