Piglet and Sow Lab
!Introduction
Pigs are one of the most important domestic animals for human consumption and for research. In
this lab, we will investigate changes in behavior of piglets and sow (mother) as the piglets
develop. This lab will also be a group effort (i.e., all the groups will work together to create a
large data set that each lab group can then use for their final project). Once this data set is put
together (after two weeks of observation) and posted as an Excel file on the class web site for
each lab group to use and address the problems and hypotheses they find interesting (see below
for suggestions).
How to get to the Swine Barn
1. Drive west on Hutchison Dr. crossing 113.
!2. Continue about 1 mile passing Olive Rd.
3. At the next turn, Hopkins Rd, turn left (south).
!4. Drive past Bee Biology Rd and turn left at Straloch Rd.
!5. About a block down will be a dirt parking lot to your left right in front of the Swine
Barn. Parking is free.
The map has arrows indicating the way. The red "X" marks the parking lot.
1
Requirements of the Swine Facility
1. You cannot have been out of the U.S.A within 7 days each week we make observations at the
swine facilities.
2. You cannot have been around any livestock (except UC Davis livestock) during the previous
48 hours before a lab.
3. You cannot wear clothes that have ever been around livestock on the day of the lab.
4. You will have to wear disposable boots (over your shoes) while in the Hog barn. We will meet
outside of the swine facilities and put on the boots as we enter.
5. You have to wash your hands with disinfectant soap before leaving.
6. As tempting as it might be, don't touch the piglets or sows. This will minimize the likelihood
that the pigs will catch anything from you!
Some Background on Pigs
Most domestic pigs and the pigs we will be observing were originally derived (artificially
selected over many generations) from the European wild pigs thought to originate from the
Chinese Sus vittatus or Sus indicus and the Indian Sus cristatus. Wild pigs are considered
nocturnal omnivores. (see the Wikipedia article on the pig for more information)
Pig Terminology
Boar: Non castrated male
Barrow: Castrated male
Gilt: A young female kept for breeding and when she breeds she becomes a sow.
Sow: An adult female pig that has farrowed (given birth) and is used for breeding.
Piglet: A baby pig.
Shoat: Newly weaned piglet
Farrow: Parturition process of the pig
Taxonomy
Order: Artiodactyla: Even toed-ungulates (cattle, sheep, goats, deer, buffalo, etc) as opposed to
Perrisodactyla (odd-toed ungulates: horses, rhinoceroses, etc)
Suborder: Suiformes vs. Ruminantia (Ruminants) and Tylopoda (camels)
2
Family: Suidae (True pigs) vs Tayassuidae (Javelina)
Genera: Sus
Species: scrofa
Breeds (A few examples)
American Landrace: Originated in Denmark. White although small black spots are common.
Very long sides due to extra vertebrae and ribs (l5-17 ribs). Long head with large droopy ears.
Berkshire: Originated from Berkshire, England. Black with white feet, face, and tail switch. Any
or all of the points can be dark. Dished face with short snout and broad face. Ears are medium in
size, set well apart, and carried erect (Shire = erect ears.).
Chester White: Originated in Chester and Delaware counties of Pennsylvania. Characterized by
large litters. White although small bluish spots are sometimes found. Face is of medium length
and is practically straight. Ears are medium to large and droop.
Duroc: Originated from NE United States. Red with shades of light to dark. Ears are medium in
size and tip forward. Face is of medium length.
Hampshire: Originated from Boone County, Kentucky. Black with a white belt around the
shoulders and front legs. Face is long and straight with erect ears.
Hereford: Originated from Missouri. Red body with white on at least two feet, the underline, and
the switch. White medium length face and drooping ears.
Poland China: Originated from Miami Valley of Ohio. Black with or without white feet, face,
and tip of tail. Face is of medium length and slightly dished. Distinctly droopy ears.!!
Spotted
swine: Originated from Indiana. Spotted black and white pattern. Slightly dished face with
drooping ears.
Tamworth: Originated from central England. Long neck and legs. Red coat that varies from
golden to dark red. Moderately long straight snout. Medium size erect ears.
Yorkshire: Originated from England. White with a broad. dished face and erect ears. Snout is
medium in length and broad at nostrils.
