Adaptation Physiology Group - Wageningen University & Research

🐖☀️ “During my study I started observing pigs and I was immediately hooked. Pigs are highly intelligent and expressive animals. They are inquisitive and like to interact with people. My PhD research revealed that pigs have distinct personalities, with some individuals being more outgoing than others. The social life of pigs is very interesting. Pigs have highly developed social skills and provide each other with social support. Their sense of smell is extraordinary and even exceeds that of dogs. That is fascinating. There is still so much to learn about how pigs use their senses for communication.” “Pigs are studied by many WUR colleagues, such as geneticists and animal nutritionists. My focus is on pig behaviour, which includes social interaction, cognition and emotions. There is a shift in attention from solely minimizing negative events towards promoting positive emotional experiences. But how can we measure these? We try to develop novel, non-invasive ways to do so. For instance, we study body language and temperature changes in the face as potential indicators of positive affective states. Further exploring facial expressions of pigs is on our wish list too. We are also interested in the wider implications of positive experiences. An enriched environment is important for pig welfare, but we found that it also increases resilience to stressors and even to an infection. So is a happy pig also a healthy pig? That’s what we would like to find out.” “Our role is to provide the biological knowledge needed to develop welfare friendly systems. For instance, we would like to move towards systems without farrowing crates for sows, but this may increase piglet crushing. We try to solve this dilemma by studying maternal behaviour. Genetics, behaviour and physiology all play a role here. Piglets have elaborate interactions with their mother and also learn a lot from her, including feed preferences. They prefer to eat with their mother, even if their own feed is more palatable and digestible. It is a social aspect: what mom eats, is safe.” “Pig welfare research at WUR has yielded a wealth of knowledge. This has changed our view on pigs and how we should treat them. Knowledge provided by us and others has influenced policy, legislation and has helped to develop science-based welfare labels. Insights from our studies can partly be applied in current husbandry systems and have led to improved pig welfare. However, full application would only be possible in systems in which all behavioural needs of pigs can be met. Keeping all pigs under such optimal conditions, even though I would like to, will not happen before I retire. Until then, through our research, I want to support future changes towards animal-centred livestock farming systems, inspired by the natural behaviour of pigs.” Dr. J.E. (Liesbeth) Bolhuis – Associate Professor Adaptation Physiology #AnimalWelfare #Pigs #AnimalScience

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗼𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗲𝗻𝘃𝗶𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 | (𝗡𝗲𝘄) 𝗕𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗿 Our colleague, Inonge Reimert, and Nanda Ursinus PhD wrote a book chapter (Chapter 6: The social environment) in the book "Tail biting in pigs". In this chapter they present available knowledge about tail biting behaviour in its social context. They discuss the effect on tail biting behaviour of practical procedures that change the social environment such as cross-fostering and weaning, and they investigate whether individual characteristics such as sex and body size may influence tail biting behaviour by how they are distributed in the group as a whole. Interested? Click here for the book: https://lnkd.in/eBh6Yacd Other chapters in the book are about legislation, the anatomy of the tail and the various risk factors for tail biting behaviour. Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen Animal Sciences #book #chapter #pigs #tailbiting #animalwelfare

𝐂𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐩𝐢𝐠𝐬 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐝𝐢𝐞𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐬? | 𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐩𝐚𝐩𝐞𝐫   In a recently published study Ilaria Minussi and coauthors explored the ability of pigs to detect deficiencies in three essential amino acids in their diet, specifically threonine, tryptophan and valine, and to self-supplement these amino acids in a choice-feeding setting.   Pigs were offered the choice between diets deficient or supplemented with these amino acids and their feed intake and growth performance were recorded over a period of four weeks. Two different concentrations of supplemented amino acids were tested.   To find out about the results in our paper published in The Journal of Nutrition: https://lnkd.in/ehdCZ6Am Dr. J.E. (Liesbeth) Bolhuis, Alfons Jansman, Walter Gerrits Wageningen Animal Sciences, Animal Nutrition Group - Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen Livestock Research

The Adaptation Physiology Group (ADP) has a wide range of thesis topics for BSc and MSc students at Wageningen University & Research. We are a multidisciplinary group working on improving and facilitating the ability of animals to adapt to challenges. These challenges can be related to e.g. a transition during their live (e.g. birth, weaning) or challenges related to their environment (e.g. type of housing, group mates, diet). Within this broad research area, thesis options are very diverse; not only in the topics, but also in the type of activities and the location of the research. We study e.g. behaviour and physiology related to health and welfare, and we also use sensor technologies and in vitro models. Visit our website (https://lnkd.in/eJFFCxNA), for information about our research and education, a list of recent thesis topics, and contact information. Wageningen Animal Sciences #education #research #thesis #msc #bsc

𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐛𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐞 𝐏𝐢𝐠 𝐁𝐞𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐖𝐞𝐥𝐟𝐚𝐫𝐞 On Friday the 8th of November Inonge Reimert and Dr. J.E. (Liesbeth) Bolhuis contributed to a course on Pig Behaviour and Welfare for people working in the pig farming sector. Inonge and Liesbeth presented the behavioural needs of pigs, pigs’ cognitive skills and communication, and provided insights into how pigs perceive the world. They also explained how a mismatch between the needs of pigs and the way we keep and feed them can lead to behavioural and welfare problems. It was a fruitful interactive meeting, with lively discussions between scientists and course participants, leading to mutual learning. #animalwelfare #pigbehaviour

🎉 1st Animal Digital Twins Day was an absolute success 🎉 Recently I had the privilege of organizing my very first conference, 1st Animal Digital Twins Day, at Wageningen University & Research. Our event featured 5 remarkable speakers from 3 universities who shared diverse insights into the groundbreaking topic of #DigitalTwinning in Animal Sciences—exploring everything from AI to precision livestock farming. It was a fantastic day full of innovation and interdisciplinary connections across computer science, economics, ethics, animal research, and business applications. A big thank you to all the participants and to Ali Youssef, Ph.D. for entrusting me with this responsibility. And a special shoutout to Jan Aarts for his support during our workshop, where we showcased #AnimalDigitalTwinPlatform we have been developing over the past year! 💻 🐄 Excited for the future collaborations this event has sparked! 🪢 ♻️ 🤝

𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐩𝐚𝐩𝐞𝐫 | Possible relations between emotional contagion and social buffering in pigs Is social support for a pig in trouble more effective if its group mate ‘feels’ the same? Inonge Reimert previously demonstrated that negative or positive emotional states can be transferred from one pig to another (1/2). This process, called emotional contagion, is related to empathy. She also found that pigs are less affected by a stressful situation if a group mate is present, i.e. social buffering (3). The new paper, published in Scientific Reports, addresses the question whether and how emotional contagion and social buffering are related (https://lnkd.in/eS9BMnDa). 1) https://lnkd.in/evePsQqi 2) https://lnkd.in/eMREWFDr 3) https://lnkd.in/eJqWVBD6 Dr. J.E. (Liesbeth) Bolhuis, Bas Kemp, Bas Rodenburg Wageningen University & Research Wageningen Animal Sciences #emotionalcontagion #socialbuffering #socialsupport #pigs

Dear Network, This month, I successfully completed my MSc thesis titled: ‘Preference for diets differing in tryptophan concentrations and the relation to growth performance and damaging behaviour in piglets.’ The thesis was graded with an 7.5/10 and completed at the Adaptation Physiology Group - Wageningen University & Research. During my thesis I got the opportunity to assist in live behavioural observations and therefore learned more about piglets’ behaviour. In addition to this, I gained a lot more knowledge on low protein diets, feed requirements of piglets and the role of tryptophan in piglet diets. Furthermore, I was able to gain more knowledge about data management and how to perform statistical analysis. I would like to thank Dr. J.E. (Liesbeth) Bolhuis & Allyson Ipema, not only for giving me the opportunity to contribute in this project, but also for their great support and amazing guidance! In addition to this, I would like to thank Jinda Glinubon, for helping me with data handling and management. The coming months (until May 2025) I will start a new adventure. I will be doing my internship at the University of Alberta, in Canada. Here I will focus on several projects regarding swine nutrition.

𝐈𝐧𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐀𝐃𝐏 𝐒𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐃𝐚𝐲 | During our yearly ADP Science Day, twelve of our PhD students presented their latest results, exemplifying the variety of ADP research on complex challenges. We were, for instance, deeply drawn into a presentation on early development of chicken embryos. Additionally, several PhD students shared their progress on the automated detection of behaviour and vocalisations to identify stress and loss of resilience in cattle, chickens and pigs. The effects of environmentally friendly diets on pig welfare health were also addressed (turns out pigs have their own preferences too), and much more! The programme was enlivened with quizzes to test our knowledge of contemporary research and a Forgotten Vegetables cooking workshop plus dinner to let it all sink in. #animal #welfare #research #science #team

Fruitful meeting with the Livestock Environmental Physiology Group of Nanjing Agricultural University On 22 October 2024 a joint online seminar with the Livestock Environmental Physiology Group, led by Prof. Dr Chunmei Li, of NANJING AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY (NJAU) was organized. Scientific findings and ongoing work in both groups were presented to explore shared research interests. One of the organizers of the seminar was Dr Lu Luo, who did her PhD research in our group on “Effects of early life and current environmental enrichment on behaviour, affective state and immunity in pigs” (https://lnkd.in/eEP4G2qc). She is currently the first member of her group focusing on Animal Behaviour and Welfare. Her colleagues, including Prof. Dr Yansen Li and Dr @Dan Shen, work in the field of Animal Nutrition, Health and Management. We are looking forward to further knowledge exchange and collaboration in the field of Animal Health and Welfare! Wageningen University & Research NANJING AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY Lu Luo Dr. J.E. (Liesbeth) Bolhuis Bas Kemp #animalbehaviour #animalwelfare