Observation of pig aggression in Malta and Gozo

Abstract

Pigs were observed at random in their farm environment to investigate whether pig aggression is a common evident behaviour in swine production. This dissertation included a survey, which was carried out while visiting eigth pig farms in Malta and Gozo. The investigation into the aggression of pigs was carried out through direct observation for two hours by sight and by video recordings on each farm. The pens that were observed contained boars, gestating sows, farrowing sows, and weaned pigs. Farms, that have already been implementing the new regulation of bigger sow pen size with mixed sows, was visited four more times than the other farms, to observe the difference between confined space stress and bigger combined space. Pigs were observed at random, when engaged in different activities and different forms of interaction between stockpersons and the different categories of pigs (feeding, treatment, transfers, mating, weaning, etc).