Anthropomorphism, attachment level, and belief in animal mind, as well as owners' level of empathy and attitudes toward their pets, are some of the factors that affect human–animal interactions. Owners' ability to identify painful conditions in their pets may have important consequences for the welfare of these animals. In addition to characterizing the typical Norwegian dog owner, the aim of this work was to study the relationship between empathy, attitudes, and perceived animal pain. A sample of 3,413 dog owners in Norway received an internet-based questionnaire (QuestBack™), to which1896 responded. The questionnaire included four parts: demographics, the Pet Attitude Scale (PAS), the Animal Empathy Scale (AES), and the Pain Assessment Instrument (PAI). For the PAI, participants were presented with 17 photos, showing dogs experiencing painful situations of varying degrees, and were asked to rate the level of pain they believed each animal was enduring, using a Visual Analogue Scale (VAS). Result...

Aggressive interactions, and their consequences, are the most important causes of poor welfare in piglets. Aggressive behaviour can be modulated by the prenatal and neonatal environment in several species. Commercially kept pregnant sows are often subjected to food restriction, which can compromise their welfare. Limited information is available on the consequences of sow hunger during pregnancy on welfare outcomes for their piglets. High fibre diets can mitigate the feeling of hunger and, consequently, it may improve welfare and productivity measures. The aim of this study was to assess the consequences of feeding pregnant gilts with high fibre diets (HFD) on agonistic behaviour, as manifested by skin lesions, and indicators of fear in their piglets at weaning. Twenty-two pregnant gilts were fed either HFD, 12.86% of crude fibre, 2.4 kg per day (N = 14), or low fibre diet (LFD), 2.53% of crude fibre, 2.0 kg per day (N = 8). During lactation, both treatments received the same diet, ad libitum. We investigated the impact of HFD on behaviour and performance measures (birth weight, average daily gain, weaning weight, see S3 File) in the offspring. Skin lesions were evaluated before and after weaning in 156 piglets (100 HFD and 56 LFD), and 142 piglets were subjected to an open field test and a novel object test (87 HFD and 55 LFD). We found no treatment effect on the performance measures. Piglets born from gilts that received HFD had fewer skin lesions before weaning (D28) than the offspring of LFD gilts, while no difference was found during days 29 and 30. In the open field and novel object tests, there was no treatment effect on the behaviour of piglets. The improved skin health at weaning in piglets of sows fed HFD suggests less agonistic interactions amongst these littermates than in piglets of sows fed LFD.

Stereotypies comprise a wide range of repeated and apparently functionless behaviors that develop in individuals whose neural condition or environment results in poor welfare. While stereotypies are an indicator of poor welfare at the time of occurrence, they may have various consequences. Environmental enrichment modifies causal factors and reduces the occurrence of stereotypies, providing evidence that stereotypies are an indicator of poor welfare. However, stereotypy occurrence and consequences change over time. Furthermore, there are complex direct and epigenetic effects when mother mammals that are kept in negative conditions do or do not show stereotypies. It is proposed that, when trying to deal with challenging situations, stereotypies might initially help animals to cope. After further time in the conditions, the performance of the stereotypy may impair brain function and change brain connections, neurophysiology and eventually neuroanatomy. It is possible that reported neuroanatomical changes are an effect of the stereotypy rather than a cause.

