Comparison of the behaviour of piglets raised in an artificial rearing system or reared by the sow

It is concluded that piglets removed from the sow at an early age and raised artificially redirect massaging behaviour to their pen mates, resulting in high levels of belly nosing and indicating impaired animal welfare. Moreover, the small space allowance in the tested artificial rearing system may additionally account for behavioural differences observed between artificially raised piglets and piglets reared by the sow in a loose farrowing pen.