Impact of housing nursery pigs according to body weight on the onset of feed intake, aggressive behavior, and growth performance

Faccin, Jamil Elias Ghiggi; Laskoski, Fernanda; Quirino, Monike; Gonçalves, M. A. D.; Mallmann, André; Orlando, Uislei A; Mellagi, Ana Paula Gonçalves; Bernardi, Mari Lourdes; Ulguim, Rafael da Rosa; Bortolozzo, Fernando Pandolfo

doi:10.1007/s11250-019-02096-6

Cited by 9 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…However, in commercial pig production, weaning is abrupt, occurring at around 2 to 4 wk of age. The stress suffered by weaned pigs in commercial conditions has been widely described in several studies, mainly concerning about the separation from the sow, vaccination, mixing, fighting, and switches in the environment, diet, local microbiota, and structure of the nursery (Pluske et al, 1997, Moeser et al, 2017, Faccin et al, 2019. In relation, the combination of these stressors accompanied by a period of declining passive immunity from sow milk (Pluske et al, 1997) contributes to a reduction in feed intake and growth performance, and an increase in susceptibility to infections (Moeser et al, 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of increasing weaning age on pig performance and belly nosing prevalence in a commercial multisite production system

Faccin

Laskoski

Hernig

et al. 2020

Journal of Animal Science

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The effects of increasing weaning age in a commercial production system on nursery and finishing performance were evaluated. A total of 1,176 pigs (PIC 337 × Camborough) were used in a 136-d growth trial with 14 and 10 replications/weaning age on the nursery and finishing phases, respectively. Treatments included weaning litters at 19, 22, 25, or 28 d of age. In the nursery, as weaning age increased, initial (5.04, 5.70, 6.52, and 7.26 kg) and final body weight (BW) (18.2, 19.8, 23.0, and 25.1 kg) increased (linear, P < 0.001). Increasing the weaning age reduced (linear, P < 0.001) the prevalence of pigs exhibiting belly nosing (27.6%, 15.0%, 6.5%, and 1.4%) during the first 3 wk. The percentage of pigs losing weight during the first week after weaning (35.1%, 28.7%, 12.4%, and 9.2%) decreased (linear, P < 0.001) as weaning age increased. Average daily gain (ADG; 295, 320, 374, 406 g/d) and average daily feed intake (493, 534, 619, 661 g/d) increased (linear, P < 0.001), while feed efficiency (G:F) (596, 599, 604, and 615) tended to increase (linear, P = 0.081) with weaning age. Removal rate (8.01%, 3.79%, 2.29%, and 1.65%) declined (linear, P = 0.001) as weaning age increased, while there was no evidence of difference (P = 0.463) in mortality rate (0.71%, 0.36%, 0.96%, 1.04%). In the finishing period, BW at 136 d post-weaning (114.9, 117.8, 124.7, and 126.5 kg) and ADG (1.02, 1.04, 1.08, and 1.07 kg/d) improved (linear, P < 0.001). There was no evidence of differences (P > 0.24) in removal (1.5%, 2.4%, 1.0%, and 0.0%) or mortality rates (0.9%, 1.0%, 1.0%, and 1.4%) with changes in weaning age. When performance was analyzed at a common day of life (164 d of age), no effects of weaning age (P > 0.25) were found for BW (125.2, 124.4, 128.0, and 126.5 kg) and lifetime ADG (growth rate from birth to market) (754, 751, 774, and 762 g/d). The BW sold per pig weaned increased (linear, P < 0.001) with weaning age. Even though the slope indicated a linear response, the magnitude of improvement was high until 25 d, before exhibiting diminishing returns from 25 to 28 d. Thus, the study suggests that increasing the weaning age can be an effective strategy to improve the overall performance in a commercial system. Although lifetime performance was not affected by the weaning age range studied, the consistent effect in the nursery and the increment in the number of pigs reaching the market facilitated by the improvement in the removal rate in the nursery phase imply that 25 d is the optimal weaning age.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of increasing weaning age on pig performance and belly nosing prevalence in a commercial multisite production system

Faccin

Laskoski

Hernig

et al. 2020

Journal of Animal Science

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“…The weaning BW was one of the basic characteristics that determined lifetime growth performance 13 , 14 . The BW at weaning and growth rate in the first week of nursing played an important role in subsequent performance 15 . Cabrera et al 16 found that at the age of 20 days weaning pigs weighing 5.0–5.9 kg reached 125 kg earlier than those weighing 4.1–5.0 kg.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparative analysis of productive performance and fattening efficiency of commercial pigs in China for two consecutive years

