Rearing pigs with play opportunities: viral load and clinical, behavioural, performance, and immune data

Positive emotions can reduce disease susceptibility during infectious challenges in humans, and emerging evidence suggests similar effects in farm animals. Because play behaviour may support a positive emotional state in pigs, this study investigates whether rearing pigs with regular intermittent play opportunities enhances disease resilience when challenged with porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV). Litters were assigned to either play (PLY; n = 5 L) or control (CON; n = 4 L) treatments at birth. In PLY, play was promoted with extra space and enrichment items for three hours daily from five days of age (doa). At weaning (25 ± 2 doa; mean ± SD), 28 pigs (14/treatment) were selected for a disease challenge, based on weight, sex, and sow. The pigs were transported to a disease containment facility and at 43 ± 2 doa (day 0 post-inoculation, DPI) inoculated with PRRSV. Skin lesions, blood, rectal temperature, clinical signs, body weight, and behaviour were collected p..., Animal measures in detail, including tables, are described in the published paper.
Citation: Steinerová K, Harding JC, Parker SE, Wilson HL, Nery Finatto A and Seddon YM (2024) Rearing pigs with play opportunities: the effects on disease resilience in pigs experimentally inoculated with PRRSV. Front. Vet. Sci. 11:1460993. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2024.1460993
Behaviour and skin lesions
The duration of play (locomotor, social and object) and exploratory behaviour (Table 2) were scored with continuous sampling within the initial 10 min of the play sessions only in the PLY treatment at -2 (baseline), 3, 7, 11, 16 and 20 DPI. The scoring commenced after an experimenter exited the playpen and closed the gate. On the same days, to assess pig activity during the challenge, the frequency of active, inactive, and feeding behaviours (Table 2) in the PLY and CON treatments were assessed through instantaneous sampling within the first half of the play sessions at 5-min intervals (90 min, 18 scans/pig/DPI..., , # Rearing pigs with play opportunities: viral load and clinical, behavioural, performance, and immune data

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.76hdr7t55](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.76hdr7t55)

## Description of the data and file structure

This study is a part of a PhD in Swine behaviour and welfare at the University of Saskatchewan. This PhD focusses on improvement of the quality of life of farmed pigs in intensive production on Canadian farms using affordable and practical approaches. It is investigated if play behaviour can be used as a tool to improve resilience and robustness of farmed pigs. This study used disease challenge in pigs reared with play and explored whether pigs reared with play exhibit greater disease resilience. For methodology on how play was promoted and description of pig treatments, see the published paper.

Because play behaviour may support a positive emotional state in pigs, this study investigates whether rearing pigs with regular intermittent play opportuniti...