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Wensley MR, Tokach MD, Woodworth JC, Goodband RD, DeRouchey JM, Gebhardt JT, McKilligan D, Upah N. Effects of providing sensory attractants to suckling pigs during lactation and after weaning on post-weaning growth performance. Transl Anim Sci 2022; 7:txac170. [PMID: 36751435 PMCID: PMC9894101 DOI: 10.1093/tas/txac170] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/26/2022] [Accepted: 12/29/2022] [Indexed: 12/31/2022] Open
Abstract
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 (three-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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Affiliation(s)
- Madie R Wensley
- Department of Animal Sciences and Industry, College of Agriculture, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, 66506-0201, USA
| | - Mike D Tokach
- Department of Animal Sciences and Industry, College of Agriculture, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, 66506-0201, USA
| | - Jason C Woodworth
- Department of Animal Sciences and Industry, College of Agriculture, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, 66506-0201, USA
| | | | - Joel M DeRouchey
- Department of Animal Sciences and Industry, College of Agriculture, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, 66506-0201, USA
| | - Jordan T Gebhardt
- Department of Diagnostic Medicine/Pathobiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, 66506-0201, USA
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