Is belly nosing redirected suckling behaviour?
Introduction
Belly nosing is a common abnormal oral–nasal behaviour pattern in young pigs that involves one pig performing a distinctive, rhythmic rubbing of its snout on the belly of another pig (Fraser, 1978). This behaviour pattern occurs most often when piglets are weaned at young ages into confinement systems. Although the behaviour is repetitive and appears to have no obvious function, and therefore could be considered a stereotypy (Mason, 1991), it is generally not considered one because it is most often transient in nature. The behaviour usually develops four to seven days after weaning, peaks at around two weeks, and then wanes, although it may become a fixation for some individuals, as it is occasionally observed in the grower-finisher stage (Gonyou et al., 1998) and in group housed adult sows (personal observation).
When belly nosing is performed persistently, it can result in skin lesions on the belly and flank of the receiver (Bøe, 1993, Worobec et al., 1999, Straw and Bartlett, 2001) and may ultimately lead to ulceration (Allison, 1976). While it is generally accepted that early weaning plays the biggest role in the occurrence of belly nosing, other factors that may be important to the motivational system of this behaviour, such as the interaction of feeding and drinking motivational systems, are still being investigated. Suckling behaviour in piglets involves a period of udder massage prior to milk ejection, slow and fast sucking during milk ejection, and a second period of udder massage following milk let-down (Fraser, 1980). Because belly nosing resembles piglets’ massaging of the sow's udder, researchers have hypothesized that the behaviour is caused, in part, by a piglet's motivation to suckle (Fraser, 1978, Blackshaw, 1981, Metz and Gonyou, 1990, Gonyou et al., 1998, Weary et al., 1999). This is supported by evidence that accommodating suckling through the provision of blind teats for non-nutritive (Rau, 2002) or nutritive sucking (Widowski et al., 2005) reduces belly nosing.
Within litters or mixed groups of piglets, there is immense variation in the performance of belly nosing, with 50–80% of piglets exhibiting belly nosing in any given circumstance (Straw and Bartlett, 2001, Li and Gonyou, 2002). Previous studies have identified piglets that perform the most belly nosing, or “nosers”; these piglets will spend upwards of 8% of their time belly nosing (Li and Gonyou, 2002), have slower growth rates after weaning (Bøe, 1993, Straw and Bartlett, 2001) and are more active than non-nosers (Gonyou et al., 1998, Li and Gonyou, 2002). These piglets may also be belly nosing at the expense of feeding, since time spent belly nosing is negatively correlated with time spent at the feeder in individual piglets (Li and Gonyou, 2002, Bruni, 2004). The role of hunger in the development of belly nosing is equivocal, since belly nosing does not occur when piglets are experiencing the most severe nutrient deficiency within the first couple of days after weaning (Gonyou et al., 1998), and attempts to stimulate the behaviour by altering intake via diet quality (Gardner et al., 2001) or feed restriction (Bruni, 2004) have had mixed results.
Although it has been suggested that belly nosing is related to pre-weaning suckling behaviour (Fraser, 1978, Metz and Gonyou, 1990), the relationship between suckling motivation and belly nosing has not been explored. It is possible that piglets with the highest suckling motivation, presumably those that spend the most time suckling during and between nursing bouts, are the ones most affected by abrupt weaning and therefore become “nosers”. In a longitudinal study examining pre-weaning suckling and post-weaning behaviour in horses, Nicol and Badnell-Waters (2005) found that foals that performed the most suckling and nuzzling before weaning developed abnormal oral behaviour over the four years after weaning. Similarly, dairy calves that perform the most intersucking (sucking at the udder of herd-members) before weaning were most likely to intersuck after weaning and into adulthood (Keil and Langhans, 2001). While no equivalent study has been done in piglets, Mason et al. (2003) examined individual piglet behaviour prior to weaning and correlated it to short-term post-weaning behaviour and growth. In this study, the authors found no relationship between teat preference or teat consistency and belly nosing, nor any relationship between belly nosing and growth parameters. However, their study focused mainly on the short-term emotional responses to weaning and therefore only followed piglets through two days after weaning. Therefore, there is still a gap in the knowledge of individual pre-weaning behavioural characteristics that may be related to the development of abnormal oral behaviour after weaning. The goal of the current study was to discern whether individual piglets’ behaviour on the sow during nursing is related to post-weaning oral and ingestive behaviour. Specifically, we wanted to determine whether piglets with high suckling motivation during the nursing period are predisposed to developing belly nosing after weaning. An additional aim was to determine how piglets’ growth relates to pre- and post-weaning behaviour. These relationships were examined in two separate experiments using slightly different approaches. In Experiment 1, we investigated the relationship between pre-weaning suckling and post-weaning oral behaviour patterns in early-weaned piglets that were mixed at weaning into pens that contained one of two different styles of drinkers, drinkers that we previously found to differentially influence belly nosing (Torrey and Widowski, 2004). In Experiment 2, entire litters were maintained intact post-weaning to explore the intralitter differences in piglet suckling behaviour and their relationship to post-weaning behaviour and growth.
Section snippets
Materials and methods
All procedures used in these experiments were reviewed and approved by the University of Guelph Animal Care Committee in accordance with the Canadian Council on Animal Care.
