Pigs proven intelligent enough to play video games
They did really well considering joysticks are not designed for oral use.
18 February, 2021
Credits: Candace Croney, Eston Martz at Pennsylvania State University/Frontiers Science News
- A quartet of porcine subjects at the Purdue Center for Animal Welfare Science learned to play a simple video game.
- All of the pigs scored well at the games' hardest level.
- Gaming skills were improved with human verbal and tactile encouragement.
<p>As evidence keeps mounting in support of the idea that pigs are highly intelligent—and despite some researchers viewing the species merely as a source of <a href="https://bigthink.com/surprising-science/human-pig-organ-transplant" target="_self">organs for human transplant</a>—there's some compelling new evidence from scientists at the Purdue Center for Animal Welfare Science. Researchers there have taught four pigs to operate joysticks and play a rudimentary video game.</p><p>As lead author of a new study describing the research, <a href="https://vet.purdue.edu/directory/person.php?id=618" target="_blank">Candace Croney</a> of Purdue University, <a href="https://blog.frontiersin.org/2021/02/11/frontiers-psychology-domestic-pigs-remarkably-intelligent-can-learn-play-video-games-operate-joystick-snout/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">says</a>:</p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"It is no small feat for an animal to grasp the concept that the behavior they are performing is having an effect elsewhere. That pigs can do this to any degree should give us pause as to what else they are capable of learning and how such learning may impact them."</p><p>The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.631755/full#h3" target="_blank">Frontiers in Psychology</a>.</p>
The hunger games
<img class="rm-lazyloadable-image rm-shortcode" type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTY2MTc3My9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2OTA4MDg3Nn0.Z04iG2j7O0G5sdCgRSH0i3KjPLedB0cOS0XCvpUHxRY/img.jpg?width=980" id="00289" width="1000" height="1173" data-rm-shortcode-id="140976c9727c67417506e764bc462204" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />Croney with gamer Omelette
Credits: Candace Croney, Eston Martz at Pennsylvania State University/Frontiers Science News
<p>The experiments involved four pigs: Yorkshire pigs named Hamlet and Omelette, and Panepinto micro pigs named Ebony and Ivory. All four were taught to approach and engage a joystick to move an onscreen cursor to a designated target. Doing so got them a non-virtual treat, a dog kibble pellet, delivered to a bowl next to the screen.</p><p>All four of the pigs were tested and found to be farsighted, so the monitor was placed 45 cm away from their eyes when they were in position to work the joysticks. During training, they were first taught to approach the joystick with the verbal command "joystick," followed by a pellet upon success.</p><p>The pigs learned that by guiding the cursor to one of the blue walls displayed onscreen, they'd be rewarded with a "bloop" sound, a pellet, and words of encouragement from a nearby human. Varying levels of difficulty were achieved by making either three, two, or one wall bloop-able in different sessions. All of the pigs did well when playing the difficult, one-walled version of the game.</p><p>All of the pigs succeeded well above the level expected if they were doing it by chance. And it bears mentioning that, lacking fingers and hands, they had to manipulate their joysticks by mouth — we'll wait while <em>you</em> try it.</p><p>In addition to being able to play this "game" well, the researchers found that the pigs' performance could be improved with human verbal encouragement. On those occasions when the treat dispenser was turned off, the players could be encouraged verbally or tactilely to keep working the joysticks. The researchers also found that for more difficult tasks, only verbal encouragement seemed able to guide the pigs to success.</p><p>"This sort of study is important," says Croney, "because, as with any sentient beings, how we interact with pigs and what we do to them impacts and matters to them. We therefore have an ethical obligation to understand how pigs acquire information, and what they are capable of learning and remembering because it ultimately has implications for how they perceive their interactions with us and their environments."</p>Just a beginning
<p>The pigs' performance did not match the success rate of primates playing similar games, but, again, primates have fingers. The study notes, "Limitations in the joystick methodology suggest that future studies of the cognitive capacities of pigs and other domestic species may benefit from the use of touchscreens or other advanced computer-interfaced technology."</p><p>The researchers had hoped to test their charges' acumen with symbols, allowing for more direct communication, but the project concluded before such work could be explored.</p><p>Croney says, "Informing management practices and improving pig welfare was and still is a major goal, but really, that is secondary to better appreciating the uniqueness of pigs outside of any benefit we can derive from them."</p>
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Startup looks to begin pig-to-human organ transplants by 2022
Porcine gene edits may allow such transplants without rejection.
07 January, 2021
Credit: Phoenix Han on Unsplash
- A company called Revivicor has received clearance from the FDA to use their genetically modified pigs for medical use or as food.
- The pigs lack genes for alpha-gal sugar, which human bodies reject.
- Revivicor anticipates the first human transplant trials as early as this year.
