Pigs Like It Varied; Feeding Behavior and Pre- and Post-weaning Performance of Piglets Exposed to Dietary Diversity and Feed Hidden in Substrate During Lactation.

Anouschka Middelkoop,Manon A Van Marwijk,J Elizabeth Bolhuis,Bas Kemp

doi:10.3389/fvets.2019.00408

Anouschka Middelkoop, Manon A Van Marwijk + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2019.00408

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Abstract

Timely intake of solid feed is essential to ease the nutritional change from sow's milk to solid feed at weaning and thereby to reduce weaning-related problems. A significant percentage of piglets, however, do not or hardly consume solid feed before weaning. We studied effects of dietary variety and presenting the feed in substrate during lactation on the feeding behavior and performance of piglets up to 2 weeks post-weaning. Feed was provided ad libitum from d4 in two feeders, with four bowls each. In a 2 × 2 arrangement, 40 litters received either creep feed as a monotonous diet (MO) or four feed items simultaneously, i.e., creep feed, celery, cereal honey loops and peanuts, as a diverse diet (DD) and the feed was either provided without (CON) or with substrate (SUB), i.e., sand, in one of the two feeders up to weaning. Dietary diversity highly stimulated feed exploration and eating (≥2.5 times), feed intake and the percentage of (good) eaters from early in lactation, and enhanced piglet growth toward weaning (by 29 g/d), although MO-piglets spent more time eating creep feed from d18. Within MO, SUB-litters consisted of more good eaters than CON-litters. At weaning (d28) four piglets from the same treatment were grouped (n = 40 pens). DD-CON had the highest post-weaning feed intake and gain between d5–15 and the lowest proportion of pigs with higher tail damage scores. However, effects regarding behavior remained inconclusive, as DD-piglets had a lower and higher number of body lesions at 4 h and d15 post-weaning, respectively, spent less time exploring the feed(er) and drinker and environment, and more time nosing pen mates than MO-piglets. SUB-piglets showed a reduction in total post-weaning feed intake, gain (particularly between d0–2) and inactivity, increased levels of manipulation and aggression at week 1 and a higher number of body lesions at 4 h and d15 post-weaning. In conclusion, dietary diversity seems a promising feeding strategy in getting piglets to eat during lactation. Provision of substrate in the feeder subtly stimulated foraging behavior, but negatively impacted post-weaning adaptation, probably because treatments were not reinforced after weaning and piglets thus experienced loss of enrichment.

Highlights

In most commercial pig farms, piglets are weaned at 3–4 weeks of age by separating them from the sow
We suggest that presentation of a more diverse diet stimulates the feeding behavior of piglets, by increasing exploratory behavior toward the feed and by reducing “sensory-specific satiety,” which is the decline in liking of eaten feed in comparison to other non-eaten feed [as reviewed by [38]]
The percentage of piglets playing with feed was 0% at all observation days in monotonous diet (MO) and differed from diverse diet (DD) that had 12.6 ± 4.4, 19.9 ± 6.1, and 24.0 ± 4.6% of the piglets playing with feed at d11, 18, and 27, respectively

Summary

Introduction

In most commercial pig farms, piglets are weaned at 3–4 weeks of age by separating them from the sow. It can be concluded that outdoor-reared piglets are more experienced with solid feed before weaning compared to indoor-reared piglets, of which a significant proportion does not or hardly consume solid feed before weaning [16, 17]. This low feed intake before weaning, or even no feed intake at all, often results in a low feed intake after weaning [18, 19], accompanied by gastro-intestinal problems [reviewed by [20]], gut microbiota dysbiosis [reviewed by [21]], reduced weight gain and an increase in damaging behavior [22, 23]. Since rearing environments for commercial indoor production are different from (semi-)natural conditions, strategies that stimulate the natural feeding behavior of indoor-reared piglets may improve their weaning transition, as the intake of solid feed before weaning correlates with the intake of feed after weaning [24, 25]

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