Browsing by Author "Tikkanen, Meiju"

Tiivistelmä * Referat * Abstract The aim of this study was to examine the impact of group suckling and intermittent suckling on the number of successful and unsuccessful sucklings among other parameters related to length and success of sucklings. Treatments were control, single and group. In single and group treatments sucklings were intermittent beginning tree weeks after piglets were born. The length of one intermission was 8 hours and they lasted five days in a row. In control and single treatments animals were kept in single pens and in group treatment in group pens with 2 - 3 sows. Data included information of 20 sows and was collected on video from each of the examined pens. Data was analyzed with SPSS program. Analyses were made for the comparison of control and single treatments and for the comparison of single and group treatments in timetables of 24 hours before first intermission, 16 hours after first intermission and 24 hours after last intermission. Within all treatments, comparison was also made for 24 hours before first intermission and 24 after last intermission as well as 24 hours before first intermission and 16 hours after first intermission. According to results, there were more successful sucklings in single treatment than in group treatment without the effect of intermittent suckling. However, intermittent suckling had a greater impact in successful sucklings in single treatment than in group treatment as the number of unsuccessful sucklings increased more in single than in group treatment. The number of unsuccessful sucklings decreased in both treatments by the fifth day. The results of intermittent suckling are in line with the hypothesis of this study as the number of unsuccessful sucklings increased during intermittent nursing. Instead the hypothesis regarding group suckling was not supported by results of this study because there were more unsuccessful nursings in group treatment than in single treatment. If carried out in the right way, group suckling can improve welfare of sows and piglets and intermittent suckling can improve piglet’s performance during and after weaning.