{"@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "Dataset", "@id": "https://doi.org/10.5878/z57e-3j96", "name": "Effect of odourised enrichment on pig behaviour \u2013 data from part 2 of project \u201dSmell this\"", "description": "This experiment tested whether odorised straw could enhance straw engagement and improve welfare on a commercial farm. It involved 1 600 pigs, from 10 weeks of age to slaughter, housed in pens of approx. 10 littermates. Eighty pens were assigned to one of four treatments: Odorised straw provided in a rack with odour changing 1) weekly or 2) every weekday, or non-odorised straw 3) in a rack or 4) on the floor (empty rack). The remaining 80 pens served as controls (straw provided on the floor, no rack). Odorised treatments were essential oils (lavender, aniseed, ginger, thyme, and pine), and the odourless treatment was mineral oil. Clinical welfare scores (tail damage, ear damage, body soiling) were scored weekly, and behaviour was recorded (weeks 5, 7, and 9). Data collection included straw engagement duration, relative interaction with straw and pen inventory, play (locomotor, social, straw-related), and rubbing and rolling. \n\nClinical welfare scores\nThe clinical welfare scores were assessed for all treatment pens and the non-treated pens. This was done by five experienced observers who were not blind to the treatments, or the odours. During the weekly assessments, the experimental staff went through all pig rooms and scored the clinical welfare scores for pigs in both treatment and non-treated pens.  All individuals were scored on all three clinical welfare scores: ear damage, tail damage, and body soiling.\n\nBehavioural observations\nBehavioural observations were done for all video recorded pens i.e., treatment pens only. All behavioural observations were done by one (straw engagement duration and relative interactions with straw and inventory) or two (play behaviour) experienced observers, who were aware of the experimental procedures but to specific odour/odourless treatment (apart from straw in rack vs on floor). \nDue to unforeseen issues with hard drives and the electricity at the farm, some recordings were lost, and the behavioural observations were conducted on the remaining 75% of recordings. Experimental weeks 5, 7, and 9 were chosen for behavioural observations to avoid the beginning (when pigs were acclimatising) as well as the end of the finishing period (to ensure none of the experimental pigs were sent to slaughter), while also ensuring behavioural data spread across the experimental period. Within these weeks, Monday to Friday were chosen for observation i.e., the days where treatments were applied. \n\nStraw engagement duration was an event-based measure. Using the video recordings of the selected pens, the exact time of straw provision was found for each pen. This point in time was used as a starting point when calculating the straw engagement duration per day. The time of straw provision, regardless of whether in rack or on the floor, was noted and the latency until the last pig stopped engaging with straw (i.e., when the pig started doing another behaviour, lying down or drinking) was recorded. Pigs being engaged with the straw was defined as either: \u2018engaging with straw in rack\u2019 or \u2018engaging with straw on the floor\u2019.\n\nRelative straw and inventory interaction time was a relative time use of resources within the pig pen. This measure was recorded during a fixed focus hour 10:00-11:00 within the normal straw-provision routine. On a few occasions, the chosen pen had not yet received straw (18 out of 298, 1-hour videos), and these were not included in the analysis.  Behaviour was extracted from the video recordings, using the ethogram in the affiliated publication. Behaviour sampling was carried out at pen level, and the sum per week of all individuals in a pen performing each of the behaviours was calculated (duration in seconds).\n\nPlay behaviour was also observed during the fixed focus hour (10:00-11:00) using the footage. Play behaviour was recorded as frequency and duration of each behaviour using the ethogram (see affiliated publication). \n\nPlease see the affiliated publication for the full statistical details, and the readme file for variable descriptions.