• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.33 no.8
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• pp.1301-1309
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• 2020

Objective: To evaluate the use of nurse sows and post-weaning nutrition strategies for low wean weight (WW) pigs on lifetime growth and efficiency. Methods: Animals (n = 270) were assigned to one of five treatments at 28 d. Low WW pigs (<6 kg) were either weaned and offered a special dietary regime recommended for low WW pigs (WEAN) or placed on a nurse sow (NURSE) and weaned at 49 d. Normal WW pigs (9 kg) (NORM) were also weaned at 28 d. After weaning, NORM and NURSE pigs were offered either a 'high' (4 kg/pig of starter 1 diet followed by 8 kg/pig of starter 2 diet) or 'low' (8 kg/pig of starter 2 diet) starter diet allowance in a 2×2 factorial arrangement. A typical grower diet was then offered, followed by a typical finisher diet until 147 d of age. Results: NORM pigs where heavier throughout their life compared to NURSE pigs (91.4 kg vs 76.2 kg at 147 d; p<0.001). WEAN pigs were heavier at 70 d compared to NURSE pigs (23.9 kg vs 21.0 kg; p<0.001), but there was no significant difference at 147 d between NURSE and WEAN treatments. NURSE pigs had reduced feed intake throughout the finishing period (1.6 kg/d; p<0.001) compared to WEAN (2.0 kg/d) and NORM (1.9 kg/d) pigs. Feed conversion ratio (FCR) of NURSE (2.20) was lower than NORM and WEAN during the finishing period (2.40 and 2.79, respectively). Conclusion: Extended (up to 49 d) nursing for low WW pigs resulted in improved FCR during the finishing period, but no overall improvement in growth rate compared to low WW pigs weaned at 28 d and offered a specialised starter regime. Normal WW pigs where significantly heavier than low WW pigs throughout the study.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.627-632
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• 2003

Piglets communicate with their sow by using special sounds and synchronize their suckling behavior with their mother’s grunting. This study sought to find an effective sound for controlling the nursing/suckling behavior of pigs. Eighteen crossbred Landrace${\times}$Yorkshire sows and their piglets were studied on days 1, 7, and 14 post-partum. The parity of the sows was three or four. The litter size ranged from 9 to 11, with a mean of 10.4 piglets. Thirty minutes after the end of the last suckling, either the nursing-suckling sound (NSS) or the nursing-suckling sound + click sound (NSSCS) was played for 90 s randomly, and this experiment was repeated three times. The behavior of the sows and their piglets was recorded using camcorders and observed each second. When comparing NSS and NSSCS, there was less lying and sleeping and more sitting, standing, walking, and massaging when NSSCS was played than when NSS was played. These results suggest that NSSCS may induce more nursing and suckling in pigs than NSS.