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In 2023, Chinese researchers set out to create a 'pig depression model' — a way to reliably induce depression in pigs for medical research.
The researchers (Yang et al, 2023) confined pigs so tightly they couldn't move and left them in a dark environment without food or water for 24 hours.
It worked: the pigs exhibited anhedonia — an inability to experience pleasure — along with anxiety and reduced appetite. The researchers concluded they'd found a promising way to induce depression in pigs.
Their inspiration? Factory farms. They tried out the total restraint after noting that sows, confined in gestation crates and kept chronically hunger, "have been found to be in a depression-like state."
The main difference? After 24 hours, the researchers let the study pigs out. On factory farms they never do.
Photo: Balvik C. / We Animals
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