Performance of the Pigs Maintained in a Highland and Coastal Area of Minahasa Region, North Sulawesi

Pigs respond to extreme temperature (very cold or hot) by physiological and nutritional adjustments. Yet little is known about the effects of different environmental temperature (thermoneutral in the highland area, and hot temperature in the coastal area) where pigs are maintained on the performance of the pigs. Ten pigs each (10 pairs of littermates) were assigned to two treatments (2 locations): highland area (control=CA) or coastal area (hot/heat stress=HS). Experimental design was Paired 't' test. HS pigs had higher average daily water intake (p<0.05) compared to CA pigs (6,05 vs 3.89 kg/d), CA pigs had higher feed intake compared to HS pigs (2.9 vs 1.95 kg/d, p<0,05). CA pigs had higher daily gain compared to HS pigs (0.72 vs 0.58 kg/d, p<0.05). Feed conversion was not significantly different between CA pigs and HS pigs. The digestibility of dry matter, N, Na, K, Mg, CI, Ca and P was not significantly affected by the treatments. High environmental temperature in the coastal area (heat stress) increased water intake, decreased voluntary feed intake and daily gain of the pigs. The results demonstrate that different environmental temperature in the coastal area (heat stress) and highland area (control) had no pronounced effect on digestibility of nutrients.