\nFor more information about the overarching project please see: https://www.slu.se/en/research/research-catalogue/projekt/l/smell-this---improving-enrichment-materials-for-pigs-using-odours/", "identifier": [{"@type": "PropertyValue", "propertyID": "DOI", "value": "10.5878/z57e-3j96"}, {"@type": "PropertyValue", "name": "principalRegistrationNumber", "propertyID": "https://www.rikstermbanken.se/termposter/1848/diarienummer", "value": "SLU.ltv.2026.4.2.I\u00c4-6"}], "citation": {"@type": "CreativeWork", "name": "R\u00f8rvang, M.V., et al. in press. Olfactory enrichment \u2013 effects of odorised straw on exploratory behaviour, straw engagement and play in finishing pigs. Animal."}, "conditionsOfAccess": ["http://publications.europa.eu/resource/authority/access-right/PUBLIC", "info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess"], "contributor": [{"@type": "Person", "@id": "https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9415-7532", "name": "Johanna Stenfelt", "affiliation": {"@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://ror.org/02haktn42", "name": "Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences", "department": {"@type": "Organization", "name": "Department of Biosystems and Technology"}}, "email": "johanna.stenfelt@slu.se", "familyName": "Stenfelt", "givenName": "Johanna"}, {"@type": "Person", "@id": "https://orcid.org/0009-0009-7378-8672", "name": "Cady W. Chan", "affiliation": {"@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://ror.org/02haktn42", "name": "Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences"}, "email": "cyan0002@stud.slu.se", "familyName": "Chan", "givenName": "Cady W."}, {"@type": "Person", "@id": "https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2603-202X", "name": "Madeline Ketner", "affiliation": {"@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://ror.org/01nrxwf90", "name": "University of Edinburgh"}, "email": "mketner@wisc.edu", "familyName": "Ketner", "givenName": "Madeline"}, {"@type": "Person", "@id": "https://orcid.org/0009-0005-9924-1115", "name": "Rebecca Grut", "affiliation": {"@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://ror.org/00j9qag85", "name": "Linnaeus University"}, "email": "rebecca.grut@lnu.se", "familyName": "Grut", "givenName": "Rebecca"}, {"@type": "Person", "name": "Heta Rautiainen", "affiliation": {"@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://ror.org/02yy8x990", "name": "Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences"}, "familyName": "Rautiainen", "givenName": "Heta"}], "creativeWorkStatus": {"@type": "DefinedTerm", "name": "completed", "identifier": "http://publications.europa.eu/resource/authority/dataset-status/COMPLETED", "inDefinedTermSet": "http://publications.europa.eu/resource/authority/dataset-status", "termCode": "COMPLETED"}, "creator": [{"@type": "Organization", "name": "Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences", "department": {"@type": "Organization", "name": "Department of Biosystems and Technology"}}, {"@type": "Person", "@id": "https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3503-2059", "name": "Maria Vilain R\u00f8rvang", "affiliation": {"@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://ror.org/02yy8x990", "name": "Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences", "department": {"@type": "Organization", "name": "Department of Biosystems and Technology"}}, "email": "mariav.rorvang@slu.se", "familyName": "Vilain R\u00f8rvang", "givenName": "Maria"}], "dateModified": "2026-04-23", "datePublished": "2026-04-23", "funding": {"@type": "Grant", "name": "Smell this!  - Improving enrichment materials for pigs using odours", "description": "Pigs are highly motivated for exploring. When commercially kept pigs are unable to satisfy their need for performing this behaviour, it can be detrimental for both animal welfare and farm economy. Despite the pig's highly developed sense of smell, the potential to use odours as enrichment tools in modern pig production has only received very little attention. This project aims to investigate the potential of using odours to optimize current enrichment strategies and thereby improve animal welfare alongside farm economy. Through a series of tests, we will identify odours, which pigs are interested in exploring. In a succeeding experiment, we will then evaluate the effect of odorant addition on 1) the pigs' interest in the enrichment material and 2) the occurrence of damaging behaviour (e.g. tail biting).The proposed project directly relates to creating a more sustainable agriculture by improving the welfare of growing and finishing pigs whilst improving farm economy.The project group includes researchers with specialist knowledge of pig behaviour, enrichment materials and production, and experts in large mammal