Effect of mixing at weaning and nutrient density of the weaner diet on growth performance and welfare of pigs to slaughter

Table 5 Effect of mixing or being in litter groups at weaning and two dietary regimens on the occurrence of different negative behaviours in pigs from weaning to finish

	Dietary regimen ¹
	CON		LOW			p value
Trait ¹	Litter	Mixed	Litter	Mixed	SEM³	Mixing	Diet	Mixing × Diet
Post-weaning, d29
Aggression	3.79 ^bc	2.96 ^c	4.25 ^b	7.66 ^a	1.159	0.005	< 0.001	< 0.001
Feeder	0.67 ^b	2.00 ^a	1.88 ^a	2.04 ^a	0.597	0.024	0.037	0.005
Damaging	2.33	2.58	2.29	3.46	0.455	0.042	0.191	0.254
Sexual	0.75	1.08	0.46	1.21	0.449	0.039	0.674	0.184
End of nursery, d70
Aggression	3.25 ^a	1.58 ^b	2.83 ^ab	3.17 ^a	0.685	0.195	0.257	0.023
Feeder	2.75 ^bc	1.08 ^c	3.92 ^ab	4.75 ^a	1.048	0.515	< 0.001	0.003
Damaging	3.66	3.5	5.42	6.5	0.978	0.471	< 0.001	0.398
Sexual	2.08	1.92	1.17	1.67	0.528	0.667	0.131	0.331
Beginning of growing-finishing, d75
Aggression	6.17	8.58	4.25	7.67	1.720	< 0.001	0.066	0.292
Feeder	3.58	3.75	3.33	2.92	1.146	0.814	0.313	0.564
Damaging	4.08	4.58	5.42	3.75	0.847	0.304	0.666	0.075
Sexual	2.33	1.25	1.25	1.17	0.467	0.110	0.110	0.257
End of growing-finishing, d150
Aggression	2.33 ^b	3.92 ^ab	4.92 ^a	2.58 ^b	0.911	0.445	0.286	< 0.001
Feeder	2.58	2.33	2.17	1.58	0.696	0.263	0.181	0.574
Damaging	3.00	1.75	3.83	2.08	0.597	< 0.001	0.198	0.814
Sexual	0.00	0.33	0.75	0.58	0.227	0.600	0.372	0.986

¹ Occurrence of different behaviours for a period of 15 min by pen.
² CON: dietary regimen meeting pigs’ nutritional requirements; LOW: low-density dietary regime with − 10% of energy and protein than CON during the nursery period, but with the same dietary regimen as CON during the growing-finishing period.
³ Standard error of the mean.
^a,b,c Within rows, significant differences between groups (P < 0.05).

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