Table 4.
Total number of piglets classified as either nonconsumers or consumers (low, moderate, or high) of creep feed for piglets born light (less than 1.25 kg) and heavy (1.50 to 2.00 kg) and either reared in litters with only similar-sized piglets (light weight or heavy weight; UNIFORM litters) or in litters with equal numbers of light-weight and heavy-weight piglets (MIXED litters)1
| Litter composition | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UNIFORM | MIXED | |||||
| Birth weight class | ||||||
| Item | Light (n = 64) | Heavy (n = 66) | Light (n = 33) | Heavy (n = 41) | Significance2 | |
| High consumer | 3 (4.7%) | 12 (18.2%) | 2 (6.1%) | 4 (9.8%) | 0.064 | |
| Moderate consumer | 12 (18.7%) | 10 (15.1%) | 3 (9.1%) | 4 (9.8%) | 0.474 | |
| Low consumer | 16 (25.0%) | 26 (39.4%) | 7 (21.2%) | 11 (26.8%) | 0.174 | |
| Nonconsumer | 33 (51.6%) | 18 (27.3%)a | 21 (63.6%) | 22 (53.6%)b | 0.002 | |
Within main treatment comparison (litter composition or birth weight category), counts with different superscripts tended to differ (P = 0.006).
Piglets scoring positive (visually green feces) for all 3 sampling days (i.e., d 19, 21, and 25) were classified as “high consumers.” Piglets having green feces at 2 out of the 3 occasions were categorized as “moderate consumers,” and “low consumers” had green feces at 1 occasion. Nonconsumers were piglets that never scored positive on the sampling days. Data are expressed in absolute numbers and relative (%) to the total number of piglets in each colum.
Data were analyzed with a χ2 test.