<p>Science can run along separate, even contradictory, paths simultaneously. At the same time as some research is revealing more and more about animal intelligence and self-awareness, other research seems to be pursuing novel ways in which humans can expand the exploitation of animals on the assumption that they lack these attributes. Growing appreciation for the <a href="https://www.vox.com/21363401/pigs-dogs-smart-animal-intelligence" target="_blank">intellectual and emotional lives of pigs</a>, for example, is counterbalanced by news that the FDA has just certified that pigs bred by a company looking to <a href="https://www.techtimes.com/articles/255068/20201215/galsafe-pigs-fda-gives-first-approval-genetically-modified-food-drug.htm" target="_blank">harvest their organs for transplantation</a> in humans are safe for food and medical use. The contrast can be head-snapping.</p><p><a href="https://www.revivicor.com/index.html" target="_blank">Revivicor</a>, a subsidiary of Maryland-based biotech company <a href="https://www.unither.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">United Therapeutics</a>, received the FDA clearance in December 2020. To the <a href="https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-approves-first-its-kind-intentional-genomic-alteration-line-domestic-pigs-both-human-food" target="_blank">FDA</a>, this "represents a tremendous milestone for scientific innovation." Revivicor's chief scientific officer, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/scientific-contributions/David-Ayares-39557991" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">David Ayares</a>, tells <a href="https://futurehuman.medium.com/the-first-pig-to-human-organ-transplants-could-happen-this-year-a538ad0c5536" target="_blank">Future Human</a> that the company's "ultimate goal is to essentially have an unlimited supply of organs," and clearance for their "GalSafe pigs" brings that goal one step closer.</p>
Waiting lists
<img class="rm-lazyloadable-image rm-shortcode" type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTI2NTc2OC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY3Mjk1Nzk2M30.4ZzZpCgUitKf03AYJeAwIbFCMoaeuEUKnbOexWuar1Q/img.jpg?width=980" id="0349f" width="1440" height="821" data-rm-shortcode-id="ed66d20cf29153c8e1da05fbbc5595d8" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />Credit: Talaj/Adobe Stock/Big Think
<p>The U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration <a href="https://www.organdonor.gov/statistics-stories/statistics.html" target="_blank">says</a> that 109,000 Americans are currently waiting for organ transplants. Seventeen people die each day while waiting, and every nine minutes a new name goes on the waiting list.</p><p>Companies such as Revivicor are hoping to meet this need with <a href="https://web.stanford.edu/dept/HPST/transplant/html/frequently_asked_questions.html" target="_blank">xenotransplants</a>, in which organs from non-human species are transplanted into humans. Scientists have been seeking a way to perform successful xenotransplantation for decades—a newborn referred to publicly as "Baby Fae" rejected a transplanted baboon heart as far back as 1984.</p><p>Ayares says his company is "right on the cusp" of overcoming such rejection issues, anticipating their first transplants may occur in 2021 or 2022.</p><p>Animal tissue may also find use in the formulation of medications.</p>Rejection
<img class="rm-lazyloadable-image rm-shortcode" type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTI2NTg1OS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzMzA2Mjc0OH0.pN1W_Vupa5LpYUoq9tHBTQBqRPpdZw6HneRsKmG0vD4/img.jpg?width=980" id="e2d4d" width="1440" height="617" data-rm-shortcode-id="36c9028034a29b9ee2796bbc984a3231" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />Credit: ustas /Adobe Stock
<p>The rejection problem stems from the human body's immune system expelling cells from other animals as foreign substances. (Rejection can also be an issue with human-to-human transplants.)</p><p>In 2003, Revivicor began development of GalSafe pigs by removing a gene that appears on the surface of porcine cells, and that produces a sugar called "alpha-gal." It's believed that alpha-gal sugar is the agent that causes the most acute rejections experienced with heart and kidney transplants.</p><p>Alpha-gal is also implicated in a meat food-allergy that occurs after a person is bitten by a Lone Star tick that leaves alpha-gal sugar behind in its victims' skin. Over time, the individual develops an allergy to pork, red meat, and lamb. Revivicor's Gal Pigs may one day be available to such people as non-allergenic pork.</p><p>Revivicor's manipulation of pig genes to support xenotransplantation compatibility doesn't end with eliminating alpha-gal sugar. Today's GalPig carries a total of 10 different genomic modifications—four pig genes have been turned off and six human genes have been introduced.</p>Tests so far
<p>The company, working with the National Institutes of Health, says that they managed to avoid rejection of pig hearts transplanted into baboons for six years, though these didn't replace the animals' own, original hearts. Rather, the pig hearts were transplanted into the abdomens of the baboons simply to assess rejection. Ayares also says GalPig kidneys survived in monkeys for over six months, though it's unclear if they were functioning as kidneys or simply implanted.</p><p>For human trials, Revivicor plans to begin with kidney transplants before attempting heart replacements. They expect to perform these early trials with people awaiting human transplants. XenoTherapeutics of Boston is already testing GalPig skin transplants as a temporary measure for burn victims as their own skin regenerates.</p><p>Other companies are also exploring porcine genetic modifications for xenotransplants, including eGenesis in Boston and its partner Qihan Biotech in Zhejiang, China, who are using CRISPR to perform gene edits.</p>
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On factory farms, the death rate of pig sows is soaring
It's not yet clear why this is happening, but there are plenty of suspects
02 October, 2018
- A rise in mortality for factory farm pig sows has growers worried.