Experiences during gestation can alter the mother’s behavior and physiology, thereby potentially affecting the behavioral and physiological development of the offspring. In livestock, one common challenge for pregnant animals is lameness: a multifactorial condition that causes pain, stress, resulting in poor welfare outcomes. Since maternal pain can affect offspring development, we aimed to quantify the behavioral response in 142 piglets born from sows with different degrees of lameness during pregnancy. Gait scores of 22 pregnant group-housed sows were assessed six times at 2-week intervals. Lameness scores varied from 0 (no lameness) to 5 (most severe lameness score). Saliva samples and behavior were assessed in the sows throughout pregnancy. Sows were moved to individual farrowing pens and placental tissue was collected for glucocorticoid assessment. At 28 days of age, piglets were weaned, weighed, and regrouped by body size and sex. Skin lesions were counted for each piglet on days 28, 29, and 30 after birth. During open field and novel object tests on day 30, the vocalization and activity levels were evaluated. Piglet data were grouped by the lameness score of the sows as G1 (without lameness), G2 (moderate lameness), and G3 (severe lameness). Data analysis included ANOVA or Kruskal–Wallis tests and pairwise comparisons which were performed using Tukey and Kramer (Nemenyi) test with Tukey-Dist approximation for independent samples. G2 piglets were heavier than G3 at weaning. G1 piglets had fewer skin lesions at days 28 and 29 than G2 piglets. Moreover, G1 piglets vocalized more than G2 when they were subjected to the combined open field and novel object test. We did not identify differences among sows showing different lameness scores in the concentration of placental or salivary glucocorticoids. Lameness in pregnant sows altered the offspring’s weight gain, number of skin lesions and vocalizations, together showing evidence that lameness in sows affect offspring performance and behavior.

Lameness affects animal mobility, causing pain and discomfort. Lameness in early stages often goes undetected due to a lack of observation, precision, and reliability. Automated and non-invasive systems offer precision and detection ease and may improve animal welfare. This study was conducted to create a repository of images and videos of sows with different locomotion scores. Our goal is to develop a computer vision model for automatically identifying specific points on the sow's body. The automatic identification and ability to track specific body areas, will allow us to conduct kinematic studies with the aim of facilitating the detection of lameness using deep learning. The video database was collected on a pig farm with a scenario built to allow filming of sows in locomotion with different lameness scores. Two stereo cameras were used to record 2D videos images. Thirteen locomotion experts assessed the videos using the Locomotion Score System developed by Zinpro Corporation. From this annotated repository, computational models were trained and tested using the open-source deep learning-based animal pose tracking framework SLEAP (Social LEAP Estimates Animal Poses). The top-performing models were constructed using the LEAP architecture to accurately track 6 (lateral view) and 10 (dorsal view) skeleton keypoints. The architecture achieved average precisions values of 0.90 and 0.72, average distances of 6.83 and 11.37 in pixel, and similarities of 0.94 and 0.86 for the lateral and dorsal views, respectively. These computational models are proposed as a Precision Livestock Farming tool and method for identifying and estimating postures in pigs automatically and objectively. The 2D video image repository with different pig locomotion scores can be used as a tool for teaching and research. Based on our skeleton keypoint classification results, an automatic system could be developed. This could contribute to the objective assessment of locomotion scores in sows, improving their welfare.

Epigenetic mechanisms are important modulators of neurodevelopmental outcomes in the offspring of animals challenged during pregnancy. Pregnant sows living in a confined environment are challenged with stress and lack of stimulation which may result in the expression of stereotypies (repetitive behaviours without an apparent function). Little attention has been devoted to the postnatal effects of maternal stereotypies in the offspring. We investigated how the environment and stereotypies of pregnant sows affected the neuro-epigenome of their piglets. We focused on the amygdala, frontal cortex, and hippocampus, brain regions related to emotionality, learning, memory, and stress response. Differentially methylated regions (DMRs) were investigated in these brain regions of male piglets born from sows kept in an enriched vs a barren environment. Within the latter group of piglets, we compared the brain methylomes of piglets born from sows expressing stereotypies vs sows not expressing stereotypies. DMRs emerged in each comparison. While the epigenome of the hippocampus and frontal cortex of piglets is mainly affected by the maternal environment, the epigenome of the amygdala is mainly affected by maternal stereotypies. The molecular pathways and mechanisms triggered in the brains of piglets by maternal environment or stereotypies are different, which is reflected on the differential gene function associated to the DMRs found in each piglets’ brain region . The present study is the first to investigate the neuro-epigenomic effects of maternal enrichment in pigs’ offspring and the first to investigate the neuro-epigenomic effects of maternal stereotypies in the offspring of a mammal.