The strength, balance, and mobility of central nervous processes, which determine behavior, were estimated in six-month-old pigs of the Large White breed. According to the proposed technique, tests with observation of the animal’s reactions to the care stuff, specificities of behavior in the course of feeding, responses to the unexpected sensory stimuli, and peculiarities of the formation of conditioned reflexes with estimation of the behavioral phenomena by a point scale allowed us to classify pigs as belonging to one of the four neurobehavioral types, strong balanced mobile (SBM), strong balanced inert (SBI), strong imbalanced (SI), and weak (W). Four groups of pigs of different above types (n = 5 in each) were formed. Their behavioral manifestations within 24-h-long observation periods were examined using a video monitoring system. It was found that pigs kept under stationary conditions (before stressing) spent most time (in different groups, 67.3 to 74.8% on average) in a static (resting) state, used 6.7 to 8.6% of time for feeding and drinking, and were in motion during 18.5 to 24.0% of time. Differences in the respective average indices shown by animals belonging to different neurobehavioral types were sufficiently clear, but in most cases did not reach the level of statistical significance. Technological stress (transfer to a summer camp and redistribution in groups) resulted in significant neurobehavioral type-dependent modifications of their behavior. At the beginning of the post-stress period, pigs of the SBM and SBI groups considerably decreased their motor activity, while in pigs of groups SI and W such activity was intensified. Immediately after stressing, feeding/drinking activity of pigs was strongly suppressed; in groups SBM, SI, and W such activity decreased two or even more times. Later on, clear trends toward return to the pre-stress values were observed in all behavioral indices (the respective dynamics noticeably depended on the neurobehavioral type). Some shifts, however, were observable even on the 30th post-stress day. The importance of taking into account the type of higher nervous activity under conditions of technologically advanced productive animal husbandry and of the selection work is discussed.
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Danchuk, O.V., Broshkov, M.M., Karpovsky, V.I. et al. Types of Higher Nervous Activity in Pigs: Characteristics of Behavior and Effects of Technological Stress. Neurophysiology 52, 358–366 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11062-021-09892-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11062-021-09892-7