Document type : Article published in Pig333
Authors: John Pluske
Preview: Changes at weaning can have significant detrimental impacts on the piglet's gastrointestinal tract structure and function. Sexual dimorphism, weaning weight, and weaning age play a role.
Young, weaned piglets will normally experience nutritional, psychosocial and environmental changes associated with production practices including diet change, separation from their dam, mixing of non-litter piglets, moving/transport, and (or) changed temperature and air-quality parameters. These (usually) abrupt, simultaneous challenges (stressors) generally not only cause reduced voluntary feed intake and growth rate after weaning, but can have significant detrimental impacts on gastrointestinal tract (GIT) structure and function. The post-weaning malaise can compromise disease status and immune function, and therefore pig health and welfare, and can have life-long consequences for some piglets in terms of their subsequent performance, survival, disease state and responses to stressors experienced later in life. Improvements in nutrition, housing and the environment, health and management have minimised some of the adverse effects of weaning stress, but nonetheless, weaning under most commercial conditions remains a major production penalty, with the specific mechanisms governing susceptibility to stress-induced GIT functionality and its consequences for growth and disease remaining inadequately understood.
Naturally, we want to ease the burdens on piglets of weaning as much as possible. The main factors that need to be addressed to help piglets transition as smoothly as possible from their lactation environment to their post-weaning environment include:
- Physical environment (e.g., proper disinfection and drying procedures)
- Temperature (keeping newly-weaned pigs in their thermoneutral zone, 28-30° C immediately after weaning)
- Nutrition and feed transition (e.g., pre-weaning feed familiarisation, form and type of feed offered, feed and water presentation)
- Grouping/social structure (e.g., correct stocking density)
- Health management (e.g., observing signs of poor health, or impending poor health, determines appropriate corrective action(s)).
In particular, lighter/smaller piglets at weaning require additional attention and care as they will most likely struggle more - but not all the time - to adapt to weaning.
