Fasting to achieve a higher feed intake
BY SARAH DE SMET, FLANDERS RESEARCH INSTITUTE FOR AGRICULTURE, FISHERIES AND FOOD (ILVO), BELGIUM*
I
t is generally accepted that early post-weaning feed intake affects post-weaning health and performance. However, there is large variation in the onset of feed intake after weaning and the amount that piglets eat during the first days after weaning. In a Dutch study by Erik Bruininx and others in 2002, a small percentage of pigs took longer than 24 hours before eating their first meal. The post- weaning growth check, due to low feed intake affects farm productivity. Especially piglets that have not consumed creep feed before weaning have to learn to recognise and consume solid feed. Moreover, piglets express neophobia when faced with unfa- miliar feed. In general, weaning remains a stressful event with an important impact on the animals. The associated stress level may affect their learning capabilities, which could in turn reduce consecutive feed intake. The question therefore arises whether the first day after weaning is the best day to discover their new type of feed. That is why the following ex- periment was designed to study the effect of 18-hour delay in solid feed provisioning on the feed intake and performance of piglets during the first weeks after weaning.
Trial set-up For the experiment, conducted at Flanders Research Institute for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (ILVO) in June 2018, a total of 144 weanling pigs were used. The average body weight at weaning was about 8.1kg. The pigs were divided among 24 pens, blocked per gender (castrated male or female) and body weight group. The division of littermates over different pens resulted in them being mixed with unfamiliar animals. Before weaning, piglets received a commercial creep feed, hence creep feed composition differed from the post-wean- ing diet. After weaning, all pigs received the same post-wean- ing diet during the entire experiment, cold pelleted with pel- let size of 6 mm. Feed and water were provided ad lib.
Treatments The research team compared the effects of two treatments: • Control treatment: Feed was present in the feeders when the piglets were moved to their compartment.
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Counterintuitive as it may sound, but sometimes less might be more. In recent Belgian research, scientists observed a better feed intake in piglets that were given their first meal only 18 hours post-weaning.
• Delayed provisioning of solid feed: Feed was provid- ed only from the next morning, at 8am onwards. That re- sulted in an 18-hour delay in solid feed provisioning. All pigs were weighed individually at weaning (four weeks of age), five, seven and nine weeks of age. At the end of each period, feed leftovers were recorded to calculate feed con- sumption per pen and per period. Average daily gain (ADG) and average daily feed intake (ADFI) in a period were calculat- ed per pen. Feed efficiency was calculated as the ADFI divid- ed by the ADG of the pen. These performance parameters were calculated for the first week after weaning, the first three weeks after weaning and the total period (four to nine weeks of age). For both treatments, the number of days was considered the same.
Results and discussion No post-weaning diarrhoea was observed in any of the pens. In the first week after weaning, statistical analysis did not re- veal differences in feed intake, gain or feed efficiency be- tween the treatment groups. Still, the treatment had an effect on the feed intake: over the duration of the experiment, piglets
Small changes in feeding
management after weaning may have prolonged effects on piglets.
PHOTO: ILVO
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