• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.511-515
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• 2000

Early weaning is a means of breaking the disease cycle from sow to piglet as well as capitalising on the enormous growth potential of the pig. However, the transition from milk to dry diets results in a growth check. Feeding of supplemental milk, fermented to reduce pH and enterotoxigenic bactetial proliferation, may be a means of gradually weaning pigs on to solid feed. This study involved 216 pigs weaned from the sow at 12 days of age, allocated to groups of 6 males and 6 females per weaner pen and allowed ad libitum access to a pelleted diet. In addition, half the pigs were given supplemental fermented skim milk for the first 8 days after weaning. Feeding supplemental fermented milk increased feed intake (104 vs. 157 g DM/d, p=0.011), average daily gain (-3 vs. 112 g/d, p<0.001) and feed conversion efficiency (0.01 vs. 0.81, p=0.003) over the first 8 days after weaning. The improvements observed in the supplemented pigs continued to be augmented such that, by 42 days of age, the pigs that had received supplemental fermented milk were heavier (9.6 vs. 11.5 kg, p=0.003) than their unsupplemented counterparts. Feeding fermented supplemental milk to early-weaned pigs can improve growth performance in the immediate and subsequent post-weaning period.

• Journal of Animal Environmental Science
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.107-114
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• 2011

This study was designed to determine the effect of season and split-sex feeding on performance, stress and carcass quality of finishing pigs. Two hundred and seventy cross-bred finishing pigs $(82.1{\pm}0.82kg)$ were randomly divided into six groups in 2 seasons (summer and winter) ${\times}$ 3 split-sex feeding (female only, castrated male and mixed) factorial arrangement of treatments. In winter, feed intake and weight gain of finishing pigs were better than summer (p<0.05). Split-sex feeding was affected the feed conversion, feed conversion of finishing pigs were superior in winter and mixed groups. Plasma concentrations of cortisol as a stress indicators was greater in the mixed groups vs female only and castrated male groups. There were no interactions between the season and split-sex feeding in their effects on these blood variables. The season was affected the carcass characteristics and PSE incidence of the finishing pigs, PSE incidence was low in winter and mixed groups. Meat quality did not show any significant difference due to the difference of season and split-sex feeding of finishing pigs. There was no significant difference in the pH, drip loss and meat color of pork loin between the season and split-sex feeding of finishing pigs. In conclusion, the results of this study suggest that we need more precise on-farm management practice in summer and application of split-sex feeding skills to reduce the stress and improve welfare status of finishing pigs.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.58 no.10
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• pp.37.1-37.10
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• 2016

Background: Providing of insufficient nutrients limits the potential growth of pig, while feeding of excessive nutrients increases the economic loss and causes environment pollution. For these reasons, phase feeding had been introduced in swine farm for improving animal production. This experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of dietary energy levels and phase feeding by protein levels on growth performance, blood profiles and carcass characteristics in growing-finishing pigs. Methods: A total of 128 growing pigs ([Yorkshire ${\times}$ Landrace] ${\times}$ Duroc), averaging $26.62{\pm}3.07kg$ body weight, were assigned in a $2{\times}4$ factorial arrangement with 4 pigs per pen. The first factor was two dietary energy level (3,265 kcal of ME/kg or 3,365 kcal of ME/kg), and the second factor was four different levels of dietary protein by phase feeding (1growing(G)-2finishing(F) phases, 2G-2F phases, 2G-3F phases and 2G-3F phases with low CP requirement). Results: In feeding trial, there was no significant difference in growth performance. The BUN concentration was decreased as dietary protein level decreased in 6 week and blood creatinine was increased in 13 week when pigs were fed diets with different dietary energy level. The digestibility of crude fat was improved as dietary energy levels increased and excretion of urinary nitrogen was reduced when low protein diet was provided. Chemical compositions of longissimus muscle were not affected by dietary treatments. In backfat thickness ($P_2$) at 13 week, pigs fed high energy diet had thicker backfat thickness (P = 0.06) and pigs fed low protein diet showed the trend of backfat thinness reduction (P = 0.09). In addition, water holding capacity was decreased (P = 0.01) and cooking loss was increased (P = 0.07) as dietary protein level reduced. When pigs were fed high energy diet with low subdivision of phase feeding, days to 120 kg market weight was reached earlier compared to other treatments. Conclusion: Feeding the low energy diet and subdivision of growing-finishing phase by dietary protein levels had no significant effect on growth performance and carcass characteristics. Also, phase feeding with low energy and low protein diet had no negative effects on growth performance, carcass characteristics but economical profits was improved.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.783-789
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• 2020

