Suckling Behavior of Piglets in a Family Pen System

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  • フアミリーペンシステムにおける子豚の吸乳行動
  • ファミリーペン システム ニ オケル コブタ ノ キュウニュウ コウドウ エイ

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Abstract

Two experiments were carried out in order to study the suckling behavior of piglets in a family pen system (11m×14m) where 2 boars, 6 to 7 sows and variable number of litters were housed in a group. In Experiment 1, the first litter was moved into the system from a farrowing crate at 2 weeks of age and remained there after weaning at 30 days of age. The second litter was then introduced into the system. The weaners whose mother had left the herd for remating started to suckle a sow within the group in the last stages of pregnancy. She started to secrete milk before parturition and failed to raise her own piglets. When young piglets and their mother were introduced into the group, the weaners switched the suckling target to this alien mother whose own piglets were occasionally squeezed out at suckling. In Experiment 2, which attempted to improve the system of Experiment 1, three different litters of suckling piglets were introduced into the system, and they were all moved out of the system at weaning at 30 days of age. The nursing behaviors of the three sows were highly synchronized, and the suckling behavior of piglets had a tendency to be dispersed across the three different sows. No piglets attempted to suckle from pregnant sows. The result of cluster analysis on the time spent on suckling behavior by piglets showed that piglets had a closer associations toward littermates than with piglets from other litters. As an additional observation in Experiment 2, one sow came into heat during lactation. In both experiments, neither fighting among adult pigs nor aggressive actions by adult pigs on piglets were observed. The present results suggest the possibility of the practical use of a family pen system as an alternative to present management systems.

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