- There are some obvious possible reasons, but studies are underway.
- Rise in deaths points toward a need for more humane treatment of pigs.
<blockquote><em>While relatively little is known about the psychology of domestic pigs, what is known suggests that pigs are cognitively complex and share many traits with animals whom we consider intelligent. — </em><a href="https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8sx4s79c#page-1" target="_blank"><u><em>Thinking Pigs: A Comparative Review of Cognition, Emotion, and Personality in Sus domesticus</em></u></a></blockquote><p>Of all the animals that humans eat, perhaps the most morally troubling are pigs because they're considered to be highly aware creatures. The stories of their sentience are <a href="http://www.onegreenplanet.org/news/wally-the-pig-jumped-off-a-slaughterhouse-truck/" target="_blank"><u>myriad</u></a> and make a compelling case that they know <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/pigs-know-their-fate-when-they-enter-a-slaughterhouse-expert-says-1.3829977" target="_blank"><u>just what awaits</u></a> them at slaughter. That they continue to be raised as food is heartbreaking on the face of it to many, and the conditions at pork factory farms have <a href="https://www.upworthy.com/a-drone-flew-over-a-pig-farm-to-discover-its-not-really-a-farm-its-something-much-more-disturbing" target="_blank"><u>long been</u></a> troubling. (In addition, <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/pigs-chickens-killed-hurricane-florence_us_5ba15035e4b046313fc0213f" target="_blank"><u>5,500 pigs drowned</u></a> in North Carolina during Hurricane Florence.)</p><p>Now there's a new problem with industrially bred pigs that has even the pork industry alarmed: Sow deaths from prolapse—a condition that causes a sow's rectum, vagina, or uterus to collapse—are skyrocketing. According to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/oct/01/death-rates-surge-female-pigs-us" target="_blank"><u><em>The Guardian</em></u></a>, the pig mortality rate nearly doubled between 2013 and 2016 on factory farms with more than 125 sows across 800 pork companies. Some farmers are reporting prolapse as the cause of <a href="https://www.agriculture.com/livestock/hogs/sow-prolapse-syndrome-13-potential-causes" target="_blank"><u> 25% to 50%</u></a> sow deaths.</p><p><em>Warning: This post contains troubling images.</em></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img class="rm-lazyloadable-image rm-shortcode" type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODY4MDY2NC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0NDc2OTg3M30.nkD34Emn7iXEYlXFWdf_SRTuCFST4Wx8FdVKH8OACtg/img.jpg?width=980" id="88f1a" width="1280" height="960" data-rm-shortcode-id="9780702d42f0502be067063a77e291d6" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" data-gramm="true" data-gramm_editor="true" data-gramm_id="abc3988a-574d-bcb5-b386-4c54eb9153e3" placeholder="add caption..." spellcheck="false">Wally, the slaughterhouse-truck-escaping pig, with the author at Soulspace Farm Sanctuary</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">(Photo: Syd M Johnson)</small></p><div class="_1BN1N Kzi1t _2DJZN" style="z-index: 2; transform: translate(426px, 350px);"><div class="_1HjH7"><div class="_3qe6h" title="Protected by Grammarly"> </div></div></div>
Why are sows dying like this?
