Resting pig. Photographer: Julio Gonzalez, SLU
RESEARCH PROJECT

Smell This! - Improving enrichment materials for pigs using odours

Updated: June 2025

Project overview

The official name official name of the project:
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Project start: January 2021 Ending: December 2024
Project manager: Maria Vilain Rørvang
Funded by: Formas

Participants

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Short summary

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.

Project partners: Birte L. Nielsen, The Universities Federation for Animal Welfare (UFAW), UK and Anna Valros, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Helsinki, Finland and Anna Wallenbeck, Dept. Animal Environment and Health, SLU, Dr Sarah-Lina Aagaard Schild, Innovation Center for Organic Farming, DenmarkDr Sarah-Lina Aagaard Schild, Innovation Center for Organic Farming, Denmark.'

Links

Frontiers - Odor explorations behavior of the domestic pg (Sus Scrofa) as indicator of enriching properties of odors (frontiersin.org)

Rub ‘n’ roll – Pigs, Sus scrofa domesticus, display rubbing and rolling behaviour when exposed to odours - ScienceDirect

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