Table 3.

Growth performance and frequency of diarrhoea in piglets in response to the treatments (Least-squares means with their standard errors)

	Treatments
Items	BC-fed	MR-fed	Sow-Milk	se	P
Weight gain (g)*	2024a	3023a	6440b	1649	0·023
Milk intake (g)*	2981	4767	NR	1835	0·133
Pig days†	44	44	48
Frequency of diarrhoea‡	5a	18b	3a		0·008

BC-fed, piglets separated from the sow and fed bovine colostrum; MR-fed, piglets separated from the sow and fed a commercial milk replacer; Sow-Milk, piglets kept with the sow; NR, not recorded.

^a,bValues within a row with unlike superscript letters were significantly different (P≤ 0·05).

^*Data presented are the weight gain and milk intake recorded in each pen throughout the experimental period. BC-fed, n 3 pens; MR-fed, n 3 pens; Sow-Milk, n 4 pens. Data collected from pens with only two piglets (due to the death of one piglet) were not included in the statistical analyses.

^†Pig days = number of piglets × number of days of diarrhoea scoring. BC-fed, n 11 piglets; MR-fed, n 11 piglets; Sow-Milk, n 12 piglets. Diarrhoea scoring was conducted on days 1, 3, 5 and 8 of the experiment.

^‡Frequency of diarrhoea = number of pig days with diarrhoea score >3.