Intermittent suckling with or without co-mingling of non-littermate piglets before weaning improves piglet performance in the immediate post-weaning period when compared with conventional weaning

Table 5 Pre-weaning behaviour (proportion of total observations, %) of selected CW, IS and ISCo piglets¹

Behaviour², % of total observations	D³ -10				D −7				D −1
Behaviour², % of total observations	CW	IS	ISCo	SEM	CW	IS	ISCo	SEM	CW	IS	ISCo	SEM
Sleeping	50.5	44.0^x	39.0^x	3.9	54.8^a	55.0^a,y	24.5^b,y	2.7	47.8^a	91.2^b,z	95.0^b,z	2.3
Inactive	2.0^x	5.5^x	3.0^x	1.3	4.5^a,xy	13.5^b,y	32.5^c,y	1.6	7.0^a,y	3.0^b,x	0.5^b,z	1.6
Standing	6.0	7.5^x	5.5^x	1.8	4.3^a	6.3^ab,x	7.8^b,x	1.1	2.0^a	0.3^b,y	0.0^b,y	0.4
Aggressive behaviour	3.0	2.0	0.5^x	1.1	0.5^a	1.0^ab	3.0^b,y	0.6	0.0	0.0	0.3^x	0.1
Exploratory and play behaviour	6.0	10.0^x	12.0^x	2.1	7.8^a	17.0^b,y	16.8^b,x	1.9	7.3^a	1.5^b,z	0.5^b,y	0.9
Manipulative behaviour	4.5	6.0	5.5^x	1.7	3.0^a	4.5^ab	7.5^b,x	1.2	3.0^a	0.8^b	0.5^b,y	0.6
Ingestive-related behaviour	4.0	5.0	5.5	1.5	2.3^a	1.0^a	5.8^b	0.9	3.8	3.2	3.0	1.0
Sow-directed behaviour	24.0	20.0	29	3.1	22.3	-	-	1.2	28.5	-	-	1.3

¹CW = conventional weaning (n = 50), IS = intermittent suckling (n = 50), ISCo = intermittent suckling with co-mingling (n = 50)
²Results obtained by scan sampling observations. Data were tested nonparametrically
³Day = day in relation to weaning with weaning = d 0, d −25 is the day on which most the litters were born
^a-cFor each day, means with different superscripts are different (P < 0.05), indicating differences between treatments per day
^x-zFor each day treatment, means with different superscripts (P <0.05), indicating differences between days within each treatment

ISSN: 2049-1891