Abstract Piglets weaned under commercial systems are greatly stressed by maternal separation, abrupt changes in the diet and mixing of litters. Intensive agonistic interactions exacerbate this challenge for piglets. We investigated effects of older conspecific presence in the nursery pen after weaning. Ninety-six 21 days old piglets were weaned and housed in eight pens, distributed equally by gender and by genetic relatedness. In four pens, a 4 months old conspecific was present. In order to test the effects of the presence of an older conspecific in the piglets’ agonistic interactions, total skin lesions, agonistic behaviour and vocalizations were assessed on four consecutive days after weaning. Despite the low number of studied animals, the presence of the older animal decreased aggressive interactions, time spent in fights, number of lesions and duration of vocalizations. The presence of an older conspecific improved the welfare of piglets at weaning, possibly by acting as social reference.

中文翻译：

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表明年龄较大的同种的存在降低了断奶仔猪的激动行为

摘要 在商业系统下断奶的仔猪因母体分离、饮食的突然变化和窝的混合而受到极大的压力。强烈的激动相互作用加剧了仔猪的这一挑战。我们调查了断奶后保育栏内较老的同种存在的影响。96 头 21 天大的仔猪断奶并分入 8 个围栏，按性别和遗传相关性平均分配。在四个围栏中，存在一个 4 个月大的同种动物。为了测试在仔猪激动相互作用中存在较老同种的影响，在断奶后连续四天评估总皮肤损伤、激动行为和发声。尽管研究的动物数量很少，但年长动物的存在减少了攻击性互动、打架时间、病变的数量和发声的持续时间。较老同种的存在改善了断奶仔猪的福利，这可能是作为社会参考。