The effects of diarrhoea on food intake in piglets weaned on the day of birth.
Large White x Landrace piglets (23 animals) weaned on the first day after birth were reared individually in a thermoneutral environment on a liquid diet having a macronutrient content similar to that of sow's milk. They were offered the diet from sucking bottles nine times a day at 2-h intervals. According to the appearance of the faeces the animals were divided into two groups: diarrhoeic piglets and clinically healthy animals. Their consumption of the diet, energy (GE) and macronutrients was assessed from the 3rd to the 10th day after birth; a total of 514 and 441 measurements were made in diarrhoeic piglets and healthy controls, respectively. With advancing age the intake of the diet by animals of the two groups changed in the same way as we described in previous studies. In diarrhoeic piglets, however, both the actual and the relative food intake, expressed in relation to live body mass and metabolic mass, was lower on days 3, 5 and 6 than in the healthy controls. In the period of the earlier described transient decrease in food consumption this difference disappeared and was observed again in piglets 9 (actual diet intake) and 10 (both actual and relative diet intake) days of age. Impairment of their enteral functions manifested by decreased ingestion of the liquid diet, GE, N substances and lipids was also observed after ontogenic shift of regulatory mechanisms of food intake control to a higher integrative level.
Baranyiová
E
E
University of Veterinary and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Brno.
Holub
A
A
D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D003967:Diarrhea / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000662:veterinary*; D004435:Eating; D013552:Swine; D013553:Swine Diseases / Q000503:physiopathology*; D014886:Weaning