Research Internship – MonoGutHealth project (3-4 months)
Agroscope
Posieux, Switzerland
Weaning is a critical step in pigs’ life. Pigs face multifactorial challenges which lead reduced feed intake, impaired gut development and a high incidence of diarrhoea. We will investigate various sow and piglet nutritional strategies to reduce weaning stress and facilitate the transition from liquid sows’ milk to solid feed. Measurements will include growth, feed intake and feeding behaviour. For instance, different creep feeding strategies will be offered to the piglets and live + camera observations of individual piglet feeding behaviour will be recorded. For this each piglet in each litter will be individually marked. Using this data, piglets can be classified as eaters or non-eaters of creep feed and percentage of eaters in each litter can be calculated.
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