olfaction and olfactory tests. Stakeholders will be involved at an early stage to ascertain that the research setup meet their needs and to achieve implementation and dissemination of the results.", "identifier": "2020-01286", "funder": {"@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://ror.org/03pjs1y45", "name": "Formas"}}, "inLanguage": {"@type": "Language", "@id": "http://lexvo.org/id/iso639-3/eng", "name": "English", "alternateName": "eng", "identifier": "eng"}, "isPartOf": "https://doi.org/10.5878/wws6-v070", "keywords": [{"@type": "DefinedTerm", "name": "Behavioural Sciences Biology", "termCode": "10613"}, {"@type": "DefinedTerm", "name": "Agricultural and Veterinary sciences", "termCode": "4"}, {"@type": "DefinedTerm", "name": "Animal and Dairy Science", "description": "Including: Animal Ethics, Reindeer Husbandry", "termCode": "40201"}, {"@type": "DefinedTerm", "@id": "http://vocabs.lter-europe.net/EnvThes/21092", "name": "animal behaviour", "description": "[GEMET] Behaviour of animals in their normal environment, including all the processes, both internal and external, by which they respond to changes in their environment.", "termCode": "21092"}, {"@type": "DefinedTerm", "@id": "http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_8811", "name": "animal behaviour", "termCode": "c_8811"}, {"@type": "DefinedTerm", "@id": "http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_6971", "name": "sense organs", "termCode": "c_6971"}, {"@type": "DefinedTerm", "@id": "http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_443", "name": "animal welfare", "termCode": "c_443"}, {"@type": "DefinedTerm", "@id": "http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_7555", "name": "swine", "termCode": "c_7555"}, {"@type": "DefinedTerm", "@id": "http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_24943", "name": "olfaction", "termCode": "c_24943"}, {"@type": "DefinedTerm", "@id": "https://dyntaxa.se/Taxon/6010576", "name": "Sus scrofa", "termCode": "6010576"}], "license": "https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/", "publisher": {"@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://ror.org/02yy8x990", "name": "Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences", "url": "http://www.slu.se/"}, "size": [{"@type": "QuantitativeValue", "unitText": "cases", "value": 1600}, {"@type": "QuantitativeValue", "unitText": "variables", "value": 27}], "distribution": [{"@type": "DataDownload", "name": "data/Play_behaviour.tsv", "additionalType": "data", "conditionsOfAccess": ["http://publications.europa.eu/resource/authority/access-right/PUBLIC", "info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess"], "contentSize": "220106", "contentUrl": "https://api.researchdata.se/dataset/2026-118/1/file/data?filePath=Play_behaviour.tsv", "encodingFormat": "text/tab-separated-values"}, {"@type": "DataDownload", "name": "data/Relative_interaction.tsv", "additionalType": "data", "conditionsOfAccess": ["http://publications.europa.eu/resource/authority/access-right/PUBLIC", "info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess"], "contentSize": "14826", "contentUrl": "https://api.researchdata.se/dataset/2026-118/1/file/data?filePath=Relative_interaction.tsv", "encodingFormat": "text/tab-separated-values"}, {"@type": "DataDownload", "name": "data/Straw_engagement.tsv", "additionalType": "data", "conditionsOfAccess": ["http://publications.europa.eu/resource/authority/access-right/PUBLIC", "info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess"], "contentSize": "11632", "contentUrl": "https://api.researchdata.se/dataset/2026-118/1/file/data?filePath=Straw_engagement.tsv", "encodingFormat": "text/tab-separated-values"}, {"@type": "DataDownload", "name": "data/Welfare_scores.tsv", "additionalType": "data", "conditionsOfAccess": ["http://publications.europa.eu/resource/authority/access-right/PUBLIC", "info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess"], "contentSize": "149562", "contentUrl": "https://api.researchdata.se/dataset/2026-118/1/file/data?filePath=Welfare_scores.tsv", "encodingFormat": "text/tab-separated-values"}, {"@type": "DataDownload", "name": "documentation/ReadMe.txt", "additionalType": "documentation", "conditionsOfAccess": ["http://publications.europa.eu/resource/authority/access-right/PUBLIC", "info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess"], "contentSize": "6386", "contentUrl": "https://api.researchdata.se/dataset/2026-118/1/file/documentation?filePath=ReadMe.txt", "encodingFormat": "text/plain"}], "version": "1"}