Comportamento de suínos da raça Piau, submetidos a enriquecimento ambiental

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the behavior of Piau pigs during weaning through the environmental enrichment technique. Twenty male neutered piglets were used, kept in stalls enriched with manufactured toys and distributed in a completely randomized experimental design, through an electronic random selection, with four treatments and five replications: T1 treatment - control, without environmental enrichment; T2 – enriched with tire; T3 - enriched with chain and T4 - enriched with Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottle filled with stones. All enrichment materials (T2, T3 and T4) were suspended by wire and kept at eye level. To characterize the behavior, an etogram was used and the behaviors expressed by the piglets were observed from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., with 10 min intervals, for each day of evaluation. The behaviors evaluated were: drinking (D), eating (E), sleeping (S), rooting (R), inactive alert (IA), playing (P), biting and pushing the grid (BPG). The Kruskal-Wallis test was used. That was observed no difference in the variables D, E, S and IA (P> 0.05). However, there was significant difference (P<0.05) for R, P and BPG. In the variable R, the stall with chain showed that the piglets spent more time interacting with the object than the other treatments. For the P variable, all treatments were better than the Control, and the treatment enriched with tire (T2) were the one with the best result. The BPG attitude was superior compared to Control group, possibly due to the lack of stimulation in the environment, making it poor. As conclusion, the environmental enrichment in the Piau piglets in the Semi-arid region increases the welfare level of freshly weaned piglets.