Effect of Early Weaning on the Litter Traits of Pigs

The present study was carried out with 444 crossbred piglets from 60 sows belonging to various genetic groups viz., ½ Landrace (LR) X ½ desi (D), ½ Tamworth (T) X ½ D, ½ LR X ¼T X ¼ D and ½ T X ¼ LRX ¼ D maintained at Pig Breeding Farm of Ranchi Veterinary College, Birsa agricultural University, Ranchi. The 60 sows under examination were randomly allocated into 5 weaning groups; weaned at 3 weeks (W3), 4 weeks (W4), 5 weeks (W5), 6 weeks (W6) and 8 weeks (W8). Piglets of each weaning group offered 4 types of weaning diets T1, T2, T3 and T4 as creep feed from 2 to 8 weeks of age. Effect of diet and weaning time had non-significant influence on litter size at the 8th and 12th week of age. Weaning time significantly affected the litter weight at the 8th and the 12th week of age; litter weight was greater in piglets weaned at the 5th, 6th and 8th than at the 3rd and 4th week of age (P<0.05). Although weaner diet had non- significant effect on litter weight, numerically higher values for litter weight at the 12th week was observed in T1 (63.25 ± 8.21 kg) than that of T3 (56.63 ± 6.38 kg) followed by T2 (53.74 ± 6.30 kg) and T4 (52.98 ± 5.58 kg). The present study suggested weaning of piglets either at 5th or 6th week of age instead of 8th week that in the conventional weaning time in India.