Effect of pen size on the development of agonistic behaviour in piglets.

Abstract

Litters of piglets (7-9 piglets) were housed with a tethered sow in pens of 28, 6.7 or 3.5 msuperscript 2 for the first 8 weeks of life. From videorecordings of behaviour interactions between piglets within litters, it was concluded that for the development of normal agonistic behaviour in group-housed pigs it was very important that pens should be larger than 3.5msuperscript 2. (Abstract retrieved from CAB Abstracts by CABI’s permission)