The welfare of some group-housed sows could be more compromised than others during gestation. There is limited evidence in gilts that individual aggressive behaviour is related to welfare and reproductive performance (Mendl et ah, 1992). Consequently,the aim of the current experiment was to provide a better understanding of the relationship between individual sow aggression and welfare. The hypothesis was that, in comparison to subdominant and dominant sows, submissive sows would have the lowest welfare, defined in terms of aggression received, skin lesions, liveweight (LW) gain, Cortisol and litter size.
展开▼
