PSII-2 Does environmental feeder enrichment for weaned pigs drive feeder usage and improve final body weight?

Abstract Transition from the sow to nursery pens is a stressful time for pigs and commonly leads to post-weaning anorexia and growth check. This can have negative impacts on pig health, welfare, and lifetime performance. The objective of this study was to test the relationship between enrichment use and feeder use immediately post-weaning on final nursery pig body weight (BW). At arrival, 29 mixed-sex pigs (Camborough 1050 X 337, PIC), 19 to 24d of age, were randomly sorted into 3 pens (~0.29 m2/pig) at the Iowa State University Swine Nutrition Farm. Each pen was equipped with a 4-hole, dry self-feeder measuring 0.6 m long. Each pen had two enrichment devices, consisting of one cotton rope and two biscuits, suspended from the feeder at pig height. Biscuits were replaced daily. Total number of interactions with the enrichment and feeder were collected at the individual pig level. All pigs were continually observed for two 1 h periods (h 1 and the h 6 after biscuit replacement) each day over wk 1 (d 0 – d 6). A pig was considered interacting with enrichment if its snout contacted the rope or enrichment biscuit. A pig was considered interacting with the feeder if 1) its head was over the feeder tray, and 2) its nose down in the feeder. Both enrichment and feeder interactions were considered terminated if the pig ceased active interaction for 3 s or more. Behaviors were summed together by time period and day for each pig. Individual BW were taken at the end of the 42-d nursery study. After the nursery trial was completed, the 29 pigs were allocated to a light BW treatment (n = 14) and a heavy BW treatment (n = 15) using the final average BW (24.22 kg) of the. Pigs with a final BW lighter than the group average were assigned to the light treatment, while pigs with a heavier BW than average were assigned to the heavy treatment. T-tests were conducted for enrichment and feeder interactions by final BW group and the pig was the experimental unit. A P ≤ 0.05 was considered significant. There were no observed differences between final pig body weight treatments and the enrichment and feeder interactions over the first week of nursery (P ≤ 0.87). Numerically, there were more overall enrichment interactions than feeder interactions for both BW treatments over wk 1 (Table 1). In conclusion, this enrichment device was of biological interest to the pigs, but other factors impact feeder usage in the first week and need to be considered in future work.