Effect of dietary energy level on the performance of individually housed early-weaned piglets in relation to environmental temperature

Abstract

An experiment involving 72 individually housed piglets was conducted to determine the interactive effects of environmental temperature and dietary energy level on the performance of early-weaned piglets maintained for six weeks in environmental temperature of 28, 22 or 16°C. Two diets were formulated to supply 3.1 (low energy diet) and 3.6 (high energy diet) Mcal digestible energy per kg of feed. The high-energy diet had greater ( P < 0.01) energy and nitrogen digestibility than the low-energy diet. Digestibilities were similar in piglets exposed to 22 and 28°C and higher ( P < 0.05) than in those housed at 16°C. Exposure to a low temperature (16°C) increased feed intake by 8% ( P < 0.05) and feed to gain ratio by 11% ( P < 0.01), whereas exposure to a warm environment (28°C) decreased feed intake by 25% ( P < 0.01) and growth rate by 28% ( P < 0.01) compared with piglets housed at thermal neutrality (22°C). The effect of dietary energy level on the rate of weight gain, DE intake and DE to gain ratio was dependent upon environmental temperature in which piglets were maintained. Compared with the high-energy diet, the low-energy diet depressed DE intake by 9.2% ( P < 0.05) and rate of weight gain by 14.1% ( P < 0.01) and increased DE to gain ratio by 5.5% ( P < 0.05) in piglets housed in the warm environment. Under cold conditions both low and high energy diets resulted in similar DE intake, rate of weight gain and DE to gain ratio.