Extended nursing and/or increased starter diet allowances for low weaning weight pigs
Date
2019-10-21
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Publisher
Asian-Australasian Association of Animal Production Societies (AAAP)
Abstract
Objective: To evaluate the use of nurse sows and post-weaning nutrition strategies for low wean weight (WW) pigs on lifetime growth and efficiency.
Methods: Animals (n = 270) were assigned to one of five treatments at 28 d. Low WW pigs (<6 kg) were either weaned and offered a special dietary regime recommended for low WW pigs (WEAN) or placed on a nurse sow (NURSE) and weaned at 49 d. Normal WW pigs (9 kg) (NORM) were also weaned at 28 d. After weaning, NORM and NURSE pigs were offered either a ‘high’ (4 kg/pig of starter 1 diet followed by 8 kg/pig of starter 2 diet) or ‘low’ (8 kg/pig of starter 2 diet) starter diet allowance in a 2×2 factorial arrangement. A typical grower diet was then offered, followed by a typical finisher diet until 147 d of age.
Results: NORM pigs where heavier throughout their life compared to NURSE pigs (91.4 kg vs 76.2 kg at 147 d; p<0.001). WEAN pigs were heavier at 70 d compared to NURSE pigs (23.9 kg vs 21.0 kg; p<0.001), but there was no significant difference at 147 d between NURSE and WEAN treatments. NURSE pigs had reduced feed intake throughout the finishing period (1.6 kg/d; p<0.001) compared to WEAN (2.0 kg/d) and NORM (1.9 kg/d) pigs. Feed conversion ratio (FCR) of NURSE (2.20) was lower than NORM and WEAN during the finishing period (2.40 and 2.79, respectively).
Conclusion: Extended (up to 49 d) nursing for low WW pigs resulted in improved FCR during the finishing period, but no overall improvement in growth rate compared to low WW pigs weaned at 28 d and offered a specialised starter regime. Normal WW pigs where significantly heavier than low WW pigs throughout the study.
Description
Publication history: Accepted - 3 October 2019; Published online - 21 October 2019.
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Keywords
Starter Diet, Nurse Sow, Mortality, Light Weight Pigs, Weaning, Growth
Citation
Craig, A.-L., Muns, R., Gordon, A. and Magowan, E. (2020) ‘Extended nursing and/or increased starter diet allowances for low weaning weight pigs’, Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences. Asian Australasian Association of Animal Production Societies. doi:10.5713/ajas.19.0511