Behaviour of piglets during weaning in a seminatural enclosure

Abstract

The aim of this study was to provide a quantitative description of the activity budgets and social relationships of piglets during a normal weaning process in a semi-natural enclosure. Four focal piglets were selected from each of ten litters born between April 1988 and April 1989. The litters were part of a herd consisting of five to eight sows and a boar, kept all year around in a 12.5 ha semi-natural enclosure. The behaviour of the focal piglets was recorded during two to four 15-min sampling sessions on each of 2 consecutive days week −1, starting when the piglets were 9 weeks old and lasting up to 2 weeks after weaning was completed. During the sampling sessions, the activities and nearest-neighbour relations were recorded with instantaneous samples every 3 min. Data were analysed for the 5 weeks preceding weaning, the weaning week, and the 2 weeks following weaning. Suckling and massaging the udder outside nursings was observed at a low and decreasing frequency up to the point of weaning. No changes with time were observed in the proportion of observations of foraging and lying, indicating that weaning did not affect the daily activity budgets to any large degree. Different measures of social relations showed that the family bonds tended to decrease in strength as weaning was completed. We conclude that weaning under semi-natural conditions lacks the abrupt effects on activity and social relations commonly observed after separation of sows and piglets under commercial conditions.