Inheriting the sins of their fathers: boar life experiences can shape the emotional responses of their offspring

Frontiers in Animal Science

Animal Science

Cihan Çakmakçı¹  Márcia Inês Grapeggia Zanella²  Leandro Sabei²  Sharacely de Souza Farias²  Denis Sato²  Adroaldo José Zanella²  Marisol Parada Sarmiento³  Thiago Bernardino⁴  Rosangela Poletto⁵ 

[1] Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, Animal Biotechnology Section, Faculty of Agriculture, Van Yüzüncü Yıl University, Van, Türkiye;Department of Preventive Veterinary Medicine and Animal Health, School of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science, University of São Paulo, Pirassununga, SP, Brazil;Department of Preventive Veterinary Medicine and Animal Health, School of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science, University of São Paulo, Pirassununga, SP, Brazil;Facoltà di Medicina Veterinaria, Università degli Studi di Teramo, Teramo, Italy;Department of Preventive Veterinary Medicine and Animal Health, School of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science, University of São Paulo, Pirassununga, SP, Brazil;Graduation Program in One Health, University Santo Amaro, São Paulo, SP, Brazil;Federal Institute of Education, Science, and Technology of Rio Grande do Sul, Sertão, RS, Brazil;

关键词: behavioral test;    fetal programming;    paternal stress;    pig;    piglets;    stress;    swine;    welfare;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fanim.2023.1208768

 received in 2023-04-19, accepted in 2023-06-20,  发布年份 2023

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

IntroductionThe welfare of breeding boars is often overlooked, resulting in limited scientific data to foster discussion of the topic. We aimed to investigate the effect of different boar housing conditions on their offspring’s emotionality.MethodsEighteen boars were housed in three different conditions: crates (C; n = 6), pens (P; n = 6), or enriched pens (E; n = 6). Boars were distributed by semen quality (SQ; high, medium, or low). Three semen pools were used to inseminate 13 gilts housed in outdoor paddocks. At 25 days of age, 138 suckling piglets were subjected to open field (OF), novel object (NO), and elevated plus-maze (EPM) tests. Saliva was collected before and after the OF and NO tests to measure cortisol concentrations. At the end of the experiment, hair samples were collected for DNA paternity tests. Piglets were classified based on their behavioral responses using hierarchical cluster analysis of the principal components extracted from factor analysis of mixed data. The variables were reduced to seven principal components (dimensions, Dims), which explained 73% of the total variation, and were analyzed using linear mixed models. The models included each Dim as a dependent variable, paternal treatment and body weight (BW) as fixed effects, and paternal SQ as a random effect. Kruskal−Wallis and Wilcoxon rank-sum tests were used to compare the cortisol concentration ratios (before and after the OF and NO tests) between groups.ResultsThere was an effect of treatment on Dim 3 (EPM; activity/fear), with higher values in C piglets than E piglets (p = 0.047). Although C piglets had significantly higher values than P piglets in Dim 4 (EPM; anxiety; p = 0.029) and Dim 6 (NO; inactivity far from the object/exploration; p < 0.0001), the effect of the paternal treatment × BW interaction was significant in both dimensions (p < 0.05). The cortisol ratio in E piglets was greater than that in P and C piglets (p < 0.05).Discussion and conclusionOur findings indicate that boar breeding environments affect the stress response and emotionality (anxiety, fear, and exploration) of their offspring.

【 授权许可】

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Copyright © 2023 Sabei, Parada Sarmiento, Bernardino, Çakmakçı, Farias, Sato, Zanella, Poletto and Zanella