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Behavioural responses of piglets to different types of music

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 March 2019

X. Li Open the ORCID record for X. Li [Opens in a new window] ,
J. N. Zhao ,
P. Zhao ,
X. Zhang ,
Y. J. Bi ,
J. H. Li ,
H. G. Liu ,
C. Wang  and
J. Bao
X. Li
Affiliation:
College of Animal Science and Technology, Northeast Agricultural University, Changjiang Road No. 600, 150030 Harbin, Heilongjiang, P.R. China Key Laboratory of Swine Facilities, Ministry of Agriculture, Northeast Agricultural University, Changjiang Road No. 600, 150030 Harbin, Heilongjiang, P.R. China
J. N. Zhao
Affiliation:
College of Animal Science and Technology, Northeast Agricultural University, Changjiang Road No. 600, 150030 Harbin, Heilongjiang, P.R. China
P. Zhao
Affiliation:
College of Animal Science and Technology, Northeast Agricultural University, Changjiang Road No. 600, 150030 Harbin, Heilongjiang, P.R. China
X. Zhang
Affiliation:
College of Animal Science and Technology, Northeast Agricultural University, Changjiang Road No. 600, 150030 Harbin, Heilongjiang, P.R. China
Y. J. Bi
Affiliation:
College of Animal Science and Technology, Northeast Agricultural University, Changjiang Road No. 600, 150030 Harbin, Heilongjiang, P.R. China
J. H. Li
Affiliation:
College of Life Science, Northeast Agricultural University, Changjiang Road No. 600, 150030 Harbin, Heilongjiang, P.R. China
H. G. Liu
Affiliation:
College of Animal Science and Technology, Northeast Agricultural University, Changjiang Road No. 600, 150030 Harbin, Heilongjiang, P.R. China
C. Wang
Affiliation:
College of Animal Science and Technology, Northeast Agricultural University, Changjiang Road No. 600, 150030 Harbin, Heilongjiang, P.R. China
J. Bao*
Affiliation:
College of Animal Science and Technology, Northeast Agricultural University, Changjiang Road No. 600, 150030 Harbin, Heilongjiang, P.R. China Key Laboratory of Swine Facilities, Ministry of Agriculture, Northeast Agricultural University, Changjiang Road No. 600, 150030 Harbin, Heilongjiang, P.R. China
*
†Present address: College of Animal Science and Technology, Northeast Agricultural University, Changjiang Road No. 600, 150030 Harbin, Heilongjiang, P.R. China. E-mail: jbao@neau.edu.cn
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Abstract

Music or other background sounds are often played in barns as environmental enrichment for animals on farms or to mask sudden disruptive noises. Previous studies looking at the effects of this practice on non-human animal well-being and productivity have found contradictory results. However, there is still a lack of discussion on whether piglets have the ability to distinguish different types of music. In this study, we exposed piglets to different music conditions to investigate whether the piglets preferred certain music types, in which case those types would have the potential to be used as environmental enrichment. In total, 30 piglets were tested for music type preference to determine whether growing pigs respond differently to different types of music. We used music from two families of instruments (S: string, W: wind) and with two tempos (S: slow, 65 beats/min (bpm); F: fast, 200 bpm), providing four music-type combinations (SS: string-slow; SF: string-fast; WS: wind-slow; WF: wind-fast). The piglets were given a choice between two chambers, one with no music and the other with one of the four types of music, and their behaviour was observed. The results showed that SS and WF music significantly increased residence time (P<0.01) compared with the other music conditions. Compared with the control group (with no music), the different music conditions led to different behavioural responses, where SS music significantly increased lying (P<0.01) and exploration behaviour (P<0.01); SF music significantly increased tail-wagging behaviour (P<0.01); WS music significantly increased exploration (P<0.01); and WF music significantly increased walking, lying, standing and exploration (all P<0.01). The results also showed that musical instruments and tempo had little effect on most of the behaviours. Fast-tempo music significantly increased walking (P=0.02), standing (P<0.01) and tail wagging (P=0.04) compared with slow-tempo music. In conclusion, the results of this experiment show that piglets are more sensitive to tempo than to musical instruments in their response to musical stimulation and seem to prefer SS and WF music to the other two types. The results also suggest a need for further research on the effect of music types on animals.

Keywords

musical instrumentmusic rhythmgrowing pigspreferencebehavioural reaction
Type
Research Article
Information
animal , Volume 13 , Issue 10 , October 2019 , pp. 2319 - 2326
Copyright
© The Animal Consortium 2019 

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Footnotes

a

These two authors contributed equally.

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