Piglets and Sows
Piglets are born precosial. They are born with their eyes open and can run around. Domestic pigs
are weaned as early as 21 days of age, but piglets will nurse much longer if allowed to. Piglets
3
are born in litters that average about 9, but this can vary by breed and age of the sow.
An interesting way to look at the development of behavior is to see how the frequency of
different types of behavior change with development. Perhaps the most basic question we can
ask about both piglets and sow is whether they are active or inactive. By active, we mean
anything a piglet or sow is doing that involves some kind of movement. For example, walking,
nursing, eating, grunting, and drinking are among the behaviors a sow may display. Piglets,
depending on their age, run about, walk, bite, squeal, walk on their mother, etc.. If a piglet or
sow is inactive, this may mean that it is sleeping, but it also may mean that it is not doing
anything (e.g., just "sitting".
We are, of course, interested in whether piglets and sows are active or inactive. If active, they
can be doing different things, which may ultimately shed light on aspects of their behavioral
development. Below is a partial list of behaviors (and relationships) that may be exhibited by
piglets and sows.
Nipple Identification
What you will see is a sow and her piglets (Fig. 2). The sow has at least 8 nipples (the number of
nipples varies among sows) from which the piglets can nurse. If we look at her head end and she
is lying down, then the nipples on her right side (R) will be the top row, and the nipples on her
left (L) will be the bottom row. If we start from the front and work back we can label each of her
nipples as R1, L1, R2, L2, etc.
Figure 2. Piglets nursing.
4
Piglet Behavior
I = Inactive. Piglet is sleeping or otherwise not moving, grooming, nursing, etc.
A = Active. Piglet is doing anything that involves some kind of movement. "Active" should be
checked for every time the piglet is not inactive, including when other boxes
are marked.
C = Contact. Piglet is in contact with other piglets. Mark this for any meaningful contact. Piglets
can be either active or inactive during contact.
R#,L# = Nipple attachment. Indicate which nipple ( e.g., R1, L1, ....R4, L4). Piglets are active.
O = Any other active behavior--you can write in a brief description of what the piglet is doing
(e.g., eating solid food, "fighting" or "playing") Piglets are active.
Sow Behavior
I = Inactive (i.e., not moving, grooming, nursing etc.)
A = Active
N = Nursing piglets (sow can be active or inactive).
AG = "Agitated" (sow is active)
G = Grunts (sow is active)
S = Standing. Sow is standing (sow is active).
L = Lying down. Sow is lying down (active or inactive).
E = Eating or drinking. Sow is eating or drinking water (sow is active).
O = Any other active behavior (sow is active)
For your convenience, we have provided Excel worksheets formatted for recording behavior
(piglet.xls, sow.xls). Each worksheet is two pages long and we will copy enough sheets to record
the data.
You will be observing sows and piglets in their farrowing pens, which, in part, are designed to
prevent the sow from lying on her piglets. We will follow a focal animal observation approach in
5
which an observer indicates what a specific piglet or sow is doing during an interval of time. In
this case, the time or observational interval will be 15 seconds.
What to do the First Week
(1) Develop an observation protocol. A protocol is a sort of recipe or plan scientists develop for
conducting an experiment. A protocol allows us to repeat the same observation procedures from
one time to another. Most of this is laid out below, but you also need to plan the logistics of the
observations. Also, what other (O) behaviors do you want to record? This is something you may
want to discuss with other lab groups.
(2) Background research. You should search relevant journals (see below) and find one or
more papers that provide background information and/or gives you some ideas for hypotheses
you want to test.
(3). Formulate research questions (see below). It is these questions that you will attempt to
answer with the data you collect.
How the observation labs will proceed in outline
We should have 1 or more litters of piglets to observe at different ages. There should be enough
observers per pen at any given time, to observe at least 4 piglets and the sow. So, the best
arrangement will be to have two groups per litter, but this may have to be adjusted depending on
how many litters there are.
What you will need
(1) Each individual should have a clipboard or some other surface (like a notebook) on which
data can be recorded on the data sheets.
(2) We will need one or more people who can act as timers, telling all the observers when each
15 second interval has passed.
Observation Procedure
(1) First, you should fill out page 1 of your data sheets in a manner similar to that indicated in
Figure 3. Mark down the Sow's number or ID, the number of the piglet and its sex (if known).
Record the litter's age (if known), date and time the observation session began. Sows are
numbered by crate - if you don't know the number, ask.