This study was conducted to evaluate growth performance of weaned pigs using diets based on ideal protein of the Korea swine feeding standard (KFS) and US the nutrient requirements of swine (NRC). A total of 96 weaned (initial body weight of 6.12 ± 1.21 kg) pigs were randomly allocated into 2 dietary groups with 12 pens per diet (4 pigs·pen-1) in a completely randomized design. The dietary treatments were corn and soybean meal-based diets formulated by the KFS and NRC nutrient requirements estimates for weaned pigs. Experimental diets were fed for 6 weeks in 2 phases feeding program based on age: 1) Phase 1 = week 1 to 3 (21 days); 2) Phase 2 = week 4 to 6 (21 days). During Phase 1 and 2, there were no differences (p > 0.05) for the initial and final body weights between the KFS and NRC groups. Additionally, the average daily gain (ADG), average daily feed intake (ADFI), and gain to feed ratio (G : F) during overall experimental period were not different between the groups. In conclusion, weaned pigs fed the diet based on the KFS had a similar body weight and growth performance to those fed the diet based on the NRC. This suggests that the Korea swine feeding standard may be used for the diet formula of weaned pigs in Korea swine production compared with the US nutrient requirements of swine.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.271-277
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• 2004

The purpose of this experiment was to study the feeding behavior and running speed under various feed deprivation lengths and social environments. Three trials were conducted. Trial 1: ten pigs were trained individually to run a course and eat their feed at the end of the course. The pigs were deprived feed for 1, 5, 10 or 20 h. Trial 2: 1. Two pigs ran and ate together. Both pigs had 5 h of feed deprivation before the run (D5). 2. Two pigs ran and ate alone, but both pigs had 5 h of feed deprivation before the run (S5). 3. Two pigs ran and ate together. Both had 1 h of feed deprivation before the run (D1). 4. Two pigs ran and ate alone and both pigs had 1 h of feed deprivation before the run (S1). 5. Two pigs ran together, one had 5 h of feed deprivation, and the other had 1 h of feed deprivation before the run (51). Trial 3: 1. On the 1st day 5 pairs of pigs had 5 h feed deprivation and could eat feed together at (B) point (D1). 2. On the 2nd day the pigs ran and ate alone at (B) point after 5 h of feed deprivation. Feed was obtainable (D2). On the 3rd to 6th days, the pigs ran in pairs after 5 h of feed deprivation and only the dominant pig ate feed at point (B). The inferior pig was chased back to room and fed there. This stage was continued for four consecutive days, d 3 to 6. In trial 1, the running speed of pigs increased with the length of feed deprivation until 10 h, then being stable afterwards. Total feeding time increased with the length of feed deprivation (p<0.001). Eating speed did not increase with the length of feed deprivation (p>0.05). In trial 2, nine of ten pigs in treatment D5 ran faster than those in S5. Seven of the ten pigs in treatment S1 ran faster than those in treatment D1. The pigs in treatment D5 had significantly higher feed intake (p<0.001) and eating speed (p<0.05) than the pigs in other treatments. In trial 3, there were significant differences on running speed between D1 and D6 (p<0.01) and between D2 and D1, D3, D4 and D5. The inferior pig ran faster in D2 but from 3 to 6 it was the dominant pig that showed the greatest speed in completing the whole course. The results demonstrated that the pigs with low feeding motivation may cause low running speed to feed and low feed intake of the neighbor when compared with pigs kept individually.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.795-801
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• 2000

A total of 120 growing crossbred pigs ($Landrace{\times}Large$ $White{\times}Duroc$) with equal numbers of barrows and gilts were used in the feeding trial in a $2{\times}3$ factorial arrangement (gender by feeding regimens) to investigate the effect of phase feeding on growth performance during the 25 to 58 kg body weight growth stage, and 6 pigs (three of each sex) were used in a metabolic trial. The growing period was divided into two phases and 4 different CP diets were used to make 3 different feeding regimens (GE18-GL18; 18% CP diets for both early and later growing period, GE18-GL16; 18% CP diet for early and 16% CP diet for later growing period, GE19-GL17; 19% CP diet for early and 17% CP diet for later growing period). There were no significant differences in growth performance among treatments during the entire growing period. However, during the later growing period, feed intake of barrows was significantly higher than that of gilts (p<0.05). Average daily gain of barrows was higher than that of gilts (p>0.05). Based on the result, growth performance differences between barrows and gilts appeared to begin after 40 kg of body weight. There was no significant difference in digestibility among treatments or between sexes. During the early growing period the 18% CP diet showed better digestibility than the 19% CP diet. However, during the later growing period, the 18% and 17% CP diets exhibited similar digestibilities, although 16% CP diet showed slightly lower digestibility than 18% and 17% CP diets. During the early growing period, fecal N and P excretion of pigs fed the 19% CP were higher than that of those fed the 18% CP diet. During later growing period, fecal N and P excretion by those receiving the two phase feeding compared to single phase feeding was reduced by 10.2% and 2.0%, respectively. In the gilts, the cost reduction by two phase feeding (GE18-GL16) compared to single feeding was around 3.81%, but that of barrows was only 0.52%. The results suggested that the same nutrient levels could be applied to barrows and gilts during the growing period. Also, this study suggested the optimum protein and lysine level for early and later growing pigs to be 18% CP, 1.0% lysine and 16% CP, 0.8% lysine, respectively. Feeding two diets to growing pigs, i.e., two-phase feeding, would be more appropriate than feeding a single diet on economic and environmental considerations.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.63 no.6
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• pp.1453-1463
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• 2021

