Evidence of the ineffectiveness of creep-feeding using a new method for measuring intake by early-weaned piglets

Extract

Little is known about how creep-feeding influences later growth rate in pigs. In previous studies, creep-food consumption has been measured by limiting access to food to allow the time spent feeding by individuals to be measured, however there are problems with this approach. Competition for the feeder may result in inaccurate measurement since some piglets may not have the opportunity to feed. Also, piglets will have less opportunity to learn about the food source by observing others. The approach used in the current experiment gave all piglets access to creep-food at the same time, allowing the piglets to feed normally. Any synchronisation in feeding activity that might affect food consumption was possible. Five litters of Large White X Landrace piglets were offered a home-mix starter diet from 10 days of age. A mark and capture technique was employed. The inert marker (Microtracer RF-Ni; Guinness Chemicals Ltd.) was mixed with the diet (30 g/tonne) that was fed to the piglets. The microtracer was a ferro-magnetic alloy powder of minute particle size (25,000 parts/gramme), that resisted dissolution in the gastrointestinal tract and was easily recovered from a faeces-water slurry using a magnetic ‘wand’. Faeces were collected from piglets at 18 days of age. Piglets were weaned at 21 days and were randomly allocated to one of four types of weaner pen, where they remained for 4 weeks. Weaned piglets were fed the starter diet ad lib for 7 days after which they were fed a standard weaner diet. On average 1.9 g (dry matter weight) of faeces were collected from each piglet. The number of particles retrieved from faecal samples (mean = 5.4, range = 0 - 39), and the proportion of iron particles per gramme of dried faeces was calculated for each piglet that was sampled, as an estimate of creep-feed intake. There was a large variation among piglets in creep-feed intake but no significant difference between litters. Females consumed more creep-feed than males (p < 0.001, t-test) (Fig. 1), but experienced the same growth check as males post-weaning. There was no relationship between weight gain post-weaning and creep-feed intake. It was concluded that creep-food consumption, measured using this method, did not influence weight gain post-weaning. This method may be used in association with other methods of measuring creep-food consumption, such as measuring lime-spent at the feeder, to give a more accurate estimate of individual creep-food consumption.