Effects of room and nest temperature on the preferred lying place of piglets—A brief note

Abstract

The objective of the study was to investigate the lying behaviour of piglets under different ambient temperatures simulating both typical summer and winter conditions. The lying behaviour of piglets was analysed in two air conditioned chambers, each enclosing an enlarged farrowing pen with two electrical heated plastic plates as nest areas. The study included eight rounds. In one farrowing pen the two heated plates were covered with warm water beds. The ambient temperature was set at either 18 or 26°C. In addition, the initial nest temperatures were set at either 30 or 34/36°C. These temperatures were reduced weekly by 2°C. The lying behaviour of piglets was observed twice a week during a continuous 24-h period using infrared time lapse video technique and the OBSERVER/Video Tape Analysis system for ethological calculations. At a room temperature of 18°C, piglets clearly prefer the nest with the higher temperature during the whole suckling period both with heated plastic plates and warm water bed. More than half the litter lay on the nest with the higher surface temperature (up to 59.3% of the time in the case of the plastic plates during the 1st post natal week and 56.9% in the case of the warm water bed during the 2nd week of life). At a room temperature of 26°C, the percentage of time that more than half of the litter spent lying on either of the nests was generally much lower when compared with the time spent in the nest if the ambient temperature was 18°C. Also, the preference for one specific nest was not as uniform.