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Does a producer benefit from research?

August 04, 2004

ISAE Helsinki 2004
Information bulletin August 4, 2004

Does a producer benefit from research?

In the view of professor Per Jensen, an ethologist at Linköping University in Sweden and one of the world's leading experts on animal behaviour, Nordic animal welfare research is of a high standard and is focused on scientifically relevant issues. However, according to Jensen, more basic research and new evaluation methods are needed, and in his opinion gene research combined with behavioural research could in particular provide new tools for this purpose.

Breeding choices made in the past few decades have mainly helped to bring about a dramatic increase in production. However, these choices may also have other consequences; for example, they may change the ability of production animals to adjust to stressful environments.

Researchers in Linköping are studying the side effects of breeding in hens. Gene research has helped to map genes that, in addition to having an impact on growth and productivity, may also have an effect on how animals behave when subjected to stress.

According to Jensen, research may help to design breeding programmes in which animal welfare is a consideration.

Research on pigs shows that, when domesticated animals are in a natural environment, they behave in the same way as their wild ancestors. However, keeping production animals is nowadays like an industry, which makes it almost impossible to rear them naturally. As a result they may display abnormal behaviour and have stress-related illnesses.

According to Per Jensen, behavioural research has been applied to areas such as the planning of production farms, and in Sweden pig farmers, for example, have shown great interest in the matter. Sows must be left on their own when farrowing and they instinctively try to build themselves a nest. Producers have come up with solutions that provide the sows with the 'privacy' they need. Another example of the impact research has had on farming practices is the growing use of deep litters.

Living environment shapes feeding behaviour

According to Birte Lindstr'¸m Nielsen, a researcher who has studied meat-producing animals at the Danish Institute of Agricultural Sciences, research on animal behavioural patterns can shed light on how animals adapt to constraints in their living environments. Highly specialized production may shape animal behaviour in feeding situations, for example.

The feeding behaviour of animals may be influenced by such factors as group size (social environment), food fibre content, and feeding facilities. When an animal has to share a trough with a large number of conspecifics, it may come to the trough less frequently and eat more at a time. This may have an impact on such matters as pigs' rest periods and group synchronization. Sometimes it also has an effect on feed conversion efficiency.

For more information, please contact:
birte.nielsen@agrsci.dk and per.jensen@ifm.liu.se

MTT Agrifood Research Finland