Effects of cross-fostering within 24h after birth on pre-weaning behaviour, growth performance and survival rate of biological and adopted piglets

Cross-fostering is the transference of piglets to equalise litter size according to the birth weight. In many commercial farms piglets are usually grouped in litters with 100% adopted piglets. The aim of the experiment was to assess the behaviour of piglets during the suckling period as well as to a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Livestock science 2012-12, Vol.150 (1-3), p.121-127
Main Authors: Heim, G., Mellagi, A.P.G., Bierhals, T., de Souza, L.P., de Fries, H.C.C., Piuco, P., Seidel, E., Bernardi, M.L., Wentz, I., Bortolozzo, F.P.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
adverse effects
Behaviour
birth weight
cages
commercial farms
creep feeding
Cross-fostering
farrowing
growth performance
litter size
milk ejection
Piglets
Survival
survival rate
teats
vocalization
weaning
Weight
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Summary:Cross-fostering is the transference of piglets to equalise litter size according to the birth weight. In many commercial farms piglets are usually grouped in litters with 100% adopted piglets. The aim of the experiment was to assess the behaviour of piglets during the suckling period as well as to assess their performance and mortality rate up to weaning in litters with different composition in terms of adopted and biological piglets. Three treatments were studied: 100B (100% biological piglets, n=13), 50B50A (50% biological piglets and 50% adopted piglets, n=13) and 100A (100% adopted piglets, n=13). All litters were standardised to eleven piglets on average within 20.1±0.4h (14.3–24.7h) of birth. The behaviour of piglets was recorded during four consecutive sucklings for four days (days 1, 2, 4 and 6 after farrowing, considering day 1 as the cross-fostering day). The observations were performed at two time periods: TP1 (from release of piglets out of creep box until milk letdown) and TP2 (from the end of milk letdown up to 15min later). Piglets were weighed at days 1, 4, 7, 10, 13 and 16. There were no differences (P>0.05) among the treatments in the following behavioural variables: percentage of missed nursing episodes; number of fights for teats and percentage of piglets involved in fights at TP1; percentage of piglets vocalising at TP1 and at TP2; number of fights per piglet elsewhere in the cage and percentage of piglets involved in these fights; number of instances of playful behaviour per piglet and percentage of piglets involved in it. At TP2 of day 1, 100B piglets displayed a lower number (P
ISSN:1871-1413
1878-0490
DOI:10.1016/j.livsci.2012.08.011