(2) For each litter, we want to observe at least two male and two female piglets and the sow. This
will depend on the number of litters available.
6
(3) An observation period will last 10 minutes and we will aim to do three 10-minute
observations.
(4) During each observation lab it should be possible to perform observation sessions using the
same piglets and sows.
(5) The data recorded on the sheets needs to be entered into Excel worksheets on the computer.
Use the Excel data sheet on the computer to enter the data, save it. Give the file a name that
indicates what is in the file. For example, using the data sheet in Figure 3, you could name the
file: s2-p3-Feb-17-1230.xls, where "s2" is sow 2, p3, is piglet 3, "Nov-16" is the date, and
"1230" is 12:30 PM.
(6) Make sure that once you have saved the file that you keep a copy and give us a copy. Save
your hardcopy data sheets!
(7) After two weeks of data collection, the data in Excel worksheets will be placed in a common
folder. You should be ready to start posing problems and attempting to solve them by analyzing
the data.
Remember that getting your piglet data turned in on time is 10% of your grade for this
project! You must email me the Excel file with your observation data by 5pm the Sunday
following the observation period in order to receive credit!
Figure 3. Part of a data sheet from a hypothetical observation session.
7
Some Problems to Consider
One need not be an expert on pigs and nursing to formulate hypotheses or questions about what
is happening during their development. From a developmental point of view, you have a variety
of data with which to ask (hypothesize) a number of questions.
For instance:
1) What proportion of time does a sow spend in different types of activity? Does this change
from week 1 to week 2? If it does change, can you think of any explanation for this change that
might be connected to the growth and development of her piglets?
2) Are there differences in the frequencies of behaviors between week 1 and week 2? Are there
differences in the conditional frequencies of behavior? (E.g., contact with other piglets given a
piglet is active.) If the answer is "yes" to either of these questions, how might you explain the
differences (e.g., in terms of dominance)? Are there other studies or observations that you would
like to make if you could conduct further experiments? Is body weight at birth related to the time
a piglet spends doing different things?
3) Is the sex of a piglet related to any of the behaviors you observe? If there are sex differences,
do they change from week 1 to week 2? Can sex differences be explained by birth weight (if they
occur)?
4) Are piglets more likely to stay on one nipple as they get older? Are there sex
differences? Birth weight differences?
You may come up with other questions from your background research. Remember there are no
necessarily right or wrong answers. Let the data answer your questions for you. If you have any
questions that you are wondering about (i.e., whether they are reasonable questions to ask), just
ask us either in lab, during office hours, or by email.
Form of Final Project
Your final project will be presented in a poster session during the last lab meeting. For tips on
designing a scientific poster, see here. Your poster should have Introduction, Methods, Results,
and Discussion sections, in which you will present your original research.
You must also include references to at least two (2) outside sources. These should be empirical,
peer-reviewed journal articles or scientific reference books. These sources should be related to
your research question - try to find research that has looked at similar issues. Articles do not have
to be recent - a lot of good behavioral research on livestock was carried out in the 1960s and
'70s.
8
Background Research
You should do some background research (as suggested above) both to help you pose problems
your data may help you solve and to provide background information on pigs.
See below for instructions on searching for articles using BioSis. You may also use Google
Scholar.
This link will take you to the library for a periodical search for relevant published papers:
http://www.lib.ucdavis.edu/ul/research/databases/!
Figure 4. Electronic Data bases arrange alphabetically. There are many to choose from. I clicked
on "B" to look at BIOSIS previews, but there are many other relevant electronic data bases
besides BIOSIS.
After selecing "B" and BIOSIS previews, I got the window in Fig. 5.
9
Figure 5. BIOSIS search window.
I entered three search terms: pig nursing behavior (Fig. 6)
10
Figure 6. Search phase, which BIOSIS understands as "pig and nursing and behavior" and this is
why so few results came up (Fig. 7).
The result of this search yeilded only one article, so you might want to make your search less
restrictive (Fig. 7).
11
Figure 7. A journal article resulting from the subject search in Figure 6.
12
Also, there are Internet resources of information that may be useful. For example, the University
of Illinois has an Internet resource call "Porknet":
http://www.livestocktrail.uiuc.edu/porknet/
The Animal Science Department at UC Davis also has a link, which you may find useful:
http://animalscience.ucdavis.edu/facilities/swine.htm
13