Guan

Wang

et al. 2023

Sci Rep

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The purpose of this study: (1) propose an evaluation indicator of the fattening efficiency of commercial pigs (Yorkshire × Landrace × Duroc)—fattening efficiency index (FEI). (2) Analyze the correlation to find the main productive factors affecting the FEI. (3) Compare and analyze the yearly/monthly/different piglets’ sources of productive performance in 2020 and 2021. The data included 2592 commercial pig batches in 2020 and 3266 in 2021, with a total of 6,134,234 commercial pigs. Descriptive statistics and difference analysis were carried out on 16 productive factors of a whole year and single/multiple sources for two consecutive years. The same period difference between the monthly data and the annual average were also analyzed. The top six productive factors correlated with FEI were average daily gain (ADG) (0.8080), feed conversion rate (FCR) (− 0.7203), survival rate (SR) (0.6968), number of deaths (− 0.4103), feeding days (− 0.3748) and body weight (BW) of marketing pigs (0.3369). The overall productive performance in 2021 was lower than that in 2020, which was reflected in more piglet sources and a lower BW of piglets, more deaths, a lower SR, longer feeding days, a lower ADG, a higher FCR and a lower FEI. The productive performance of a single source was better than that of multiple ones. The contrastive results of monthly data in 2020 and 2021 showed significant differences in most factors except for the number of marketing pigs, the number of piglets and feed consumption. The monthly trend of 15 factors for two consecutive years revealed similar trends only in the month of piglets purchasing, number of piglets sources, number of deaths and ADG. Compared with the annual average, the ADG significantly increased in May. The FEI of multiple sources was markedly lower than that of a single source. FEI may be suitable for evaluating the fattening efficiency of commercial pigs. The annual and monthly productive performance and fattening efficiency in 2021 were significantly lower than those in 2020. Single source was represented better productive performance and fattening efficiency than multiple ones.

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“…This continued for the first 3 d post-weaning, indicating that heavy weight pigs take longer to begin consuming feed, particularly when sorted into pens of all heavy weight pigs ( Bruininx et al, 2001 ), which was the case in these experiments. Because heavy pigs are often more dominant, it is likely that heavy pigs spend more time engaged in aggressive interactions to establish social hierarchy than searching out and consuming feed ( Faccin et al, 2019 ). A second factor influencing the greater number of heavy pigs that lose weight immediately post-weaning is the possibility that heavy weight pigs do not seem to have to compete for feed resources while on the sow compared to light weight pigs.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of providing sensory attractants to suckling pigs during lactation and after weaning on post-weaning growth performance

Wensley

Tokach

Woodworth

et al. 2022

Translational Animal Science

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Three experiments were conducted to determine the effect of sensory attractants pre- and post-weaning on the growth performance of pigs after weaning. For each experiment, treatments were arranged as a 2 ×2 ×2 factorial with main effects of pre-weaning application (without or with), post-weaning application (without or with), and body weight category (representing the lightest or heaviest 50% of the population). In Exp. 1, 356 nursery pigs (initially 5.7 kg) were used in a 28-d trial with enrichment cubes used as the sensory attractant. A greater percentage of heavy pigs (P = 0.007) or pigs offered enrichment cubes pre-weaning (P = 0.044) lost BW from weaning to d 3 compared to light pigs or pigs not offered enrichment cubes pre-weaning. From weaning to d 7, a greater percentage of pigs lost weight when not offered cubes post-weaning (P = 0.002) compared to pigs offered cubes post-weaning. In Exp. 2, 355 nursery pigs (initially 5.6 kg) were used in a 29-d trial with a powder used as the sensory attractant. Providing a powder attractant both pre- and post-weaning reduced the percentage of pigs that lost weight from weaning to d 3 as compared with providing a powder either pre- or post-weaning only (interaction, P < 0.05). In Exp. 3, 355 nursery pigs (initially 5.9 kg) were used in a 24-d trial with a liquid spray used as the sensory attractant. A greater percentage of heavy pigs that did not receive liquid attractant lost weight from weaning to d 3, whereas a greater percentage of light pigs lost weight when they received liquid attractant only pre-weaning (3-way interaction; P = 0.016). Across all three experiments, sensory attractant application had limited effects on the growth performance of pigs after weaning; however, varying responses were observed for the percentage of pigs that lost weight in the first 3 to 7 d immediately post-weaning. In summary, environmental enrichment with cubes (Exp. 1) appears to have the greatest effect when applied post-weaning whereas flavor attractants (Exp. 2 and 3) appear to have the greatest effect when applied both pre- and post-weaning.

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Impact of housing nursery pigs according to body weight on the onset of feed intake, aggressive behavior, and growth performance

Cited by 9 publications

References 12 publications

Impact of increasing weaning age on pig performance and belly nosing prevalence in a commercial multisite production system

Impact of increasing weaning age on pig performance and belly nosing prevalence in a commercial multisite production system

Comparative analysis of productive performance and fattening efficiency of commercial pigs in China for two consecutive years

Effects of providing sensory attractants to suckling pigs during lactation and after weaning on post-weaning growth performance

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