<p>The cause of the deaths is not altogether clear. The National Pork Board is partnering with Iowa State University on a <a href="https://www.ipic.iastate.edu/news/SowMortalityProject2018.html" target="_blank"><u>multi-year study</u></a> aimed at understanding what's happening. (Iowa's the top pork producer in the U.S.) They intend to collect data on about 13% of food sows on more than 100 farms in 16 states. That's about 400,000 pigs.</p><p>As of now, there are a handful of possible causes that have been suggested:</p> <ul> <li>Vitamin deficiencies</li> <li><u>Mycotoxins</u> in feed</li> <li>Overfeeding to promote growth</li> <li>Abdominal issues</li> <li>Overly restrictive confinement systems</li> <li>Overbreeding</li></ul><img class="rm-lazyloadable-image rm-shortcode" type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODY4MTkzMS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzOTczMzMyNH0.fqaHHJlMjZXXQm8julS9kyhUlY3V-ZWlPkliscJVxwQ/img.jpg?width=1245&coordinates=0%2C138%2C0%2C11&height=700" id="226a9" width="1245" height="700" data-rm-shortcode-id="775ea0d434f844921a0ffba8983654a2" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />A sedentary, crowded existence
<p>According to <em>The Guardian</em>, "An estimated 97% of the US's 73 million hogs are raised in closed barns or confined feeding operations." These dense-packed, restrictive environments include gestation and farrowing crates in which sows can barely move, and in which they spend most of their lives. It's a brutal way to exist as pigs have little, if any, opportunity for health-sustaining movement and exercise, and are kept from doing the things pigs like to do.</p><p>Farmer <a href="https://foodtank.com/news/2017/03/paul-willis-interview/" target="_blank"><u>Paul Willis</u></a> tells <em>The Guardian,</em> "I have a neighbor that has been raising pigs [in a confinement system] … and they have a dumpster, and I can go by there almost any time of the day or week and it's full of dead hogs." One company is producing the <a href="https://www.hogslat.com/hercules-arm-pig-hearse" target="_blank"><u>Hercules' Arm Pig Hearse</u></a>, which its website calls "A unique and revolutionary way to effortlessly remove, on your own and in total safety, heavy dead pigs from stalls and haul them away to the designated area." The company adds that the device "has been specifically designed to eliminate any risk of back injury and make work so much easier."</p><img class="rm-lazyloadable-image rm-shortcode" type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODY4MDY3Mi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyMTgwMzU3Mn0.jKI2IzranQF3WJQ_epUbPWXy8BsFHImJc011qAE9lZs/img.jpg?width=980" id="ac73f" width="1440" height="1080" data-rm-shortcode-id="0d7532dd297db1deb78bb28d7debf7a1" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />Pigs in gestation crates
Genetic manipulation for more salable pork or more pigs
<p>Well-known animal-welfare advocate <a href="https://www.templegrandin.com" target="_blank"><u>Temple Grandin</u></a> of Colorado State University also spoke to <em>The Guardian</em> about this problem, suggesting that shifting pork-industries priorities have wreaked havoc on pigs' bodies.</p><p>In the late 1980s, she points out, pigs were bred for rapid weight gain, more <a href="https://www.thespruceeats.com/what-is-fat-back-fatback-2216903" target="_blank"><u>backfat</u></a>, along with a more lucrative <a href="https://www.thespruceeats.com/pig-diagram-and-pork-chart-995306" target="_blank"><u>loin</u></a>. Later on, though, breeding goals changed as the American diet became more fat conscious.</p><p>Eventually breeding moved to pigs who could produce more piglets. New president of <a href="https://mercyforanimals.org" target="_blank"><u><em>Mercy for Animals</em></u></a> <u>Leah Garces</u> suggests this could be the cause of the prolapse epidemic: "Over the last few decades, sows to have been bred to have less back-fat—because people don't want to eat as much fat—but we also want them to produce more and more babies. And that's not biologically possible; their bones are weak and they don't have enough fat to support the reproductive process. We've bred them to their limit and the animals are telling us that."</p><p>Sows now produce an average of 23.5 piglets a year in litters of ten. After about four litters, they're done. As Grandin puts it, "They're breeding the sows to produce a lot of babies. Well, there's a point where you've gone too far."</p><img class="rm-lazyloadable-image rm-shortcode" type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODY4MDY3Ny9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0OTA2OTg2MH0.3puetrTWfcjP4pa7t8OLaZA1XLch_jvrINteqCQwMPI/img.jpg?width=980" id="64db4" width="1440" height="960" data-rm-shortcode-id="df75454b805a5f055e5e2e54719f0106" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />Exhausted Walkato sow
Considering the porcine future
<p>Some in the pork industry are looking to establish more moderate, sustainable methods of raising pigs, including smaller farms—such as Willis' Niman Ranch, a subsidiary of Purdue—and backing off productivity goals. As Grandin puts it, "You have to figure out the optimal number of piglets these sows should have. One thing people have trouble with is asking what is optimal—not maximal, but optimal—when it comes to breeding." Hopefully, reports such as the National Pork Board's will definitively pinpoint what's causing this increase in sow deaths.</p><p>There's also another solution worthy of mention, and it's pretty obvious: We could cut back or stop eating pigs.</p> <div class="rm-shortcode" data-media_id="ClRRdKXm" data-player_id="FvQKszTI" data-rm-shortcode-id="7997edd68c48069f51b3bc07351e86cf"> <div id="botr_ClRRdKXm_FvQKszTI_div" class="jwplayer-media" data-jwplayer-video-src="https://content.jwplatform.com/players/ClRRdKXm-FvQKszTI.js"> <img src="https://cdn.jwplayer.com/thumbs/ClRRdKXm-1920.jpg" class="jwplayer-media-preview" /> </div> <script src="https://content.jwplatform.com/players/ClRRdKXm-FvQKszTI.js"></script> </div>
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