Feeding is the most important behavior that represents the health and welfare of weanling pigs. The early detection of feed refusal is crucial for the control of disease in the initial stages and the detection of empty feeders for adding feed in a timely manner. This paper proposes a real-time technique for the detection and recognition of small pigs using a deep-leaning-based method. The proposed model focuses on detecting pigs on a feeder in a feeding position. Conventional methods detect pigs and then classify them into different behavior gestures. In contrast, in the proposed method, these two tasks are combined into a single process to detect only feeding behavior to increase the speed of detection. Considering the significant differences between pig behaviors at different sizes, adaptive adjustments are introduced into a you-only-look-once (YOLO) model, including an angle optimization strategy between the head and body for detecting a head in a feeder. According to experimental results, this method can detect the feeding behavior of pigs and screen non-feeding positions with 95.66%, 94.22%, and 96.56% average precision (AP) at an intersection over union (IoU) threshold of 0.5 for YOLOv3, YOLOv4, and an additional layer and with the proposed activation function, respectively. Drinking behavior was detected with 86.86%, 89.16%, and 86.41% AP at a 0.5 IoU threshold for YOLOv3, YOLOv4, and the proposed activation function, respectively. In terms of detection and classification, the results of our study demonstrate that the proposed method yields higher precision and recall compared to conventional methods.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.908-913
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• 1999

This experiment was conducted in three trials to evaluate optimal ambient temperature for a novel milk replacer feeding system designed for early-weaned pigs, compared to commercial dry diets fed within a conventional hot nursery. A total of 165 PIC genotype pigs were weaned at $13.89{\pm}0.7$ days of age and allotted to one of two dietary treatments in three trials based on weight and litter origin. Each trial consisted of pigs fed dry diets (DD) and pigs fed milk replacer (MR) which was offered in one of 3 different ambient temperatures. Pigs fed milk replacer were housed in a specialized nursery building in which one half of each pen contained an enclosed hover that was thermostatically maintained at $32^{\circ}C$ while the exterior ambient temperature (where milk was fed) was set at either 17 (trial 1), 24 (trial 2) or $32^{\circ}C$ (trial 3). Pigs fed dry diets with the conventional nursery were maintained at $30^{\circ}C$ for each trial. From d 21 to d 49, all pigs were fed DD within a standardized hot nursery environment. During the first week (d 14-21), pigs fed MR showed increased ADG from 214% to 228% over control pigs fed DD (p<0.001), regardless of ambient temperature. As ambient temperature was increased from 17 to 24 to $32^{\circ}C$, ADG of MR-fed pigs was increased by 214%, 220% and 228% over those of pigs fed DD, respectively. ADFIs of MR-fed pigs at $17^{\circ}C$, $24^{\circ}C$, and $32^{\circ}C$ compared with pigs fed DD were increased by 108%, 139% and 164% from d 14 to d 21, respectively. Fed efficiency (G/F) of MR-fed pigs at $17^{\circ}C$, $24^{\circ}C$, and $32^{\circ}C$ compared with pigs fed DD were 199%, 162% and 139% of those of pigs fed DD, respectively. As ambient temperature increased, diarrhea scores showed a slight tendency to increase. The advantage of MR feeding was greater when the ambient temperature was higher, but G/F was impaired with increased ambient temperature. We conclude that ambient temperature within the specialized nursery influenced behavior, MR feed intake, and probably piglet energy expenditure. There were no differences between MR-fed and DD-fed pigs for ADG, ADFI and G/F in the subsequent growth period (d 21 to d 49, p>0.05). Maximal advantage of MR feeding was obtained at the intermediate ($24^{\circ}C$) ambient temperature during the overall period (p<0.05). Results from this experiment indicate that a milk replacer feeding system utilized in the early postweaning period can maximize pig growth performance, and that ADG, ADFI and G/F were affected by different ambient temperatures within MR-fed pigs. The high or low temperatures could not support the maximal growth of pigs fed MR.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.13 no.8
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• pp.1147-1153
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• 2000

