Effects of Weaning Age and Creep Feed Type on Growth Performance and Gut Maturation in Weaned Piglets
Kimmie Kyed Lyderik,
Xuwen Zhang,
Christina Larsen,
Niels Jørgen Kjeldsen,
Marie Louise Madelung Pedersen,
Mette Skou Hedemann,
Andrew Richard Williams,
Charlotte Amdi,
Johannes Gulmann Madsen
Affiliations
Kimmie Kyed Lyderik
Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Grønnegårdsvej 2, 1870 Frederiksberg, Denmark
Xuwen Zhang
Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Grønnegårdsvej 2, 1870 Frederiksberg, Denmark
Christina Larsen
Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Grønnegårdsvej 2, 1870 Frederiksberg, Denmark
Department of Animal and Veterinary Sciences, Faculty of Technical Sciences, Aarhus University, Blichers Alle 20, 8830 Tjele, Denmark
Andrew Richard Williams
Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Grønnegårdsvej 2, 1870 Frederiksberg, Denmark
Charlotte Amdi
Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Grønnegårdsvej 2, 1870 Frederiksberg, Denmark
Johannes Gulmann Madsen
Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Grønnegårdsvej 2, 1870 Frederiksberg, Denmark
The objective was to study the effects of weaning in week 5 (W5) vs. week 4 (W4), as well as liquid (LF) vs. dry feed (DF), on growth performance, disaccharidase activity and nutrient transporter expression after weaning. The experiment included 12,923 pigs fed LF or DF in the pre-weaning period and a subpopulation of 15 pigs from each group, W4DF, W4LF, W5DF and W5LF, which were weighed and euthanized five days after weaning. The proximal part of the small intestine was analyzed for maltase, lactase and sucrase activity and the expression of SGLT-1, GLUT-2 and PepT-1. Pigs fed LF displayed less maltase activity (2100 vs. 2729 U/mg protein, p SGLT-1 (∆Ct: 5.22 vs. 6.21, p = 0.01). Pigs weaned in W5 were heavier than those weaned in W4 (9.35 vs. 7.11 kg BW, p ≤ 0.05), and pigs fed LF were heavier than those fed DF (8.55 vs. 7.91 kg BW, p ≤ 0.05) five days after weaning in the subpopulation. LF pigs (21.8 kg) were heavier than DF pigs (20.6 kg) (SE 0.108, p p = 0.01) at nine weeks. LF increased weight gain in the early post-weaning period and at nine weeks, although this was apparently not explained by accelerated gut maturation.
