Effect on Feeding Behaviour and Growing of Being a Dominant or Subordinate Growing Pig and Its Relationship with the Faecal Microbiota

Abstract

Pigs are a social species, and they establish hierarchies for better use of resources and to reduce conflicts. However, in pig production, the opportunities for growth can differ between dominant and subordinate animals. In the present study, a system was tested to perform a dominant versus subordinate test in growing pigs to investigate how the hierarchy affects feeding behaviour, growth, and gut microbiota assessed in faeces. Sixty-four animals housed in eight different pens were used, with four castrated males and four females in each one, weighing 18 kg at arrival and maintained during the whole growing period, until 140 kg. Three stool samples were obtained from the animals directly from the anus to avoid contamination of the faeces 58, 100, and 133 days after the start of the study to investigate the microbiota composition. The dominant animals had higher gains during the growing period than the subordinates. In addition, they were performing more visits to the feeder throughout the day. Differential abundance patterns were observed in five bacterial genera, with Oliverpabstia, Peptococcus, and Faecalbacterium being more abundant in dominant animals and Holdemanella and Acetitomaculum being overrepresented in subordinate ones. This microbial biomarker accurately classified dominant versus subordinate groups of samples with an AUC of 0.92.

Keywords

• animal behaviour
• animal welfare
• dominance
• gut microbiota
• subordinate
• swine