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Performance of newly-weaned pigs when housed with a pig with experience of creep food

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2017

C. A. Morgan ,
A. B. Lawrence  and
B. Garth
C. A. Morgan
Affiliation:
Animal Biology Division, The Scottish Agricultural College, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JG, Scotland
A. B. Lawrence
Affiliation:
Animal Biology Division, The Scottish Agricultural College, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JG, Scotland
B. Garth
Affiliation:
The Roslin Institute, Roslin, Midlothian EH25 9PS, Scotland
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Extract

When piglets are weaned at around 3 to 4 weeks of age consumption of creep food can be very variable between pigs, some not consuming any (Pajor et al, 1991), there being little opportunity to learn about solid food from the sow. Thus weaning results in a temporary reduction in nutrient intake while the pig learns to accept solid food and this results in a depression in growth, the weaning check. In other species, such as the rat, animals can learn about novel foods from a knowledgeable conspecific (Galef, 1994) but it is not clear if this transfer of knowledge occurs in pigs. Morgan et al. (2001) observed an enhanced food intake of pairs of pigs containing an experienced and inexperienced pig of the same age housed together compared to a similar pair housed apart or a pair of inexperienced pigs. Therefore, in this experiment the influence on solid food intake and growth by inexperienced piglets when housed with an experienced older pig was examined under more practical group-housing conditions.

Type
Poster Presentations
Information
Proceedings of the British Society of Animal Science , Volume 2002 , 2002 , pp. 219
Copyright
Copyright © The British Society of Animal Science 2002

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References

Galef, B.J. 1994. Olfactory communications about foods among rats: a review of recent findings. In B.G., Galef, M., Mainardi and P., Valsecchi (eds) Behavioural aspects of feeding. Harwood Academic Publishers, Switzerland, pp. 83–101.Google Scholar
Morgan, C.A., Lawrence, A.B., Chirnside, J. and Deans, L.A. 2001. Can information about solid food be transmitted from one piglet to another? Animal Science, in press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pajor, E.A., Fraser, D. and Kramer, D.L. 1991. Consumption of solid food by suckling pigs: individual variation and relation to weight gain. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 32: 139–155.Google Scholar