An investigation of importance of some behaviour indicators in pigs of the Large White and Belgian Landrace breeds
2002
Kovac, L. | Mlynek, J. | Liday, I. | Novacky, M. | Uzakova, M. | Kubinova, A. | Kubina, M. (Slovak Agricultural Univ., Nitra (Slovak Republic))
Individual habituation process and CNS excitability in a new environment of the test chamber were investigated in four 20-min habituation tests in 32 pigs of the Large White (n=16) and Belgian Landrace (n=16) breeds. Each animal was tested at 30 and 90 kg live weight in morning and afternoon tests. It has been proved that motor activity and voice manifestations of pigs are significant indicators of inborn behaviour and show both the short-term stability and the long-term stability of excitation levels in 20-min habituation tests. The results obtained indicated the habituation dynamism of motor activity indicator for both weight categories, 30 kg animals being more active. Although no significant differences between the two breeds were detected in the dynamism of motor activity, Large White pigs were more active than Belgian Landrace pigs, in both weight categories. The process of voice manifestation habituation brought different results from those of motor activity indicator, Both the process of motor activity habituation and the frequency of voice manifestation were higher in Large White pigs. On the other hand, no characteristic habituation process was observed in voice manifestations, Proceeding from the above results we can state that there is statistically significant correlation between motor activity and voice manifestations, Statistically significant correlation was also found in voice manifestations, not onlz between morning tests and afternoon tests but also within morning and afternoon tests, respectively
Показать больше [+] Меньше [-]