Avaliação comportamental de leitões em creche com enriquecimento ambiental

Abstract

Recognizing the importance of swine farming and the welfare applied in the Brazilian animal production sector, this study aims to evaluate the agonistic behavior of piglets during the nursery phase, with and without environmental enrichment, on a small-scale family farm in western Paraná. For the evaluation, 36 piglets of Topigs genetics, resulting from crosses between TN70 sows and TN Duroc boars, were used. They were divided into three collective pens of 4 m² in the nursery, each with 12 animals, aged 21 days at the start, of both sexes. Each pen was considered a treatment group: the Control group without enrichment (SE), Group 1 with an enrichment object - suspended chain (CEC), and Group 2 with an enrichment object - half-moon suspended tire (CEP). Behavioral evaluation occurred over five consecutive days, with observations conducted at pre-determined intervals, using an ethogram to assess the piglets' behaviors. Statistical analyses were performed using the Shapiro-Wilk test, the nonparametric paired Friedman test, and, for the behavior of playing with objects, the nonparametric paired Wilcoxon test. The results showed a significant difference in agonistic interaction behaviors - fighting (P=0.0045) and in the behavior of exploring the environment (P=0.0443). There was no statistically significant difference in behaviors such as playing with another animal (P=0.5051), lying down/sleeping (P=0.7768), excreting (P=0.5927), and eating/drinking (P=0.6879) among the three groups. In conclusion, the behaviors of agonistic interactions fighting and exploring the environment were influenced by environmental enrichment.