SEGREGATED EARLY WEANING: EFFECTS OF WEANING AT 12 DAYS-OF-AGE ON SUBSEQUENT BEHAVIOUR OF PIGLETS

Harold W. Gonyou and D. Lee Whittington. Prairie Swine Centre, Inc. Saskatoon, SK.

Segregated Early Weaning (SEW) of piglets at less than 14 days-of-age is becoming an increasingly common procedure in North America. Such early weaning has become commercially feasible through the use of highly palatable feedstuffs which increase intake during the week following weaning. A study was conducted to determine the effects of early weaning on the behaviour of piglets. Thirty-two litters were weaned at either 12 or 21 days-of-age. During the subsequent 48 h, pigs were videotaped and the tapes used to determine the development of eating behaviour using scan sampling.

Eating behaviour graph Pigs weaned at 21 days-of-age spent more time eating than those weaned at 12 days-of-age. Although both age groups ate little (< 3% of time) during the initial 12 h, those weaned at 21 days-of-age began increasing time spent eating during the subsequent 12 h and reached a normal level of approximately 9% of time spent eating by 36 h post-weaning. No noticeable increase in eating occurred among those weaned at 12 days-of-age until after 36 h, at which point the level quickly increased to 10% of time. During the subsequent 6 wk, live scan sampling revealed that pigs weaned at 12 days-of-age spent more time eating (11.6 vs. 10.5%), drinking (1.65 vs. 1.22%), nosing other pigs (1.23 vs. .74%), and chewing on objects (2.48 vs. 2.33%) than did those weaned at 21 days-of-age.

Nose behaviour graph Nosing of other pigs peaked during the 2nd and 3rd weeks after weaning in both age groups, but the maximum level was approximately twice as high for those weaned at 12 as for those weaned at 21 days-of-age. Those weaned at 12 days-of-age continued to nose and chew other piglets more during the grow/finish period than did those weaned at 21 days-of-age. Partial, within pen, correlations indicated that inactive pigs grew faster (r=.18) and were less likely to nose or chew other pigs (r=-.15 and -.26, respectively). Nosing other pigs and being nosed were negatively correlated (r=-.17), but neither were correlated with rate of gain.