Stalled Gilt Behavior when Provided with Novel Flavors on Rope Environmental Enrichment

and Implications The objective of this study was to evaluate the use of flavored ropes as environmental enrichment for individually housed gilts. Twelve crossbred gilts were observed using a randomized crossover design so that gilts were tested with ropes soaked in two of the four treatments: water, salt water, sugar water, and apple juice. Oral/nasal contacts did not differ between rope treatments; however, gilts provided flavored rope enrichment were observed lying less than baseline. These results suggest that flavored rope enrichment does not alter oral/nasal contact, but may impact activity levels in individually penned gilts. Introduction Biologically relevant environmental enrichment may provide pigs with an outlet for exploratory behavior, reduce stress, and improve pig welfare. Pigs are highly oral-nasal focused, so devices that encourage rooting, foraging, and chewing have been hypothesized as being highly valued by pigs. Novel environmental enrichment devices are used more often than familiar ones; however, it can be difficult to maintain device novelty. The objective of this study was to evaluate the use of flavored ropes as environmental enrichment for individually housed gilts. We hypothesized that gilts would interact with flavored ropes more than ropes soaked in water.