“Character” consists of a set of traits that show stable individual differences in behavior over time and across the different contexts of a species. “Character” has previously been studied in pigs; however, few studies have focused on sows and the gestation and lactation stages of their reproductive cycle. The aim of this work was to identify candidate personality traits in breeding females by assessing temporal stability and associations between situations.
Materials and Methods: Adult sows (Sus scrofa) ranging in age from their first to seventh parity were subjected to a series of tests and repeated observations during late gestation (70-110 days after insemination) and lactation (1-30 days after farrowing). During gestation, their response to a human in the pen (n=55, median of 2 repeated tests per individual, from 1 to 4) and social behavior during feeding (n=52, median of 2 tests, from 1 to 4) were assessed. During lactation, the response to a fabric “hand” (n=66, median of 2 tests, 1–4) and lying-down behavior (n=68, median of 2 tests, 1–6) were recorded as indicators of defensiveness and maternal character.
Results: Of the twelve variables measured in these four different situations, five were consistent in repeated tests at different times (that is, the posterior distribution of their repeatability excluded values below 0,01): dominance rank, number of attacks and number of avoidances during feeding, number of vocalizations when exposed to the mannequin hand, and probability of vocalizing before bedtime. We found correlations with an absolute value greater than 0,30 between the number of attacks and the number of avoidances during feeding (r=-0,33), the number of attacks and the number of vocalizations when exposed to the mannequin hand (r=-0,52), and between the latter and the probability of vocalizing before bedtime during nursing (r=0,46).
Conclusions: our results suggest that social behaviour during feeding and acoustic signalling in different contexts are stable traits in sows. The estimated correlations between traits may also indicate the presence of a proactive behavioural syndrome.
Nicole Maffezzini, Simon Turner, Rainer Roehe, Rick D’Eath, Short-term stability over time and across situations of behavioural traits in gestating and lactating sows, Applied Animal Behaviour Science, Volume 298, 2026, 106932, ISSN 0168-1591, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2026.106932.
