The objective of this study was to determine whether piglets from different positions in the teat order differ inpersonality. Teat order is established within the first days after birth and from that time, piglets basically suckle fromthe same teat pair until weaning. Three piglets from each of 21 litters (n = 63) were chosen for their place in teatorder; one from anterior teats (A), one from middle teats (B), and one from rear teats (C). The piglets were observedduring suckling, undisturbed behaviour, a novel object test and a straw test. A total of 13 behaviours were registered.A significant difference (P < 0.05) between A, B and C piglets was found in the frequency of disputes duringsuckling, where B piglets were most involved in disputes and C piglets least involved, and a tendency (P < 0.1) wasfound in frequency of undisturbed playing and exploration. A piglets played and explored most, and C piglets least.Four interesting components were found with principal component analysis, explaining 62.4 % of the total variation.These represent personality traits tentatively named exploration, playfulness, food interest and straw interest. Therewere no significant differences in personality type between A, B and C piglets although a tendency that A pigletswere most playful and C piglets were least playful was found. Hence, this study suggests that there might be acorrelation between teat order position and personality.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:liu-69596 |
| Date | January 2011 |
| Creators | Sundman, Ann-Sofie |
| Publisher | Linköpings universitet, Institutionen för fysik, kemi och biologi |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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