% exploring piglets
% exploring piglets
PHOTO: JON SAILER/PANCOSMA
NUTRITION ▶▶▶
Raspberry flavour invites piglets to explore and eat
Piglets are curious, sensitive to smell and love sweet flavours. Why not encourage their interest and mix fresh fruity flavours through the feed, for instance raspberry? Trials carried out in China show optimistic results.
BY JOËLLE FAUGERON, PRODUCT MANAGER PALATANTS, PANCOSMA W
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
0 day-1 day-2 Day day-3 day-4 b
eaning is a critical phase for piglets. The switch from liquid to solid feed is a stressful period in which the animals often tend to re- duce their intake, which can affect their gut
health and consequently their overall health and perfor- mance. It is advisable to stimulate piglets’ curiosity in order to increase their interest in solid feed and encourage them to try it, therefore triggering further feed intake. Pigs are extremely sensitive animals, with many more olfactory receptors than humans, therefore flavours may be a good way to catch pig- lets’ interest, as long as they are adequately chosen. A series of three trials were performed in China on weaning piglets in order to compare their behaviour when faced with raspberry-flavoured feed (by Pancosma) in comparison to a more regular milk-flavoured feed, sold on the Chinese mar- ket. In the first phase, the piglets’ respective interest in both flavours was evaluated; in the second and third phases, the results for intake and performance were investigated.
a, b, c, d: P < 0.05
Stimulate exploratory behaviour A first preference trial was performed on 40 weaned piglets, randomly allocated to four pens of ten piglets. The animals were weaned at 21–23 days and weighed 6–7kg. They were given free access to two different treatments: one containing the milk flavour and the other containing raspberry flavour, both dosed at 300 grammes/tonne. The trial lasted four days during which the number of contacts between the piglets and each feed were counted every five minutes over a 20-minute period. Results showed that there were significantly more contacts with the raspberry-flavoured treatment than with the milk-flavoured feed throughout 20-minute periods (see Figure 1A) and every day (see Figure 1B). While exploratory behaviour was constant for the milk-fla- voured feed over time throughout the trial, contacts were in- creasingly numerous each day for the treatment with rasp- berry flavour. Exploratory behaviour was therefore stimulated by the rasp- berry flavour, with piglets being more and more curious and particularly attracted by this treatment. That can be explained by the fact that fruity flavours contain molecules that are generally more volatile than those used in milky flavours, which are heavier. The raspberry-flavoured smell therefore spreads more easily into the air, catching the animals’ interest first.
Figure 1 - Evolution of piglet exploratory behaviour over time; averaged results. A Exploring behaviour of piglets
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B Exploring behaviour of piglets 60
a 50 b
MILKY FLAVOUR RASPBERRY
c 20 d cd d d 10 0 5 10 Time (min) 15 20 b b b b 40 30 c a a
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▶PIG PROGRESS | Volume 36, No. 7, 2020
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