Effects Of Drinking Water Temperature And Environmental Enrichment On Performance, Nutrients Utilization, Welfare And Behavior On Weaned Piglets In Winter

One 2×2 factorial design trial was conducted to study the effects of water temperature and environmental enrichment on production performance,water consumption,nutrients utilization and welfare on weaned piglets in winter,for 40 days.One hundred 30-day-old weaned piglets were randomly divided into control group,warm water group,environmental enrichment group,warm water and environmental enrichment group,each with 5 replicates of 5 pigs(3 boars and 2gilts).The results showed that:(1) Compared with routine water temperature,drinking 30℃water increased feed/gain(P＜0.05), decreased the morbidity rate,death and culling rate by 1.4%(P＞0.05),2.0%(P＞0.05).Respectively, Adding the enrichment materia decreased the morbidity rate,death and culling rate by 1.7%(P＞0.05),6.0%(P＞0.05),increased average daily feed intake by 6.1%(P＞0.05).Water temperature and environmental enrichment had interaction effects on average daily feed intake(P＜0.01) and average daily gain(P＜0.05),that is,compared with 11℃water,drinking 30℃water increased average daily feed intake, average daily gain by 25.0%,18.0%without adding the enrichment materia,and when adding the enrichment material,drinking 30℃water decreased average daily feed intake,average daily gain by 11.8%, 15.2%.(2) Drinking 30℃water increased the average daily water intake(P＜0.05),increased total water intake by 11.0%(P＞0.05).Adding the enrichment materia had no effect on the average daily water intake,only increased the total water intake by 1.3%(P＞0.05).(3) Drinking 30℃water decreased the saliva cortisol content in day 20(P＜0.05),decreased the saliva cortisol content by 21.3%(P＞0.05) in day 7.Respectively,adding the enrichment materia decreased the saliva cortisol content by 17.7%(P＞0.05),15.2%(P＞0.05),7.4%(P＞0.05) in day 3,day 7,day 38.(4) Drinking 30℃water increased the skin lesion score in the 14^th day(P＜0.05),and also increased in the 4^th,36^th day(P＞0.05).Adding the enrichment materia decreased the skin lesion score in the 4^th day (P＜0.01) and the 15^th day(P＜0.05).(5) Drinking 30℃water increased the apparent digestibility of phosphate(P＜0.05),but the apparent digestibility of dry matter,crude protein,ash,ether extract and calcium were not changed.Environmental enrichment had no effects on nutrients apparent digestibility.Both water temperature and environmental enrichment didn't change the nutrients' apparent absorptive quantity obviously,but had interaction effects on the main nutrients' absorption(P＜0.05),that is,compared with 11℃water,drinking 30℃water increased the apparent absorptive quantity of dry matter,crude protein,ether extract,calcium and phosphate by 19.3%,19.0%,19.3%,17.5%,17.9%without environmental enrichment,and when adding the enrichment material,drinking 30℃water decreased the apparent absorptive quantity of dry matter,crude protein,ether extract,calcium and phosphate by 17.5%,20.0%,18.3%,19.5%,16.7%.(6) In day 7,drinking 30℃water increased the lateral lying(P＜0.01),eating(P＜0.01),huddling(P＜0.05) and drinking behavior(P＜0.01),decreased the standing(P＜0.01),pen manuipulation(P＜0.05), toys manipulations behavior(P＜0.01).In day 19,drinking 30℃water decreased the standing posture(P＜0.01),increased lateral lying(P＜0.05),eating(P＜0.05) and toys manuipulations behavior(P＜0.05).In day 38,drinking 30℃water decreased the standing posture(P＜0.05),increased the percentage of sitting posture(P＜0.05) and drinking behavior(P＜0.05).In day 7,adding the enrichment material increased the standing(P＜0.01) and toys manuipulations behavior(P＜0.01),decreased the lateral lying(P＜0.05),sitting posture(P＜0.05),huddling(P＜0.05) and aggression behavior(P＜0.01).In day 19,adding the enrichment material increased the standing(P＜0.01),eating(P＜0.01) and toys manuipulations behavior(P＜0.01),decreased the lateral lying(P＜0.05),huddling(P＜0.01),pen mates manuipilations behavior(P＜0.05).In day 7,water temperature and environmental enrichment had interactioneffects on the lateral lying (P＜0.01),standing(P＜0.01),eating(P＜0.01),eliminating(P＜0.05),huddling(P＜0.01),toys manipulations(P＜0.01),and drinking behavior(P＜0.01).Compared with drinking 11℃water,drinking 30℃water decreased the lateral lying,eliminating and huddling behavior by 5.21%,0.43%and 8.90%, and increased the stanging,eating and drinking behavior by 5.64%,0.11%,2.81%without adding the enrichment material.And when adding the enrichment material,drinking 30℃water increased the lateral lying,eliminating and huddling behavior by 38.02%,0.21 and 43.63%,and decreased the stanging,eating, toys manipulations and drinking behavior by 38.66%,17.70%,4.59%and 0.21%.In day 19,water temperature and environmental enrichment had interactions on the toys manuipulations behavior(p＜0.05). Compared with drinking 11℃water,drinking 30℃water decreased the toys manuipulation behavior by 2.22%with adding the enrichment material.Providing warm water for the weaned piglets can partly improve the production performance and relief the strees caused by the new environment in winter.From the beavhior,it can be concluded that the weaned piglets like the warm water and snach it,as a result of much skin lesion.Adding the environmental material can partly improve the welfare,especially in the aggression behavior and skin lesion.It also fitted the pig's nature character,increased the pig's movement(standing),and decreased the harmful behavior as changed manuipulating object.But water temperature and environmental enrichmen have inhibitory cross interaction effects on production performance,eating and drinking behavior in weaned piglet,especially in early stage.In practical production,they could't be use at the same time.