Nursing behaviour of sows during 5 weeks lactation and effects on piglet growth

Abstract The main goal of this study was to investigate the effect of sow nursing behaviour on piglet weight gain and within-litter variation (WLV) in piglet weight gain under as naturalistic conditions as possible. In order to achieve this, patterns of sow nursing behaviour and piglet weight gain were recorded during 5 weeks lactation. In addition, to be able to assess importance of sow behaviour on piglet growth more definitely, individual within-lactation repeatability of sow behaviour was also evaluated. Average piglet daily weight gain (ADG) and within-litter variation in weight gain during lactation were recorded by weighing the piglets of 21 individually penned, unrestrained Yorkshire sows on days 1, 4, 8, 15, 22 postpartum (PP) and at weaning (day 35±2). Nursing behaviour and sternal recumbency from five 24h periods (days 3, 6, 13, 20 and 30 postpartum) were described as frequency of successful nursings (SFREQ), frequency of unsuccessful nursings (USFREQ), total duration of all nursings (TOTDUR), percentage of nursings terminated by the sow (%SOW), average duration of sow-terminated nursings (SOWDUR) and percentage of observations when the sow was lying sternally (%STERN). With proceeding lactation, the only significant change in SFREQ was an increase on day 6. USFREQ increased to day 13, and then decreased towards the end of lactation. TOTDUR began decreasing after day 13, while SOWDUR decreased already after day 3. %SOW and %STERN both increased with proceeding lactation. All behavioural measures showed within-sow repeatability (first-order autoregression coefficient (AR(1))=0.39–0.73). Average piglet weight gain (ADG) was influenced positively by SFREQ ( P =0.02), while none of the other behavioural variables affected ADG. The effect of SFREQ on ADG was similar throughout lactation, the model estimated a 5.12g increase in ADG with one more successful nursing per 24h. Within-litter variation was not influenced by any of the selected variables. The results indicate that (i) nursing behaviour changes during lactation, according to a pattern suggesting an ongoing weaning process; (ii) sow behaviour is repeatable within-sow and within-lactation; (iii) a high frequency of successful nursings affects piglet growth positively also in sows that are not experimentally manipulated, and throughout the full course of lactation.

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