Early life predictors of the development of aggressive behaviour in the domestic pig

RB D'Eath*, AB Lawrence

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract / Description of output

Individuals show stable differences in their aggressive responses towards unfamiliar conspecifics. We investigated the extent to which variables present during early life could be identified that were correlated with these later individual differences in aggressive behaviour. The behaviour and growth of 125 domestic pigs, Sus scrofa, from 16 litters, were studied from birth until 18 days after weaning, when they were tested on two occasions in resident-intruder tests to measure their aggressiveness. Aggressiveness was affected by litter, although not by sex. A number of early life correlates of later resident-intruder aggressiveness were found at the litter level. Pigs became more aggressive if they had been born into larger litters. Pigs in these aggressive litters were more active in the 8-h period immediately after birth, perhaps taking longer to achieve satiety at the udder. They were also in poorer condition 2 days after birth. Aggressive pigs also engaged in more pushing with littermates over the whole preweaning period. The best correlates of aggressiveness appear to be a number of correlated variables relating to low nutrition, either prenatally or in the early postnatal period. The results are consistent with the concept that early environmental conditions can programme behavioural responses for later life. (C) 2004 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)501-509
Number of pages9
JournalAnimal Behaviour
Volume67
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Mar 2004

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

  • GROUP-HOUSED SOWS
  • INDIVIDUAL AGGRESSIVENESS
  • INTRAUTERINE POSITION
  • GROWING PIGS
  • REPRODUCTIVE-PERFORMANCE
  • AGONISTIC ENCOUNTERS
  • UNACQUAINTED PIGS
  • SOCIAL-DOMINANCE
  • PLAYFUL BEHAVIOR
  • PARENTAL CARE

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