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Reducing stress in piglets as a means of increasing production after weaning: administration of amperozide or co-mingling of piglets during lactation?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2010

J. R. Pluske  and
I. H. Williams
J. R. Pluske
Affiliation:
Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Western Australia, Nedlands WA 6009, Australia
I. H. Williams
Affiliation:
Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Western Australia, Nedlands WA 6009, Australia
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Extract

The aim of this experiment was to reduce piglet stress and improve performance following moving and mixing at weaning by use of the anti-aggressive drug amperozide and the practice of co-mingling piglets during lactation. Thirty-six piglets weaned at 29 days of age were allocated to a 2 × 2 factorial arrangement of treatments as follows: (1) injection of 1 ml amperozide or placebo (0.9% saline) at the time of weaning, and (2) co-mingling or no comingling of piglets from day 10 of lactation to weaning. At weaning all piglets were injected with pliytohaemagglutinin or saline, their change in skin-fold thickness was measured 24 h later and behaviour was recorded every 5 min for the first 120 min after weaning. At 4 and 24 h after weaning the depth and extent of injuries were recorded. Daily live-weight gain, apparent voluntary food intake and food conversion ratio were not improved (P > 0.05) by administration of amperozide or co-mingling of piglets during lactation. Cell-mediated immunity, as evidenced by a 0.17 proportional decrease (P <; 0.001) in skin-fold thickness following the injection of phytohaemagglutinin, was decreased in piglets not given amperozide at weaning. Injection of amperozide caused a 0.26 proportional increase (P < 0.001) in the amount of time piglets spent lying and caused piglets to display no interest in the feeder (P < 0.001) in the first 2 h after weaning. Consequently piglets not given amperozide were more active, spent more time at the feeder and participated in more aggressive encounters (P < 0.01). A significant interaction occurred between co-mingling and amperozide for mean injury score at both 4 (P < 0.01) and 24 h (P < 0.05) after weaning. When measured 4 h after weaning, co-mingling of piglets during suckling reduced mean injury score regardless of whether piglets were given amperozide or not at weaning. When piglets were not allowed to co-mingle during lactation, amperozide reduced mean injury score proportionately by around 0-44 (P < 0.01) compared with piglets administered with saline. Despite the administration of amperozide and the practice of comingling causing a reduction in stress and an improvement in welfare in this experiment, there was no beneficial effect on performance in the first 2 weeks after weaning.

Keywords

amperozidegroup housingpigletsstressweaning
Type
Research Article
Information
Animal Science , Volume 62 , Issue 1 , February 1996 , pp. 121 - 130
Copyright
Copyright © British Society of Animal Science 1996

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