Table 1.
Effect of litter origin on growth performance and tail injury scores of nursery pigs.
| Item | Litter Origin | SE | p-Value | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Non-Littermates | Half-Group of Littermates | Littermates | |||
| # of pens | 6 | 6 | 6 | ||
| Pigs/pen | 8 | 8 | 8 | ||
| Body weight, kg | |||||
| 4 weeks of age (weaning) | 7.3 e,f | 7.8 e | 6.6 f | 0.36 | 0.06 |
| 5 weeks of age 1 | 9.3 | 9.3 | 9.1 | 0.28 | 0.52 |
| 7 weeks of age 1 | 13.7 | 13.5 | 13.3 | 0.81 | 0.72 |
| 10 weeks of age (nursery exit) 1 | 25.4 | 25.1 | 25.9 | 1.13 | 0.62 |
| ADG, g | 464 | 455 | 459 | 10.9 | 0.75 |
| ADFI, g | 671 | 689 | 663 | 21.4 | 0.72 |
| Gain:Feed | 0.683 | 0.656 | 0.709 | 0.018 | 0.19 |
| Maximal tail score 2 | |||||
| Score 0 | 47 (97.9%) | 41 (85.4%) | 35 (72.9%) | 20.2 3 | 0.001 |
| Score 1 | 1 (2.1%) | 7 (14.6%) | 6 (12.5%) | ||
| Score 2 | 0 (0.0%) | 0 (0.0%) | 7 (14.6%) | ||
1 Weaning weight was used as a covariate. 2 The maximal tail lesion score for each pig over 6 weeks of the study period. Values in the table are the number of pigs with the maximal tail score for each treatment group. The values in the parentheses are percent of the total number of pigs (n = 48) that were assigned to each treatment group. 3 Chi-square value (df = 4). e,f Least square means within a row without a common superscript tend to differ (p < 0.10).