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 6 Post-weaning behaviour (proportion of total observations, %) of CW, IS and ISCo pigs¹

Behaviour², % of total observations	D³ 0				D 1				D 7
Behaviour², % of total observations	CW	IS	ISCo	SEM	CW	IS	ISCo	SEM	CW	IS	ISCo	SEM
Sleeping	20.4^a,x	91.3^b,x	22.4^a,x	2.8	53.1^a,y	58.2^a,y	78.0^b,y	4.1	39.8^a,z	58.9^b,y	54.6^b,z	3.1
Inactive	32.1^a,x	0.5^b,x	18.4^c,x	2.7	19.9^a,y	15.8^a,y	8.1^b,y	2.3	15.1^a,y	6.6^b,z	11.2^ab,y	1.4
Standing	13.3^a,x	2.6^b	4.1^b	1.9	4.6^y	6.6	5.1	1.9	8.7^x	4.8	4.8	1.3
Aggressive behaviour	2.0	0.0	1.5	0.9	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.8	0.0	0.0
Exploratory and play behaviour	15.8^a,x	0.0^b,x	31.6^ax	2.5	5.6^y	5.1^y	2.6^y	1.5	8.2^y	6.6^y	3.1^y	1.5
Manipulative behaviour	10.7^a,xy	1.0^b,x	12.8^a	2.1	7.7^ax	4.6^ab,x	3.1^b	1.5	13.0^y	10.7^y	15.3	1.8
Ingestive-related behaviour	2.0^a,x	1.5^a,x	8.7^b,x	1.3	6.6^y	9.2^y	3.1^y	2.1	13.0^z	9.9^y	11.0^x	1.5

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