A total of 9,540 pigs were evaluated for their growth performance to provide information on the development of different feeding strategies to support maximum rate of protein deposition (PD). Large variations in growth performance and protein deposition rate were found in the population used in this study (ADG from 701 to 974 g/day; ADFI from 1,726 to 2,498 g/day; Feed/gain from 2.10 to 2.90; Backfat thickness from 12.4 to 20.5 mm and PD rate from 103 to 153 g/day). It was found that ADG was positively correlated to PD ($R^2=0.9362$, p<0.0001) while FCR was negatively correlated to PD ($R^2=0.4031$, p<0.0001). Backfat thickness was negatively correlated to PD ($R^2=0.7024$, p<0.0001) and to ADG ($R^2=0.5096$, p<0.0001). The estimated lysine requirement based on PD rate also showed large variation (12.37 to 18.38 g/day true ileal digestible lysine on average between 25 and 100 kg), thus strongly indicated the need of separate feeding strategies for each group of pigs. When pigs were divided into three categories according to estimated whole body PD rate, the group of pigs with the highest PD rate grew faster by 6.3 and 13.9% than pigs with intermediate and low PD rate, respectively. Feed utilization was also more efficient in pigs with a high PD rate. It appeared that pigs with high PD rate maintained higher PD rate especially in the later stage of their life. Pigs with high PD rate require an extra amount of 1.2 and 2.4 g/true digestible lysine per day and 0.4 and 0.8% more lysine in the diet than pigs with intermediate and low PD rate during the growing-finishing period respectively. Results of this study suggest that there is a need for separate feeding strategies for individual group of pigs with different PD rate. It should be noted that average value for each group presented in this report is not the adequate amount for an animals potential for maximum PD rate. With recent development in growth modeling and access to computer technologies to facilitate computation, pork producers can easily estimate pigs protein deposition rate and thus can make their own feeding strategies.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.655-667
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• 2001

This experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of feeding a low CP diet supplemented with synthetic amino acids on performance, nutrient utilization and carcass characteristics of finishing pigs fed under a three-phase feeding regimen. Ninety-six finishing pigs (Landrace$\times$Large White$\times$Duroc), $55.75kg{\pm}0.65$ of initial body weight, were blocked by weight and sex and allotted to four dietary treatments in a randomized block design. There were six pens per treatment and four pigs per pen. Pigs were fed a 16%-14%-12% CP (for phase I-II-III, respectively), sequence of diets. Dietary treatments were 1) Control, 2) Con+L (a sequence of diets reduced in CP by l percentage unit with lysine (L) supplementation, 3) Con+LMT (a sequence of diets reduced in CP by 2 percentage unit with LYS, methionine (MET) and threonine (THE) supplementation) and 4) Con+LMTT (a sequence of diets reduced in CP by 3 percentage unit with LYS, MET, THR and tryptophan (TRP) supplementation). The finishing period (55 to 105 kg) was divided into three phases (55 to 72 kg, 72 to 90 kg and 90 to 105 kg). Pigs fed either the control or Con+L diet grew faster (p<0.05) than pigs fed the Con-LMT or Con+LMTT diet. There was no difference in ADFI among dietary treatments. Phosphorus (P) digestibility was lowest in the control group and highest in the Con+LMTT group (p<0.05). Within each phase, no significant differences in dry matter (DM) and CP digestibilities were found. Although some amino acid digestibilities were affected by dietary treatments, digestibilities of essential amino acids (EAA), non-essential amino acids (NEAA) and total amino acid were not significantly influenced by dietary treatments. For the entire experiment periods, Con+L, Con+LMT and Con+LMTT treatments resulted in 13.4, 18.8 and 21.6% lower total N excretion compared with the control. Con+LMT and Con+LMTT treatments showed significantly lower BUN concentration compared with the control and Con+L treatment (p<0.05), but there was no significant difference in BUN concentration between pigs fed the control and Con+L treatment or between pigs fed Con+LMT and Con+LMTT treatments (p>0.05). Carcass length, backfat thickness and carcass grade were not significantly affected by dietary treatments (p>0.05). In conclusion, reducing dietary CP level by 1 percentage unit and supplementing only LYS at each phase could be a very beneficial feeding strategy for finishing pigs fed under a three phase feeding regimen in terms of both environmental and economical aspects.