TITLE:
Pig Social Status and Chronic Cold or Crowd Stressors Differentially Impacted Immune Response
AUTHORS:
Janeen L. Salak-Johnson, Sherrie R. Webb
KEYWORDS:
Cold, Immune, Pigs, Social Status, Stress
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Animal Sciences,
Vol.8 No.3,
July
13,
2018
ABSTRACT: The objectives of this study were to determine the
effects of 4-day of cold and crowding stressors and social status on pig immune
responsiveness to these stressors. Three unfamiliar white crossbred female pigs
were mixed and assigned to ambient temperatures of either 8°C (COLD) or 22°C (control; TN) and floor-space of either 0.26 m2/pig (reduced,
CROWD) or 0.45 m2/pig (adequate, CONT) over six blocks (n = 72).
Pigs were identified as dominant (DOM), intermediate (INT), or submissive (SUB)
based on aggressive encounters that occurred during the first 24-h post-mixing.
There were no interactive effects of temperature × floor-space on immune
indices. There was social status × stressor for body weight, natural killer
(NK) cell cytotoxicity and phagocytosis (P P P