Time budgets
The percentage of scans at which any piglet performed suckling behaviour during nursing bouts ranged from 40.43 to 100%. On average, piglets performed suckling behaviour during nursing bouts 80.48 ± 1.23% of the scans. Between nursing bouts, values for individual piglets ranged from 0 to 34.26% of the scans. Piglets spent an average of 7.56 ± 1.98% of the scans performing suckling behaviour between nursing bouts. There was no difference in suckling behaviour between piglets that were allotted to
Discussion
Abnormal sucking and nosing in piglets is a little-understood phenomena. While there are some definitive growth characteristics related to piglets that perform more belly nosing and pen-mate nosing and chewing after weaning (Gonyou et al., 1998, Gardner et al., 2001, Straw and Bartlett, 2001), why some piglets develop the behaviour while others do not under identical housing and management is unclear. Our experiments were designed specifically to examine the relationships among pre-weaning
Conclusions
It has often been suggested that belly nosing is redirected suckling behaviour performed when piglets are weaned at young ages into confinement housing systems. The lack of correspondence between suckling behaviour and belly nosing indicates that belly nosing is not determined by some general predisposition to suck. Rather it may represent redirected suckling behaviour in the sense that, like the final massage of suckling, belly nosing reflects the pig's nutritional need.
Acknowledgements
We thank Dr. Margaret Quinton for assistance with statistical analysis, the staff at Arkell Swine Research Center for their cooperation and assistance, and Emily Toth and Lindsay Tippin for their technical assistance. This research was funded by grants from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the National Pork Board of the United States and the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food.
References (49)
- et al.
Ontogeny of analgesia elicited by non-nutritive suckling in acute and persistent neonatal rat pain models
Pain
(2004) - et al.
Effect of age of calf on suckling behaviour and other behavioural activities of Zebu and crossbred calves during restricted suckling periods
Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci.
(2000) - et al.
Sucking and teat disputes by neonatal piglets
Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci.
(1989) The identification of behavioural indicators of ‘stress’ in early weaned piglets
Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci.
(1992)Observations on the behavioural development of suckling and early-weaned piglets during the first six weeks after birth
Anim. Behav.
(1978)A review of the behavioural mechanism of milk ejection of the domestic pig
Appl. Anim. Ethol.
(1980)- et al.
Observations on the behaviour of suckling pigs
Br. J. Anim. Behav.
(1956) - et al.
Influence of massage during simulated non-nutritive nursings on piglets’ milk intake and weight gain
Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci.
(1998) - et al.
Teat massage after milk ingestion in domestic piglets: an example of honest begging?
Anim. Behav.
(1998) - et al.
The development of intersucking in dairy calves around weaning
Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci.
(2001)
Consumer demand theory and the assessment of animal welfare
Anim. Behav.
Analysis of belly nosing and associated behaviour among pigs weaned at 12-14 days of age
Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci.
Cross-suckling and other oral behaviours in calves, and their relation to cow suckling and food provision
Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci.
Stereotypies: a critical review
Anim. Behav.
Individual differences in responses of piglets to weaning at different ages
Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci.
The “teat order” and communication in young pigs
Anim. Behav.
Effect of age and housing conditions on the behavioural and haemolytic reaction of piglets to weaning
Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci.
Suckling behaviour in domestic foals and the development of abnormal oral behaviour
Anim. Behav.
Consumption of solid food by suckling pigs: individual variation and relation to weight gain
Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci.
Development and consequence of teat-order in piglets
Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci.
Functional view on udder massage after milk let-down in pigs
Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci.
Nursing behaviour of sows during 5 weeks lactation and effects on piglet growth
Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci.
Responses of piglets to early separation from the sow
Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci.
The effects of weaning at 7, 14 and 28 days on piglet behaviour
Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci.
Cited by (24)
Stress responses in pigs postweaning: Effect of heavier hybrid and weaning intact litters
2023, Applied Animal Behaviour ScienceEnvironmental enrichment for pregnant sows modulates HPA-axis and behavior in the offspring
2019, Applied Animal Behaviour ScienceCitation Excerpt :When this behavior pattern occurs before suckling and milk intake, it may be associated with hunger or feeding (Gonyou et al., 1998). However, there is a negative correlation between suckling behavior on the sow and nosing after weaning (Torrey and Widowski, 2006). There are differences between nosing (as a piglet-directed behavior) and belly-nosing; the levels in nosing remain much more consistent over time and are seen from the first day after weaning.
Artificial rearing affects piglets pre-weaning behaviour, welfare and growth performance
2019, Applied Animal Behaviour ScienceVeterinary Medicine, Eleventh Edition
2016, Veterinary Medicine, Eleventh EditionComparison of the behaviour of piglets raised in an artificial rearing system or reared by the sow
2015, Applied Animal Behaviour ScienceBehavioural and physiological reactions of piglets to gentle tactile interactions vary according to their previous experience with humans
2014, Livestock ScienceCitation Excerpt :At the intra-specific level, tactile contact (nosing, nibbling, huddling) are important and pigs are used to rest in close body contact (Hafez, 1975). Pigs perform soft contact with their nose (Camerlink and Turner, 2013) or more dynamic contact looking like udder massages around nursing (Torrey and Widowski, 2006). Thus an influence of tactile human contact on the subsequent reactions of pigs to humans is expected.
- 1
Present address: Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Dairy and Swine Research Centre, Lennoxville, Que., Canada J1M 1Z3.