Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Physiology and Behaviour during farrowing

A paper describing the effect of floor heating on behaviour and physiology during farrowing has been submitted to Physiology and Behavior. The paper was written as part of the project concerning loose housing systems for farrowing sows. My contribution was mainly concerned with the hormonal profiles during parturition. The results indicated that during parturition the profiles were better described using a relativ time-scale (proportion of farrowing time) rather than the chronological scale. It was also of interest that there seemed to be a treatment effect on variability between animals.

As usual, the description of the statistical methodology had to be kept to a minimum, and I am a little anxious to see, how it is received.

  • J Malmkvist, B.M. Damgaard, L.J. Pedersen, E. Jørgensen, K. Thodberg, H. Chaloupková, and R.M. Bruckmaier. Floor heating effects on HPA-axis hormones, oxytocin and behavioural activity in sows. Physiology & Behaviour, submitted:1–21, 2007.