Effect of environmental enrichment on weaned piglets: physiological responses

Ariadna Yanez-Pizana, Daniel Mota-Rojas, Manuel Castillo-Rivera, Ramiro Ramirez-Necoechea, Isabel Guerrero-Legarreta, Patricia Mora-Medina and Miguel Gonzalez-Lozano
Additional contact information
Ariadna Yanez-Pizana: PhD Program, Division of Biological and Health Sciences, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Mexico City, Mexico
Daniel Mota-Rojas: Neurophysiology, behavior and assessment of welfare in domestic animals, Departamento de Producción Agrícola y Animal, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Campus Xochimilco, Mexico City, Mexico
Manuel Castillo-Rivera: Biology Department, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Campus Iztapalapa, Mexico City, Mexico
Ramiro Ramirez-Necoechea: Neurophysiology, behavior and assessment of welfare in domestic animals, Departamento de Producción Agrícola y Animal, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Campus Xochimilco, Mexico City, Mexico
Isabel Guerrero-Legarreta: Department of Biotechnology, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Campus Iztapalapa, Mexico city, Mexico
Patricia Mora-Medina: Livestock Science Department, FESC, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico
Miguel Gonzalez-Lozano: Centro de Enseñanza, Investigación y Extensión en Producción Porcina, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Mexico City, Mexico

Veterinární medicína, 2019, vol. 64, issue 5, 217-227

Abstract: The aim of this research consisted in assessing the effect of various kinds of environmental enrichment (EE) on the physiological responses of weaned piglets. The mean age of the 96 piglets that participated was 27 days. The piglets were weaned and then housed under two conditions: with no disruption of the social order (SO), and with disruption of the social order (DSO). After establishing the two experimental conditions, we proceeded to evaluate four different treatments; namely, control (C), suspended ropes (SR), aromatized bottles (AB) and pet toys and balls (PTB). The protocol required drawing three blood samples: at 30 (T30), 60 (T60) and 90 min (T90) after weaning. The DSO piglets had higher pH and haematocrit levels than those weaned in the SO condition (P < 0.05). Also, pCO2, potassium (K+) and base excess (BE) concentrations were higher in the SO animals than in those in the DSO group (P < 0.05). The control piglets, which did not receive any type of EE, showed higher pCO2 levels, but lower glucose and pH (P < 0.05) values, while the ones enriched with SR had increased lactate levels, but lower values for pH and HCO3- compared to the piglets in the other EE treatment regimens (P < 0.05). The SR-enriched piglets had higher lactate and haematocrit levels, but lower values for pH and bicarbonate (HCO3-) than the animals in the other EE groups (P < 0.005). The piglets subjected to sensorial EE with AB had higher plasma glucose than the ones in the other groups (P < 0.005). Finally, the PTB-enriched subjects showed higher Na+ levels than controls (P < 0.005). The alterations that were found to be related to the factor sampling time were more pronounced at T30 (P < 0.05) than T60 and T90. These results indicate that the conditions (SO, DSO) and EE (C, SR, AB, PTB) under which the piglets were weaned influenced the blood variables measured in the study.

Keywords: blood variables; weaning; environmental conditions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://vetmed.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/104/2018-VETMED.html (text/html)
http://vetmed.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/104/2018-VETMED.pdf (application/pdf)
free of charge

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:caa:jnlvet:v:64:y:2019:i:5:id:104-2018-vetmed

DOI: 10.17221/104/2018-VETMED

Access Statistics for this article

Veterinární medicína is currently edited by Ing. Helena Smolová Ph.D.

More articles in Veterinární medicína from Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Ivo Andrle ().